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Orabrush, the fast-growing Utah startup whose tongue-cleaner product is designed to fight bad breath, says it's poised for growth with a new CEO and an infusion of capital.
Provo-based Orabrush has hired retired Procter & Gamble executive Jeff D. Davis as its chief. It also received cash and expertise in consumer product retailing from 2x Consumer Products Growth Partners of Chicago.
Davis, a Salt Lake City native and University of Utah graduate who spent 23 years at P&G before retiring last year, became CEO in August.
Davis said he helped form Orabrush's board in February, sat as a member and became deeply involved in its prospects. "So the founder came and asked if I would help get them to the next level," he said of his new appointment.
The company was founded by Robert Wagstaff, a scientist and former bioscience company executive, who came up with the idea of a soft brush to clean bacteria off the tongue when he tried to deal with bad breath among Mormon missionaries he was supervising.
Wagstaff, 75, tried for nearly a decade to get the product off the ground with little success until he met and hired Jeffrey Harmon, a student at Brigham Young University, where Wagstaff was teaching.
Harmon, now chief marketing officer and the former CEO, helped create a YouTube series of short episodes featuring an actor dressed as a giant tongue. The videos went viral, with the company reporting that its YouTube channel has been seen 25 million times and that its sales online have grown.
"We're the seventh-most subscribed sponsored channel on YouTube," said Davis. "We've just passed in the last 60 days Nintendo Wii, Burger King, Disney and BMW."
That success is part of what attracted investor 2x to Orabrush, said Andy Whitman, managing partner of the firm that works with the Utah Fund of Funds to advise and financially support entrepreneurs in the state.
Orabrush had an interesting product that met a need in the marketplace, but the success at YouTube also enticed 2x to invest in the " 'wow' factor," said Whitman.
The Provo company has reversed the normal path of first bringing a product to market and then getting consumers into stores to buy it through marketing. Orabrush created a YouTube sensation that had consumers going to stores first and asking for the product, he said.
"That reverse model is one of the very exciting things about the company," Whitman said.
Davis said he hopes to get the Orabrush into U.S. stores after selling more than a million online and making deals with retailers in England and Canada.
He declined to state how much 2x had invested but said it was only enough to keep the company operating for a time and that he would be seeking new capital.
Davis said he is committed to Orabrush for two to three years but also said it could be an attractive purchase for another company.
"If you look at the business model and you look at our results today … it would be an absolute asset to several companies to have a global brand that is generating the kind of growth we will experience," he said.
Orabrush employs about 15 people, most of them in Provo. Its product is manufactured in China.
View video online
youtube.com/orabrush