Have an idea: Then draw it on the wall

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Bermudian entrepreneur Nick Duffy wants to draw all over the traditional idea of boardrooms and classrooms.

Starting in August, Mr Duffy started Bermuda IdeaPaint, a company that is the sole distributor of a specialised paint that turns any paintable surface into a high functioning dry erase board.

Imagine a brainstorming session or a classroom without flip charts and traditional dry erase boards. With IdeaPaint, people write on the walls instead.

IdeaPaint, which has uses in offices, schools and homes, has become very popular in the US and after Mr Duffy saw a show on MSNBC featuring the product, he knew that he had to find a way to bring it to the Bermuda market.

“I actively went after them,” he said. “It’s such a brilliant, clever product it’s so simple and solves a lot of problems in a very simple way.

“Initially, they weren’t interested in distributing to a small place like Bermuda,” he said.

His luck changed when he found out that the CEO and a senior executive of IdeaPaint were long-time visitors of Bermuda and had recently invested in Tucker’s Point.

“I think that got my foot in the door because up till that point, they hadn’t distributed to a very small place like Bermuda,” said Mr Duffy, who is a self-described serial entrepreneur with a background in computer science. He’s run a restaurant, opened a consignment shop and ran a tourist tour boat operation for 12 years.

“I’m always looking for interesting products that aren’t available in Bermuda,” he added.

He obtained the distribution licence for IdeaPaint in August and starting pitching his idea to the local school system. He was met with immediate interest.

So far, he’s completed seven installations in local schools and is in talks with several more. While the paint kit is designed for a “do-it-yourself” project, Mr Duffy offers a professional installation service.

“There’s been huge enthusiasm from within the schools,” he said, adding that the environmentally friendly paint has been Greenguard certified for use in schools and around children.

He’s even painted part of his daughter’s room so she could do her homework on it as well as draw to her heart’s content.

“It’s a very viral product in that people see it, they hear about and immediately want to know more.”

The original idea for the paint was originally conceived by college students who, during a brainstorming session, plastered flip chart sheets to the walls of their meeting space. When their ideas filled up the paper, the paper had to be torn down and replaced. They felt there had to be a better way. Several years later, IdeaPaint was born.

IdeaPaint works on plaster and concrete walls, blackboards, metal and even reminder boards and business cards. It can come in any colour (as well as white), works with any kind of dry erase marker and markings can be erased with a general microfiber cloth.

Recently, Mr Duffy has been busy refurbishing white boards in school classrooms.

“Whiteboards have a very short life in that they get etching and ghosting where you can see what has been written before,” he said. “With IdeaPaint, you can take a white board that is ready to go to the dump and make it better than new.”

But, he says, he’s been trying to get teachers to see outside the box, so to speak.

“If you want a collaborative environment or a 360-degree teaching environment, then you need to take out the borders [of a traditional black or whiteboard],” he said, explaining that you can make the entire wall or room into a dry-erase surface. It can go on piping and around corners.

For more information about pricing and application, Mr Duffy can be reached at 734-0007 or ideapaintbermuda[AT]gmail.com.

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