Hardware Podcasts

Spinbrush: John Osher. The Electric Toothbrush That Sold for $475M

How I Built This · 16 Feb 2026 · 1h 00m

What this episode covers

Serial entrepreneur John Osher, founder of Spinbrush, explains how he leveraged his experience with spinning lollipops to invent a $5 electric toothbrush and sold the company to Procter & Gamble for $475 million. Osher details the critical decision to scrap 400,000 defective units to ensure product reliability and the strategic 'bluff' used to force P&G into an acquisition rather than a licensing deal. He also discusses the pricing psychology learned from his early earring business and the operational challenges of scaling production to compete with Oral-B.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Procter & Gamble, Hasbro, Gerber, Walmart, Church and Dwight, Gillette
Products
Spinbrush, Oral-B, Spin Pop, Crest

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