DAYMOND JOHN, RICHARD BRANSON, MARK CUBAN, LORI GREINER, ROBERT HERJAVEC, TOM BURDEN (GRYPMAT)
Grypmat – Use It Everywhere
Tools sliding off the aircraft have been a persistent problem for nearly every person in aviation maintenance. It was an airman with the 180th Fighter Wing (known as the Stingers) with more persistence and innovative savvy who finally fixed this problem. Tom Burden was an engineering student at the time, serving in the Ohio Air National Guard, when he began prototyping solutions in his parent’s basement. Putting in the time in that basement and barn—eventually landed him (in November 2017) on Shark Tank, where he confidently negotiated and captured three billionaire investors (Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, and Lori Greiner). Tom is now the founder of Grypmat, which produces a high-performance, nonmagnetic, nonslip, chemical resistant, antistatic rubber tool mat that keeps tools and hardware in place, no matter where you need to put them.
Next: #VetsWhoCode – Retool. Retrain. Relaunch.
