Suck It

Chuck Casagrande's aha inventor moment came while fishing — not for business ideas, but for actual marlins and grouper.

That was back in 2001, when, on his 25-foot boat, Casagrande sought a seat that stuck to the floor while he and his buddies cast a line. He was surprised to discover there was nothing like what he wanted on the market. So Casagrande made his own sticky seat.

To get the chair to stay put, Casagrande combined pipes with vacuum cup technology, which is basically an advanced and stronger suction cup. Casagrande says he doesn't have an engineering mind, but he's always been the creative type. “It was pretty cool,” says Casagrande. “I thought maybe we could make something out of this.”