The butler did it

Sarasota entrepreneur Bill Merritt recently found success in front of an unusual audience for his low-tech product — a cup holder that attaches to a laptop computer, called the Laptop Butler.

It came in the form of TechCrunch, the popular news website and blog for all things technology, with a focus on Silicon Valley. Merritt was one of five people invited to pitch a product for the TC Radio Pitch-Off, which aired on TechCrunch's Sirius XM radio show Aug. 15. A retired combustion engineer, Merritt, 79, wowed the judges with what TechCrunch calls a “heartwarming tale of a dream turning into an idea and then into a product.”

The Laptop Butler won the contest, and in addition to airtime, also received an article on TechCrunch, published Aug. 17. The article has led to a sales boom for the product. Merritt says he was quickly shipping orders everywhere from Hawaii to Canada, and fielding inquires from France and Italy, after the article.