Photo/Valerie Franchi
By Valerie Franchi, Contributing Writer
Westborough – Adam Gibbs and Nick Bongi are trying to turn their favorite hobby into a full-time business – all before they graduate from high school.
Gibbs, a senior at Westborough High School, and his longtime friend Nick Bongi, a senior at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, love to fish. They travel yearly to Sanibel Island, Fla., for a weeklong fishing trip to catch snook.
Bongi said he started fishing with his grandfather, but really developed his passion for it on his trips with Gibbs.
“That’s when I really started to love it,” he said.
One night, on their trip in 2011, “we noticed people fumbling on the dock with flashlights and flashlight phone apps trying to see to unhook fish, grab lures or cut fishing line,” Gibbs said. “We decided to throw a light into the top tray of our tackle box, and the idea just grew from there.”
The pair took that simple idea and ran with it. They started sketching designs, and sold personal items on eBay to raise money to develop a prototype. With the help of Bongi’s father, a neighbor who is an electrical engineer, and a hired computer design professional, they created the ProGlo+ LED lit tackle box. The friends have applied for a patent and have contacted a potential manufacturer.
The ProGlo+ is a traditional three-tray tackle box with a self-contained LED light housed in the top tray that can rotate to irradiate a 10-foot surrounding area. The light is completely detachable to function as a separate flashlight that can submerse up to 100 feet underwater to attract schools of bait fish. The ProGlo+ also features a USB port, providing backup battery power for handheld devices like smartphones.
To market and sell the product, Bongi and Gibbs co-founded FISHinc. Tackle Systems and, in early February launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $30,000 to put “the world’s most versatile tackle system” on the market. To date, they have raised over $15,000.
They have also investigated other avenues of funding, including attending an open casting call for the reality-television show “Shark Tank” in Cambridge. They were called back and submitted a 10-minute casting video, but were eventually denied because of lack of sales.
“We were pleasantly surprised as to how far we made it in the casting process though,” Gibbs said.
They are also looking at partnerships with large retail stores such as Walmart and Dick’s and have had offers from two investors.
If the Kickstarter campaign doesn’t succeed, the friends said they will not give up trying to bring their product to the public.
“We really believe in this product,” Bongi said, “and think it will become an essential tool for fishermen like us.”
Photo/submitted
