The upside-down ketchup bottle earned its inventor 13 million dollars.
The Upside-Down Ketchup Bottle Made Its Inventor $13 Million
Sometimes the best inventions are the ones that make you slap your forehead and wonder why nobody thought of them sooner. That's exactly what happened when Paul Brown invented the valve that lets ketchup bottles sit upside down without leaking. His simple idea earned him a cool $13 million when he sold his company in 1995—equivalent to about $27 million today.
But this overnight success was years in the making. Brown worked by day as owner of a precision molding company while obsessively tinkering with a molding press at night. His mission? Create a foolproof valve that would let bottles store their contents cap-down.
111 Prototypes and Maxed-Out Credit Cards
The breakthrough didn't come easy. Brown and his mold-maker Tim Socier created a silicone dome with right-angled slits cut into the top—like flower petals that open when you squeeze and close when you stop. Simple in theory, but it required over 111 prototypes to perfect.
Brown depleted several credit cards and even borrowed money from his mom and friends before finally nailing the design. He started filing patents in July 1988 under his company name, Liquid Molding Systems, Inc.
Heinz Comes Knocking
The turning point came when both Heinz and its rival Hunt's approached Brown about his valve technology. Heinz rolled out a massive advertising campaign with the slogan "Ready When You Are," and the upside-down bottle became an instant hit with consumers tired of shaking and pounding their ketchup bottles.
By 2002, Heinz had fully adopted the technology. Today, more than 75% of all Heinz ketchup flows through Brown's inverted valve device. The silicone valves are still manufactured using his original design.
But Brown's invention didn't stop at condiments. His valve technology found its way into shampoo bottles, lotion dispensers, and even applications for NASA. What started as a solution to a sticky ketchup problem became a revolution in the entire liquid storage industry.
Brown sold Liquid Molding Systems to AptarGroup in 1995, walking away with approximately $13 million. Not bad for a guy who just wanted to make it easier to get ketchup out of a bottle. Sometimes the simplest problems lead to the most profitable solutions—you just need 111 tries and enough determination to max out your credit cards along the way.
