No Easy Road For SnapIt Inventor

If you wear glasses, you already know how difficult it is trying to mess with the tiny screws that hold all of the parts together. It was while watching her mother rig a pair of glasses using an earring that inspired Nancy Tedeschi to create SnapIt.

SnapIt, which cost Tedeschi $250,000 to get this far, is surprisingly simple: a 3 millimeter stainless steel optical screw built with a three-quarter inch snap-off extension. The extension lines up the screw with the frame or hinge clasps. A twist sets the screw in the groove, ready for screwdriver tightening. The extension snaps off by hand.

“I have zero mechanical ability but get obsessed figuring out a better way to do something that’s hard,” said the 55-year-old Tedeschi, who winters in Sand Key. “Inventing SnapIt was far easier than getting it to market. I made every mistake in the book.”

She has sold 4 million screws to opticians in two years, and 500,000 of her SnapIt repair kits to consumers since June. The SnapIts sell in many Walgreens and Ace Hardware stores at $3.98 or more, a buck more than rival repair kits with old screws.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *