An American Firm Gets Undermined By The Post Office

“I’m lucky that I found my calling, something that I’m really passionate about. I get excited when I see new products. I get excited when I see something we produce and put on TV and then people respond to it. The key to our success is that everybody in this company gets excited about what we do every single day.” ~ TeleBrands CEO & Founder, AJ Khubani

TeleBrands CEO AJ Khubani is an American success story. The son of Indian immigrants grew up in New Jersey and hustled to make his way in his family’s new home. He’d deliver newspapers, shovel snow, and mow lawns to get by.

He’d work his way through a local college as well. By the time he was done, he’d have $20,000 saved and an education. He’d take that money and import AM/FM radios, taking out an ad in a national magazine. He wasn’t successful, just breaking even, but it set him on the path of entrepreneurship.

His company TeleBrands is responsible for most of the “As Seen On TV” products you’ll see just about everywhere. These small products have been very profitable. They spend millions in advertising and generate near a billion dollars in sales.

In the 1990’s Khubani started noticing knockoffs of his products flooding the market. He’d have lawyers shut down one source, only to find it pop up somewhere else. The rise of the internet has made it even worse.

Brigadier General Robert Spalding in his book Stealth War, tells Khubani’s tale and other startling stories of how China is conducting an asymmetric war against the United States through economic and technological means.

In 2015 Khubani started noticing the knockoffs beginning to appear on Amazon using TeleBrands’ trademarks, pictures, and videos — hundreds of them. They sold for half his price. Most of these sellers were in China.

The products were being shipped directly from China into American buyer’s hands. But, how could products be affordably shipped all the way from China to the United States?

The price of the shipping would dwarf the price of the item. It didn’t make any sense.