Mason+Jar+Cocktail+Shaker

= How will you know if people like your invention? Prototype and experiment! media type="custom" key="23034528"= ==When college buddies Eric Prum and Joshua Williams tinkered with an empty Mason Jar early last year, and transformed it into a hip-looking cocktail shaker, they had no inkling they'd created a potentially million-dollar idea. == Their Mason Shaker -- a Ball Mason jar fitted with a custom lid that converts it into a cocktail shaker -- rolled out in West Elm stores last November and the initial order of thousands sold out in just three weeks. By January, sales of the shaker online and through West Elm stores had reached $250,000. The contract calls for the retailer to carry their Mason Shaker through at least the end of this year.

"It's been an amazing year-and-a-half for us," said Prum. The friends first conceptualized and designed the Mason Shaker last January. In July, they approached crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise a modest $5,000 in startup capital to manufacture parts and produce an initial supply of the shakers. Prum, 27, and Willams, 28, blasted through that goal, raising $74,738 from nearly 2,000 investors in a month."We were shocked," said Prum. "This gave us a pretty good idea that people liked our invention."