American Entrepreneur Reveals How He Made $1 Million Selling ‘Touch Tool’ During Pandemic

During COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a global health crisis and led to widespread business disruptions, American entrepreneur Marshall Haas found success by adapting to the new reality. After profitably exiting his recruitment platform, somewhere.com, Haas shifted his focus in creating a physical product called the ‘Touch Tool.’ The innovative tool quickly gained popularity during the pandemic. In a series of updates on X, Haas reflected on his journey, revealing how this product idea turned into a million-dollar success.

“While most people were watching Netflix in their PJs, I was working more than I ever had before. I look back on that time as the most creative period of my career,” Haas noted.

Marshall Haas described ‘Touch Tool’ as a “brass keychain hook” designed specifically for COVID-19 era. “During COVID lockdowns I had an idea for a product that I named The Touch Tool — it was a brass keychain hook, specifically for the new COVID world we lived in. It allowed you to pull open doors, press buttons at the gas station, etc without touching those things with your hands… ultimately to avoid germs…” he added.

Haas posted a video demonstrating the product in action, where a woman uses the Touch Tool to enter a password without physically touching the buttons.

The entrepreneur also shared that within the first week of launching the Touch Tool, he received orders totalling $50,000. By day 67, the product’s success had skyrocketed, with sales surpassing 1 million dollars from over 27,000 units.

In the follow-up posts, Haas also outlined the development process of the Touch Tool, from sketching the initial design to collaborating with an industrial designer and securing production through a factory in China. He also discussed the product’s successful launch, leveraging an existing customer base and email list from brand Peel. What started as a small launch quickly gained momentum, fueled by extensive media coverage from outlets like The New York Times, GQ, Yahoo!, Forbes, Glamour and many more.

Haas attributed the product’s success to its timely solution to global problems, though he acknowledged it was not a long-term product but one that thrived during the pandemic.

His post quickly gained traction online, sparking a flurry of reactions from the social media users. In the comment section, one user commented, “Neat, but this is actually a story of profiteering off of a public health crisis by offering a product that looks cool but is ultimately unhelpful to scared consumers.”

Another user remarked, “Incredibly impressionable execution. BRAVO, Marshall!!”

“This case study should replace $100,000 business degrees. This is a master class in identifying an opportunity and executing,” a person shared.

Since being posted, the post has garnered over 5.5 million views.