A few simple ideas that raked in millions of dollars


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SALT LAKE CITY — Some simple ideas have raked in an amazing amount of money.

Remember Clocky? KSL tested it last year amongst what has to be the most tired segment of humankind — morning TV show producers.

Outfitted with two wheels, Clocky simply rolls off the nightstand and across the floor, forcing the sleeper to get out of bed to shut it off.

Clocky's creator came up with the idea when she was a graduate student at MIT. She told CNBC she had a nasty habit of hitting the snooze button repeatedly to wake up, so she proposed her idea for a class project.

Now, Clocky is sold in over 45 countries and is close to topping $10 million in sales.

Here's another creation that might make you ask yourself, "Why didn't I think of that?" It's called a knork — a fork and a knife in one utensil.

Knork's creator thought up the idea when he was struggling to eat pizza with a fork and thought it would be easier if the fork just had a beveled edge like a pizza cutter.

Knork has that beveled edge and a finger platform to slice into foods that were hard to cut into with just a fork. Knork brought in $2 million in sales in 2011 alone.

One of the simplest ideas is sunglasses for dogs. The inventor came up with the idea while playing Frisbee with a border collie at a dog park. She noticed the animal was having a hard time catching the Frisbee because glare from the sun made it tough to see.

She first tried to fit regular sunglasses on her dog, but no luck. She eventually designed a pair of glasses that would fit her dog's head. The result was Doggles.

Doggles offer not only full UV protection for canine, but they also protect the dog's eyes from dust and debris. The creator's company now pulls in about $3 million a year.

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Bill Gephardt

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