Branding tricky for start-up that makes erasable paint

The pricey paint, marketed by IdeaPaint Inc., an Ashland start-up, can turn any surface into a whiteboard. And after just over two years of selling the stuff, the company says it has been “installed’’ in more than 40,000 places, from conference rooms at Victoria’s Secret to classrooms at the Institute of Contemporary Art to (maybe) the walls of the Central Intelligence Agency, which may or may not love IdeaPaint’s total erasability. (The CIA, not surprisingly, didn’t respond to my inquiries about IdeaPaint.)

Though the 20-person company has raised more than $10 million in funding, some of it from former Reebok International chief executive Paul Fireman, pushing paint isn’t the simplest path to entrepreneurial success. IdeaPaint, founded and run by a trio of Babson College graduates, now finds itself competing against Rust-Oleum Corp., which has access to a massive international distribution system. Rust-Oleum makes the more prosaically named “Dry Erase Paint,’’ which sells for much less than IdeaPaint.

And how exactly do you brand a painted wall, letting everyone who uses it know who made the product?

The company was founded in 2006, when John Goscha, Morgen Newman, and Jeff Avallon graduated from Babson. Several labs that develop paints and coatings told the team that it would be impossible to formulate the product they had in mind. But eventually, they found a Michigan company, CAS-MI Laboratories, that solved the problem. IdeaPaint comes in two separate metal cans that get mixed together (cleverly, the cans are labeled “this’’ and “that’’). The paint goes over a coat of standard primer. It takes seven days to cure before it can be used as a whiteboard.

Initially, in 2008, IdeaPaint started marketing its product to architects and interior designers. Now, you can find it at several hundred Sherwin-Williams stores and Lowe’s outlets in 24 states; sales reps for Staples also peddle it to businesses. The company is run by Bob Munroe, a former executive at Reebok and Mission Skin Care.

Instead of positioning IdeaPaint as, well, just another can of paint, company executives like Newman say, “What we’re selling is a dynamic environment, not just a dry-erase surface. Communication in today’s offices happens everywhere and continually, and we’re a tool that allows that to happen more readily, and allows better ideas to come out of that.’’ It’s not just something you splash across a wall; it’s a technology for enhanced collaboration.

Around Boston, wall-to-wall whiteboards are becoming increasingly prominent. Step out of the elevators at MassChallenge’s start-up space on the Boston waterfront, and you are confronted with a vast expanse of IdeaPaint that features announcements, doodles, and an entrepreneurial quote of the day. (There’s even a ping-pong table coated with the stuff.) At the Boston and Los Angeles offices of SecondGlass LLC, which runs a website and events for wine lovers, a cofounder slathered IdeaPaint on the fridge and toaster. It covers walls at about 25 conference rooms at the Cambridge Innovation Center. You will find it at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Charlestown.

“You can put IdeaPaint in all kinds of spaces where you might not hang a physical whiteboard,’’ says Denis Stratford, chief information officer at the institute. “We’ve put it around the perimeter of some of our classrooms, to support collaboration and group work.’’

Both IdeaPaint and the Rust-Oleum product require a smooth surface for ideal results, and that can sometimes mean extensive sanding, according to representatives from both companies.

The biggest problem with IdeaPaint, says Cambridge Innovation Center chief executive Tim Rowe, is “people start assuming every wall is a whiteboard, and sometimes write on other walls.’’

In a Twitter survey last week, I found a dozen people using IdeaPaint (only one said the surface was hard to erase), and one using the Rust-Oleum product. Gustavo Quiroga said he applied Rust-Oleum’s Dry Erase paint in his home office. He praised its low price, and said the secret is “all in the wall prep.’’

Rust-Oleum’s price is tempting, especially for consumers painting at home. Covering 50 square feet costs $25, compared with about $160 for a similar amount of IdeaPaint. But on Amazon.com and HomeDepot.com, many reviews of Rust-Oleum Dry Erase have been negative, describing paint that’s too runny and a resulting wall that retains marker smudges. (IdeaPaint isn’t sold by Home Depot and doesn’t have any reviews on Amazon.)

IdeaPaint users say it can be tough to apply and smelly while wet, but many say it erases well once it’s dry. IdeaPaint is sold with a roller and stirrer and is available in colors like orange, blue, and light green, while Rust-Oleum only comes in white. A kit of IdeaPaint’s highest-grade paint, IdeaPaint Pro, sells for $200 and covers 50 square feet.

Babson professor Joel Shulman says IdeaPaint’s focus on corporate and institutional customers, rather than do-it-yourselfers, could prove wise. “It lets them sell at a high profit margin, rather than the razor thin margins of selling to consumers,’’ he says.

IdeaPaint is focused on expanding the product’s availability, working with new retailers and distributors. But the company is also thinking about how to amplify already positive word-of-mouth.

“It’s an incredibly viral concept,’’ says Avallon at IdeaPaint. Newman adds, “It’s a little bit like having a Macintosh was in the 1980s.’’

Still, IdeaPaint will spread fastest if its brand can acquire that Apple-esque cachet. And it’s impossible for IdeaPaint to affix its logo on a finished, painted wall (or ping-pong table).

But the company thinks it has a solution: IdeaPaint is developing a line of accessories like marker trays and big erasers “that might look like a windshield squeegee,’’ Avallon says. Each will bear the company’s logo. “The goal there isn’t for the revenue,’’ Avallon says, but to make sure people start mentally linking IdeaPaint with whiteboard surfaces, the same way they equate Dunkin’ Donuts with coffee or Tylenol with headaches.

Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottKirsner.