Inc. Magazine – September 2019

29 ● INC. ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● ● ● PHOTOGRAPH BY HEAMI LEE

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Three-year growth 1,458.1% | 2018 revenue $5.3M

Fontana, California | Founded in 2014

Benson Liu

TOSSWARE

Glass Act

The most affection ever

given to a disposable

cup was likely at the end

of a beer-pong table. But,

Benson Liu wondered, why

couldn’t the lowly drinking

receptacle get a high-class

makeover, something more

akin to a wineglass? Having

spent decades in food-

container manufacturing,

he took a year to figure it

out. In addition to develop-

ing a new blow-molding

process, Liu embraced 3-D

printing, allowing customers

to personalize glasses with

a slew of printed designs.

If Liu and his co-founder,

Michael Fun, had the

chance to do it over? “We’d

raise more capital and go

big!” says Liu. “We were

a little conservative in the

beginning. If we’d gone

big sooner, we’d have 30

designs by now.” Next up:

the Reserve line—reusable

and virtually indestructible—

is slated to launch this fall.

—KATE ROCKWOOD