Ken Tarlow, the founder and President of Tarlow Design, has been designing and selling innovative products since his childhood. This early impulse would inform his education and career. In 1970, Ken Tarlow graduated from the University of Bridgeport School of Engineering with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design. He would go on to serve as a designer for a number of companies, including working as the head of design and engineering for Casablanca Fan Company, before starting Tarlow Design in 1984.

In business more than 25 years, Tarlow Design helps individuals who have great ideas bring their products to the market. Inventors present their concept to the firm, which then evaluates it for any flaws that might lead to manufacturing or other difficulties. After the Tarlow team works out these problems and makes any necessary improvements, the company offers designers other important services. One of these functions, the patent search, involves going through the patent archives to make sure that the design in question has not already been claimed. Tarlow will also fabricate a working prototype, producing an actual “proof of concept” working model of the product to present to manufacturers or investors. In addition, Tarlow Design works with people who have a small budget, helping them through the oftentimes cost-prohibitive and labyrinthine world of market research and product licensing.

Over the years, Tarlow Design has assisted in the design, fabrication, and patent process for hundreds of designs worth hundreds of millions of dollars in retail sales. Products originally shepherded by the company include the airplane headset, which has sold 60 million units, and the TurboWash, with 10 million products sold.