About 6 years ago my college roomate introduced me to bison food products. He owns a nutrition manufacturing company and has licenses and contacts with large farms in the United States and was making various products that were resold to retail outlets and private parties. We discussed taking the products mainstream but were searching for the right individual with the exact personal branding we needed. We bounced off the idea of people like Hulk Hogan, George Foreman and Deion Sanders but they weren't the exact fit...
In October I was at Lifestyle Family Fitness in the Hyde Park area of Tampa when I saw fitness guru, Tony Little. At the time I did not know him but he was neighbors with a good friend of mine, so I introduced myself. After a few minutes of small talk, I began to ask him business questions. The questions were, "Do you have any of your own products you are endorsing? What types of products are you interested in? Would you be interested in food products? Etc." He explained to me that he had an energy drink and some other general things but was looking for something big that he could have to himself. He also explained to me about his dealings with Pure Protein and how he saved the brand but had to sue them for royalites because they basically screwed him over. He then explained that he would never do that to anyone... This guy is well-known, my friends neighbor and had the personal branding I was looking for.
I then asked him if he would have any interest in working with me on a bison line and told him about my friends nutrition company. Tony went from mild-mannered to an infomercial in a second. He became animated and said he would love to talk about it. He then proceeded to tell me how he could imagine being on Home Shopping Network and having little buffalo pictures on screen that would be crossed out like they were becoming extinct because he could sell so much of it. After he calmed down I told him about the various products and he proceeded to give me his personal email of [email protected] and I told him I would have my nutrition friend contact him. I do have a witness to my conversation with Tony Little that would be happy to discuss as well.
At this point my nutrition friend was now working with both Tony Little and his assistant Nancy Kuni. There were phone calls, many email exchanges and after many months of samples, blends and trials of bison products provided by my friend and Sayersbrook Bison Ranch - Tony and Nancy disappeared. A few weeks went by and we received a call from Sayersbrook stating a representative for Tony Little was there. My friend managed to reach Nancy Kuni and she stated that they were still working on making a decision.
Lets fast-forward a few more weeks when I received a phone call from my friend to turn on Home Shopping Channel... To my suprise and anger the Body by Bison line was on TV! Tony was using all the information given to him by my friend's nutrition company and had the products for sale that were being worked on by us. As my friend attempted to reach Nancy Kuni to find out why they would back-door us after almost 18 months of research and development - she wrote back stating that they never discussed any bison products nor did Tony ever speak to me regarding the bison.
How dare they screw us out of our research money, product and knowledge. I definitely didn't make up the meeting with Tony Little in October especially since others knew we spoke. We definitely didn't make up the phone call from Sayersbrook Ranch asking why we would decide to take Tony to a different farm. We had no knowledge or reasons to believe he was going to use our idea and information for personal gains. If he and Nancy had no intentions of working with us, how would I have had Tony's personal email? How would we have his personal cell phone number? How would we have Nancy's information? How can they deny shipping receipts of samples and products from both us and a bison farm that we use - they accepted them! How can you deny emails that were sent back and forth? How can you deny phone logs? How can you deny ever speaking to me, especially when I was the one who presented this multi-million dollar idea to you and set you up with the person to make it all possible?
I was moved by Tony telling me he would never screw anyone and would not sign a NDA... Too bad we believed him. The only upside to him not signing a NDA is we have all the correspondences that we can make public to expose the crook he really is.
Unfortunately we are nobody in the mainstream media world and he is an informercial king. He has been with HSN for 25 years and has made them hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. He has enough money to deflect us to any number of legal personnel, while we do not have those means. Once again the one with the most money wins.
Please do not support any products branded or advertised by him.
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