How A Job Layoff Kickstarted A Company

No.56

Russ Layton

SPARX HOCKEY

Three-year growth 4,916.2% | 2018 revenue $8M Acton, Massachusetts | Founded in 2014

- Kate Rockwood

Russ Layton was one of the few people in his blue-collar neighborhood to make it to college—and by most measures, his career in mechanical engineering was a success. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was just going through the motions. When an unexpected windfall and job loss collided, he took it as a sign to go all-in on solving a childhood frustration.

I grew up playing hockey in New Jersey, and I was keenly aware of how sharpening affects your skate performance. The only thing I can liken it to is getting your racket restrung in tennis, except with ice hockey and figure skating, you’re getting your skates sharpened at the pro shop once a week. It was such a pain. Over the summers, as a teen, I’d go to hockey camp and we’d sneak in an old-fashioned sharpener—this group of 12-year-old boys huddled around, essentially, a bench grinder in a dorm closet, trying to keep our edges sharp without losing an eye. It was nuts.

The Long Game Decades after Russ Layton began playing ice hockey—and sharpening his skates on an archaic machine—he designed a smarter blade sharpener.

Everyone in my blue-collar neighborhood was a hustler—holding down multiple jobs and picking up odd hours when they could. From the time I was 10, I worked: I had a paper route, I answered phones at the church rectory, I pumped gas, and as soon as it snowed, I’d grab my shovel and hit the sidewalks. I even made business cards as a teen to drum up more business.