Jon Meighan ‘07, mechanical engineering alumnus and owner of Erie, Pennsylvania-based Lake Erie Rubber will be featured in a brand new Discovery Channel show, “Undercover Billionaire--Comeback City” premiering this month.
In 2017, Meighan left his job at a Fortune 50 company and purchased Lake Erie Rubber. It’s a custom rubber manufacturing company, started in 1961 that supplies custom rubber components to the rail, construction, building vibration isolation, and oil and gas industries. They have also created their own pet product division, One Leg Up, designing and manufacturing natural rubber dog toys.
In 2018 Meighan was approached by a Hollywood producer and asked to be a part of a documentary about a regular guy named Glenn Bryant who was trying to start a business in his 50’s. They asked Meighan to be an entrepreneur mentor for Bryant and he agreed. Bryant worked in the company’s natural rubber dog toy line doing sales. Months later, Meighan was surprised to see advertisements for a new show called “Undercover Billionaire--Glenn Stearns.” Glenn Bryant was actually billionaire Glenn Stearns. Meighan ended up being featured on the show for about a minute.
Fast forward to 2020, Meighan received a call to do a follow-up show for Discovery where Stearns would mentor small businesses during the challenge of a global pandemic. Discovery brought in Stearns and Dave Evans, founder of Fictiv, a digital manufacturing ecosystem to work with Meighan.
“In the face of declining sales, profits, and a bleak economic outlook, I followed the advice of two guys I barely knew. We had 27 days with Glenn. I lived at work for those 27 days. I developed new messaging, a new website, and started a new marketing campaign,” Meighan said.
To see what happens and how Meighan, Stearns, and Evans reinvented Lake Erie Rubber in those 27 days, tune in to “Undercover Billionaire--Comeback City” on the Discovery Channel or on the new Discovery Plus App. The episode featuring Lake Erie Rubber airs on February 3rd at 10pm EST.
