About Richard Thalheimer
Richard Thalheimer, founder and former CEO of The Sharper Image, was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. After attending public school there, he
received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University in 1970, and graduated from Hastings Law School in San Francisco, California in 1974.While Richard Thalheimer practiced law for a time, his primary interest was to start his own mail-order business. He established The Sharper Image in 1977, inspired by a $69 jogger’s watch that he owned and other runners admired. The first runner’s watch was an instant success due to an advertisement in Runner’s World magazine. The advertisement’s success led to the inaugural distribution of The Sharper Image catalog in 1979.
The San Francisco, California company began with only three employees. When Richard Thalheimer left The Sharper Image in November 2006, there were more than 4,000 full and part-time associates, 195 stores and a thriving internet and catalog business. At its peak, the company had annual revenues exceeding $750 million. The company became a public corporation in 1987 when its stock was offered on Nasdaq under the symbol SHRP.
Continuing to identify emerging trends within the industry, in May 2007 Thalheimer launched his new Internet business, RichardSolo.com. It’s an online store of interesting and new products that puts customer satisfaction as its first priority.
Richard Thalheimer serves on the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Ballet. While he has a number of outside interests, he particularly enjoys piloting his Cessna 182, and recently purchased a small Winnebago motorhome. He has three children and greatly values time with his family.
Links about Richard Thalheimer
Sharper Image founder never says dieRichardSolo.com: Richard Thalheimer’s Online Store
Infomercials 101 with Richard Thalheimer
Creating your own Sharper Image: Richard Thalheimer’s audio book
SF Weekly article about Richard Thalheimer