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Imagine building a giant toy spaceship out of plastic building blocks. You spend hours getting every single piece just right.
But the second you pick it up to play with it, the wings fall off, and it shatters into a hundred pieces on the floor. For kids and adult builders alike, this is incredibly frustrating.
That is the exact problem that inspired a young boy from Georgia to invent Le-Glue.
Featured on Season 10 of ABC’s Shark Tank, Le-Glue is a temporary adhesive made specifically for plastic building blocks like LEGO® and Mega Bloks®.
It holds your creations together tightly so you can actually play with them. Then, when you are ready to build something new, the glue washes right off with warm water.
Since appearing on national television, the company has exploded in popularity. But is Le-Glue still in business today? How much money has the company made since making a deal with Kevin O’Leary?
Here is the complete update on Le-Glue, its net worth, and what the founder is doing now.
Le-Glue Company Fast Facts
| Company Fact | Detail |
| Founder | Tripp Phillips |
| Headquarters | Dalton, Georgia |
| Manufacturing | 100% Made in the USA |
| Retail Price | $8.99 to $10.99 (2-fluid-ounce pouch) |
| Cost to Make (COGS) | $0.43 per unit |
| Gross Profit Margin | 96% |
What Exactly Is Le-Glue?
Le-Glue is a water-soluble adhesive designed to keep your building block creations together. It is not a permanent super glue.
Instead, it is a temporary paste that increases the grip between plastic blocks, making them up to 12 times stronger than they would be on their own.
If you use regular super glue on your building blocks, you ruin them forever. You can never take them apart again, which destroys the fun (and the value) of expensive toy sets.
Le-Glue completely solves this problem. It allows builders to reuse their blocks over and over again without leaving behind any sticky residue or causing any permanent damage.
Because it is not permanent, Le-Glue is highly popular with competitive brick builders, hobbyists, and parents who are tired of fixing broken toy sets.
It comes in a simple, 2-fluid-ounce, easy-squeeze pouch that makes putting the glue on your blocks simple and mess-free.
How Does Le-Glue Work?
Using the product is very simple. You just apply a tiny amount of the paste to the inside of a building block using a brush or a cotton swab, and then press the blocks together.
The glue sets in about one hour and reaches its full strength in 24 hours. As long as the blocks stay dry, the bond holds incredibly tight.
When you want to take your creation apart, the process is just as easy. Because the glue is water-soluble, all you have to do is drop the glued blocks into a bowl of warm water for about 30 seconds. The warm water dissolves the glue, allowing the blocks to pull apart effortlessly. Once you wipe them dry, they look and feel brand new.
Is Le-Glue Safe for Kids?
Safety is a huge concern for parents when it comes to any kind of glue or chemical. Thankfully, Le-Glue was designed with kids in mind. The formula is entirely safe, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly.
Here is a breakdown of the specific safety features that make Le-Glue unique:
- Natural Ingredients: The glue is made from a blend of natural dextrin (a type of starch) and polymer resin. It contains zero harsh chemical solvents and gives off zero dangerous fumes (VOCs).
- Mold Prevention: Because kids might use the glue with dirty hands, or the blocks might sit in a damp toy box, the creators added CleanGuard® antimicrobial agents. This completely stops mold and fungus from growing on the glue, even when it gets wet.
- Bitter Taste: To stop young kids or pets from trying to eat the paste, the company added a harmless but very bitter-tasting ingredient to the mix.
Who Invented Le-Glue?
The story behind Le-Glue is just as impressive as the product itself. The company was founded by Tripp Phillips, a young entrepreneur from Dalton, Georgia.
When Tripp was in the third grade, his teacher gave his class an assignment: write a paper or come up with an original invention. Tripp hated having his toy spaceships break apart, so he decided to invent a temporary glue for his blocks.
Tripp did not do this entirely alone. His father, Lee Phillips, is a professional lab scientist. Together, the father-and-son team worked at their kitchen table, testing different mixtures and tearing apart LEGO® sets until they created the perfect water-soluble formula.
Tripp’s invention was a massive hit. His teacher entered the glue into the International Torrance Legacy Creativity Awards, where it won first place in the “Toys and Games” category.
Realizing they had a great business idea, Tripp and his dad launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2015, raising nearly $3,400 to help pay for their first round of manufacturing.
With the money they made from early sales, Tripp applied for a U.S. utility patent. When the patent was approved, Tripp became one of the youngest patent holders in United States history at just 10 years old.
The Shark Tank Pitch That Changed Everything
By the time Tripp was 12 years old, Le-Glue was selling well online, but the family needed help to take the company to the next level.
In the Season 10 premiere of Shark Tank (which aired in October 2018), Tripp, his sister Allee, and his father Lee walked into the tank to pitch their business.
Tripp asked the Sharks for an $80,000 investment in exchange for 15% ownership of his company.
He amazed the wealthy investors with his confident pitch and his excellent sales numbers. At the time of filming, Le-Glue had made $125,000 in total lifetime sales.
Even better, Tripp told the Sharks that it only cost him $0.43 to make a pouch of glue, which he sold for $8.99. This gave the company an incredible profit margin.
Two Sharks jumped at the chance to invest in the young genius: Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary.
The Shark Tank Offers
| Investor | The Offer | The Terms |
| Daymond John | $80,000 for 25% equity | A simple deal taking a flat 25% ownership of the entire company. |
| Kevin O’Leary | $80,000 for 20% equity | Required a 50% royalty on any future licensing deals until the $80,000 was paid back. Once paid back, the royalty would disappear, and Kevin would own 20%. |
Kevin O’Leary (known as “Mr. Wonderful”) loved the fact that Tripp already had a patent. He told Tripp that he had the right connections in the toy industry to help Le-Glue get a massive licensing deal with big toy companies.
After thinking it over, Tripp accepted Kevin O’Leary’s offer.
What Happened to Le-Glue After Shark Tank?
Getting a deal on Shark Tank is usually a recipe for success, and Le-Glue was no exception. The morning after their episode aired on ABC, the company woke up to 2,000 new orders on their website.
With Kevin O’Leary’s guidance, the business skyrocketed. In the very first year after the show, Le-Glue made over $500,000 in sales.
The company also used its success to give back to the community. In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company used its manufacturing equipment in Georgia to make hand sanitizer. They donated the much-needed supplies to healthcare workers and the Dalton Fire Department.
Because of Tripp’s amazing sales skills, Le-Glue was even featured on a special Shark Tank “Greatest of All Time” episode in 2020.
Le-Glue Current Net Worth and Sales
If you search the internet for Le-Glue’s net worth, you will often see outdated articles claiming the company is worth a flat “$1.5 million.”
However, a closer look at the company’s recent sales numbers shows that the true value of the business is much higher today.
The company’s secret weapon is its gross profit margin. Because they make the glue locally in Georgia, it only costs them $0.43 to produce a pouch.
They sell the pouches online for between $8.99 and $10.99. This gives the business a staggering 96% profit margin. For almost every dollar they bring in, they keep 96 cents.
By late 2022, Tripp revealed in a news interview that they were selling around 15,000 units every single month. That equals roughly $130,000 in pure monthly profit.
By calculating those numbers, Le-Glue makes roughly $1.5 million in yearly profit alone. With total sales projected to easily pass the $2 million mark by 2024, the actual net worth (or valuation) of the company is likely somewhere between $6 million and $12 million.
Where to Buy Le-Glue?
One of the main reasons Le-Glue has stayed successful for so long is because they are very smart about where they sell their products.
You can buy the adhesive directly from the official Le-Glue website, which helps the company keep the most profit. They also sell heavily on Amazon, which allows them to reach millions of parents and toy builders who are searching for LEGO accessories.
Currently, the company has also expanded its reach to major American big-box retailers. You can now purchase Le-Glue through Walmart’s digital storefronts, including Walmart.com and Walmart Business, where it is available for quick shipping.
The brand is also well-positioned within the Target ecosystem, taking advantage of Target’s massive push to open large-format stores and digital hubs across the Sun Belt and Midwest.
Where is Tripp Phillips Now?
When Tripp Phillips pitched his business on television, he was just a kid in middle school. As of today, things look very different.
Tripp is now a young adult. He recently became a college student, attending Kennesaw State University in Georgia as a freshman. Because he has been running a highly profitable business for years, he wisely decided to major in finance.
His relationship with Kevin O’Leary is still going strong. Mr. Wonderful has been a true mentor, introducing Tripp to powerful business leaders, including executives at Meta and top U.S. government officials.
Tripp has also been able to enjoy the rewards of his hard work. He won the Distinguished Teen Award from the Georgia Association for Gifted Children in 2021, and he even used some of his business profits to buy himself a Mercedes.
Summary: A Blueprint for Success
Le-Glue is proof that you do not need to be an adult in a fancy corporate office to invent something brilliant. By identifying a simple problem, toy blocks falling apart, Tripp Phillips created a product that people genuinely needed.
By keeping manufacturing inside the United States, maintaining an incredibly high profit margin, securing a strong patent, and partnering with the right investor, Le-Glue has built a business model that is built to last.
Today, Le-Glue remains the absolute best way to keep your building block masterpieces standing tall.
