Alumni Spotlight

It didn’t come like a bolt out of the blue – in fact, ever since he was a high school student in San Jose, Michael Stoff (marketing, ’77) knew that he wanted to start his own business. Since then, he has founded two electronics ventures, a party favor manufacturer/distributor, a real estate and property management company, and, more recently, an aviation business.

Stoff was familiar with San Diego State University due to the fact that his older sister (Andrea Niehaus, accounting, ’73) was already attending and he chose SDSU for himself due to the laid-back campus environment and “the great reputation of SDSU’s business school. Of course, it didn’t hurt that SDSU had a solid football team and affordable tuition,” he said.

Upon graduation in December 1977, Stoff worked as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Burroughs Wellcome in order to build the capital needed to start a business. But even with the financing, he wasn’t sure which business to pursue until he had a chance encounter with a passerby at Mission Beach in 1986. The passerby was carrying two small speakers connected to a Sony Walkman® and he told Stoff that the speakers were manufactured by a San Ysidro-based company called Novi Tune Totes. Stoff bought the company and kept the name, but modified the speaker system so that it could be strapped to bicycle handlebars.

Although Novi did well internationally, the company was still not profitable after two years. Stoff sold his interest in Tune Tones and reinvented Novi as a manufacturer of wireless intercom systems in 1988. Sales were initially slow and Stoff had only made one large sale – 600 units to retail giant Sharper Image. Just as he was about to close down the business, Sharper Image called and wanted more intercoms. The order saved the company and reaffirmed Stoff’s belief in a market for the product.

Buoyed by this success, Stoff went on to sell product to major catalogue, retail and wholesale club organizations making Novi the largest distributor and manufacturer of wireless intercoms in the U.S.

But electronics was not Stoff’s only business venture. He became involved in commercial real estate in 1990 as an owner-occupant by purchasing the building occupied by Novi. He kept the original building, but relocated the business to another building he had purchased in 1995. The cycle repeated itself three times and he would continue to own each of the buildings even after Novi had vacated the premises. Novi Property Management was born.

In 1991, yet another Novi business was formed. Stoff and his wife founded Novi Kids, a manufacturer and distributor of high-end party favors for children.