Fame & Fortune: LoveSac founder Shawn Nelson
His appearance on F-O-X tops his M-B-A

Madonna takes LoveSacs on tour, Shaquille O'Neal puts them into play off the court, and Rachel Hunter models them in her daughter's bedroom.

Thanks to the rich and famous, 27-year-old Shawn Nelson was already a certified success at making and selling his gargantuan shapeable Sac furniture, before he ended up as a contestant on the Fox network reality show, "The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best."

LoveSac founder Nelson, a Utah native, joined 14 other contestants in traveling the world and reliving some of Richard Branson's own personal adventures: flying in zero gravity, traversing between two hot air balloons, and rappelling down a London skyscraper. The Chinese-speaking Nelson not only survived seemingly insurmountable challenges, he emerged the winner and got a reality check from legendary entrepreneur Richard Branson. ... in the amount of $1 million.

And after three months at the helm of the Virgin companies, Nelson returned to Salt Lake City richer and wiser -- and back to making his malleable foam chairs.

Just don't call them beanbag chairs.

Bankrate: There are no actual beans in your Sacs?

Shawn Nelson: Not now, they're filled with cut foam.

Bankrate: How did the original idea of the Sac come about?

Shawn Nelson: I was watching TV one day, about 10 years ago, and it popped into my head that sitting on something like an enormous bag would be really comfortable. And after I made it -- it was like 7 feet across -- it filled the back of a truck. It was huge, and everywhere I went with it, everybody wanted one.

Bankrate: Was it your intention to come up with something you hoped would take off?

Shawn Nelson: No, really, it started out as a joke. But people really wanted one, so I thought if I was going to make another one, I might as well go into business. So I paid about 20 bucks for the name LoveSac, which I thought was kind of cute, and I had a company. And it took me about a week to make just one bag, because I was chopping up the foam by hand with a paper cutter. And I settled on foam because it reminded me of my parents camping mattresses, which I thought were the most comfortable thing around.