Kilbane was a businessman even as a student at Hogwarts, selling discount

nightshade, Wyvern scales and other regents that he purchased overseas while

on summer vacations with his family. Kilbane started a number of businesses

after graduation, including a cloak and dagger shop and a cauldron foundry before

making his fortune in frogs. Cats were the animal of choice in the '20s, but Kilbane

launched an aggressive frog marketing campaign that led to the frog fad of the late

'20s and '30s. His chief competitor in the frog market during these years was his

old fellow beater Clover Polgooth. Each went out of his way to denigrate the quality

of the others' frogs, and it was considered quite a shock when the two firms

merged to form Kilbane and Polgooth in 1939.