Indiana Inventors Association

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.        - Mike Tyson Paul Moses ( pemoses@prf.org ; director of Purdue Research Parks in New Albany and Indianapolis ; manager and co-founder of INnovation Angels ; president & chair‑elect of Venture Connectors ) told us about Purdue University’s new emphasis on getting things done.  The result is a record-breaking 24 startups (based on Purdue’s intellectual property) formed in fiscal year 2014, triple that in 2013. Mr. Moses helps people turn an idea into a business.  One of the first things he asks a startup founder (not someone else hired by the founder) to do is to put the horse before the cart, to adapt the startup to fit the market.  This not only increases the startup’s probability of success, but also attracts investors with evidence of guaranteed customers (i.e., profit) and with evidence that the founder is a good business person—adaptable, coachable, and capable of making good decisions. Mr. Moses ask

Report by Dave Zedonis Sarah Woodruff , business development manager at Catalyst PDG, Inc. (Indianapolis, IN), told us how a product development company such as Catalyst can quickly and effectively help an inventor embody an idea and bring it to market. Develop your idea as best you can before hiring professional developers, because their services are expensive (up to $20,000 for a prototype). Find out who your potential customers are and what they want, so you can give developers a very good idea of what product you want from them. Professional developers offer a variety of services, such as: market research, including focus groups and customer surveys, to help you design a product that your potential customers want; prototyping, to make sure your invention works, with the aid of 3-D designing and printing, modeling, problem solving, selecting materials, tooling, and machining;   small scale production of thermoplastic products with injection molding machines;   packagin

Report by Dave Zedonis Steve Woodruff and his wife Jenny , two of our local “Indiana Inventors and Entrepreneurs”, shared the story of their successful Toyota Prius business, AutoBeYours.com .   They rebuild generation II Prius cars manufactured from 2004 to 2009 that have been damaged by collision and convert them to all-electric With Steve’s experience in repairing electronics and in collaboration with others who share their interest, Steve and Jenny have developed and refined reliable kits for converting the hybrid Prius into an all-electric vehicle.   The result is a car that gets the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon of gasoline. Inventing has been part of their business since it began in 2003 in Scottsburg, IN.   Experts in redesign of electric cars, Steve and Jenny have built a Nissan Leaf 6-door stretch limousine, 3 custom Prius limousines, and Prius convertibles and trucks. Steve and Jenny also rebuild and sell battery packs, the essence of an electric

Robert Humbert , our former vice president, died in November, 2012. He is believed to be the last surviving charter member of the Indiana Inventors Association, formed in the early 1980’s to help inventors with marketing. Bob invented, patented (US 4,281,368 ), made, and sold a house-key light. He expressed his creativity in other ways too – by teaching school and by publishing a book , “WWII Letters to My Girl Back Home: From Nigeria, Arabia and Turkey”, which describes his war time experiences as a weatherman. Bob was active in the Association until he was 92 years old, holding various positions (including president), recording meetings, creating meeting summaries, and compiling information for newsletters. Always in good humor, when asked how it felt to turn 90 years old, Bob replied, “Not much different than it felt to turn 89.” We enjoyed Bob’s presence, assistance, contributions, and knowledge and will miss our good friend and colleague.