November 2015
80% of success is showing
up.
— Woody Allen
Erik Magner, PhD (president, Meister Cook) and BetsyMagner (marketing manager, Meister Cook) issued a charismatic call to
inventors—Don’t be afraid. Find your passion and use it to start your own
business. Using their own success story
to inspire us, Mr. Magner shared a 6-part strategy that helped them create in
less than 10 years a 2-person company ranked by Inc. 5000 as the 41st fastest‑growing
company (2nd fastest‑growing manufacturer) in the United States.
Identify an important technical problem
that you care about.
William Osler
(a founder of modern medicine) advised physicians, “Listen to your patient; he is telling you the
diagnosis.” Likewise in industry, listen
to the experts; they will tell you what problems are commercially
important. Mr.
Magner’s first challenge in the food industry was a client’s request for a more
heat-efficient hamburger broiler. The
broiler he invented was so profitable that a second client asked him for a
toaster that could toast bread in 10 seconds.
The profit from the sale of thousands of those toasters led others in
industry to seek Mr. Magner’s help. One
asked for a food warmer that would preserve the freshly cooked appearance and
texture of fried food for 2 hours.
Another asked for a new beverage concept. The results: inventions that profit both Meister
Cook and its business partners.
Be alert. While on
a late night trip home, Mr. Magner stopped at a restaurant and received cold
soup that should have been hot. He
learned from the restaurant manager that cold soup was a common problem in
restaurants because of inadequate cooking equipment. The result: a new device for automatically
keeping soup hot.
Never give up on finding a technical
solution.
While earning
a masters degree in mechanical engineering, Mr. Magner became convinced that
any technical problem can be solved. The
toaster? After quickly creating a proof-of-concept
prototype showing that the toaster was theoretically possible, Mr. Magner spent
3 years developing the marketable and profitable product. Invention is usually the result of hard work
over time, not a sudden flash of insight.
Share your ideas to get feedback.
Like all
innovators, Mr. Magner needs to learn from others. The feedback he asks for helps him optimize his
inventions and form useful business alliances.
A quick and simple way for him to get feedback on an
invention is to search for
patented inventions similar to one he is developing. If someone else has independently thought of
and patented his idea, finding that patent keeps him from wasting time and
money on a patent application. But even
better, Mr. Magner uses the inventions of others as stepping stones that lead him
to identify unsolved problems and to discover new and commercially important improvements
on existing inventions.
Two methods help Mr. Magner find business allies yet keep
control of his inventions. In general
discussions, he talks about the problem his invention solves without disclosing
what his invention is or what it does.
When the discussions become specific, he trusts his potential allies but
asks them to recognize the importance of his inventions by signing a mutual
nondisclosure agreement.
Recognize your needs.
The
4-Hour Workweek
(Timothy Ferriss, ISBN-10: 9780307465351) persuaded the Magners to create a
virtual company located in their home so that they could focus their efforts on
what is most important to their success.
Outsourcing operations such as accounting, legal work, and manufacturing
gives Mr. Magner time to create alliances and to invent and gives Mrs. Magner time
to market Meister Cook.
Little money was available to hire others to start
Meister Cook, so Mr. Magner learned all of the skills he needed to start it
himself. During the first year of the
company, he filed with the state of Indiana papers needed to form a limited
liability company, wrote business contracts, created a Web site (using WYSIWYG Web Builder; hosted by 1&1), calculated and filed the company’s
tax returns, prepared and filed a provisional patent application, recruited
business partners, and continued to invent.
Because he is so busy, Mr. Magner
needs time. He saves time by texting
rather than emailing and by flying his own airplane to business meetings and
trade shows rather than waiting in airports.
Mr. Magner also needs to persuade potential
business partners to say yes. The real
decision makers are often engineers or other non‑executive personnel within a
company. He finds out who these key
individuals are by talking with people who would most directly implement the
day-to-day operations of a collaboration.
Form alliances creatively.
Meister Cook
has only two employees: Erik, who recruits business partners
and invents; and Betsy, who markets Meister Cook. Business partners
do the heavy lifting of financial accounting, legal advising, manufacturing,
distribution, and sales. So finding
reliable partners who excel is essential.
Equally
important is creatively combining these partners into alliances that provide
Meister Cook with a steady positive cash flow.
The U.S.
patent office usually publishes a nonprovisional patent application 18 months
after the filing date, even if the office has not yet decided whether to grant
a patent. By filing a nonpublication
request, Mr. Magner prevents release of his ideas unless and until he gets
a patent. That gives him time to corner
the market before competitors can introduce knock-offs of his inventions.
Up to 90% of some of Mr. Magner’s patented products are
sold outside of the U.S. So he gets patents covering those products
from the European Union and particular countries, as well as from the U.S.
Mr. Magner engenders loyalty by going out of his way to
make his business partners look good and by paying them well.
Find success in adversity.
Mr. Magner
missed a deadline for patenting a design.
He was disappointed, but rather than curse the darkness, he lit a
candle. He thought of 2 better designs
that he would not have otherwise imagined.
Thank you, Mr. & Mrs. Magner, for
sharing your business acumen with us!
Patents awarded to Mr. Magner:
8076614 Multi-stage cooking system using radiant,
convection, and magnetic induction heating, and having a compressed air heat
guide
8272320 Broiler, conveyor oven, and toaster system
with pressurized air guide for heat and flames
8437627 Apparatus for extending the holding time for
food
9027470 Food condition maintaining device