Indiana Inventors Association

On matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of substance, stand like a rock. —Author unknown Jared Adams (COO, Canvas ) showed us how to profit from using the lean startup method to add substance to style.   The founders of Canvas started with two things: a background in information technology and the observation that many young adults prefer to interact with others indirectly.   Knowing that this lifestyle increases the efficiency of some kinds of communication, the founders wondered if employers and young job applicants would rather text than talk. To find out, they developed a text-based intelligent interviewing software program and raised $2 million in seed capital.   Because the founders needed help to know what to build and how people would use their product, they asked trusted senior human resources (HR) people across the country to find flaws in the original program.   The HR people found several embarrassing flaws but, sur...

For creative individuals who hope to profit from their ideas, invention is only a small part of the story.   Consumers buy products (material realities), not inventions (ideas).   John Ritchison (intellectual property attorney from Anderson, IN) offered us advice on how to best market our products: be patient, stay focused, and don’t get frustrated.   Bottom line—be bold.   Go big or go home. An inventor typically has 3 marketing options: make and sell a product or method, sell the invention to others who will use it to make and sell a product or method, or license (rent) the invention to others who will use it to make and sell a product or method.   For all 3 options, learn all you can about your product’s market, study your business opportunities, and draft a basic business plan that can take you from point A to point B. Here are some useful steps for learning how to take your product to market. Find out how others have marketed a product sim...

Never be satisfied with anything, everything can be done better than it is now being done.    — Eli Lilly, Jr. RonJackson (president, Jackson Systems; longtime member of the Indiana Inventors Association; and holder of several patents) left his HVAC company and inventing long enough to share his unbridled enthusiasm for them with us.   “Controls Done Right”— his company’s trademark—conveys Mr. Jackson’s inventive spirit.   Here are some of Mr. Jackson’s suggestions for inventors and innovators. Inventing If you can, invent for contractors or original equipment manufacturers .   You won’t spend time and money educating them on the value of your invention; they already know.   Keep your inventions simple so that users will like them. Look at items or methods throughout your day and ask: What’s wrong with them?   How can I improve them?   Write down your answers so you don’t forget them. Develop a portfolio of inventions...

Joshua Springer (president, GrinOn Industries , Indianapolis) had a eureka moment at his father’s birthday party when he imagined a beer container that would fill from the bottom.   Four days later he had a prototype.   Eight years and two U.S. patents later ( US8763655 , US8777182 ), the worldwide market for his invention provides an estimated annual revenue of $10-20 million. Televised interviews with CNN and Inside Indiana Business have showcased Mr. Springer’s pioneering and “paper clip simple” beer dispensing system.   In its most prevalent mode, a nozzle pushes up a detachable magnet from the bottom of a plastic cup, fills the cup with beer, and retracts as the magnet seals the bottom of the cup.   This highly efficient automated system wastes no beer (in contrast to most dispensing methods that waste 30%) and dispenses beer 300 times faster than is typical with traditional methods.   Because of his invention, the number of people in line ...

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra Are you spinning your wheels?   Only dreaming instead of also doing?   Taking decades to do what can be done in months?   If so, you are not alone.   A lot of folks, including inventors, let life pass them by.   Life is too precious for that. Setting goals can help you live a full and exciting life, which includes bringing your inventions to market.   Richard McVicker (member of the Indiana Inventors Association for more than 40 years, patent illustrator at Barnes & Thornburg LLP for 49 years, and patent-holding inventor for 55 years) told us how.   Try it; you’ll like it. A goal is a specific, attainable, and major accomplishment that you crave with your whole being.   Want it so badly that you imagine it with all of your senses.   Figure out: what you want and when you want it; who will benefit from it; and what you will do and whe...

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 41 st fastest‑growing company (2 nd 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...