The Inventor's Mind

Independence Day, traditionally is a historic day that is celebrated every year on July 4 as the day we declared independence from Britain and became our own country.  Here in Columbus Ohio we celebrate not only independence day but also Independent’s Day.Independents Day in Columbus celebrates local entrepreneurs,small businesses, handcrafted items , and local art and music.  Trident has been involved with Independent’s day for two years now in some form or fashion, but this year we decided to create a interactive booth to encourage creativity amongst the local community and create greater inventor awareness in the community .  Our booth was a mixture of fun inventive games, creative people, creative products and useful information.  People responded very well, many people shared their ideas and interests in bringing products to market. The kids intentness playing the games was really a pleasure to watch. Its amazing how inventive kids can be.  Thanks to Chris Brown, one of our designers, this will now be a yearly occasion for us, you can expect to see us with a new and inventive booth each year. Checkout our facebook page of the event to see photos of our booth and pictures of the wonderful inventions.

It’s getting to be beautiful outside, the sun is shining, there is a nice breeze, and the trees and flowers are starting to bloom.  Besides a grateful feeling that we are out of winter the one thing that’s on my mind is FLIMSEE!!!  First of all Flimsee is a great grass roots game that was created and branded here in Columbus, Ohio by independent inventor named John Mally.  It revolves around two Frisbees and two goals consisting of sticks with cups on them.  The object is to throw the Frisbees through your opponents sticks or knock off the cups for points, if they catch the cup that’s been knocked off then you lose a point.  It can be played at an intense pace or leisurely, with cup in hand, or multiple players.  You can play by the rules or make up your own, everything about the game is flimsy hence the name flimsee.  Trident is involved with John Mally in this business from the creative and manufacturing side.  Together we are hoping to lift this grass roots game into your lawn and many lawns around you, you can take a closer look at www.flimsee.com.  Check it out, give us some feedback or even buy a set.

Hardware Show

Trident Design goes to Vegas! well really just Chris, Andy, and I, but we will be representing the whole office.  Besides some small time gambling, mingling and checking out cirque du soleil, we will be attending the worlds largest annual Hardware and Garden show. Buyers from nearly every large bigbox retailer will also be attending the show to make purchases for the upcoming year.The Powersquid will be front and center represented by the world famous Stanley brand. Under the new brand and with an attractive price point we are confident that the squid will perform in a big way this year.  In addition there are quite a few products from independant inventors that we will be privately debuting to our favorite buyers. We are expecting some great things from the show!  When I return I promise to bring my best and worst of the show, and give you some insiders info on what trends to look for from the hardware industry in the upcoming year.

-Nile

There are certain types of products that we use on a day to day process, things that we don’t even realize we need unless we don’t have it or run out. One of these items is soap.  Recently, I have noticed a surge of energy in soap products that has been brought on by the development of foaming action.  All of these years we have been using liquid soap, and there hasn’t been much innovation except new fragrances and funky bottle shapes, nothing truly compelling. But when you change the consistency, it changes the world as we know it.  Sure it’s cheaper, but is it easier to apply? I don’t know. Does it smell better? Maybe, maybe not. But the fact is that it is just cooler.  This describes an aspect of the design process, the innovation aspect.  It is something we do here every day.  A lot of the things that we work on aren’t new and futuristic products. They are things that have existed for a long time and we are simply transforming them to make them better.  Just like changing the consistency of the soap, we change colors, features, and mechanisms that make a product easier to use, more attractive, and more likable.  The motto here at trident is “transforming everyday tasks into opportunities to enjoy life.”

-Nile

Housewares Show 2011

After a long hiatus of various events, eleven days spent with his family in St. Croix immediately followed by four days in Chicago for the Housewares show, Chris has made his way back to Trident, Columbus, and all the other things in his life.  Besides a tan, he brought back some interesting tales of things to come in the houseware market, some from Trident and some from others.  I would imagine that most people who read this blog are familiar with our company, but for those who aren’t a large portion of the products we work on are in the kitchen department.  Some of the products we have on the market like the Perfect Peeler, the Onion Goggles, or the Cut N’ Serve were born at the housewares show, and this year a few more made their way to Chicago to be oohed and awed.  Amongst those were the java mitt(with RSVP), a flexible silicone cup handle for take away cups, the Style Station (with Polder), a bathroom organizer/caddy, and the Pitzo(with Lifetime Brands and Rosle), an innovative pizza cutter that has yet to hit the market.   A few more things that Chris mentioned to look out for were:

· Black and Blum- a very stylish and well designed line of kitchen gadgets

· Joseph Joseph- innovative utensils for your culinary needs

· De La Terra- one of Chris’s favorites, this line is composed of beautifully crafted organic culinary pottery

-Nile

Apparently all the heat that’s coming out of Trident Design, LLC is having an effect on Columbus, Ohio, because it’s a beautiful sixty degrees right now. Everyone is working hard, hustling and bustling to make things happen. It’s important to remember that in times like these a break can be the best thing for us. A little R&R never hurt anyone, but it’s easy to fall into the mindset that R&R equals laziness, which just isn’t true. It’s important to reward yourself for all of your hard work, whether it’s a nice dinner out on the town with some friends, a movie night at home, or an island getaway. Chris, one of the hardest workers I know, who is quite possibly dealing with the busiest part of his life, is leaving to take eleven days off in St. Croix with his wife and son. Isn’t it nice. There’s no need to fear, the army will thrive without its commander in chief, but the blogs might be a little dry without all the excitement he brings to the table.

-Nile

If Trident Design, LLC were an army, they would be fighting the war against mediocre design, inferior products, and bad branding.  A strong army we would be; Chris would be the general overseeing the whole operation and making sure that everything goes according to plan, strategizing if you will.  The design team would double as the artillery taking all of the long shots, deciding what areas to attack, and reaping all of the credit behind the scenes.  The salesmen are the marines, the first to battle fighting for their lives, totally dependent on the next sale (or kill).  And of course the office manager would have to be the combat nurse who’s there to patch up everyone’s wounds and who gets you prepared to go back into the storm.

This brings me to the point. Three of our sharpest shooters here at Trident are Jessica Moreland, Joel Beebe, and Chris Trunek.  Jessica is the “go to girl”, design manager, plotting the coordinates and telling her men where to go and when to move.  The design process is one more of delegation as opposed to a dictatorship, and you can’t really tell a designer what to do. Instead you have to point them in the direction and inspire them to get on the same page.  Jessica does this well.  Then there’s Joel, the newest member of the team, very reliable and clever.  This brings us to Trunek, the mercenary working remotely from Utah.  He’s the mechanical brain brought in to suppress the problem and bring new angles to the table.  The three of them armed with CAD software, streamlined keyboards and mice, and proper direction have brought Trident Design to where it is today.  We are all part of the “one brain” mentality, we combine all of our talents to create a unified and dignified product, that represents itself well and also represents what we stand for at Trident.  Everyone brings something different and important to the table, but by combining our efforts we create something that is efficient in design and in function.

-Nile

When looking to license an invention to a company, the inventor’s first instinct is usually to go after the market leader, with the idea that the biggest company is going to deliver the best royalty stream. However, in my experience, the biggest company is usually not the best target. I have licensed products to companies with annual revenues ranging from $10 Million to $35 Billion. Here are ten reasons why I prefer the smaller end of the scale:

1. The market leader is less hungry for a new innovation to help them gain market share. They already have market share and typically are playing defensively and will resist innovations that endanger the status quo. Smaller companies will see a new innovation as more important strategically, as it may help them gain on the leader. They are hungrier and faster.

2. Big corporations are a royal pain to deal with. They have protocols for how they conduct business, most of which are very unfriendly to the individual inventor, or any human for that matter. The people working in them are often not trying that hard and just want to get their job done. Something new just creates more work for them with no reward.

3. Big corporations are greedy. They don’t want you to make money and don’t care if they are unfair. They will do whatever they can to reduce their royalty payment to you, pay late, and cheat if they can. They will also avoid paying you anything if they can.

4. Big companies make you sign disclosure documents. As an inventor, you want to get the companies you are presenting to to sign non-disclosure agreements, which protect your rights and obligate the other party to not steal your idea. The disclosure agreements from big companies (which are often found on their websites. Here’s a link to one from Black & Decker) are very draconian and heavily favor the corporation. I would never sign one of these documents unless I had exhausted all other possibilities.

5. Big companies are hard to negotiate with. Instead of negotiating with the president of the company who is concerned with driving the business, you’ll be negotiating with either a lawyer, who is definitely not going to take it easy on you, or a mid-level manager with no decision making power. This leads to dramatically drawn out timeframes and frustrations, as well as less generous deals.

6. Big companies often lack focus. A smaller company with fewer products will be able to focus on your invention in order to drive business. A really big company might have thousands of products, and yours will be just another item in the line, given no special attention. Therefore it won’t necessarily enjoy the benefits of the big company’s wide distribution or PR efforts. People in the company may not even be aware of your product after several years!

7. Small companies usually have more passion. Big companies rarely have the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that generates the kind of breakthrough results that the inventor would like to see. Small companies are much more likely to be staffed by people truly excited about their industry and the products they are selling.

8. Big companies have lots of internal friction. There can be competing individuals and factions inside a company, and your invention could be the victim of circumstances having nothing to do with your product. It could be cancelled even if it’s doing well, because much of what happens in large corporations has nothing to do with the common interest or rational decision-making, and everything to do with self-interest.

9.  Small companies have more fun. Corporations are driven by the bottom line almost exclusively, and therefore it is harder to create and nurture relationships, which make doing business much more pleasurable. In small companies, you can make friends with the people you work with and have much more satisfying interactions, which is important to your quality of life.

10. Small companies are more likely to treat you as a partner. A big company doesn’t see you as an equal, whereas the president of a smaller comapny may see you as a partner and resource for future inventions, and treat you like they care if you’ll want to do business with them in the future.

Obviously, all these points are not true for all companies, big or small, but for the independent inventor, it is usually going to be much easier to deal with a smaller company. Of course, if the company is too small, that’s no good either. They need to be large enough to have the resources to develop, market and finance your product. It’s always important to remember that a license is a long-term relationship, and there are things equally important to financial considerations to take into account, things that will affect your quality of life and long-term satisfaction with your licensee.