The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast

The Edboard Invention –Cody Candler – Ep87

The Edboard Invention –Cody Candler – Ep87 Cory is an engineer from CU Boulder Colorado. He invented the Edboard, which a magnetic circuit-building kit made for kids. He has a Kickstarter campaign in progress as of the time of this recording to fund the first units. The invention is like a big breadboard that is magnetic so young kids can learn electronics. We discuss the process of how Cody and his team created it. One of the things that helped him was the accelerator program at his school, Catalyze CU. Cody’s number one tip: Be honest with yourself where your weaknesses are. Cody wasn’t ready for pitching at competitions and had to be told to do so.   Contact: Kickstarter campaign www.edboardtechnologies.com The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com. Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp.  

Advice from an Experienced Entrepreneur – Cory Lee– Ep86

Advice from an Experienced Entrepreneur – Cory Lee– Ep86 Cory is an entrepreneur, business builder, and leadership developer who is passionate about helping entrepreneurs navigate business growth without sacrificing their faith, family, and fitness. He and his wife have built and sold multiple businesses in the healthcare and fitness industries. We cover a lot of topics about entrepreneurship in general. For example, do you need experience in an area to start a business in it? Or just a passion for it? Another important topic is commitment. If you want to start a business, you first need to have that commitment. Cory gives a lot of great advice for inventors and entrepreneurs and his number one tip is to invest in yourself. Contact info: https://www.coryleeleadership.com/engineering   The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com.

The Origami Bottle Invention– Petar Zaharinov – Ep85

The Origami Bottle Invention– Petar Zaharinov – Ep85  This week I interviewed Petar Zaharinov, an inventor & product designer. He is an architect by education but truly an inventor and innovator by heart. He has been a product designer for the last 10 years.  Patar is an expert at finding hidden functionalities in design. He sketches first, then make some simple paper prototypes and finally uses software like Grasshopper to create the final designs. We talk about how this software is good for folding designs which is what Patar specializes in.   His latest project, which is an active campaign on kickstarter, is an Origami bottle. It is a folding water bottle, made from a single injection mold. What makes his bottle different than existing folding water bottles is that it is very stable in the non-folded state.   Check out the links at the end, you will really appreciate how well his designs work and are thought out.   Petar’s Number one tip: Follow your intuition when solving a problem    Contact:  https://difold.tech/  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/difold/origami-bottle 

The Voyager Beach Chair Invention– Steven Wilcox– Ep 84

The Voyager Beach Chair Invention– Steven Wilcox– Ep 84  Steven is the Founder and CEO of PARKIT, a brand whose mission focuses on adventure and outdoor enjoyment. PARKIT's first product, the Voyager, raised more than $400,000 dollars on Kickstarter.  Steven’s goal was to create a high-end beach chair. He was tired of the cheap beach chairs with limited functionality.  He sketched out his ideas on paper and found a product development company, Klugonics.  Their process is very similar to mine, they took his ideas, put them in CAD and then made a prototype. Once he had the first prototype, he learned a lot and made adjustments to get to the final product.  In addition to the technical challenges he faced, we also discussed how he financed the project and best practices for funding.  Steven’s number one tip: believe in yourself more than anything  Contact info:  #EnjoyTheExploration www.parkitmovement.com  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/voyager-the-chair-to-change-outdoor-enjoyment#/  The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com  Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp 

Portable USB Charger from Recycled Materials– Tom Meades– Ep83

Portable USB Charger from Recycled Materials– Tom Meades– Ep83  Tom Meades, Designer and Co-Founder of Gomi, is from Brighton, UK. Tom and his team started Gomi in 2018, with a vision for a future where waste materials are non-existent. Tom's background is in Design & Craft, and combines industrial manufacturing processes with handcraft techniques.    Tom and his team have created a portable USB charger where the plastic case is entirely from recycled materials. Currently, they are using compression molding and it is a very hands-on process. The material is typically old grocery bags. This makes the material have a marble pattern. Every case is unique due to the random nature of these bags.  They are running a Kickstarter campaign now for the cases.  Tom’s number one tip is: Do what you love.   Contact info:  hi@gomi.design https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gomi-eco-tech/gomi-portable-chargers-that-clean-the-planet 

Polish Entrepreneur and Investor in Africa – Marek Zmysłowski – Ep82

Polish Entrepreneur and Investor in Africa – Marek Zmysłowski – Ep82 Marek is from Poland and started his career as an entrepreneur in Africa. He co-founded Jumia Travel – Africa’s Biggest Hotel Booking Portal listed on NYSE as part of Jumia Group and HotelOnline.co – a Travel Technology Company. After this he started his own travel company and got int some trouble with competitors when they made false claims to Interpol. He wrote a book all about this crazy experience. Check it out: Chasingblackunicorns.com After he got through that mess, he started working with a Swedish company making solar powered roofs for homes. These are not just solar panels, but the actual roof itself is one big solar panel. That company is sunroof.se. These roofs can power the entire home, completely removing one’s need to rely on the grid for power. Number one tip: Marek’s biggest problem is lack of technical knowledge. Even if you have dreams of becoming entrepreneur, finish your studies. Work as engineer for some time, it will give you an amazing advantage; he went in entrepreneurship too fast Contact info: Twitter: @marekchinedu Instagram: @marekchinedu   The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp

Classicbot Toys – Philip Lee– Ep81

Classicbot Toys – Philip Lee– Ep81  Philip Lee is a self-taught toy designer from Hong Kong. He was an experienced advertising creative who always wanted to make his own toy. So, in December 2016 Philip started his own company Playsometoys, and debuted his first toy Classicbot Classic.  The Classicbot looks like the old Macintosh computer from the 80’s, but with arms, legs and a face. His latest project is the iBoy which looks like the original iPod but also with arms, legs and so on.   These toys do not function as a computer or music player but that was not his goal. He wanted to create a fun toy that looked like classic Apple products.    The iBoy has some more functionality than the Classicbot Classic. The arms and legs are magnetic, and it has a chrome finish on the back. The parts are made by injection molding in ABS plastic.  Philip did a lot of the design work himself using Cinema 4D. Then his factory would take his files and refine them for final production.  Philip’s top tips:  For people who work on getting out their first thing:   When you create something, it needs to be something that you feel attached to. It’s a long process, you have to stick with it for a long time for it to be successful. Your passion will resonate with other people. Promotion: social media is a must-have for anyone who wants to start their own brand Running Facebook ads is a good idea Doing simple PR with influencers in the niche              Contact info:  https://www.facebook.com/classicbot/  https://www.instagram.com/classicbot_toy/  https://twitter.com/Classicbot_toy  email: info@playsometoys.com  https://classicbot.com/  The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com  Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp 

The Audio Injector Invention – Matt Flax – Ep80

The Audio Injector Invention – Matt Flax – Ep80  Matt is an entrepreneur running his own company, FlatMax Studios.   He has recently invented an Audio Injector product and is raising money on kickstarter.  We discussed the technology of soundcards.  Matt’s invention isolated the desired sound from the noise of the computer by use of magnetic fields, instead of using electrical signals (electrons).  Matt’s number one tip: If you have an invention, don’t let it sit on the shelf too long. Just get it out there.  Contact info:  http://www.audioinjector.net/  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flatmax/audio-injector-isolated-dac-and-adc 

Makeway, The Marble Wall Game – Elyasaf Shweka – Ep79

Makeway, The Marble Wall Game – Elyasaf Shweka – Ep79  Elyasaf is an Industrial Designer and a self-taught Carpenter. He lives in Jerusalem, Israel and has his own small wood work shop. He is the creator the amazing Makeway marble wall game.   His family ran a construction company and Elyasaf worked there as a project manager. However, his passion was in design and creation.  He started working with wood and creating YouTube videos about how to create different products from wood. He even created a wood cajone (a type of drum).  He tried to create a business around the wood working passion. He was creating various projects but his products were not selling.  So next he started the Makeway game. It started with his own fascination with clock works, gears, and things moving in interesting ways.  After 2 years of full-time effort, using his own designs and 2 Prusa printers, he completed the full game. (you really need to go to his kickstarter campaign and watch the video to fully appreciate how cool it is).  Next he launched his still-running (as of April 2020) Kickstarter campaign. We talk about all the steps he took to launch a campaign that is already super successful (over $1 million raised).  I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and learned a few new things as well    Number one tip:  Value good design, bad design is very obvious    Contact:  Email: shwekwek@gmail.com  Kickstarter campaign: https://kicks.to/try1/Mvpkz7V   The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com  Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp   

Don’t Wait too Long to Apply for your Patent– Devin Miller – Ep78

Don’t Wait too Long to Apply for your Patent– Devin Miller – Ep78   Devin is a patent attorney and the founder of Miller IP Law that focuses on startups and small businesses. He found a gap in the startup/small business area for a need in intellectual property (IP). When you work with Devin, he generally has 2 scenario’s his customer is in: Scenario 1: have an invention before you get to investors Scenario 2: more of a lifestyle product; branding is more important than patent Some other areas we discuss: What the Patent office looks at: Novelty - Obviousness - take 2 or more things and combine in an obvious way   Software patents Example: 2+2=4 If all you did was putting this on a computer, it is not patentable What to do If you get a rejection PTAB and what they do   Devin’s number one tip: Decide how does your IP fit into the business? Maybe it is better to focus on branding over IP. Sometimes you need a patent and sometimes you don’t   Contact info (He offers free 30 minute strategy session) Phone: 801-82-8446 Email : devin@millerIPL.com millerIPL.com     The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp