Inventor Assistance

A successful inventor with broad business and engineering experience offering group workshops, presentations and instruction for inventors. As an independent product developer/inventor, I have taken a product from the initial concept to selling it to consumers. In doing so I gained experience in financial analysis for invention evaluation. I have also done patent searches, written patent drafts, built prototypes, CAD designs,  obtained bids and outsourced manufacturing, packaging design, set up logistics, sold to retail chains, set up an online Amazon store, created advertising content including online and other media, set up and managed a pay-per-click campaign and search-engine-optimization.

I have been involved and gained experience in new product development from the beginning to the end. 

I am offering inventors assistance to inventor groups in workshops, presentations and instructional sessions in the area of new product development.

The path to developing a new product is littered with surprises. These surprises manifest themselves as unanticipated problems and expenses. If the inventor is unprepared to handle these problems it can cause the invention development project to fail. This often happens after the inventors have made a sizeable investment in their invention. In some cases, had the inventor known about the potential obstacles they may not have risked the investment or may have been better prepared to handle the problems and expenses. It is often the case, that the unanticipated problems and expenses were only unanticipated  because the inventor did not know about them.

The group presentations are offered to give  inventor help in understanding the entire process from the initial idea to selling the new product.  The presentation is broad and shallow. It covers the steps but does not go into much depth. The goal is to give the inventor an introduction to what is involved, where the costs come in, and some potential pitfalls.  This is to give the inventor the understanding and knowledge of how all the pieces fit together and to prepare them to make future decisions such as whether to make and sell the product themselves or to license.

Next would come the instructional sessions. In these sessions the pieces of the new product development project that the inventor might or could do themselves are covered. Such things as the basics of patent searching, estimating the commercial value of the idea, making a prototype, or packaging design. The goal of the instructional sessions is offer the inventors assistance in understanding what is involved in these areas of the project.  This is so they can make an informed decision on whether to do this part of the invention development themselves or to hire someone. If they decide to hire out an area of the project being better informed will help them to determine the true value of the work and better able to estimate a fair price. In addition, this knowledge will help to select the better candidate for the job.

Finally, workshops apply the more in depth knowledge of an instructional session. A group of inventors in the range from 5-10 people would tackle a certain area of the project say evaluating the commercial value of their invention.  The invention evaluation would either be done using spreadsheet software or by hand. Other areas could also be workshops depending on the resources available.

I am currently available for group presentations, instruction and workshops. I prefer groups because of the synergistic effects of approaching a topic from the perspective of different products.

Fee are negotiable and are heavily influenced by venue and travel requirements.

My contact information is as follows:

Email: amenel@bexter7.com

Ph: 510-610-7882

Fx: 510-263-6064