Podcasts about enventys

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we spoke with Ron Hauser, Co-founder of LulleVibes and creator of the LulleVibes Travel Towel. As a first-time creator, Ron had a lot to learn about the crowdfunding industry but did his due diligence while designing the LulleVibes Travel Towel before launching on Kickstarter. Ron's company is built on sustainability, and 246 backers helped bring his project to life. Listen to learn how Ron and his team overcame their unfamiliarity with Kickstarter and launched their campaign in Europe. Short on time? Here's what we talked about. A simple day at the beach sparked an idea that developed into LulleVibes. Ron jumped into entrepreneurship after acquiring the skills and mindset needed for it from his years of experience in accounting and consulting.  The design for the towel was inspired by plenty of research and wanting to be different from generic beach towels. The LulleVibes Travel Towel's sustainability is rooted in how much waste Ron noticed as he traveled.  Ron emphasizes the importance of researching the industry before your campaign. Links LulleVibe's Website LulleVibe's Kickstarter LulleVibe's Instagram LulleVibe's Facebook LulleVibe's Twitter LulleVibe's LinkedIn LulleVibe's Youtube LulleVibe's Tik Tok Note: As an Amazon Associate, Art of the Kickstart may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by ProductHype, the leading crowdfunding newsletter. Publishing weekly, ProductHype showcases five of the best, most innovative and exciting crowdfunding projects in an absurdly unique way. Their audience of more than 300,000 crowdfunding fans regularly back featured products and eagerly awaits the newsletter to learn about the new ideas that creators are bringing to market. Learn more about having your project featured in ProductHype, or join the HypeSquad today! Transcript View this episode's transcript Roy Morejon: Welcome entrepreneurs and startups to Art of the Kickstart, the show that every entrepreneur needs to listen to before you launch. I'm your host, Roy Morejon president and founder of Enventys Partners, the world's only turnkey product launch company. From product development and engineering to omnichannel marketing, we've helped our clients launch thousands of inventions and earned more than $1 billion in sales over the past 20 years. Each week, I interview a startup success story, an inspirational entrepreneur, or a business expert in order to help you take your launch to the next level. This show would not be possible without our main sponsor, ProductHype, the weekly newsletter that goes out and shows you the best inventions that just launched. Make sure to check out producthype.co and join the Hype squad. Now let's get on with the show. Roy Morejon: Welcome to another edition of Art of the Kickstart. Thank you crowd for joining again. Today I'm super excited because I am speaking with a young entrepreneur and by young, I mean, he's younger than me. So all entrepreneurs younger than me are young. Mr. Ron Hauser has joined us today. He is the co-founder and creator of the LulleVibes travel towel. And if you haven't heard about it, likely you may have missed a boat on Kickstarter, but it's going to be over on Indiegogo. Roy Morejon: This is a Berlin-based startup that is truly looking to disrupt the industry with their innovative travel towels, which focus on sustainability, which we can all believe in, as well as the creativity and performance side of towels. So this towel is really unique. I'm super stoked to have been able to work on this campaign at Enventys. It's made from 17 different recycled plastic bottles all packed into one, and it's just an amazing towel, truly re-imagined the eco-friendly towel for all of your daily adventures, whether it be the beach or everywhere else you go. So Mr. Ron Hauser,

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we spoke with Jackson and Gavin Mann, the father-son duo behind SOS Save Our Species. At 15 years old, Jackson turned a trip to Costa Rica into a wildlife card game with the intent to donate 100% of the future profits from his game to charity. Jackson and Gavin built a game meant to make a big, positive change ​by prototyping​ multiple gameplays and working with the World Wildlife Fund. Listen to learn how Jackson and Gavin turned tens of thousands of game trials into SOS Save our Species. Short on time? Here's what we talked about. Normal activities like family vacations, card games and books inspired this new game and conservation effort. Where might you find inspiration? Partnering with the World Wildlife Fund helped Jackson and Gavin fact-check the game. How do you balance technical accuracy with accessibility? The SOS Save our Species team juggled scientific accuracy with ease of understanding for the public. Making a game is harder than one might think. Jackson and Gavin discuss the many rounds of gameplay they used to gather feedback for the game. The team ran into issues when attempting to advertise their game on Facebook. Facebook bots flagged posts related to wildlife conservation as political and blocked them from being posted. Learn what they did to solve the problem. Links SOS Save Our Species Kickstarter Campaign SOS Save Our Species Website World Wildlife Fund's Website Note: As an Amazon Associate, Art of the Kickstart may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by ProductHype, the leading crowdfunding newsletter. Publishing weekly, ProductHype showcases five of the best, most innovative and exciting crowdfunding projects in an absurdly unique way. Their audience of more than 300,000 crowdfunding fans regularly back featured products and eagerly awaits the newsletter to learn about the new ideas that creators are bringing to market. Learn more about having your project featured in ProductHype, or join the HypeSquad today! Transcript View this episode's transcript Roy Morejon: Welcome, entrepreneurs and startups, to Art of the Kickstart, the show that every entrepreneur needs to listen to before you launch. I'm your host, Roy Morejon, president and founder of Enventys Partners, the world's only turnkey product launch company. From product development and engineering to omnichannel marketing, we've helped our clients launch thousands of inventions and earn more than $1 billion in sales over the past 20 years. Each week I interview a startup success story, an inspirational entrepreneur or a business expert in order to help you take your launch to the next level. This show would not be possible without our main sponsor, ProductHype, the weekly newsletter that goes out and shows you the best inventions that just launched. Make sure to check out producthype.co and join the HypeSquad. Now let's get on with the show. Roy Morejon: Welcome to another edition of Art of the Kickstart. Today is a special show because we are speaking with Jackson, a 15 year old inventor of a campaign that actually just launched a few moments ago called Save Our Species. We are also joined by Jackson's dad, Gavin, who's been helping him with the launch of SOS. Jackson, Gavin, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. Gavin Mann: Fantastic. Jackson Mann: Great to be here, yeah. Gavin Mann: Great to be here. Yeah, fantastic to be live. Wonderful effort by all the amazing team at Enventys. We're thrilled. Roy Morejon: Yeah. I know it's always a big day on launch day, and I'm super excited to be able to have you guys on the show on launch day and kind of talk through all the jitters that you have. But before we get into all that, let's just dive into the project, Jackson, and let's talk a little bit about where this all started and what inspired you to ...

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we interviewed Ryan Wolfe and Aaron Katen, the Co-Founders of NOSU. NOSU is a dual-purpose stainless steel tumbler with built-in cutlery. It's the perfect solution for an active lifestyle. NOSU stands for No Single-Use and can work with hot or cold beverages. With NOSU, everywhere you go, you have a knife, fork, and spoon built right into your water bottle. Learn how Wolfe and Katen spun an everyday simple idea into a convenient and sustainable product. Topics Discussed and Key Crowdfunding Takeaways How one of Wolfe's personal experiences sparked the idea for NOSU The legwork that the NOSU team did before launching their successful campaign The process of prototyping that led to the final design of NOSU How they found the right agency that would be the perfect fit for their campaign Finding a manufacturer to bring their physical product to life Links NOSU Kickstarter Campaign Loonshots by Griffin Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace Originals by Adam Grant Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Transcript View this episode's transcript Roy Morejon: Welcome entrepreneurs and startups to Art of the Kickstart, the podcast that every entrepreneur needs to listen to before you launch. I'm your host, Roy Morejon, president and founder of Enventys partners. The world's only turnkey product launch company that has helped over 2000 innovations successfully raise over $400 million in capital since 2010. Each week, I interview a crowdfunding success story, an inspirational entrepreneur, or a business expert, in order to help you take your startup to the next level. This show would not be possible without our main sponsor, Product Hype, a 300,000 member crowdfunding media site, and newsletter, that's generated millions of dollars in sales for over a thousand top tier projects since 2017. Check out ProductHype.co to subscribe to the weekly newsletter. Now let's get on with the show. Roy Morejon: Welcome to another edition of Art of the Kickstart. Today, I'm super stoked to be speaking with the co-founders NOSU, Mr. Ryan Wolfe and Aaron Katen. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today on Art of the Kickstart. Ryan Wolfe: Thanks for having us, Roy! Aaron Katen: Yeah, it's awesome to be here. Roy Morejon: Well, it's awesome of the product that you guys have created. So really excited to kind of dive in, you guys have an active Kickstarter campaign. Less than three weeks left on it. You've got over 500 backers, and over 45 grand raised on it. So congratulations on that, as well as getting fully funded on day one, which is always critical. But really want to dive in and talk about the product, as if our audience had never heard of it before. Ryan Wolfe: Yeah, man! This product is unique, and it solved a problem that we kind of faced every day. It's basically a vacuum sealed tumbler, with built-in stainless steel cutlery. So everywhere you go, you got a knife, fork, and spoon built right into your water bottle, everywhere you go. Roy Morejon: You know, I was amazed with some of the stats that you guys had in the video, and it's just compounding in terms of how much we humans waste. 40 billion single use plastic utensils are thrown out every year. And then add on to the fact that 22 billion plastic water bottles on top of that every year. So tens of millions of plastic pieces are just being tossed aside, and hopefully recycled at the end of the day, but it's still finding its way to landfills. So I definitely get the problem that you guys are trying to solve there, but how did you guys decide on tackling it in this part...

Welcome to another episode of Marvins World,this is a podcast, where Marvin meets unique and interesting people. The point of the podcast is to provide an entertaining show with invigorating discussions. Our guest today is Roy Morejon, and Roy is the founder of Command Partners and co-founder of Enventys. Roy built Command Partners to the largest crowdfunding agency in the world. They have helped launch over 750 crowdfunding campaigns, raised over $160 million in pre-sales for products and had 17 clients on Shark Tank. To find out more about Roy, you can go on his companies website at https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbFNyM2pQVXk4dmlubEtXUjFCQTFsYjd1ZllLQXxBQ3Jtc0tsamhqZUxfWWF6RWw5R2hXUXRMSjg2ZEZtQ2ozRE9KZVJSX0lMOFlKMU52QldlM0F2MFdBcXJjNU9ZMEZDSU42eE5uWjcyT0p4akJ4SWFQaEhfZG1XcHM2MnlVUDl3MmlkYmR2WVF1ejExcndkRG9qQQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fenventyspartners.com%2F (https://enventyspartners.com/) or at​https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbGFmaGVQQlk0cWNiVGxkU2lPcnM3bmI1V3BlZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsSVJNQmNSNUZyMWd2bG5WOWlPM2R0SGtIcEplcHVNcktsNHFGYU1CNHNkejhKVk40TVJvb2oxa1djb2NJckFzZ0x5Z3FNdjhfaU5vbzFiSE9vX2Jtemdxams0RkRPUkczTXpBbzNtUk52XzM4aXY1Yw&q=https%3A%2F%2Froymorejon.com%2F (https://roymorejon.com/). Also, you can listen to him on his podcast at https://artofthekickstart.com/. To find out more about the Marvins world podcast you can reach us on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/3gvhosj and Apple podcasts at https://apple.co/2YSGAD6. Find me on social media at riceandchips1 on Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram , Twitter and Youtube.

Louis Foreman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Enventys, an integrated product design and engineering firm. He is also the Founder of Edison Nation. Louis graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. His interest in starting businesses and developing innovative products began while a sophomore with his first company founded in his fraternity room. Over the past 34 years, Louis has created 10 successful start-ups and has been directly responsible for the creation of over 20 others. A prolific inventor, he is the inventor of 10 registered US Patents and his firm is responsible for the development and filing of well over 700 more. Louis Foreman is a recipient of numerous awards for entrepreneurial achievement. He received the Instructor Achievement Award for his teaching at Central Piedmont Community College and was recognized by the National Museum of Education for his Distinguished Contributions to Education. He has given testimony in support of independent inventors to both the House and the Senate. He served on advisory boards and committees of the SBA, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, and the United States Patent Office to name a few. He was a creator of the Emmy Award-winning show Everyday Edisons and is currently the publisher of Inventors Digest Magazine and author of the best-selling book, The Independent Inventor's Handbook. In this episode… Coming up with an idea for a new product is easy; most people can do that. But, following through with that idea—and executing it to create a commercially viable product—is not easy.  Bringing a product to market is a difficult undertaking and requires a well-orchestrated process. Above all, you have to ensure everything is working together seamlessly: that means the design and engineering, marketing, branding, and web development. As an inventor, Louis Foreman believes that you should also ask yourself 5 core questions before getting started on your idea. Why? His answer is simple: to ensure your success and reduce your chance of failure. In this episode of the Innovations and Breakthroughs Podcast, Louis Foreman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Enventys, talks to Rich Goldstein about the intersection between innovation and entrepreneurship. Louis discusses the 5 questions every inventor needs to ask before developing their product, the role of intellectual property in the growth of a product-based business, and why many inventors fail with their inventions.

Louis Foreman is the author of “The Independent Inventor's Handbook”, CEO of Enventys www.enventys.com; executive producer of Everyday Edisons www.everydayedisons.com; and co-founder of Edison Nation www.edisonnation.com

Louis Foreman is founder and Chief Executive of Edison Nation (www.EdisonNation.com), an online community that creates opportunities for people who have great ideas. He is also CEO of Enventys (www.enventys.com), an integrated product design and engineering firm. Louis has created 9 successful start-ups and has been directly responsible for the creation of over 20 others. A prolific inventor, he is the inventor of 10 registered US Patents, and his firm is responsible for the development and filing of well over 500 more.

Today's guest set out to create a product to solve a problem in his bathroom sink, wound up with two utility patents, numerous copyrights and trademarks and went through lots of ups and downs along the way. This week we are having him on the podcast to recount the seller side of a two-part seller/buyer series on the build and sell process. It's always inspiring to hear stories of entrepreneurs who built something based on a need they uncovered. Nicholas Galekovic, the co-founder of Beard King had always been creative, going way back to the dawn of design in technology. He was active in the early days of the digital space, doing one-offs for brands and starting a small digital marketing agency. He had gotten used to seeing brands succeed and fail when he realized that it might be time to start building his own brand equity. Episode Highlights: Nicholas walks us through the process of jumping off the couch and creating the product. How the timing was a factor in the success of Beard King. The patent processes and how they played into the growth and eventual sale of Beard King. What Nicholas did that was outside of the box to make his product and brand different. How long it took him to pivot from US-based to overseas production. Why learning every day is part of the success equation. Nicholas's Shark Tank experience. Amazon's patent neutralization program and how it helps protect product builders. Nicholas shares his two must-dos for preparing the business for the exit. What his next adventure is and what he can now do with all that invaluable learning. Transcription: Mark: For those of you that are listening in your cars and not taking a look at the video that we have up on YouTube of this podcast. You can't see that Joe is actually supporting just the faintest hint of a beard. So Joe is this intentional or is it just the stress of Quiet Light getting to you. Joe: Oh my dear this is embarrassing compared to the guest on the podcast this week. His name is Nicholas Galekovic, there you go. I wasn't going to try saying that name. I know you aren't. But let's just call him the Beard King because that's his company's name or former company name. He developed a product to solve a problem, wound up with two utility patents, a couple of design patents, lots of copyrights, trademarks, and went through lots and lots of ups and downs as we talked about the podcast. He's essentially run up with his doctorate in product development, branding, marketing, things of that nature before he exited a couple of months ago. So this week we're going to have Nicholas on the podcast. He is the person who sold his business. So people get to hear about the process and what it takes. And then the following week we're going to have Raj the person who bought his business. So we're going to do a two-part series on who sold their business and who bought that business so people are going to see it on back to back. Mark: That's fantastic I love this series when we can do the buyer and the seller. Even if we can get just one of the parties on it's always super useful. I know I talked to somebody recently about the podcast and they told me that these are some of their favorite episodes. So we are going to try and get some more sellers on. I know I have a seller coming on here soon in the coming weeks of somebody who is going to tell their story as well. I'm excited about this because I love these products that come out of this practicality of I've experienced this, I had a problem, I solved it, I turned it into a business and not only just a little business but something pretty significant. Joe: Yeah, he's been on the Shark Tank, got an offer, got a deal, ended up turning it down rightfully so; intelligently so. He talks about utility patents, the Amazon program, and grants to patents, and talks about some of the great things he did right in terms of social media and video. He actually had Snoop Dogg who was tweeting about his product and brand which is pretty cool. And then he talks about some of the mistakes he made. You know things that if he looks back he does want to live, gone, I wish, I should have, I could have, I would have. But he points out directly what he thinks he did wrong and what he could do differently and just dropping some advice for folks that are following in his footsteps. Mark: That's fantastic. Let's go and listen to him. Joe: Hey, folks Joe Valley here from Quiet Light Brokerage and today I've got somebody that just sold their business. Well, I shouldn't say just because it was in late spring of this year which is 2019. It's August 29th, 2019, my wife and I's 21st wedding anniversary. Thank you very much. Nicholas: Congrats. Joe: Thank you, Nick or Nicholas. Folks we have Nicholas Galekovic on the line and I had to ask him how to pronounce his name. I've known him for almost a year now and I've always screwed it up so I wanted to get it right. Nicholas, how are you? Nicholas: Good, Joe. How are you doing man? Thank you so much and don't worry my whole life I've heard the mispronunciation of my last name. So I'm quite used to that. I bring that into the branding side but I'm definitely excited to be here. Thanks for having me today so I can share my experience with you guys. Joe: We were going tell it you folks he's down in Florida and there's a hurricane coming in and pardon the lightning and whatnot but instead, he had a light just fall but we're not going to cut that out because you still are great. You sound great and it's life in the podcast where we're not professional; well I guess we, I don't know. Nicholas: Yeah we are. Joe: I don't know if we're professional podcasters. Anyway, I was going to say that is one fine looking beard. You should be in the beard business. Nicholas: Absolutely and I think by accident, by default I became in that business. Joe: You did, didn't you? So why don't we tell the folks because you and I have that little inside joke there; why don't we tell them who you are and your background? I'm going to let you do it. Tell them a little bit of background about yourself. Nicholas: Sure, absolutely. So you know I've always been in kind of the creative field and I really started to hone in on my expertise about eight years ago and I was doing more graphic design for other clients and really started to hone in what technology I like to use. So obviously Photoshop being the main one, Adobe Illustrator, I really got used to the Adobe Creative Suite. So I would just charge clients to do a flyer or one-off. I mean back then the digital space wasn't as big. I mean it has always been big but this is back in like the MySpace thing. So I even started off designing MySpace pages before I created havoc. Joe: You're aging yourself right now. Nicholas: I mean you know but I'm going way back. So then I'll just fast forward a little bit here and I started to hone in on my skill set of design. So then from there at a company called Kovick and Kovick was what I call a brand tailor. We really focus on helping companies with their brand identity, their strategy, website design, logo design, you name it. So I had a small marketing agency where I really started to I would say have success in business in that regard. But I always had a designer mentality we'll call it which later on down the story you'll see how that soon fulfilled me. And then I started to see a lot of these companies fail as far as whether they're small big or whatever and I would put my heart and soul into these companies I was designing. But then I realized I'm building all this brand equity but for other people in a sense. I'm still an entrepreneur but I'm doing it for the sake of their brands; which is fine. So then Beard King came about when I was just simply solving a problem that I had on the day to day basis which was trimming my facial hair. You mentioned the glorious beard hair. So it wasn't always this long and glorious but usually when it's a beard like let's say you're a size or small-sized beard you make some mess all over this thing. Basically, I just came out with this product called a beard bib and we'll dive may be more into the story in detail here but that's kind of how Beard King came about for four and a half years ago. And then I met you Joe last here. And then here we are right now. Joe: You and I and I think Brad. Right? Nicholas: Yes. Joe: We had lunch or breakfast may be down in Miami before the Blue Ribbon Mastermind; shout out to the Blue Ribbon Mastermind members. Nicholas: Shout out to Ezra; yes. Joe: A heck of a group of entrepreneurs there for sure. Nicholas: Absolutely. Joe: So we've been through the process of doing the valuation of getting your business ready for sale of getting it under contract and going through and selling it. We're actually later in the month going to have Raj on the podcast as well. Raj is the gentleman that bought the Beard King. So we're going to go full circle with the buyer and seller and hear Raj's story about how it's been going since he purchased it. And you and Raj have got along great. You're good friends now. You might be doing some business together in the future outside of the Beard King which is always great to hear. Well let's talk about the process because you have something or had something; Raj has it now that was relatively unique. Nicholas: Yeah. Joe: 100 plus businesses in the last seven years and less than a handful have had a utility patent on them. Let's hear a bit of that story you were making a mess in the bathroom sink and created something called the beard bib. How did you develop the product? Did you create one? A prototype from an apron at home or what did you do? What was the first epiphany [inaudible 00:08:25.0] and where do you go from there? Nicholas: Of course, so I mean I used to use a T-shirt. So you could picture you're at home, you're about to trim, it's either A. use the sink. Let that be the catcher. Get the hair all over. Try to clean it up. We all know that's super tedious. And being in 20 19 and then when I invented it that's four or five years ago so still though we're in this age where there's always a solution, right? There's always a product that's been invented. Everything's been invented and now you're just creating a better mousetrap. But in this case, I usually just use my T-shirt but then I wouldn't get like the little hairs all inside the T-shirt. And I'm like there has to be something like; I don't even know if Amazon was huge back then as far as how big it is now. But I think I just did some basic Google searching, Amazon searching, and I didn't really find anything. So I'm like you know what I'm just going to draw something together for myself. And I remember being home one night, I had a few glasses of wine, just chilling and I'm like you know what let me get up and start grabbing whatever household materials I could find. So I grabbed; it wasn't necessarily like an apron but it was almost like one of those hair cutting capes. I didn't know how to sew so I just; what's a man going to do? We're going to use staples. So I was literally finding whatever I can. And it was hideous but it actually kind of worked. So if you can imagine a product like a bib attaches around your neck and suction cups to the mirror as simple as that. Some of the simplest solutions are ingenious. And in fact, as the story goes along a lot of our customers are like I wish I would have thought of that like one of those things. And actually part of the story is funny because I remember thinking to myself well there's nothing out there I'm just going to use this for myself. I know how to brand a business but I don't know how to operate and scale a business. So I kind of let it sit for almost six months. And I remember coming across the Norelco or Panasonic clippers that tried to solve the same issue but with like a vacuum seal. What I found was; what my goal was the death of this idea. Let me just go and buy this product. And I actually tested it out but it didn't really work. It may be caught 20% of the hairs. But not only that sometimes people try to solve simple problems with these extravagant solutions which is unnecessary. So after that, I'm like you know what let me try this again. So I actually ended up manufacturing. I live in Miami so there are tons of manufacturers around here but of course with that comes greater costs. So I just tried a few. And long and behold I'm realizing in my mind, okay I have a company or I have a product called a beard bib but that's very limiting and so the branding mind starts to kick in. So I started thinking bigger scale. And I tripped up on during my naming process. Since I have all these processes and I saw ease of how to create brands it was easy for me to kind of just bootstrap that portion of it which sometimes a lot of people pay a lot of money for that. And I came up with Beard King thinking bigger picture; beard oils, brushes, washes, all these things. So I kind of accidentally got into the beard market. I did just wake up one day and said I'm going to get into the beard niche. And it just so happens that it also started to trend big time many years ago. But the trend was going up and I think that was from some other companies kind of breaking through. And yeah that's kind of the initial process of how I came up with the invention, prototyped it, tested it before even scaling it. Joe: You got off the couch and you actually did it. People have great ideas all the time but don't act on it don't know what to do with it. I'm going to just put this out there and then maybe we'll edit it out but seriously this is like an alcohol-infused invention. You sit and grab whatever you could in the house and started stapling things together and as you said it was hideous but it worked. And after several prototypes and a lot of money you wound up with was it; remind me, was it two utility patents and two design patents? Nicholas: Yes. So we can talk about the intellectual property side of things and again mind you as an entrepreneur you have to be willing to learn. So I didn't know anything about intellectual property maybe besides a little bit of trademarking but the pat world is completely different. So, of course, I did the initial patent process. The name of not a utility, not design but what's the one right before that? Joe: I don't know if there is one before that I thought it was designing utility. Somebody is going to have to call us and help us out. Nicholas: Right. Well, basically it just gets your spot in line for a year. So it allows you… Joe: Provisional patent. Nicholas: There you go. Thank you, Joe. You see your lawyer; I know, but essentially the provisional patent is your spot in line so you can kind of tweak and work on it but you can't go so far outside the scope. I mean it was five years ago that I did it so I forgot the name of it. And they're also not strong; they're really just your place in line. But if you have something that you really know you'd go straight for the utility patent. And what I found was I mean it took almost three years to finally get the patents that were issued. So you have to remember during this process; yes it's great for exit, it was amazing and we'll talk about that of how it all kind of played into the whole Amazon patent neutralization program. But going back in time the product went viral. And of course there's going to be knock offs and whether you have a provisional patent, a patent pending in this cut-throat industry, in this fast-paced e-commerce business, people don't care. They're going to still sell it. So this is kind of gets into the pat IP side of where when you do have a viral product that never existed before we basically created a new market; this beard bib market that never existed before. So it was flattering on one hand but obviously very aggravating on the other. We're losing money left and right with the knockoffs. Joe: Yeah. And that was for a period of time that was just too darn long. Looking back do you think that you could have done anything differently with the provisional patent and patent pending? There's just simply no real protection there. Nicholas: Yeah I mean the only thing I could say that you could do different which I never really like to say I'd like to do all that over again it's more like what did I learn from this. Joe: Yeah exactly. Nicholas: Would be perhaps accelerating the patent process. I think we chose the route because of cost. Usually, that's always when you have a company you don't have the cash to infuse into intellectual property. So I think we did the slower one, not the accelerated patent. Also as you're waiting for the provisional patent it gives you kind of time to pick and choose what elements that you want to claim or drop. Also, it's extremely hard to get a patent because some of these patent examiners they're tough. I mean it's not like they know you personally but it's like every little thing and then prior arts. So that's where you get into the field of you might think you invented something new but when they start stacking you against prior art; for example bibs in general, that was one of the prior art cited against our patent. It's just so difficult. So we have to kind of adjust to what parts of the application we want to claim. Joe: I was curious about that because anybody that I know that's filed a patent has said that they're going to say no and then you've got to pivot and go back at them with this other unique feature to your patent. How many times did you have to go back to that examiner until they eventually said granted; you're right, here's your patent? Nicholas: I mean looking through the docket history; by the way I mean first of all get a great lawyer. I'm not a lawyer so if you try to do things yourself you don't really know the ins and outs but I believe we went through at least three rounds per se and we still by the time we were getting ready to sell the business we'll have to talk about that with Raj when you interview him but there was a design patent still pending. So it took about like I said three or four iterations for the first utility and then just the next utility fell right after that a month later. So I think we got the first one in September and the next one in November and then you know. Joe: It was falling quickly. You were getting them quickly as you were preparing the business to sell. Nicholas: Correct. Joe: But from beginning to end from the time you decided to file for the patent until you got that last one in November of 2018 how many months or years was that process for you? Nicholas: It was almost about like I said three and a half years because again provisional patent was in the first year but that kind of only hold your spot in place. And then when you file for utility that time clock starts all over again. So that was one of the takeaways I was saying that I might have changed is just either going straight to utility and or accelerating. That's how you can probably get it faster. But in hindsight also being able to enforce your patent you're going to need cash to also enforce. It's one thing to have a patent. That's great. That's amazing. You know I actually literally; you could see on the back my wall right here that's a little patent but it doesn't mean anything if it was sitting on a wall. You've got to have cash to enforce. So that was the second part of this strategy was being able to have cash to take down these people. And we can probably segway into the topic of Amazon's pattern neutralization program. Joe: Yeah, I do want to talk about that. You know what I'd like to hear first because though? [inaudible 00:17:44.5] your story and the success that you found at the very end and actually helped Raj your buyer and propelled the business. I mean it was taking off by the time he bought it which is just great timing for him. But you had some great successes along the way with the Beard King and the bib. Can you just highlight a couple of those points? What did you do that was a bit outside the box that your standard e-commerce entrepreneur or Amazon FBA entrepreneur may not have done? Nicholas: Yeah. I think the first thing would be the branding and the marketing. You know with the named Beard King I started to brainstorm on okay how can we treat our customers different? I think even when we first met I would say King Joe or Lord Joe or Queen Sarah or whatever. Joe: [inaudible 00:18:31.7] is what your email add. Nicholas: At a royal day was the signature. So I really thought to every touchpoint, every detail; whether it's a phone call, email, flyer, or whatever it might be; packaging, everything was based around royal theme. And that's important to stand out nowadays especially with Amazon businesses just kind of being one out products and you kind of forget about the brand you just want function but to have that little extra piece; the second piece of that would be the video content. So I did a lot of the storyboarding, scripting, and writing of these pieces. I think the first one we hired one of my buddies to shoot it. And that first video ended up being picked up by a huge Facebook account like 9Gag or Unilab. And then once those big Facebook accounts picked it up it just goes viral. So I think within the first six to eight months of business that first video we did went viral. If anything I was a little self-conscious about it because people were making fun of it. But good or bad PR doesn't matter; it's great. Joe: I think if I recall in the package we put together we shared some of those links and am I remembering it right that Snoop Dogg tweeted out; as it Snoop Dogg or somebody else? Nicholas: Oh yeah. I think the meme was; so that was the meme portion of it but I think it went along the lines like you know a pissed off woman invented this. Joe: Yes, that's what it is. Nicholas: And so basically Snoop Dogg, Usher, even besides those accounts the big accounts; Facebook was huge on video and you can go viral a lot easier than you can today. I mean I think we're in the 40, 50 million views collectively across social media platforms which of course infused fire into the sales and this was right before picture going Shark Tank. So I imagine we had okay sales and then one month I think we had $80,000 in sales. I'm like how am I going to fulfill these orders? Joe: Yeah. Nicholas: That's a good problem to have but… Joe: So moving along with a story there and you just mentioned Shark Tank but we'll get to that in a minute as well. You were manufacturing in the United States which was more expensive. How long did it take you to pivot and move your manufacturing overseas? Nicholas: I think… Joe: I think you did right? Nicholas: Yeah, we did. I mean I think another pain point of any business or entrepreneur is when you're kind of forced to grow. Some people just want to grow but then you grow too fast and you can't handle it. But for me these types of pivots; when you're almost forced to do something it's kind of like working out and you've got to go to that next level of weight to kind of grow. So for me, yes we were manufacturing in Miami for an insane amount of cost per unit. And I did that also on purpose which I suggest people do because you don't want to invest too much with too many units and then they don't sell. So I was willing to see proof of concept. That was my first thing. Joe: Especially for you, because you invented the niche, a lot of folks are finding a niche that's already selling well and they're just doing that branding of their own product. They know there's; they need to get eyeballs. They know the units are going to sell if I can get eyeballs. You know it only had to get eyeballs but you had to educate the people what the product was. Nicholas: Right. Joe: So the video was fantastic. That's a very visual product. Nicholas: Absolutely. Joe: So at one point you did pivot and you moved manufacturing overseas. Did you figure that out yourself? Did you hire a company? Nicholas: Yeah. You know actually that guy originally; so I'm kind of like Bob the Builder, right? I'll piece everything together and when we were manufacturing Miami I was sourcing the materials from China. You just buy; my natural gut feeling like let me source material there, ship it here, and then make it here. So the problem with that obviously is the fact that it's super expensive to be shipping a bunch of material. So the same guy that I ended up ordering a lot of the material from we established a nice rapport and relationship he ended up kind of telling me on the side hey look I'm going to go up my own manufacture let me know if you need anything. So essentially not only did I create a niche but for this individual, he ended up starting his own manufacturing facility almost really based off of our product. And we were like his number one customer. So we had a long relationship. He was basically the only guy I used for the entire time and I think to this day the new owner is actually still using him. Joe: [inaudible 00:22:53.9] loyal; that's the story. Good relationships like that are great. I'm going to throw out there to some of the folks listening there are companies out there that can help with the manufacturing overseas. I just did a podcast with Zach Leonard from Gembah and he's explaining what they do and it's the exact type of company that you probably needed at the time. It would've made your life a lot easier. They do all the importing and shipping, the [inaudible 00:23:22.1] industrial designers on the team. I know their company; I think in Gembah is Austin, Enventys is down in Charlotte. They've been around since 2002. They actually did some of the industrial design work for the Miracle Mop and other products like that; a really, really impressive company there as well. They actually; really interesting for proof of concept like your new invention, new category that you created, they will actually do all the industrial design work, do 3D printing, do a video of the product, and then put it up on Kickstarter there's interest. And then if it's a success they'll take the orders but then they'll go manufacturing. So brilliant idea. It's; I don't know, I wish everybody listening that's an entrepreneur now knew about these different companies. Nicholas: Of course, it would make it; I mean that's why I said in the beginning of the podcast you got to be willing to learn something new every day because I didn't have experience in sourcing or manufacturing but I learned. Joe: Yeah. Nicholas: So it's great to have those companies but with that also will come costs. So you do have to have a little money. I'm sure it's not free. Joe: Yeah, they probably don't work for free that's for sure. Nicholas: No, they probably don't. Joe: Let's talk about Shark Tank. You brought it up; you were on Shark Tank. How did you go through the process? What was it like? Was it the biggest joy in your life or very very difficult? Nicholas: I mean it's obviously very stressful in the sense that they leave it open-ended. Like literally; and I think when I heard one of the other guests on the show talk about how they never really guaranteed anything and that's super true. Actually, the whole process took a year. So from the year that you audition until; and it could be different in any case, but the year you audition or the beginning of it then you go through several funnels of interviews, face to face Skype calls or Xoom calls like this and then eventually you fly out to LA and you pitch in front of the producers and it's still not guaranteed. And then they'll call next. And if not you fly back. And then if they choose you, you stay another day or two and then you just wait for your spot to be filmed and then you're still not guaranteed to be airing. Now the airing of the show is kind of like the pivot for the company. And not only that if you do film and you get a deal that's huge because it adds a lot of value to that shark to then want to close the deal with you. So by the time that we auditioned, filmed, and then I think there was like a six-month gap in between due diligence and finally getting that air date which they only give it to you like a week or two in advance. So imagine that, it's like you're always on your toes like are we going to get it, are we're going to air, are we not; but they just say do your business as if Shark Tank doesn't exist. Joe: That's hard to manage your inventory level if you're going to get that extra 10,000 orders next week. Nicholas: Of course and you can imagine I like to call the Shark Tank effect this kind of trickle effect because let's say you do air. The amazing thing about it is as we all know nobody really watches TV live anymore, or at least I don't. So you get that initial spike from viewers that are viewing it live. Of course, you can advertise that; promote it, but then you're on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, you're on all these things that you're kind of in the Shark Tank alumni books forever. So you still get spikes. I mean in fact we still re-air all the time; airports, I think it goes from ABC to CNBC. So that content is syndicated across all the platforms and it's great. So just to be on air alone the exposure is worth millions of dollars advertising. So it was a great experience. I definitely will go for it again if I can. And it was great. It was an amazing experience. Joe: I bet they would love to have you back with a second invention someday. That would be really; a good story for them too I could just see it really, really working. So we're going to fast forward a little bit. I just want to say one thing about Shark Tank I had another guest on that said that after you pitch a lot of entrepreneurs come pitch the same day they take them and they put them all in separate hotel. You have to go for an hour of council and then you go to separate hotels. Do you have to do the same thing? Nicholas: Yeah, that was absolutely true and I think I know the conversation that you were having with [inaudible 00:27:51.9]. Joe: So you had to go through an hour of counseling as well just to make… Nicholas: I was like alright can we go now? I'm good. But yeah it just depends. I mean it's very stressful you need to almost debrief because I mean I remember the call time was like let's say 6:00 a.m. but we didn't film until almost 12:00. And I was starving I'm like I literally pulled the producer and I'm like I got to eat I'm about to pass out. I imagine it's like the biggest pitch in your life. And that's another crazy thing to think about to kind of show anybody that's scared to pitch, public speak, to do anything like that. That was the first time I've ever even pitched a business. So it's like I never pitched a business in front of Joe or Bob or anybody. And then here I am in front of Mark Cuban, Lori Grenier, Chris Sacca, like all these major names that I'm like just doing my thing. And that's another cool tidbit of the show that I could probably add that you feel like you might be nervous and all that but not really because it's like having a conversation. They're intimidating, you're in there for like an hour, and then they condense it down to eight minutes. So it seems intense but it's TV guys. So just keep that in mind. Joe: Lots of editing. So the success on Shark Tank led to lots of knock offs. But you were working on the patent the entire time. And eventually, you were offered two utility patents, design patents, things of that nature. What did you do? We talked about this just as they started coming out and you mentioned the patent, the Amazon patent neutralization program, for those that are not familiar with it could you talk about that a little bit? Nicholas: Yes sure. You know this is Amazon's way of showing you know what guys we got to do something about this we know it's an issue and Amazon is such a huge platform. And I think that's why everyday people are kind of like well I want to do this too. And so sometimes dealing with some of these knock offs directly and strategically you realize they're just everyday people that didn't even know they were knocking you off. And then, of course, you have people that know that they're knocking you off and then they try to be slick and go around you whatever it might be. But the Amazon patent neutralization program is great for patent holders, inventors and it says look if you're selling this product you have a utility patent we're not going to be a lawyer but they hire a third-party law firm that instead of going through litigation which we could even touch on that quickly as I went through a litigation with a knock off that tried to sue me and here I am blowing cash which of course affects the bottom line; cash that I'll never see again. But circling back the program actually is instead of going through a long drawn out expensive process of patent litigation it brings in a third party and it says seller if you have a patent give us a list; I think it's 50 Asense at a time, we're going to reach out to all them. They have two weeks to respond. If they don't respond well then guess what? Automatically you get removed; the sellers that are knocking off. So it's kind of like they just said alright we bow out without saying anything. And then what we found was a small percentage of people opt-in. The opt-in process costs I think $4,000. I don't know if it's changed as of today. I mean it's only been a couple of months. So you opt-in with 4k, the other seller has now another two weeks to put in 4k and then you go through the process. I don't know what happens after that because I at this point in the business ended up selling it. And of course, this gave great hope for the new buyer because he's like wow we just got rid of 50 plus Asense, only two people opted in. I think this is great. So it just allows the inventor; because there's really nothing you could do for patents right now before that. You could do trademark claims and copyright claims but that portion of it what we found building our SOP's is that it's really outsourced. So it's crazy you could do the same trademark claim eight times and it doesn't get caught by the first seven agents so the eighth agent might pick it up and remove it but it's a game of Whack a Mole and man is it frustrating. Joe: Yeah. We'll talk to Raj about it. Nicholas: Absolutely. Joe: About the neutralization program and what it looks like competition-wise on Amazon now that they've got that program in there. Let's talk a little bit about preparing your business for sale and you've gone through this, you've got the benefit of hindsight. You did a lot of things right. Clearly, these folks have heard about Snoop Dogg tweeting about your product line, being on Shark Tank, and you got an offer but you ended up turning it down eventually. Just for clarification purposes that is the deal, right? You got the offer but you ended up not going with it. Nicholas: Yeah on Shark Tank we ended up doing a deal with Laurie. That's a funny piece; definitely watch as far as the way I close that deal. She was about to be [inaudible 00:32:38.0] I'm like why don't you make me an offer and she's like wait, what? Okay. So we got the offer but it was a rich 40% for 100k. Thank God I didn't take that deal. Looking back now I'm going to exit, imagine if I only owned 60% percent of the company. Joe: Yeah. So you did get an offer but you eventually turned it down because your business was exploding and growing. Nicholas: Financially it made zero sense but I wouldn't change it for anything. Joe: So then you're preparing the business for sale. We had a chance to meet again down in Miami at the Blue Ribbon Mastermind. So you've got that benefit of hindsight. To the audience that's listening now, that is running a business and may eventually exit or they never thought they could exit. What advice do you have for them in terms of the one or two things that they must do to prepare the business for sale and get them out? Nicholas: Well, first things first. I think having the benefit of hindsight is start a business to exit, right? Have an intent to exit because I don't think most people think about that. Even when I started Beard King I didn't think oh I wonder how this is going to end. I just thought it's going to always go up. And that's fine if you want to leave on a legacy or pass it to your kids or whatever it might be. But regardless I think you should always have an exit plan in the back of your mind and start there and then reverse engineer the business to always have a target to move towards. The second part of what I would suggest and probably would have changed for myself the beginning setting yourself up is the books. When you and I met back in January of 2019 you're like Nick look you got to get your books together. I mean obviously, if you're trying to sell an asset people need to see the numbers and the SDE based off of your last twelve trailing months isn't so strong. But you know what Joe I like how you said wait a little bit. Wait six months or and go get the valuation in the multiple that you want. So I think having your books in place, having the SOPs ready to be literally turn key is really the benefit to getting ready to exit your business. But if you do that from the get-go and you reconcile that every month it's much easier to do so literally in our case sell a business in two weeks. Joe: Yeah. The most difficult thing as a business adviser like myself, broker advisor is when someone comes to us and wants a certain value for their business and they ask is it worth this. And I can't tell because they don't have good clean financials. And by good clean financials, I don't mean that you don't run your personal stuff through the business. Most entrepreneurs do that. In fact a couple of things; I want to give a shout out first to Tyler Jefcoat at Seller Accuntant. So Tyler was great in this relationship; introduced us, good guy, you never hired him but he just gave you some advice and or did you hire him? I don't think you actually hired him to do the books, right? Nicholas: We ended up hiring him to do an audit sweep. Joe: There you go. Okay, so Tyler shout out to Tyler Jefcoat at Seller Accountant. The other thing is that there are generally four pillars; it's that risk, growth, transferability, and documentation. So if you do number one what Nick said was go into this with a plan to exit. Figure out what that exit process is like; figure out what the valuation process is like. Do you know audience what the definition of seller's discretionary earnings is? If you don't go to one of last three or four podcasts; Mark and I did an entire episode on what's a legitimate add back and it goes through that entire process. One of the benefits that you have now is that you've been there and you've done that. You've got that patent back there on your wall. You've sold a business. You've got the branding experience. You've got the manufacturing experience, the importing experience, the marketing experience; you've got it all. Now you just have to find that next great product and do it all again. And I see this every time; the first one you take some money off the table and the next one it's five to ten times bigger. And I'm hoping that's going to be the case for you. What is your next adventure? Do you have it sort of turning around back in your head or you're doing it or are you just taking some well-deserved time off from it? Nicholas: I'm sure like most entrepreneurs you could retire on a beach and then figure out what am I going to do with all this sand, right? You get bored. Joe: Yeah. Nicholas: You know taking a couple of weeks off to just reflect; your personal development I think is key to just kind of figure out your next move. And I think for me it's reflecting and learning from the mistakes and then creating an even stronger foundation even if it's from a corporate level, operational level, legal level; all these things that I learned on the fly. If you can set them up in the beginning with the intent to exit you're going to have a better shot at what you said; a higher multiple. I mean look selling Beard King was amazing but I think for me besides the liquid side of the asset I basically just purchased an MBA. I got a legal degree. Joe: At best you got your doctorate man; you learned so, so much. Nicholas: So much and I think it's that key takeaway of learning all those things hands-on versus just your standard education or self-taught on YouTube; it's invaluable. It's absolutely invaluable. Joe: I'm calling you Doc Galekovic from now on. Nicholas: I like it. Joe: [inaudible 00:37:54.2] because that's what you did for your own business. That's great. Nicholas: Absolutely. Joe: So listen we're running out of time, how do people find you if they want to reach out and talk to you about your story; maybe you can help them with their business or whatever the case is. It's always good to connect. How does somebody find you and reach out? Nicholas: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. You can reach out on Instagram. My handle is just my name so it's Nicholas Galekovic. I know that spelling is going to be tough but G-A-L-E-K-O-V-I-C, or you could shoot me an email directly. It's actually galekovic.nicholas@gmail.com. Joe: And we will put that in the show notes as well. Perfect. This has been fantastic. You're a good man. I appreciate you choosing Quiet Light Brokerage. It's been a pleasure working with you. I look forward to hearing about and helping you with your next adventure. Be sure to stay in touch [inaudible 00:38:43.1]. Links and Resources: Nicholas' Company Nicholas' Instagram Email Nicholas

Today I interviewed product development & innovation expert Louis foreman, CEO of Enventys companies that has created over 2,000 products and 19 of those products have been featured on @sharktankabc.  If you own a business or maybe you’re interested in starting a business, tune into the podcast to hear the stories of entrepreneurs who have accomplished admirable success in their own right. I have interviewed business leaders who have collectively created billions of dollars in market value throughout North Carolina & beyond. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to get practical Facebook advertising tips you could use for your marketing efforts? Do you have a marketing strategy for your ecommerce business yet? What are you waiting for? Here to share his knowledge on this vital subject is Danny Tarr. Danny is the Director of Paid Media at Enventys Partners. He has been with Enventys serving in several roles over the last three years. Danny is passionate about digital advertising, photography and web analytics. In our conversation, Danny talks about his work as the Director of Paid Media, why Facebook ads are so important for startups, how the Facebook Ads process works for his team, tips for getting the best ROI on Facebook Ad spending, and much more. Don’t miss a minute of this engaging episode featuring Danny! Why are Facebook Ads so important? Are you using Facebook Ads? Do you find the prospect of using Facebook Ads daunting? Danny Tarr is here to help shed light on this often intimidating subject. There are 3.2 billion reasons why more and more startup entrepreneurs are turning their attention to Facebook Ads; that number represents the monthly average of active users on Facebook’s platform. Don’t you want to get your product in front of as many people as possible? It seems like Facebook is a worthwhile investment for startups to utilize both before and during a crowdfunded campaign. How to get the most out of Facebook Ad spending. As a business leader, you want to use your time, assets and resources in the smartest way possible. Let’s face it; you can’t use your funds haphazardly, you’ve got to be deliberate and calculating. What is the best way to get the most out of your Facebook Ad spending? According to Danny Tarr, the best way to maximize your Facebook Ad spending is to focus on creating custom audiences. This allows you to create look-a-like audiences and take advantage of assets you’ve already built like email lists. Danny also encourages project managers and marketers to constantly test and optimize their efforts while remaining flexible. To hear Danny expand on his helpful insights and tips, make sure to catch this episode! Key Takeaways [1:05] Danny Tarr joins the podcast to talk about his work with Facebook Ads for Enventys Partners. [2:45] Why are Facebook Ads so important for startups? [4:30] What does the Facebook Ads process look like for Danny and his team? [7:00] How do Facebook Ads come into play during a crowdfunded campaign? [8:30] Danny’s tip for getting the best ROI on Facebook Ad spending. [9:30] Danny enters the Launch Round; rapid-fire questions. Links Steve Jobs A Whole New Mind Connect With Danny Tarr Danny on LinkedIn Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by BackerKit. BackerKit makes software that crowdfunding project creators use to survey backers, organize data, raise additional funds with add-ons and manage orders for fulfillment, saving creators hundreds of hours. To learn more and get started, click here. Connect With the Art Of The Kickstart team info@artofthekickstart.com

Roy Morejon ~ Founder of Command Partners and Co-Founder of Enventys ~ Current Series ~ 100 Interviews with 100 Location-Independent Entrepreneurs that have over $1,000,000 in Annual Revenue   Crowdfunding in today's world is a buzzword and a new industry that has literally helped thousands of entrepreneurs take their idea from a sketch on a napkin to millions of dollars in sales. Our guest today is the founder of one of the leading agencies helping these entrepreneurs make that dream a reality. His name is Roy Morejon, and Roy is the founder of Command Partners and co-founder of Enventys. Roy built Command Partners to the largest crowdfunding agency in the world. They have helped launch over 750 crowdfunding campaigns, raised over $160 million in pre-sales for products and had 17 clients on Shark Tank. If you are into crowdfunding or want to launch your new idea to the world, this episode is a must listen.   03:35: Charlotte, North Carolina 05:02: Who is Roy Morejon? 13:49: Managing Business on the Road with a Family Life 19:50: Building the World's Largest Crowdfunding Marketing Agency 22:32: Some of the Products Enventys Has Brought to Market 25:17: The Culture of Enventys 28:05: Keeping Creativity in the Business Environment 30:55: Products That Roy's Company Got On Sharktank 34:07: The Future of Crowdfunding 37:17: 5-Figure vs. 6-Figure vs. 7-Figure Mindsets 40:37: Building a Personal Brand After Years of Success 43:05: Tips to Scale to the Next Level   Honorable Mentions:   Soundbender on Shark Tank https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwqsCfvcrmc&t=13s   Baby Bathwater https://babybathwater.com/ Contact Info:   https://enventyspartners.com/ https://roymorejon.com/

Crowdfunding agency Enventys Partners (formerly Command Partners) has helped launch over 450 new businesses via crowdfunding campaigns. They’ve helped raise over $150M and last year generated over $10M in revenue. Roy Morejon explains how they did it. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:28] How Roy got started with Command Partners [09:58] How they started getting more projects and building their customer base [14:57] Building a team around each project [16:46] Setting client expectations [25:30] How Command Partners merged with Enventys [30:32] How they put systems and processes in place to gain more consistent results [32:16] How they brought in the key people to step up their business [35:37] Strategies with regards to content marketing [38:02] Strategies to get speaking opportunities Key Takeaways: There is an opportunity for any company out there to run a crowdfunding campaign, whether it be reward-based with a physical product or potentially equity-based. The unfortunate side of running a Kickstarter campaign is basically you see the worst of anybody. It’s hard to point out what’s wrong with their product or why things are not working, but it’s a conversation that you have to have. There’s a lot of pre-launch work that needs to be done in order to have success in a business. It’s expensive to bring a product to market. It takes about 2 to 20 years of product development before a product gets manufactured, QA tested or UL approved. But many people have this misconception that it can just be made very quickly and cheaply in China. Action Steps: Be transparent with everything that goes on internally and externally for your company. Focus on the categories that you’re an expert in. Keep educating yourself and understand how crowdfunding works and how these types of campaigns are unique and challenging on their own. Roy said: “You don’t bring an opinion to a data fight.” “There’s no better time to start something than today.” More from Roy Morejon: Enventys Partners Roy’s Website Art of the Kickstart Resources mentioned in this episode: AnswerThePublic Ubersuggest Quora Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

What does it take to disrupt the performance sunglasses market? Is there an innovative and revolutionary way to present performance sunglasses to consumers? What if there was a pair of sunglasses designed for lifelong use? On this episode, you’ll hear from founder and CEO of Revant Optics, Jason Bolt. In his conversation with Roy, Jason explains how Revant got started selling replacement sunglasses lenses, why they chose to base their business on the direct to consumer model, what they’ve learned from their successful crowdfunding campaign, and much more! You don’t want to miss a minute of this engaging episode featuring Jason and Revant Optics! Discovering the need for a sustainable solution. Have you ever destroyed a pair of sunglasses? Whether it’s from scratching them on a tree branch, dropping them from a rock climb, or just accidentally sitting on them, we’ve all been there. Chances are, your next step was to toss the ruined pair and go shopping for new sunglasses. What if there was a way to repair and reuse that same damaged pair of performance sunglasses over and over again, eliminating waste? That’s where Jason Bolt and his team at Revant Optics come in. They’ve committed themselves to disrupting the performance sunglasses market with their new product, Revant Sunglasses. These sunglasses may be the last pair you ever buy. Purpose-built right here in the USA out of the best materials available, Revant Eyewear is made for the long run and backed for a lifetime. To hear more about Revant Sunglasses, make sure to listen to this informative episode! Learning from successful Kickstarter campaigns. You’ve heard it said that the best predictor of future events is past behavior, right? So wouldn’t it make sense for business leaders to study and learn from past results that they want to replicate? Surprisingly, many leaders and innovators fail to adhere to this simple truth! On this episode, you’ll hear from Jason Bolt as he explains how Revant Optics took the opportunity to learn from successful Kickstarter campaigns and understand their process in the hopes of duplicating or exceeding their results! While it wasn’t always easy, Jason looks back at this decision to study, interview, and learn from innovators and entrepreneurs who went before him as one of the key aspects that led to Revant Optics’ positive and fruitful Kickstarter campaign. Learn more from Jason’s story by listening to this episode, you don’t want to miss it! Finding the right marketing partner to help you tell your product’s story. What is it that causes some crowdfunded campaigns to succeed when others fail? While there are a lot of takes on this important question, a huge part of crowdfunding success comes down to telling your story the right way. On this episode, Jason Bolt shares why he and his team decided to connect with Enventys Partners to help with marketing their product. For Jason, it all came down to the strategy that the Enventys team rolled out and the great connection they were able to develop from day one. To hear Jason expand on his crowdfunding campaign and how they were able to tell the story of their unique performance sunglasses, make sure to listen to this episode! Tips for future crowdfunded campaigns.   It’s been said that preparation is half the battle and for the most part, this truth has resonated with many in the crowdfunding community. On this episode, Jason Bold reveals his tips for leaders and brands who hope to feature their product on Kickstarter. The biggest tip that Jason has for future crowdfunded campaigns is to focus on prep work as much as possible. This also includes honing in on specific messaging that communicates your products unique advantage. Jason is convinced that without thorough prep work and an articulated message, most crowdfunded campaigns are doomed to failure. Learn more from Jason's seasoned insights and lessons by listening to this fascinating episode! Key Takeaways

Kids are naturally inventive, but how do you determine the feasibility of an idea to see if it’s worth investing your time and resources to bring it to market? In this episode, we speak with Louis Foreman, the founder of Edison Nation and Enventys shares 5 questions to answer before investing resources in an invention idea.   Listen and Enjoy!   TM

Today, we welcome Betsy Hauser Idilbi, Co-Founder of Tech Talent South to the show. Betsy is rare success in the startup world. She's a female founder, successful raised money for her startup, and lives in Charlotte. Listening to the podcast you quickly pick up on why.  She's smart, energetic, quick on her feet, and persistent. She's grown Tech Talent South from 1 city to 11 and recruited some excellent talent to her team.  She's kept Tech Talent South in growth mode as industry competitors have shut down and stands poised to grow the company for years into the future. Betsy graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism but knew from an early time she wanted to start something.  Her time at Little Idea - which merged with Louis Foreman's Enventys - was instrumental as she learned not many people had the technical school of coding.  This lead her off on an adventure that would see her launch Tech Talent South and grow it into the success it is today and will become in the future. Listen in to today's podcast to learn more about Besty and her journey including: How did she find a network of mentors and how important was it for her to have found a female mentor as well (Tana Green of Blue Bloodhound has been a huge help to Betsy)? Why was Atlanta their first location and why was Asheville their second city? The reason they expanded to 4 cities in 8 months? The role hiring the right people has played and how Betsy has tackled hiring so far, including Suzanne Speece and Darryl Jones. How does Betsy view equity as compensation for startups? What lessons has Betsy learned that she wishes she could go back and tell her ‘early founder self’? What was their strategy early on as she watched her competitors develop? Next week we dive further into our interview with Betsy and explore why now was the right time for her to raise money and more about the success that is Tech Talent South.

The Perky Collar was invented by David Frankel an inventor and entrepreneur who came up with a way stop you from experiencing the dreaded droopy and saggy collar look plus this great idea also helps extend the life of your favorite dress shirts. David has taken his product from napkin to store shelf learned many lessons along the way and he is not stopping there. www.perkyllc.com The Inventors Launchpad – Roadmap to Success Series is presented by Inventors Launchpad in beautiful Tampa Bay, FL and hosted by Carmine Denisco. Carmine is an accomplished Author, Entrepreneur, Inventor and Co-founder/Managing Partner of Inventors Launchpad. Along with his business partner Rick Valderrama has changed the face of the invention industry and look forward to helping inventors from all over the world move their ideas forward. For more information please visit www.inventorslaunchpad.com

Louis Foreman is founder and Chief Executive of Enventys (www.enventys.com), an integrated product design and engineering firm. He is also CEO of Edison Nation (www.EdisonNation.com), and Edison Nation Medical (www.EdisonNationMedical.com ). Louis graduated from The University of Illinois with a Bachelors of Science degree in Economics. His interest in starting businesses and developing innovative products began while a sophomore with his first company founded in his fraternity room. Over the past 20 years Louis has created 9 successful start-ups and has been directly responsible for the creation of over 20 others. A prolific inventor, he is the inventor of 10 registered US Patents, and his firm is responsible for the development and filing of well over 600 more. The recipient of numerous awards for entrepreneurial achievement, his passion for small business extends beyond his own companies. Louis is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at Queens University. He received the Instructor Achievement Award for his teaching at Central Piedmont Community College, and was recognized by the National Museum of Education for his Distinguished Contributions to Education. Louis is an adjunct professor and the Entrepreneur in Residence at The McColl School of Business, and was the 2013 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Johnson & Wales University. He is a frequent lecturer and radio / TV guest on the topics of small business creation and innovation, and is frequently invited by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and national trade associations to be a featured speaker on the topic of innovation. The Inventors Launchpad – Roadmap to Success Series is presented by Inventors Launchpad in beautiful Tampa Bay, FL and hosted by Carmine Denisco. Carmine is an accomplished Author, Entrepreneur, Inventor and Co-founder/Managing Partner of Inventors Launchpad. Along with his business partner Rick Valderrama has changed the face of the invention industry and look forward to helping inventors from all over the world move their ideas forward. For more information please visit www.inventorslaunchpad.com

Learn how to invent products and bring them to market in this interview with Louis Foreman. Louis is founder and Chief Executive of Enventys, an integrated product design and engineering firm. He is also CEO of Edison Nation, and Edison Nation Medical.

Moderator Louis Foreman, CEO of Enventys, is joined by panelists Tim Bickmore, associate professor of computer and information sciences from Northeastern University, Russ Guerin, executive vice president of business development & planning at Carolinas HealthCare System, Jason Harwell, director of health informatics at Biz Technology Solutions, and Denise Hatzidakis, chief technology officer at Premier health care alliance.