According to research published this spring, the global market for legal marijuana products is predicted to reach $66 billion by the end of 2025. Wow. That is wild. Savvy entrepreneurs and inventors have taken notice. As a person who loves new products and has a...
How Leading Baby Products Company The Betesh Group Finds and Develops Its Next Hits
When a company is open to working with independent inventors to find, develop, and commercialize its new products, what does that really look like in practice? To find out, I interviewed David Contract, marketing team lead at the Betesh Group. The Betesh Group is a...
What Inventors Need to Know About the Pet Industry
Jonathan Zelinger is the president of Ethical Products, a family-owned company that has been in the pet industry for 65 years. The business was started by Zelinger's late father; Zelinger's son now works for him at the company as well. In a recent phone interview, he...
Behind the Scenes With a Hardware Company Looking For Ideas
Corey Talbot is vice-president of marketing and product development at Hyde Tools, a manufacturer and seller of painting, drywall, and home improvement products that has embraced open innovation. Founded as a cutlery manufacturer in 1875, the company produces more...
Why Midsized Companies Are Your Best Targets for Licensing
Earlier this year at the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Freimuth. For nearly 30 years, Freimuth headed up sales and manufacturing worldwide for Fiskars Brands, the consumer goods company. Before that, he sold product for Ryobi,...
Why the President of OXO Wants to Pay You Royalties for 10 Years
Does open innovation really work? Yes. Just look at OXO. The housewares company founded by Sam Farber in 1990 is thriving, with more than 1,000 products covering different areas of the home. Since Alex Lee succeeded OXO's retiring founder as chief executive a year...