How inventRight’s licensing coaching helped Chi move from venturing to pitching Aerobroom to companies

“I have been an independent product developer for the past 15 years and have never heard of Stephen Key or inventRight until I browsed through YouTube videos about the National Hardware Show.

When I stumbled upon Stephen Key’s videos about 3 years ago, I was intrigued by how passionate Stephen was in the area of licensing, an area that I didn’t know much about.

Once I developed a prototype of my product Aerobroom (originally Typhoon broom until I found out that it was trademarked), I wanted to rent a booth at the NHS 2021 to attract retail buyers, distributors, or customers that would provide feedback about my invention or validate it as a product.

My original plan was to sell the device myself, but since I started watching videos about licensing prior to the tradeshow, I was open to licensing the design as well. Luckily, Trish from All Star Marketing found me, and ASM would eventually provide a licensing contract to me to manufacture and sell the product.

During the contract negotiation period, I enrolled in the inventRight program to seek the help of Stephen and Paul to guide me through this process. They talked about minimum guarantee, common industry royalty, and different licensing clauses which helped to clear the fog during my negotiation process.

Because of Stephen and Paul, I felt at ease and was not blindsided by certain requirements in the contract.

After ASM performed a few product tests, they concluded that my product was too expensive and decided to drop it. That was very disappointing to me since I have invested almost an entire year in this process.

I called Stephen again because, by this time, my provisional patent application is about to expire, and I wasn’t sure what to do. Stephen told me to absolutely apply for a patent, and he referred me to a patent attorney that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

This was the best advice for me because this patent application makes my product so much valuable. Trish from ASM introduced me to a very good manufacturer that I am currently using to produce my products for the purpose of venturing on my own.

I told Stephen about this new experience, and he referred me to a company that can connect me to QVC. Sure enough, I am currently in talks to have my product sold on QVC this year.

I really appreciate Stephen for what he’s done for me and hope that others can benefit from the wisdom that only an experienced person like Stephen can provide.”