Confessions of a Modern MacGyver

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An Inventor’s Love Affair with Edison Nation

 

By Eric Huber

Editor’s note: We asked independent inventor Eric Huber to write a from-the-gut, honest assessment of what he thought about Edison Nation. Here’s what he had to say:

I’m too old for Legos, Lincoln Logs, wood blocks and Erector sets, but I like building things so that’s what I do – make things for everyday life.

I found I could make almost anything with four basic ingredients: duct tape, foam core, glue and paper mâché. I’ve recently added another: my wife’s sewing machine. It’s kind of a MacGyver thing with me, except I’m not saving the world and there are no novel uses of dental floss and bubble gum.

For years my ideas went from my head to my journal to my workshop to a file cabinet and there they sat, never leaving my home. That is, until the summer of 2009.

Through watching the PBS television series Everyday Edison’s and meeting the co-founder Louis Foreman at a tradeshow, I was introduced to Edison Nation and that changed everything.

Suddenly, I had a “partner” that would do the hard part of developing and finding a home for my babies asleep in their file folders. I immediately began submitting my ideas to EN’s Live Product Searches and quickly found success.

It was a perfect fit. I could focus on what I do best – observe needs in our everyday lives and design simple products to fulfill them – while EN would evaluate my products’ potential and, if worthy, present them to really big companies.

This is every inventor’s dream, to have their ideas (some of which may only be hand-drawn on a piece a paper) professionally pitched to large manufacturers and retailers and developed into a full-fledge products earning royalties.

I’m amazed at the number and variety of companies that partner with EN and their Web-based platform is outstanding.

As an inventor there is nothing more frustrating than submitting to a company and never seeing or hearing anything. With EN you can log on any time and see what stage your idea has reached in the evaluation process.

I carry my iPad everywhere and I have found that when I come up with an idea I can immediately enter it into my EN Idea database where I can access it at any time to continue (or not) developing it.

I joined the EN “Insiders” program, where for the cost of a couple Starbucks Frappuccinos a month I have access to valuable information, a vibrant online community, many submission services and Inventors Digest delivered to my home each month.

The priority handling through the evaluation process and the opportunity to submit my products over and over are also great benefits.

And now I have the opportunity to audition for the Everyday Edison TV show. What next?

What I would change at EN? I would say the ability to not only be an Edison Nation Insider, but to be a MEGA-UBER Insider.

Editor’s note: This article appears in the March 2011 print edition.

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