Do you believe in Angels? ...at the next Inventors meeting 9/25/13

  Once upon a time there were Angels everywhere, ready to fund inventor projects and share their knowledge and resources to make all of the inventors famous and wealthy…
OK, that was just a fairy tale and although there were some opportunities to find a willing benefactor to fund a project, it has never been easy.  In the current economy it has gotten even harder.  Angel investors are where VC investors were a few years ago, only wanting to fund growth, not innovation.  And Angels want a deeper cut of the action making it seem more like a deal with the Devil! 
But take heart, crowdfunding will make it all work out and hundreds of people will each give you a few bucks to develop and market your invention… or is that also a fairy tale too?  The answer may well depend on your approach and action.  Crowdfunding is not just a set-n-forget process.  It takes time, intelligence, skill and the determination required to engage in a full time job. 
I believe in crowdfunding and have invited Crowdfunding expert Kendall Almerico, CEO of ClickStartMe to speak at our next meeting.  ClickStartMe is a crowdfunding site that provides individuals, organizations and businesses with an easy-to-use website to raise funds for almost any purpose. Kendall is also the founder of Crowd It Forward, a charitable crowdfunding website that performs "Random Acts of Crowdfunding" through a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt foundation. Kendall was quoted in the New York Daily News and interviewed on the nationally-syndicated Jim Bohannon Show about crowdfunding. He is a Board Certified attorney with the highest ethical rating and an accomplished sports agent, a published humor-book author and a serial entrepreneur.  Please join me in welcoming him to our next Tampa Bay Inventors Meeting on September 25th from 7-9 pm.  Meanwhile you can learn more about him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/kendall.almerico or on Twitter at @KendallAlmerico.

Put your best pitch forward, this week at TBIC

It is great to be an inventor but… so what, why should I care?  So you invented something, big deal…who needs it? 

These are the obstacles if front of every inventor, the wall that divides a great idea from seeing the light of day.  Your one chance to get over that wall is the “pitch”, how you describe your invention so that others will want to have it.  What do you say to remove the barriers to the sale or agreement?  How do you approach potential customers and make them customers?   We have had guests tell us how they pitch and this week at TBIC, our guest will tell you how to pitch. 

We are joined this week by Lou Caputo, President of Caputo Creative.  Lou has been a pitch man for HSN and you may have seen him recently selling Origami Shelves overnight.   He worked with Kevin Harrington to help teach new inventors how to pitch and he is sharing that knowledge with our council this Wednesday night.  Learn what to say, and what not to say when presenting your invention.  Learn how to act, think and feel when the opportunity presents itself to promote your product.  These are likely to be the most important lessons you can learn if you want to achieve success.

Also… we will have a short introduction to an event where you can test your pitching skills.  Dawn Maree Stanley will visit with us (early, so don’t be late!) to tell us about “Sum Of A Pitch” invention pitching contest on September 27^th in St Petersburg.  A variety of notables will be judging the event and elements will be recorded for a potential TV show! (Try to look nice!)

Finally, you will get to test your pitching chomps at our TBIC 30^th anniversary event on October 1^st!  If you haven’t registered yet, please do so right now!  www.meetup.com/TBIC-us/events/137074852

This will be a busy meeting so make plans to attend this Wednesday 9-11 from 7-9 pm!