​​Patently Strategic - Patent Strategy for Startups

Inventor Stories: RISEing with Patents

March 30, 2022 Aurora Patent Consulting | Ashley Sloat, Ph.D. Season 2 Episode 2
​​Patently Strategic - Patent Strategy for Startups
Inventor Stories: RISEing with Patents
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this month’s special episode, we’re sharing a great sit down with three very innovative, up-and-coming inventors – as we also launch the next installment of our RISE award

We are joined today by:
⦿ Keith Phillips, CEO & Founder of realLINGUA
⦿ Theresa Smith, CTO of the Ola Filter Corporation
⦿ Brendan Wang, Founder of CAPNOS

These inventors share their stories and provide invaluable tips and advice, much learned the hard way. Along the way, we explore:
⦿ Challenges in bootstrapping – especially as companies coming up through the pandemic
⦿ The importance of patenting and how the RISE award helped solve critical challenges
⦿ Advice for inventors new to patenting
⦿ The  importance of feedback

** Learn more and apply for the RISE award ** 

The RISE award offers a free provisional U.S. patent application or $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application to a selected applicant.
https://www.aurorapatents.com/rise-up-with-aurora.html

** Learn more about our featured inventors ** 

⦿ Keith Phillips and realLINGUA: https://reallingua.com
⦿ Theresa Smith and the Ola Filter: https://www.olafilter.com
⦿ Brendan Wang and The CAPNOS Zero®: https://mycapnos.com

** Resources **

⦿ Show Notes: https://www.aurorapatents.com/blog/new-podcast-inventor-stories-vol-1

** Follow Aurora Consulting **

⦿ Home: https://www.aurorapatents.com/

⦿ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuroraPatents

⦿ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurora-cg/

⦿ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aurorapatents/

⦿ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aurorapatents/ 

And as always, thanks for listening! 

---
Note: The contents of this podcast do not constitute legal advice.

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Good day and welcome to the Patently Strategic Podcast, where we discuss all things at

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the intersection of business, technology and patents. This podcast is

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a monthly discussion amongst experts in the field of patenting. It is for

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inventors, founders and and IP professionals alike, established or

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aspiring. And in this month's episode, we're changing up the format

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a bit and we'll be sharing a great sitdown with three very innovative upandcoming

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inventors as we also launch the next installment of our Rise

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Award. To set the table for this conversation, we're going to travel

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way back in time to early 2020. It's the height of the pandemic,

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and like everyone else, we're desperately trying to one make sense of all

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of it and to figure out what we could possibly do to help.

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The stock market was tanking and private capital tends to have

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a strongly correlated long tail. A lot of the companies in the space we

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work with are pre revenue, so this sounded like a good place to focus.

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All the VCs we were talking to were saying the same thing. Extend the runway.

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Extend the runway. Well, how exactly do you do that? You focus

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efforts, make cuts, et cetera. But it's impossible to pull

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resources and money out of thin air. Or is it?

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And that's when we got the idea to do Rise. In a time

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of fighting for survival, we knew that many companies would

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risk their IP strategy. But we strongly felt that weathering

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this crisis should not come at the loss of hard fought R amp

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D efforts. So we came up with the Relief for Innovative Startup Endurance,

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or Rise Award to help you selected startups extend their runway

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by helping them freely secure a provisional patent. The response was overwhelming.

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The stories broke our hearts, and the tales of perseverance inspired us.

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So much so that we decided that the original plan for a single

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award wasn't enough under the circumstances and ended up extending

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awards to four recipients in 2020.

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Given how incredibly rewarding the entire experience was, and given the

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problems that still plagued our world even a year later, we decided to bring

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Rise back in 2021. Going forward this year and beyond,

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we intend for this to be an annual fixture. We love helping entrepreneurs.

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It's what gets us out of bed in the morning. However, out of

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a strong desire to look forward beyond this pandemic,

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we're rebranding Rise as the Recognition for Innovative Startup

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Excellence Award. Okay, so back to present day.

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We've been kicking around the idea of incorporating adventure stories into a new occasional

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episode format, so the timing really seems perfect to bring these two

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worlds together. Today we are sitting down and chatting with some of our

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favorite inventors, all past recipients of the Rise Award. Three really

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great companies made up of wonderful humans, all looking to make

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a big difference. Be sure to stick around after the interviews

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for details on how to apply for this year's Rise Award. So without further Ado,

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let's meet our guests. All right. Thanks, everybody, for joining today.

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And so to kind of do this commemorative the first

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Rise of Kind of History podcast. And so

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I'd love for you all to tell a little bit about your company, yourselves and

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your invention and kind of what led you to focus on the problem that you

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did. Certainly, I can start off and maybe we can just popcorn it

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around. Sounds great. All right. So Hi there, everyone.

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My name is Brendan Wong. I first started vaping when

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I was in high school, and I struggled with my addiction for over five years.

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And as a teenager, it was really frustrating to me that there weren't so many

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options available to help address the behavioral addiction component.

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So as a sophomore in College at Michigan State University, I've invented the Captain

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Zero. It's a flavored pressurized air inhaler

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that works like so use as a behavioral

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inhaler. It's just flavored pressurized air.

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And we've already been helping thousands of people across the world quit

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vaping and quit smoking. So it's been a highly rewarding process.

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And currently, I am now finishing my final

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semester here at Michigan State University with a degree in supply chain management.

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That said, I may pass it off to you, Theresa.

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Thanks, Brenda. That's actually a really cool story.

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My name is Theresa Smith. My company is called

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Olafilter. We're a social business, and we

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have headquarters in Guatemala. Our product is called the Olafilter.

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It's a compact and affordable household water filter

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designed for consumers in developing countries. But we're a startup

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about a month away from entering the market.

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About a year and a half ago, we just saw a strong opportunity to do

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something meaningful. So the tap water in Latin America isn't safe

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to drink. And yeah, there's surprisingly few filtration

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options available in storage there, especially at a low enough

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price point to be affordable for the average family. So my

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business partner was working in Guatemala for an MGO,

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donating bucket filters to people who had taps.

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She was chafing against that inefficiency of not using the existing infrastructure

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and struggling to teach and explain the complexity of using that

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bucket filter. For us, the solution was obvious.

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Design a filter for these households, make it in country,

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sell it directly to this huge and overlooked market.

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We realized that we could build a sustainable business Walker and access to

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a product that would make a really positive impact on people's daily lives.

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Awesome. Thanks, Bet. Theresa. It's really lots

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of cool products. I love it. All right, Keith, what's a

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good word. Yeah. Hey, everybody, I'm Keith Phillips,

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founder and CEO of Real Lingua. My background is

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foreign language teaching. I taught French and Spanish for 20

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plus years at the College level, full time

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tenure track, and it was great. I loved it.

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But I heard enough over and over again from my

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students that there was this gap what we're

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learning doesn't seem to be how people actually

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use the language. Native speakers use the language. When I'm

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out there trying to communicate or listen or speak

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to them. And so as

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all entrepreneurs, you kind of get to a point where it's like you're

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both tired of hearing that but also really energized by

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the possibility of doing something about it. And so I reached

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that point back in about 2016 and

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took an early self designed retirement to launch Relinqua.

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And so we're a team now of about six.

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So, yeah, definitely six.

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Essentially, the crux of it

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is that all language tends to be when we're talking about using

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with other humans tends to be conversational,

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especially speaking. Right. So we're

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more than halfway to meeting

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people's needs in that way. With our current product,

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learners can listen to native speaker conversations. They can interact

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with them. They can do activities that help them progress

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in their language learning. The piece that we're really excited about

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that we're still working on but still really excited about is the Conversational

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AI for language learning. Basically, your mom,

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the best language teacher you ever had and your best friend all wrapped

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into one to help you learn that language you want to learn.

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Thanks. I feel like we could help

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a lot of people with the clean water for them

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to grow and then learn lots of languages and

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make healthy choices and all in one package.

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I was just going to ask Keith, I might have told this before when we

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were going through the application process, but what you're working

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on really resonated with me. I'll never forget. I took a couple of years

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of Spanish in high school, and I remember

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the first time that I encountered a native Spanish Speaker after

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taking two years of Spanish and I could not translate

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a single sentence. And that

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was kind of heartbreaking. I could write very fluently.

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I could read exceptionally well. But the first time I had an opportunity

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for a real conversation, it just completely

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fell flat on my face. And so, yeah,

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it's a huge disconnect. Yeah,

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Josh, I know.

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Josh, I can say you are special in many ways, but not in that way.

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Other people. I mean, you're talking like billions of other people

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on the planet. And because no one really needs to

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go to Paris, France, and recite a list of fruit when they

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get off the plane. Right.

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You know what a hotel room is? You know what fruit is? You can buy

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it without even speaking to anyone. But it would be nice when

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the cashier says, hey, how's it going to strike up a little conversation?

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And for them to know, you know, what you're doing, they can tell

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you're American looking at

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different ways they're looking at me. Right.

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But the art

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of knowing what to say and kind of how to say it,

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regardless of accent or regardless of how fast you say it

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there's something, too, that yes. So no, totally resonate to

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get you back to on that. Also, I took four years in

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high school and then two more years in College in Spanish,

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and never by the conversational. And now I'm

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starting a company in Guatemala, and luckily,

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my business partner is fluent, but my Spanish is strictly

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booked. And so I definitely need some help with my conversation.

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So you need to spend some time in a tropical paradise called Guatemala.

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Immersion. Immersion.

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Well, awesome. So I think you all kind of hit on some of the biggest

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challenges, but I guess the challenges that you're all trying

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to the solution that you have for those challenges, but from like a company,

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obviously, you all were kind of springing up during the Covet era.

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Did that present challenges? Were there other challenges that you have as a company

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face or you as an individual in the company? Kind of

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just speak, I guess, to that bigger idea? I'll go

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first this time, Theresa. So as

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far as what our challenges were, honestly, all of it,

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this is a brand new process for us. We started this business a

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year and a half ago, and we had to learn everything the planning, the pitching,

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the hiring, the marketing, the website design, the manufacturing, the it,

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all the things that anyone else has to learn when they're starting a

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business. But then also the added difficulties of setting up in a foreign

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country, a developing country, and making

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a product for low income consumers. So we had a

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ton of mentoring, and we made a lot of Pivots to get

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to where we are now. But with Covet specifically,

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on the whole, we've benefited from the changes from the Pandemic.

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I mean, the rise of virtual meets that came out of the panemic made

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it easier for us to navigate meetings and pitches

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with people across the country. When we started,

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we were three people, me in Michigan, one on

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the West Coast and one in Guatemala.

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And we've worked with each other entirely,

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virtually. We haven't actually met in person

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yet, although that's crazy. It's insane.

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It's insane. But I'm going to go around in a couple of weeks. So finally,

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we've gone a year and a half and been able to do everything so far

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virtually. That's fantastic. I think there's illustrates,

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I think, keeps phrased here that you're

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probably not unique in that regard either, in the sense of having tons of

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pivots, having to learn so many things,

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but where they knew, the virtual economy kind of helped in the sense of

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just being able nobody was afraid of it at that point because everybody kind of

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had to do it. Well, that was a clear,

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very localized risk, though, that you're setting up a business

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that is very much tied to a geography that you can't

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access if you wanted to. Certainly benefits

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from being able to work with a team in a distributed fashion. But was

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there any on the ground work that you had to do,

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and how did you navigate that?

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Well, in the beginning, beyond the groundwork we had to do was related

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to market research. And so one of

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our founders was in Guatemala at the time, and so she was handling that

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like taking our prototypes to people, having them

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tried them out, and getting some feedback later.

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Our current CEO, she moved down there in September,

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and she was pivotal to get our

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manufacturing started because that was not something we could do remotely

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because the culture down there is not like we can talk over the phone

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and get things taken care of. There's a lot of in person required in Latin

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American business dealings. And so she's

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been doing a lot of the heavy lifting on that side.

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I've been able to support a lot from up here, but we definitely would

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never been able to do the whole company if all of us are in the

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United States. Right. Keith, did you want to bring

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up the middle? Yeah, I can weigh in.

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So talking about doing business

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in person, I think our target is higher Ed

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in academia. I think there just is enough of that

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kind of culture of in person closing

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a deal in higher Ed and academia, and we

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just were not able to obviously take advantage of that.

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I'm just starting to be able to get back into kind of a

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cadence with that kind of thing. So that was a challenge for

225
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sure. But all things considered,

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Brendan, did you want to speak to some of your bigger challenges?

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Where do you manufacture, Brendan? Has that been a part

228
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of it? I was trying to remember where I can share. We've had

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a whole lot of challenges up from the very beginning. Once, a long

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time ago, in 2019, vaping was the clearing epidemic started

231
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to see people dying from all ages, from teens to young adults

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to older adults. And when I first set out,

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I certainly faced a number of people who thought that I'm creating

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something that's too simple to work and that trying

235
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to convey that early on remind you that Captain's Ear is literally

236
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just a unit with a silicone valve that pops

237
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open and pressurizes air coupled with natural extracts in

238
00:14:53,636 --> 00:14:57,498
our caps to provide flavor. So from

239
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there, getting to the RV stage took me two years

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of product development. With the Rise award early on,

241
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I was able to then say, hey, we have something that's definitely unique and

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we can build off of that. So with manufacturing,

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I was lucky and I had found my manufacturer. While we exhibited

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at CES 2020 in Las Vegas,

245
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we were sponsored by MSU to go. We've had a shark tank recruiter

246
00:15:23,722 --> 00:15:27,054
ask us to apply for the show. We've had people from all over the world

247
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say how much this means, especially when smoking is

248
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one of the deadliest addictions in the world. So here I

249
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was 20 years old, and now I'm building

250
00:15:37,460 --> 00:15:41,178
a team. I brought on my co founder, Jake. I brought on our third

251
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team member, Alex, who has yet to join us at

252
00:15:44,684 --> 00:15:48,654
a full time capacity coming up soon here. But once

253
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we've been able to spend those two years to really make sure we have the

254
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right product, once we launched, we've been

255
00:15:54,704 --> 00:15:58,580
growing too fast to handle. And at times, it's like

256
00:15:58,910 --> 00:16:02,250
seeing the amount of organic growth and direct success that we've been

257
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,638
having with reaching our customers has been a highly rewarding journey,

258
00:16:05,734 --> 00:16:09,358
but not without its difficulties. During this time, my co founder,

259
00:16:09,394 --> 00:16:12,690
Jake had left to join a full time

260
00:16:12,740 --> 00:16:17,086
job in real estate out in Las Vegas. We're starting our fundraising,

261
00:16:17,158 --> 00:16:20,430
we're starting to look for new hires, and, of course,

262
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now we're dealing with having to have the next production ready.

263
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So it's certainly been a very exciting journey, and I'm really grateful

264
00:16:27,850 --> 00:16:30,874
for all the moments along the way, because I've been able to learn a tremendous

265
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amount from these challenges and hardships that help shape who I am

266
00:16:34,412 --> 00:16:38,214
today. That's awesome. That does sum up,

267
00:16:38,252 --> 00:16:42,018
I think, really nicely, the trajectory of a start up

268
00:16:42,044 --> 00:16:46,050
or a small company. Right? It's just tons of hurdles, tons of obstacles,

269
00:16:46,730 --> 00:16:50,746
but also this huge growth experience and this huge reward

270
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experience of being able to impact whatever segment of the market

271
00:16:54,428 --> 00:16:56,550
that you're hoping to impact.

272
00:16:58,370 --> 00:17:02,250
I have a tangential question, and maybe it's not tangential.

273
00:17:03,470 --> 00:17:07,594
Did I read on your social that you actually re addicted

274
00:17:07,702 --> 00:17:11,094
yourself so you could prove that it worked? Is that

275
00:17:11,132 --> 00:17:14,458
true, or is that urban legend? Very much true. So throughout

276
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the process, we've constantly found people without

277
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biases. These are people whom I do not have any connection to saying,

278
00:17:21,764 --> 00:17:25,750
hey, will you try out one of our prototypes? And I've heard an overwhelming

279
00:17:25,810 --> 00:17:28,774
positive response. People are going weeks without relapsing.

280
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And I'm thinking to myself, well, how easy is

281
00:17:32,936 --> 00:17:36,486
it? How is this actually impacting someone's ability to

282
00:17:36,548 --> 00:17:40,254
quit? One of the most difficult things to quit. So I wanted

283
00:17:40,292 --> 00:17:44,190
to be back in those shoes, and I wanted to know for sure that if

284
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I myself can have those same cravings and be at the point where I'm

285
00:17:47,998 --> 00:17:51,378
literally like, I need to take that next hint. Can I use

286
00:17:51,404 --> 00:17:54,922
my own invention, the capital zero, to help mitigate those oral

287
00:17:54,946 --> 00:17:57,786
fixations and cravings to which I've discovered? Yes,

288
00:17:57,848 --> 00:18:01,014
it does. And so this is the market.

289
00:18:01,172 --> 00:18:04,722
It's ready. And now we're seeing thousands of

290
00:18:04,736 --> 00:18:07,700
people from all across the world who are ordering the captain zero.

291
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We're, like, barely advertising, and people are just looking

292
00:18:11,432 --> 00:18:14,758
at stuff. And it's so exciting to hear of all the success stories

293
00:18:14,854 --> 00:18:18,738
do that. That's really cool. I think that's fun

294
00:18:18,764 --> 00:18:21,402
to kind of put that proof in the pudding for everybody,

295
00:18:21,536 --> 00:18:26,658
because I think vaping was one of those really kind of under

296
00:18:26,684 --> 00:18:30,502
the radar things where everybody thought that it was the solution to cigarette

297
00:18:30,526 --> 00:18:33,942
smoke and then turns out that it's not much better. And so I

298
00:18:33,956 --> 00:18:37,494
think it's one of those kind of insidious things where it was marketed as

299
00:18:37,532 --> 00:18:40,762
this silver bullet, just vape, and it's no big deal. And it's

300
00:18:40,786 --> 00:18:44,494
like, well, actually, it's not good and it's

301
00:18:44,542 --> 00:18:48,814
not really much better. And so it's cool to see it being tackled,

302
00:18:48,982 --> 00:18:53,178
something completely tangential. Brendan mentioned his

303
00:18:53,204 --> 00:18:56,542
cofounder leaving to go start or go take a full time job. And I've

304
00:18:56,566 --> 00:19:00,118
always thought because we've had people come and go from realingua

305
00:19:00,154 --> 00:19:03,594
and hope I'm going to take a full time job. And I've always thought,

306
00:19:03,692 --> 00:19:07,170
okay, well, good for you, because this is like way more than a full time

307
00:19:07,220 --> 00:19:15,214
job. It's like just

308
00:19:15,252 --> 00:19:18,600
a silly thought in my head and totally get why

309
00:19:18,930 --> 00:19:24,002
the myriad of reasons why people do it. But it's

310
00:19:24,026 --> 00:19:29,162
a lot of faint of heart for

311
00:19:29,176 --> 00:19:32,930
the zealots and the passionate and the driven. Not because

312
00:19:32,980 --> 00:19:36,134
a lot of people aren't those things, but just you have to have

313
00:19:36,172 --> 00:19:40,274
a certain good cocktail of all those pieces. But also

314
00:19:40,312 --> 00:19:43,274
take it from somebody who spent a couple of decades in the corporate world.

315
00:19:43,432 --> 00:19:46,550
After they go take that regular gig, they're going to spend all their time thinking

316
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:49,862
about how they can get together with a couple of colleagues and bust out and

317
00:19:49,876 --> 00:19:51,760
go start their own thing.

318
00:19:53,710 --> 00:19:57,374
They'll be back. Yeah. I'm confident Jake is he's doing

319
00:19:57,412 --> 00:20:01,218
what he can right now to learn the technical skills within corporate,

320
00:20:01,254 --> 00:20:04,746
and then someday he'll do great things starting his own retros.

321
00:20:04,758 --> 00:20:07,540
I'm sure of it. Right? Yeah, exactly.

322
00:20:08,410 --> 00:20:12,158
So the next one, if I don't lose my voice in the process of

323
00:20:12,184 --> 00:20:16,154
asking it is just why is

324
00:20:16,192 --> 00:20:19,994
passing important to you and your innovation? And how did

325
00:20:20,032 --> 00:20:22,480
the Rise Award specifically help you out?

326
00:20:23,230 --> 00:20:26,634
And hopefully it did. We won't hear it if it didn't.

327
00:20:26,682 --> 00:20:30,258
Okay, I can

328
00:20:30,284 --> 00:20:31,340
jump in first.

329
00:20:34,050 --> 00:20:38,066
I think for us, for real, English patenting

330
00:20:38,138 --> 00:20:41,854
was important because we

331
00:20:41,892 --> 00:20:45,382
recognize obviously, after recognizing the gap and

332
00:20:45,516 --> 00:20:48,734
some of the pain points in the problem areas,

333
00:20:48,902 --> 00:20:52,680
we recognize that there actually is

334
00:20:56,170 --> 00:21:00,018
a patentable process in language

335
00:21:00,054 --> 00:21:03,794
learning that at least at that time we thought,

336
00:21:03,832 --> 00:21:07,526
okay, we can capture this, we can get this down,

337
00:21:07,588 --> 00:21:10,720
and then this is what we're going to use

338
00:21:12,550 --> 00:21:15,700
as the platform and build the product and deliver everything.

339
00:21:16,090 --> 00:21:19,314
The Rise Award really helped us to get tighter

340
00:21:19,362 --> 00:21:22,974
on our original patent, which was our system and method,

341
00:21:23,022 --> 00:21:25,670
which anyway. So, Ashley.

342
00:21:27,890 --> 00:21:31,426
Yes, Keith was in the beautiful world of software,

343
00:21:31,498 --> 00:21:35,134
which, as many of you may know, that is not easy for patenting.

344
00:21:35,182 --> 00:21:39,114
And so we really tried to bolster up

345
00:21:39,152 --> 00:21:44,614
various aspects of the patent to kind of make it more sustainable

346
00:21:44,662 --> 00:21:48,318
against those section 101 challenges. So, yeah, it was

347
00:21:48,344 --> 00:21:52,182
good stuff. Theresa, do you want to hop in

348
00:21:52,196 --> 00:21:56,082
there? Sure. So the

349
00:21:56,096 --> 00:21:59,410
Rise Award for us allowed us to get our disclosures

350
00:21:59,470 --> 00:22:02,070
filed before we got our first funding.

351
00:22:03,170 --> 00:22:06,378
And actually, in order to

352
00:22:06,404 --> 00:22:10,234
get that first funding, we wanted to have that disclosure out there and protected

353
00:22:10,402 --> 00:22:14,074
before we started pitching. But filing

354
00:22:14,122 --> 00:22:17,874
the provisional first gave us time to split by our designs over this

355
00:22:17,912 --> 00:22:21,274
last year to make sure that our international patent

356
00:22:21,322 --> 00:22:24,680
filing, which we're working on right now we just started this week,

357
00:22:25,190 --> 00:22:27,200
has all the details of our final design,

358
00:22:29,070 --> 00:22:33,026
but we didn't invent the filtration. There is innovation

359
00:22:33,098 --> 00:22:36,418
in the design of our product that makes it easier to use and more

360
00:22:36,444 --> 00:22:39,934
adaptable than some of our competitors. And having

361
00:22:39,972 --> 00:22:43,682
those disclosures protected gives us confidence as we're bringing

362
00:22:43,706 --> 00:22:47,218
it to market and we hope will create value for

363
00:22:47,244 --> 00:22:50,050
our companies on the road as we look towards acquisition.

364
00:22:50,730 --> 00:22:53,822
That's awesome. I think, Brendan and Teresa,

365
00:22:53,846 --> 00:22:57,442
yours, I think. I love your applications in

366
00:22:57,456 --> 00:23:01,126
the sense that it really shows the evolution of the products to

367
00:23:01,248 --> 00:23:03,682
as. We're kind of working on yours now, Theresa, because Brennan is a little bit

368
00:23:03,696 --> 00:23:07,318
further in the process, but kind of this evolution of which

369
00:23:07,344 --> 00:23:11,218
is really good from a patent perspective because you have

370
00:23:11,244 --> 00:23:14,794
all these other iterations that you can now protect in theory or maybe

371
00:23:14,952 --> 00:23:18,960
provide value to some sort of licensing or acquire down the road

372
00:23:19,410 --> 00:23:22,262
where you have your hopefully your commercial one in there, but then a whole bunch

373
00:23:22,286 --> 00:23:25,834
of the Gen 1234 or whatever that you've gone

374
00:23:25,872 --> 00:23:31,114
through in that process. So both your applications, I think, are really tell

375
00:23:31,152 --> 00:23:35,460
that story. So that's kind of fun. Yeah, it's definitely been.

376
00:23:36,810 --> 00:23:40,282
When asked the question of what has this award meant to me,

377
00:23:40,476 --> 00:23:44,062
when I was looking on Google, I searched up products to help myself

378
00:23:44,136 --> 00:23:46,090
quit. They didn't exist.

379
00:23:48,390 --> 00:23:52,140
This is going to be the person that's kind. So with that in mind,

380
00:23:52,530 --> 00:23:55,730
I knew to myself, this has to be patented.

381
00:23:55,910 --> 00:23:59,578
It's one thing to just produce it out there. It's another thing to really take

382
00:23:59,604 --> 00:24:02,998
ownership of the design and the functionality. And through

383
00:24:03,024 --> 00:24:06,490
the Rise award, it allowed me to

384
00:24:06,540 --> 00:24:09,994
learn with a lens from the patent world

385
00:24:10,152 --> 00:24:13,774
really in depth as far as what goes into it. I was quite

386
00:24:13,812 --> 00:24:17,220
flabbergasted when I had those 30 pages of

387
00:24:18,690 --> 00:24:22,560
how does anyone write this much about something? How is that possible?

388
00:24:23,250 --> 00:24:26,460
It's absolutely too stunned to speak.

389
00:24:26,790 --> 00:24:30,718
Instead, I was reviewing it all, but it's allowed me

390
00:24:30,744 --> 00:24:34,874
to then also be able to communicate

391
00:24:34,982 --> 00:24:38,998
our key differences at work. It's been able to provide me

392
00:24:39,024 --> 00:24:42,578
a way in which I can share. Okay, well, here's exactly how we're protecting

393
00:24:42,614 --> 00:24:46,270
it from a functional standpoint and how we can potentially license the technology,

394
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,482
but also from a business standpoint, why it's important to dominate the market.

395
00:24:50,616 --> 00:24:53,280
With market saturation early on,

396
00:24:54,330 --> 00:24:58,190
as we've grown and developed, it's come to the point where we graduate

397
00:24:58,250 --> 00:25:01,774
from the provisional into a nonprovisional. So at that point, I was like,

398
00:25:01,812 --> 00:25:04,378
well, I know whose door I'm coming to knock on. And I said,

399
00:25:04,464 --> 00:25:08,398
hey, let's hop back on the phone let's get this utility going.

400
00:25:08,484 --> 00:25:12,298
And I'm so excited that we're now pass

401
00:25:12,324 --> 00:25:16,298
the process of having the first examination. So hopefully, fingers crossed

402
00:25:16,454 --> 00:25:19,702
things go through. Yeah, it's looking good. So we

403
00:25:19,716 --> 00:25:23,398
did an examiner interview, so hopefully that will put us in the good

404
00:25:23,424 --> 00:25:27,300
camp. So I guess kind of building on that question,

405
00:25:29,070 --> 00:25:32,494
I think almost everybody, but maybe Keith was pretty

406
00:25:32,532 --> 00:25:36,118
new to the patenting process, I think. But but

407
00:25:36,144 --> 00:25:40,174
in any case, what's the biggest piece of advice that you'd give to

408
00:25:40,212 --> 00:25:42,490
inventors? New to patenting.

409
00:25:43,470 --> 00:25:47,674
I originally worked for Toyota for 20 years, and so

410
00:25:47,772 --> 00:25:51,394
the idea of making a patent I was very familiar with because

411
00:25:51,432 --> 00:25:55,498
a lot of my coworkers got them and we were encouraged to apply for

412
00:25:55,524 --> 00:25:59,122
one. But I personally never had. So this was actually

413
00:25:59,196 --> 00:26:02,770
a brand new experience for me, but I

414
00:26:02,820 --> 00:26:06,480
am very much in the do it yourself mentality. So at

415
00:26:06,870 --> 00:26:08,520
the bottom,

416
00:26:09,870 --> 00:26:12,902
you were super. So just full disclosure.

417
00:26:12,926 --> 00:26:16,774
Theresa actually one of the Rise awards that we did with

418
00:26:16,812 --> 00:26:20,158
her with Olafilter was a

419
00:26:20,184 --> 00:26:24,274
different scope. Basically, Teresa presented this

420
00:26:24,432 --> 00:26:28,318
pretty amazing provisional packet where I just worked with

421
00:26:28,344 --> 00:26:31,798
her to fine tune it and tweak it and do claims and everything.

422
00:26:31,884 --> 00:26:34,450
But go ahead and you definitely did your homework.

423
00:26:35,790 --> 00:26:39,658
Yeah, I checked out. What is it? The yellow book? I think it is.

424
00:26:39,744 --> 00:26:43,150
It's like the book for teaching yourself how to write a patents,

425
00:26:43,590 --> 00:26:46,798
read the whole thing, covered, covered, and marked it, and then

426
00:26:46,824 --> 00:26:48,130
wrote my own patents.

427
00:26:50,010 --> 00:26:53,506
But still, I was baffled by

428
00:26:53,568 --> 00:26:56,554
the process, and I knew that it was really easy to do it wrong.

429
00:26:56,592 --> 00:26:59,700
And so I had zero intention of ever filing it on my own.

430
00:27:00,510 --> 00:27:03,958
I was really happy to find somebody because even if it wasn't to write

431
00:27:03,984 --> 00:27:07,078
the whole thing from zero, I needed a professional to

432
00:27:07,104 --> 00:27:10,246
make sure that it was getting filed correctly and everything was all right.

433
00:27:10,308 --> 00:27:13,922
And then now we're

434
00:27:13,946 --> 00:27:17,170
starting on the real following.

435
00:27:18,030 --> 00:27:21,418
I'm doing the same thing. I'm updating it to everything that we've done

436
00:27:21,444 --> 00:27:25,054
this year, and I'll hand it over to you guys with most of it

437
00:27:25,092 --> 00:27:28,502
probably done, but it's still going to need, like, all of your touches,

438
00:27:28,526 --> 00:27:31,874
and it will still be worth having the professionals

439
00:27:31,922 --> 00:27:35,882
do it. So I guess my recommendation

440
00:27:35,966 --> 00:27:39,922
would be I think there's a good, cost effective way to do it.

441
00:27:40,116 --> 00:27:43,238
It's not impossible to write, especially like I'm an engineer,

442
00:27:43,274 --> 00:27:46,438
so writing technically comes naturally to me.

443
00:27:46,524 --> 00:27:49,920
So it wasn't like a big step outside of my comfort zone to write

444
00:27:50,790 --> 00:27:53,962
for a patent. So if you have

445
00:27:53,976 --> 00:27:57,502
that similar background, don't be afraid to tackle the

446
00:27:57,516 --> 00:28:01,080
beginning, at least on your own, but then hand it over.

447
00:28:05,290 --> 00:28:08,786
That's certainly impressive, being able to read through and really started.

448
00:28:08,848 --> 00:28:11,620
I'm sure Ashley was quite impressed. Like, oh, wow, look at this.

449
00:28:17,030 --> 00:28:20,914
Certainly for someone like me who is rather inexperienced,

450
00:28:20,962 --> 00:28:24,502
they're more of a generalist. My one piece of advice, find an expert

451
00:28:24,526 --> 00:28:25,760
to do it for you.

452
00:28:28,010 --> 00:28:31,462
Seriously. It's just something like a Pandora's

453
00:28:31,486 --> 00:28:35,322
box I can't imagine myself going into. So I

454
00:28:35,336 --> 00:28:39,042
think it's really helped you to take that time and working together

455
00:28:39,116 --> 00:28:42,214
in conjunction, which has allowed me to work on the product development

456
00:28:42,262 --> 00:28:45,810
side of things, the strictly engineering part, rather than the

457
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:49,518
documenting and all the nitpicky stuff

458
00:28:49,544 --> 00:28:53,682
that goes into patenting. Oh, go ahead.

459
00:28:53,876 --> 00:28:56,938
Yeah. I was just going to segue and say I'd love to hear how Keith

460
00:28:56,974 --> 00:29:00,370
has approached it from the software side of things, too. But Ashley.

461
00:29:00,550 --> 00:29:03,642
Yeah, I'll jump in there real quick. I think the other interesting thing, and I

462
00:29:03,656 --> 00:29:07,098
think Keith had this little bit from his office action, some of the file history

463
00:29:07,184 --> 00:29:10,422
for his patents, but you all kind of did a

464
00:29:10,436 --> 00:29:13,918
lot of either you did it yourself or you sourced

465
00:29:13,954 --> 00:29:16,338
it out, but some searching. And I think you kind of hit on that,

466
00:29:16,364 --> 00:29:20,002
Brendan, too, the fact that you kind of knew or you had searches

467
00:29:20,026 --> 00:29:22,794
and you knew kind of how to or we kind of work to figure out

468
00:29:22,832 --> 00:29:25,890
what was the piece that was above and beyond the art.

469
00:29:25,940 --> 00:29:29,518
And same with Teresa. You had a really good idea about what competitors

470
00:29:29,554 --> 00:29:32,226
were out there. And then I think I can't remember if we did a little

471
00:29:32,228 --> 00:29:36,022
bit of searching or not, but just knowing kind of what's

472
00:29:36,046 --> 00:29:39,826
out there and what sets you apart, not only from a commercial perspective.

473
00:29:39,898 --> 00:29:43,170
Right. But what sets you apart from a device perspective.

474
00:29:44,690 --> 00:29:48,198
What is the value that you're providing to a customer and how can you

475
00:29:48,224 --> 00:29:51,694
protect what that value is with the patent? And it's trying to find that intersection,

476
00:29:51,742 --> 00:29:55,366
which isn't always easy, but doing some of the searching

477
00:29:55,558 --> 00:29:59,682
said that we all did. You all did, I think was really pivotal in

478
00:29:59,696 --> 00:30:00,620
that as well.

479
00:30:04,170 --> 00:30:07,858
Yeah. So second,

480
00:30:07,944 --> 00:30:11,940
everything that Theresa and Brendan said, first of all,

481
00:30:12,870 --> 00:30:16,210
definitely professional help as

482
00:30:16,260 --> 00:30:19,620
early in the process as possible.

483
00:30:22,510 --> 00:30:25,878
Just a quick little personal note. And then there's a point to this. I wrote

484
00:30:25,914 --> 00:30:29,498
a screenplay, a feature length screenplay, right after

485
00:30:29,524 --> 00:30:33,486
our first son was born. So he's sleeping. And I finished

486
00:30:33,498 --> 00:30:37,070
my grading. And just to blow up a little statement,

487
00:30:37,570 --> 00:30:41,162
as a humanities major, I know that big

488
00:30:41,236 --> 00:30:45,338
long books get written a little bit at a time. And I

489
00:30:45,364 --> 00:30:49,166
think what I wish I would have done with the patent stuff is

490
00:30:49,348 --> 00:30:52,420
every time I had an idea to write it down,

491
00:30:53,230 --> 00:30:56,798
a lot of stuff down. But it was almost like the

492
00:30:56,824 --> 00:31:00,746
cliche of the person bringing the shoe box of all the

493
00:31:00,928 --> 00:31:04,190
receipts and all that other stuff to their accountant,

494
00:31:05,230 --> 00:31:09,062
actually kind of laughing. There was a lot of that when

495
00:31:09,076 --> 00:31:14,582
we did our initial file and actually a lot of it when we pivoted with

496
00:31:14,596 --> 00:31:18,758
Aurora and Ashley and her team, too. But, yeah, just to write everything

497
00:31:18,844 --> 00:31:22,382
down as early as possible and as often as

498
00:31:22,396 --> 00:31:25,538
possible. No, it's awesome. And to

499
00:31:25,564 --> 00:31:29,090
that point, I think that's hugely critical. That kind of

500
00:31:29,140 --> 00:31:32,354
mirrors that development progression, too. Right.

501
00:31:32,392 --> 00:31:35,378
I mean, it's understood that you're developing all those things, but it's ideas that you

502
00:31:35,404 --> 00:31:39,062
had. I think the only leery I can put

503
00:31:39,076 --> 00:31:43,418
in there that and you probably already know this, that the whole it

504
00:31:43,444 --> 00:31:46,478
used to be enough to write down your ideas and mail them to yourself or

505
00:31:46,504 --> 00:31:49,778
postmark them. Right. To get that invention date. But now you

506
00:31:49,804 --> 00:31:53,702
have to put them on file. So if it's an idea that's valuable to

507
00:31:53,716 --> 00:31:57,182
your company and you foresee it being in your product pipeline or being in

508
00:31:57,256 --> 00:32:00,482
the pipeline for your competitors to get around you, that's one

509
00:32:00,496 --> 00:32:03,820
of those ones that you really do want to get on file early.

510
00:32:04,150 --> 00:32:07,382
And so, yeah, writing down everything. I mean, basically creating your own

511
00:32:07,396 --> 00:32:09,520
little invention disclosure file. Right.

512
00:32:11,350 --> 00:32:14,934
The nice side effect of that, too, is that whole Gulf knowledge

513
00:32:14,982 --> 00:32:18,758
concept, where the more innately you begin to

514
00:32:18,844 --> 00:32:23,042
understand something, the harder it gets for you to speak discreetly about

515
00:32:23,116 --> 00:32:26,798
it. And so you probably might actually end

516
00:32:26,824 --> 00:32:30,938
up with a better patent if you start personally writing about it sooner as

517
00:32:30,964 --> 00:32:34,070
you're understanding its discrete components,

518
00:32:34,450 --> 00:32:37,878
because eventually you just start it's breathing,

519
00:32:37,914 --> 00:32:41,922
it's walking. You're not really thinking about it. But as Brennan

520
00:32:41,946 --> 00:32:45,858
said, you got to take that quote, unquote simple concept

521
00:32:45,894 --> 00:32:49,214
and turn it into 30 pages of detailed specification. And so you really

522
00:32:49,252 --> 00:32:52,420
have to be able to explain it inside out, upside down.

523
00:32:54,430 --> 00:32:57,674
I'd like to go back and talk a little more about what you were saying

524
00:32:57,712 --> 00:33:00,834
about research, like doing your own research before you write your patents

525
00:33:00,882 --> 00:33:04,482
about what else is in the field, like what are the prior arts

526
00:33:04,566 --> 00:33:07,838
that are in the field. And I found that

527
00:33:07,864 --> 00:33:11,822
really helpful when we were trying to determine what were

528
00:33:11,836 --> 00:33:15,362
the key features of our innovation over within the

529
00:33:15,376 --> 00:33:19,002
field. My product is very different from Brendan's, where it's

530
00:33:19,026 --> 00:33:22,394
fairly new. We have very few competitors a water

531
00:33:22,432 --> 00:33:25,674
filter. We've been around for quite a long time, and so there's

532
00:33:25,722 --> 00:33:29,140
a lot of water filter patents out there. And so it took a lot of

533
00:33:29,590 --> 00:33:37,938
pouring through dozens of other existing and

534
00:33:38,024 --> 00:33:41,874
finding the specific things

535
00:33:41,912 --> 00:33:45,042
that ours were doing that these other ones weren't doing. And it

536
00:33:45,056 --> 00:33:48,582
helped me Hone in on what to say in the patent. Like, what are

537
00:33:48,596 --> 00:33:50,850
the features that I wanted to acknowledge?

538
00:33:52,370 --> 00:33:58,390
We did put in, like a section about specific advantages

539
00:33:58,450 --> 00:34:01,474
ours has or disadvantages that our competitors

540
00:34:01,522 --> 00:34:05,454
have that my invention was addressing. And I think that is

541
00:34:05,492 --> 00:34:08,310
a useful thing to have in mind when it comes to leaving.

542
00:34:08,630 --> 00:34:12,162
Right. And for pitching, honestly, I feel like pitching all

543
00:34:12,176 --> 00:34:15,622
those things about what makes you different, what makes you think that you're

544
00:34:15,646 --> 00:34:19,458
going to solve this problem or what sets you apart is all that

545
00:34:19,484 --> 00:34:22,594
kind of weaves together. I mean, there is definitely consumer aspects,

546
00:34:22,702 --> 00:34:25,842
non technical problems that you're solving, and there's technical problems that

547
00:34:25,856 --> 00:34:29,038
you're solving. But ideally, a successful

548
00:34:29,074 --> 00:34:32,518
product that you want to protect has both of those aspects.

549
00:34:32,554 --> 00:34:35,994
Right. The non technical being consumer problems and the technical ones

550
00:34:36,032 --> 00:34:40,282
being the ones that in theory, lead to the solutions

551
00:34:40,306 --> 00:34:43,654
for the non technical ones. And you protect the solutions to the technical

552
00:34:43,702 --> 00:34:47,370
problems. Yeah. And I really appreciate that point,

553
00:34:47,420 --> 00:34:50,938
too, Teresa Ashley, because when I've

554
00:34:50,974 --> 00:34:55,018
been meeting with investors, the question comes up, well, what is protectable?

555
00:34:55,174 --> 00:34:58,642
And it's one thing to have the full documentation

556
00:34:58,726 --> 00:35:02,710
from the legal aspect, from the paralegals,

557
00:35:02,830 --> 00:35:06,258
the patent attorneys, the examiners who really understand

558
00:35:06,344 --> 00:35:10,206
the breadth of the technical side of things. But being able to actually

559
00:35:10,388 --> 00:35:14,622
simplify 30 pages into three sentences and

560
00:35:14,636 --> 00:35:17,706
of its own can be a challenge. Which is why I would also

561
00:35:17,768 --> 00:35:21,570
add on and advise that when communicating what

562
00:35:21,620 --> 00:35:25,098
is unique, being able to really Hone in on the

563
00:35:25,124 --> 00:35:28,446
storytelling component and convey the key points

564
00:35:28,508 --> 00:35:32,262
in a succinct manner is also very important. Also get

565
00:35:32,336 --> 00:35:35,790
additional funding, which can drive more innovation and

566
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,654
protection. Of course, it is so an

567
00:35:39,692 --> 00:35:43,938
art to learning how to speak about your product to

568
00:35:43,964 --> 00:35:46,460
someone who knows nothing about it.

569
00:35:47,870 --> 00:35:51,714
It is very much a night. Feel free to answer

570
00:35:51,812 --> 00:35:55,400
both of these. Either of these, however you see fit.

571
00:35:56,210 --> 00:36:00,162
The biggest surprise you've encountered as

572
00:36:00,176 --> 00:36:03,642
you move into market or get closer to market and or the most

573
00:36:03,656 --> 00:36:07,400
surprising feedback you've received that could be interesting.

574
00:36:08,090 --> 00:36:12,150
The most surprising investor story is Brendan.

575
00:36:14,090 --> 00:36:17,142
Sure. Because I've been in market for a little bit, I've had some time to

576
00:36:17,156 --> 00:36:19,520
actually hear some of this feedback from people.

577
00:36:21,690 --> 00:36:25,210
So between being surprised and I think rewarding are the two

578
00:36:25,260 --> 00:36:29,002
parts of it, the most rewarding has been hearing people who

579
00:36:29,016 --> 00:36:32,950
are using the Zero for months. Right. They've been using the same

580
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,890
starter pack. I mean, from the initial get go, my intention

581
00:36:36,950 --> 00:36:41,698
was to create a solution that addresses a behavioral addiction by

582
00:36:41,724 --> 00:36:45,434
solving that wall fixation craving and also offset

583
00:36:45,602 --> 00:36:48,934
waste issues, especially with this disposable vapes being

584
00:36:48,972 --> 00:36:52,574
tossed all the time. Hear someone say, Look, I've been using my same Capital

585
00:36:52,622 --> 00:36:56,602
Zero with new cap packs for months, and I haven't relapsed once

586
00:36:56,736 --> 00:36:59,820
has been so incredibly rewarding and

587
00:37:00,150 --> 00:37:05,122
surprising. It's funny how there

588
00:37:05,136 --> 00:37:08,510
are still so many customers out there who think that this is a vape.

589
00:37:08,630 --> 00:37:12,734
When our listing explicitly have our packaging

590
00:37:12,782 --> 00:37:16,978
listed over, it says you're a charge. We're like, look, it's just

591
00:37:17,064 --> 00:37:20,354
pressurized flavored air. I mean, we started comments

592
00:37:20,402 --> 00:37:23,726
where people are like, oh, this doesn't have smoke or it doesn't

593
00:37:23,738 --> 00:37:27,230
have nicotine. This is terrible. I'm like, did you know what you're buying?

594
00:37:27,350 --> 00:37:33,290
Did you read the package marketing?

595
00:37:33,350 --> 00:37:36,958
You are correct. But if anything teaches me,

596
00:37:36,984 --> 00:37:40,620
I got to do better, make it even more simpler to understand.

597
00:37:44,830 --> 00:37:47,822
I can go. So, yeah,

598
00:37:47,896 --> 00:37:52,130
we've been on the market, out on the market for a while now

599
00:37:52,180 --> 00:37:56,078
as well. So what we did, I think

600
00:37:56,104 --> 00:37:59,920
it's clever. I didn't come up with it. So I can say that I think

601
00:38:01,330 --> 00:38:05,262
our marketing director at the time said, hey, if we're

602
00:38:05,286 --> 00:38:09,110
trying to do, like, a target B to B into higher

603
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:12,998
Ed. Okay, cool. So we're not going to have students

604
00:38:13,084 --> 00:38:17,622
pay for it directly. It'll be a cost that's

605
00:38:17,646 --> 00:38:20,210
borne by the universities, the colleges.

606
00:38:20,830 --> 00:38:23,942
But we need to get some proof. We're not going to knock on

607
00:38:24,076 --> 00:38:27,714
ten University doors and get ten customers. So let's

608
00:38:27,762 --> 00:38:33,134
do some B to C and

609
00:38:33,172 --> 00:38:36,530
get some proof. That way, we did a paid beta, essentially,

610
00:38:39,250 --> 00:38:43,658
that was super helpful for us. Heard all

611
00:38:43,684 --> 00:38:47,166
kinds of feedback, which is always good, right? You're hearing feedback.

612
00:38:47,238 --> 00:38:51,002
That's a good thing. That then

613
00:38:51,076 --> 00:38:54,662
led to being able to do

614
00:38:54,736 --> 00:39:00,314
through a couple of network connections to

615
00:39:00,352 --> 00:39:04,086
being able to do a pilot with a major League

616
00:39:04,218 --> 00:39:08,102
sports team. Really? Wow. That's a

617
00:39:08,116 --> 00:39:11,742
great angle. We hadn't

618
00:39:11,766 --> 00:39:15,050
really thought about this, but again, through our connections,

619
00:39:17,230 --> 00:39:21,374
I can't say a whole lot real

620
00:39:21,412 --> 00:39:24,818
specifics. But the cool thing was here

621
00:39:24,844 --> 00:39:28,794
we are thinking higher Ed, and we're kind of approach.

622
00:39:28,842 --> 00:39:32,426
How can we use real English? We're going

623
00:39:32,428 --> 00:39:36,198
to be running our summer ESL

624
00:39:36,294 --> 00:39:40,540
program for players who are

625
00:39:41,110 --> 00:39:45,042
needing some ESL classes.

626
00:39:45,126 --> 00:39:48,990
Okay, cool. Yeah, that sounds awesome. So from our perspective,

627
00:39:49,110 --> 00:39:52,742
B to C, someone gets on the web app and

628
00:39:52,816 --> 00:39:56,462
they can interact with it anytime they want. And that's kind of the

629
00:39:56,536 --> 00:39:59,920
teacher that's self directed, self autonomous learning.

630
00:40:00,370 --> 00:40:04,986
With the pilot, what we were able to learn was instructors

631
00:40:05,058 --> 00:40:10,434
can use the product synchronously

632
00:40:10,602 --> 00:40:14,570
right in the client asynchronously assign things

633
00:40:14,740 --> 00:40:18,222
and basically as the driver

634
00:40:18,246 --> 00:40:22,022
of the curriculum. And so this pilot was 16 weeks long.

635
00:40:22,216 --> 00:40:25,000
We have 16 lessons in A level.

636
00:40:25,870 --> 00:40:29,378
And so it was perfect a few

637
00:40:29,404 --> 00:40:33,278
times a week, and we got all this great feedback from

638
00:40:33,304 --> 00:40:34,360
the players themselves.

639
00:40:36,490 --> 00:40:39,338
That was great. The feedback I loved the most,

640
00:40:39,424 --> 00:40:42,602
though, was one of the instructors who we

641
00:40:42,616 --> 00:40:46,420
know said, I've been doing this for six years

642
00:40:47,230 --> 00:40:51,062
as my summer gig. He happens to be

643
00:40:51,076 --> 00:40:54,698
a professor. I've been doing this for six years as my

644
00:40:54,724 --> 00:40:59,274
summer gig. And this year, these players seem

645
00:40:59,382 --> 00:41:02,738
and not always the same players. Obviously, it changes. But this

646
00:41:02,764 --> 00:41:06,722
year, these players seem a lot more engaged. They're interested in

647
00:41:06,856 --> 00:41:10,382
the class. They're not staring down at their phones or staring off in the

648
00:41:10,396 --> 00:41:12,700
space. They don't seem annoyed by.

649
00:41:16,310 --> 00:41:19,302
And we're just like, yes, that's it. That's awesome.

650
00:41:19,376 --> 00:41:24,702
So it kind of taught us that. All right, well, we're thinking higher Ed in

651
00:41:24,716 --> 00:41:28,062
the back of our minds, had workforce development and innovation on our brains as

652
00:41:28,076 --> 00:41:31,714
well, future work kind of thing. But that was kind of a revelation.

653
00:41:31,762 --> 00:41:36,190
US like, okay, there are other learning scenarios

654
00:41:36,310 --> 00:41:39,882
that this could be applied to. So, yeah, that was fun. That's cool.

655
00:41:39,956 --> 00:41:43,818
My neat opportunity, too. For me,

656
00:41:43,844 --> 00:41:47,838
I think the surprise was how

657
00:41:47,864 --> 00:41:51,138
much iteration we were going to do as a company and as

658
00:41:51,164 --> 00:41:56,242
an engineer. It really should not have been surprising to me because it's

659
00:41:56,266 --> 00:41:59,634
a thing you do in design. And I have 20 years of iteration design behind

660
00:41:59,672 --> 00:42:02,766
me. And so I should have known better. But I was still

661
00:42:02,888 --> 00:42:07,078
just blindsided by how many times we've reinvented

662
00:42:07,114 --> 00:42:10,662
ourselves over the last year from the design of

663
00:42:10,676 --> 00:42:14,022
our parts. When we wrote our provisional pen,

664
00:42:14,096 --> 00:42:17,574
it was three pieces. And when we took that two

665
00:42:17,612 --> 00:42:21,330
people for our first beta trial, it failed us early.

666
00:42:21,380 --> 00:42:25,062
Every single person hated it. So it became two pieces. We kicked off

667
00:42:25,076 --> 00:42:28,520
our production and then to

668
00:42:29,510 --> 00:42:33,358
our manufacturing process. We originally had the humorous

669
00:42:33,514 --> 00:42:37,150
that we would buy an ejection

670
00:42:37,210 --> 00:42:40,606
molder and actually make our own housing,

671
00:42:40,678 --> 00:42:44,362
and then we would put our own membranes. And then in the journey

672
00:42:44,386 --> 00:42:48,162
of understanding what that is, we realized it was completely out of

673
00:42:48,176 --> 00:42:51,978
our scope. All your industry, each of them on their own. It should be left

674
00:42:52,004 --> 00:42:56,430
to the professionals and then our

675
00:42:56,480 --> 00:43:00,138
customer marketing channels. At the beginning, we were like

676
00:43:00,284 --> 00:43:03,990
traditional retail, obviously, the hardware stored on the streets

677
00:43:04,430 --> 00:43:08,718
and NGOs, of course, because they buy them already. And in

678
00:43:08,744 --> 00:43:15,494
talking to people, we've realized there's so many more options and more appropriate

679
00:43:15,542 --> 00:43:19,054
for the markets we're looking into and like cooperatives and

680
00:43:19,092 --> 00:43:23,238
last round distributors. And that's

681
00:43:23,274 --> 00:43:26,822
my surprise. Like how many times I've just reinvented our company in the

682
00:43:26,836 --> 00:43:30,794
last year. But I'm hoping because we are like a month away from getting into

683
00:43:30,832 --> 00:43:34,770
the market and actually slowly

684
00:43:34,830 --> 00:43:38,140
and so I'm hoping that will calm down and maybe

685
00:43:38,590 --> 00:43:43,646
we've hit most of our major pivots, at least major

686
00:43:43,708 --> 00:43:47,582
ones. And it'll just be kind of calmer going forward as

687
00:43:47,596 --> 00:43:52,610
long as the design is largely frozen until,

688
00:43:52,660 --> 00:43:55,780
you know, product expansion and we create new things. Yeah,

689
00:43:56,470 --> 00:43:58,790
that's a good problem to have product expansion,

690
00:44:00,190 --> 00:44:03,458
although we have that kind of not quite market, but almost market

691
00:44:03,544 --> 00:44:07,240
the kind of early market and kind of a little bit later market, the whole.

692
00:44:07,990 --> 00:44:12,398
Yeah. Ran the gamut. Okay, so what

693
00:44:12,424 --> 00:44:16,670
would you say over the course of your journey? This journey,

694
00:44:17,290 --> 00:44:19,010
this product, this invention?

695
00:44:20,470 --> 00:44:23,838
What's the smartest thing you've done? What's the dumbest

696
00:44:23,874 --> 00:44:27,410
thing you've done? And what did you learn from both?

697
00:44:27,580 --> 00:44:31,322
This is some truth serum. Time for

698
00:44:31,336 --> 00:44:34,598
me. What pops into my head is just what I was saying before about her

699
00:44:34,624 --> 00:44:38,018
membrane potting, just the idea that we

700
00:44:38,044 --> 00:44:41,870
could have done every part of our process in house and that we were

701
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:46,178
just looking back on it just shocking if

702
00:44:46,204 --> 00:44:49,310
we had gone that way, like how hard our life would be right now.

703
00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:53,018
But we were doing we just didn't know what it

704
00:44:53,044 --> 00:44:56,594
seemed like such a simple concept of how to

705
00:44:56,632 --> 00:45:03,498
create a filter cartridge. And it

706
00:45:03,524 --> 00:45:06,750
actually took a new tech pitch

707
00:45:07,550 --> 00:45:11,118
we were discussing. Like we were talking about our technology and

708
00:45:11,144 --> 00:45:14,814
someone in the audience asked a question about the potty process.

709
00:45:14,972 --> 00:45:18,546
And so we met with him afterwards and had a meeting and that led to

710
00:45:18,608 --> 00:45:22,134
our journey to understanding the full engineering behind it.

711
00:45:22,232 --> 00:45:26,538
Ended up talking to the guy Korea who invented this technology.

712
00:45:26,684 --> 00:45:30,426
Oh, wow, that's cool. And made the whole circle and

713
00:45:30,488 --> 00:45:34,362
then decided just outsource it. I think

714
00:45:34,376 --> 00:45:38,458
that's kind of the journey of startups, though, too, is realizing what you're

715
00:45:38,494 --> 00:45:41,662
good at and maybe like what you could be good at but don't

716
00:45:41,686 --> 00:45:44,974
have time to be good at and what you're not good at and then deciding

717
00:45:45,022 --> 00:45:49,002
how you're going to focus your energies. Right. Because any

718
00:45:49,076 --> 00:45:52,662
dedicated person, given enough time, could probably be good at almost anything. Right.

719
00:45:52,736 --> 00:45:56,362
But the reality is the startup world has you pulled

720
00:45:56,386 --> 00:46:00,042
in 16 million different directions, and so you kind of got to choose what

721
00:46:00,056 --> 00:46:03,378
you're going to be good at and let other people handle the

722
00:46:03,404 --> 00:46:06,882
other stuff. Yeah, absolutely. That's why we had

723
00:46:06,896 --> 00:46:10,278
to have that discussion internally. We were like, what kind of company are we building?

724
00:46:10,424 --> 00:46:14,334
Are we building a manufacturing company? We're building a membrane potting company.

725
00:46:14,432 --> 00:46:17,300
No, we're building a filter selling company.

726
00:46:17,630 --> 00:46:21,558
We just cut everything else away. And this

727
00:46:21,584 --> 00:46:24,918
is what we're going to do. Yeah. Making that decision and making us really

728
00:46:24,944 --> 00:46:28,362
think about what we wanted our company to be because we can't be everything.

729
00:46:28,556 --> 00:46:31,854
Right. That's cool. So that was

730
00:46:31,952 --> 00:46:34,638
kind of the smartest and the dumbest all packaged up in one.

731
00:46:34,784 --> 00:46:35,480
Yes.

732
00:46:40,110 --> 00:46:43,114
I feel like the intro to this podcast could be that knowing when to hold

733
00:46:43,152 --> 00:46:46,502
them, knowing when to fold them that song, I won't

734
00:46:46,526 --> 00:46:49,786
sing it and scare you all.

735
00:46:49,968 --> 00:46:59,274
See if we can get the rights for that. Yeah. An IP

736
00:46:59,322 --> 00:47:01,840
company that's ripping off Copyright. Not cool.

737
00:47:05,750 --> 00:47:09,078
Sure. I could probably share some sentiments which I do

738
00:47:09,104 --> 00:47:12,246
agree with much of what was said. I mean, I think

739
00:47:12,308 --> 00:47:15,942
one of the smartest things I've been able to do throughout my career thus far

740
00:47:16,016 --> 00:47:19,400
at Cap Knows has been to seek outward help.

741
00:47:19,790 --> 00:47:23,334
It's because I come into this

742
00:47:23,372 --> 00:47:27,102
space with only a limited amount of experience, being able to

743
00:47:27,176 --> 00:47:30,742
reach out to mentors with years and years of practice

744
00:47:30,826 --> 00:47:35,362
expertise, with tried and true technical

745
00:47:35,446 --> 00:47:39,150
knowledge, from learning, from their failures. I've been able to make

746
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:42,790
much better decisions and look at situations

747
00:47:42,850 --> 00:47:46,702
much more critically from a more logistical

748
00:47:46,786 --> 00:47:50,778
point of view, but also objectively. And I've been able to kind

749
00:47:50,804 --> 00:47:54,354
of improve myself as a person throughout that.

750
00:47:54,392 --> 00:47:57,630
And I think that by continuing to see myself

751
00:47:57,740 --> 00:48:00,742
as a sponge,

752
00:48:00,766 --> 00:48:04,758
to soak up advice and to soak up knowledge, I've been

753
00:48:04,784 --> 00:48:08,202
able to just keep growing and learning and adapting as we continue

754
00:48:08,276 --> 00:48:11,070
to face new challenges. That said,

755
00:48:11,180 --> 00:48:16,254
one of the dumbest things I think I could be doing is not

756
00:48:16,292 --> 00:48:20,300
being able to focus primarily on just one thing.

757
00:48:20,630 --> 00:48:23,922
Granted, I understand too, as a founder and

758
00:48:24,056 --> 00:48:27,790
right now I'm like the primary full time member.

759
00:48:27,850 --> 00:48:31,074
I'm balancing a lot of everything. So more

760
00:48:31,112 --> 00:48:34,518
than anything, I want to expand my team and to bring on my

761
00:48:34,544 --> 00:48:38,038
business partner, Alex, full time. I want to find our next marketing

762
00:48:38,074 --> 00:48:40,830
higher. I want to expand and be able to delegate more,

763
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,730
because when my one goal is fundraising, at this point,

764
00:48:44,780 --> 00:48:48,618
it gets very difficult to successfully do that. When I have to

765
00:48:48,644 --> 00:48:52,474
manage operations, customer success, all these other metrics,

766
00:48:52,582 --> 00:48:56,050
and then feel as if I'm not making a tremendous amount of growth

767
00:48:56,110 --> 00:48:59,682
on the one thing that I want to do well on. So I'm definitely

768
00:48:59,756 --> 00:49:03,850
trying my best. And as with this whole journey,

769
00:49:04,030 --> 00:49:07,830
it's like a marathon with many sprints in between.

770
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,480
It's also good to take too well.

771
00:49:12,770 --> 00:49:16,218
I think that so captures the thing so many small companies

772
00:49:16,304 --> 00:49:19,914
is that this and we've experienced this here, too. Even just you have these

773
00:49:20,072 --> 00:49:23,598
periods of growth and there are stretch times

774
00:49:23,684 --> 00:49:27,430
where you're like, do I have enough to hire

775
00:49:27,490 --> 00:49:30,738
somebody? Do I just bite it off knowing and

776
00:49:30,764 --> 00:49:34,926
hoping that it's going to be there, that, you know, the sales

777
00:49:34,988 --> 00:49:37,938
are going to be there, the venture capital, whatever is going to be there,

778
00:49:37,964 --> 00:49:41,862
because I can't grow if I don't hire somebody because

779
00:49:41,996 --> 00:49:45,558
you're only one person, there's only 24 hours in a day, no matter how much

780
00:49:45,584 --> 00:49:48,500
we wish there were more or wish there were less.

781
00:49:49,910 --> 00:49:53,454
It's that weird chasm that happens. I think for a lot of companies of like,

782
00:49:53,552 --> 00:49:57,106
I don't have quite enough work for a full time person. I don't

783
00:49:57,118 --> 00:50:00,186
have quite enough income for a full time person, but I need to hire a

784
00:50:00,188 --> 00:50:03,822
full time person because I can't keep going at the trajectory I am and continue

785
00:50:03,896 --> 00:50:08,118
to grow without that step. I think it's a really interesting

786
00:50:08,204 --> 00:50:11,818
problem that a lot of companies face and how they navigate that, I think varies

787
00:50:11,854 --> 00:50:15,738
wildly. But it's hard. And you're absolutely right about the

788
00:50:15,764 --> 00:50:19,326
necessity to focus. But there is

789
00:50:19,388 --> 00:50:23,646
value in the pain, for sure, because every

790
00:50:23,708 --> 00:50:27,570
hire that you make at this early stage is so critical.

791
00:50:28,010 --> 00:50:31,702
It's a huge hire. And unless you have some empathy

792
00:50:31,846 --> 00:50:35,418
for what that person is going to do and some understanding of what they

793
00:50:35,444 --> 00:50:39,030
need to do, how can you possibly vet someone who's going to do it?

794
00:50:39,140 --> 00:50:41,780
Well, if you don't have it,

795
00:50:42,170 --> 00:50:45,522
at least some exposure. So, yeah,

796
00:50:45,656 --> 00:50:49,126
it definitely pulled away from what you should be doing, but it sets

797
00:50:49,138 --> 00:50:51,270
you up better for scaling.

798
00:50:52,910 --> 00:50:57,550
You bet. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So smartest

799
00:50:57,610 --> 00:51:01,030
thing. Well, I mean, from it's all perspective,

800
00:51:01,090 --> 00:51:04,518
right? But from my perspective, I would

801
00:51:04,544 --> 00:51:07,942
say just doing, just jumping

802
00:51:07,966 --> 00:51:12,030
in and pulling the start up together and launching

803
00:51:13,850 --> 00:51:17,214
for me, that was the smartest thing I could have done on

804
00:51:17,312 --> 00:51:21,714
a number of different levels, personally and

805
00:51:21,812 --> 00:51:25,518
professionally, career wise, personally, because I know I

806
00:51:25,544 --> 00:51:29,514
would have regretted years down the line had I not

807
00:51:29,612 --> 00:51:33,318
tried you're explaining this when

808
00:51:33,464 --> 00:51:36,886
telling our three boys, okay, Dad's going to here's

809
00:51:36,898 --> 00:51:37,940
what he's going to do.

810
00:51:39,650 --> 00:51:43,146
Down in our previous home in the basement, we put a

811
00:51:43,148 --> 00:51:46,762
little office together here's the headquarters. And I'm explained,

812
00:51:46,786 --> 00:51:49,460
I said, you know what, if I don't try,

813
00:51:50,090 --> 00:51:53,060
there's no chance of success, right? Kind of back.

814
00:51:53,750 --> 00:51:57,298
Our then seven year old said, I have the quote sitting

815
00:51:57,334 --> 00:52:00,942
right here. It's like a genius quote. He said, well, never try,

816
00:52:01,076 --> 00:52:05,060
never fail, never succeed. And I was like blown away.

817
00:52:09,090 --> 00:52:13,020
I quick wrote it down. But seriously, for me

818
00:52:14,250 --> 00:52:16,860
that captured it the smartest thing.

819
00:52:19,150 --> 00:52:22,900
As entrepreneurs, I don't know that we do a lot of dumb things,

820
00:52:24,190 --> 00:52:26,750
but we do make mistakes.

821
00:52:28,090 --> 00:52:31,900
My biggest one was, I think,

822
00:52:32,470 --> 00:52:37,974
and this is like advice to my former self and to other entrepreneurs

823
00:52:38,082 --> 00:52:41,942
is get in front of customers

824
00:52:42,076 --> 00:52:45,218
as quickly and as often as possible.

825
00:52:45,304 --> 00:52:49,346
Well, we don't have a product. Who cares? Do you have a piece of paper

826
00:52:49,468 --> 00:52:52,130
and a pen or a pencil?

827
00:52:54,250 --> 00:52:57,782
There are a ton of different ways to or do you

828
00:52:57,796 --> 00:53:01,950
have like just a blank monitor

829
00:53:02,010 --> 00:53:05,738
where someone can kind of just show you what they might do or

830
00:53:05,764 --> 00:53:09,160
not even that? Let's just kind of cardboard it out.

831
00:53:09,850 --> 00:53:13,218
That kind of stuff would have really helped

832
00:53:13,254 --> 00:53:15,160
us further on down the line.

833
00:53:17,170 --> 00:53:21,590
We did it, but it was a little more painful. So I think I

834
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:25,646
would have liked to have gotten in front of customers a

835
00:53:25,648 --> 00:53:29,114
whole lot sooner. But anyway, what are you going to do? Just be sure

836
00:53:29,152 --> 00:53:32,738
to get your provisional on file before saying too much. And this is an opportunity

837
00:53:32,824 --> 00:53:36,758
for a shameless plug around our On Sale Bar podcast and

838
00:53:36,784 --> 00:53:43,890
the annoying when to Show and when to Share blog post last

839
00:53:43,940 --> 00:53:47,574
one. So it's just if there's any

840
00:53:47,672 --> 00:53:51,274
major updates, news, exciting, upcoming things, your shameless

841
00:53:51,322 --> 00:53:54,834
plug time, things you'd like to share with

842
00:53:54,932 --> 00:53:58,374
our audience, and then where folks can go and learn more information about you,

843
00:53:58,412 --> 00:54:01,700
your company's products. For us,

844
00:54:03,170 --> 00:54:06,594
Everything this month is all about our launch, so we're about one month away

845
00:54:06,632 --> 00:54:10,282
from entering the market, so everything is just very exciting.

846
00:54:10,366 --> 00:54:13,566
Our production injection tooling is finished and

847
00:54:13,688 --> 00:54:17,130
bringing their first parts from the factory. We're getting

848
00:54:17,180 --> 00:54:21,774
our certification from the lab, the bacteria this

849
00:54:21,812 --> 00:54:25,678
month and everything is coming together. I found all the product photos.

850
00:54:25,714 --> 00:54:28,170
We're all very excited. My first trip to Guatemala,

851
00:54:29,270 --> 00:54:37,330
autofilter.com wonderful

852
00:54:38,070 --> 00:54:41,674
at Capnous. Our mission is to prevent lung diseases and save lives.

853
00:54:41,832 --> 00:54:45,314
We're here to create a future where we can help solve one of the deadliest

854
00:54:45,362 --> 00:54:49,082
addictions by addressing the behavioral component where no one else is. And we're

855
00:54:49,106 --> 00:54:52,860
already helping thousands of people successfully quit not doing so.

856
00:54:53,610 --> 00:54:57,106
I'm just really excited for everything that's coming up. We're in the process

857
00:54:57,168 --> 00:55:00,538
of raising so if you'd like to get involved with that regard, feel free to

858
00:55:00,564 --> 00:55:04,330
reach out. We're also looking to hire and we're also looking to

859
00:55:04,380 --> 00:55:08,158
build our community and find others who may resonate with our mission and

860
00:55:08,184 --> 00:55:11,986
what we're doing to work with us. So you can find us on our website

861
00:55:12,168 --> 00:55:15,926
just@mycapneous.com or anywhere on our social medias,

862
00:55:16,058 --> 00:55:18,960
which is just at mycapnest thank you.

863
00:55:20,070 --> 00:55:22,200
Awesome. Yeah, that's great.

864
00:55:26,110 --> 00:55:29,114
Continuing to iterate on

865
00:55:29,152 --> 00:55:32,802
our in market products. That's probably the biggest

866
00:55:32,886 --> 00:55:36,730
update we're

867
00:55:36,790 --> 00:55:40,930
looking forward. We're very excited about the Conversational

868
00:55:40,990 --> 00:55:44,840
AI piece. We're looking forward to that and

869
00:55:45,530 --> 00:55:48,214
getting more of our Ducks in a row along those lines.

870
00:55:48,262 --> 00:55:51,654
So that's a bit of an update to

871
00:55:51,692 --> 00:55:56,097
learn more. It's reallingua.com,

872
00:55:56,107 --> 00:55:59,000
reallingua.com.

873
00:55:59,690 --> 00:56:02,960
Thanks. That's awesome.

874
00:56:04,610 --> 00:56:08,600
We're still happy for and proud of

875
00:56:08,990 --> 00:56:12,320
all of you for what that's worth,

876
00:56:12,890 --> 00:56:16,638
when we pick the winners for the

877
00:56:16,664 --> 00:56:20,278
Rise Award, it's a very emotional,

878
00:56:20,314 --> 00:56:24,582
pain taking process, and we

879
00:56:24,596 --> 00:56:28,342
get a really great applicants. But you're

880
00:56:28,366 --> 00:56:31,710
all doing really very important missions.

881
00:56:32,330 --> 00:56:35,802
And it's great to see how much success you've had

882
00:56:35,996 --> 00:56:39,594
in such a short amount of time. And just

883
00:56:39,692 --> 00:56:43,040
know that we're during a hard time during a very hard time.

884
00:56:43,610 --> 00:56:46,700
You're playing on hard mode for sure.

885
00:56:47,270 --> 00:56:50,418
So just know we're some of your biggest fans and keep

886
00:56:50,444 --> 00:56:53,718
up the great work. Yeah, we'd love it. And if we can help in any

887
00:56:53,744 --> 00:56:57,742
other way, let us know. Open Guatemala

888
00:56:57,766 --> 00:57:06,442
for you, Teresa, too, if you need me to see

889
00:57:06,456 --> 00:57:09,118
if I can get my Spanish up to Snuff and then go put it to

890
00:57:09,144 --> 00:57:12,646
practice. Yeah, well, that's exactly

891
00:57:12,708 --> 00:57:16,402
what I'm going to do. As soon as this podcast goes, I have to get

892
00:57:16,416 --> 00:57:19,690
ready for my trip in three weeks. And if I see anybody vaping,

893
00:57:21,150 --> 00:57:22,500
slap it out of hand.

894
00:57:24,870 --> 00:57:28,318
Actually, I will challenge that. We actually try not to tell people what

895
00:57:28,344 --> 00:57:31,642
to do. We never want to say you shouldn't quit. I mean, we're just trying

896
00:57:31,656 --> 00:57:35,326
to help people who are looking to quit. It's a great point. Yeah,

897
00:57:35,388 --> 00:57:38,950
it's a really great point. Does play a big part in really

898
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:42,778
changing the culture and understanding around it. That's true. Yes. People, I think you

899
00:57:42,804 --> 00:57:46,174
have to come to it on your own

900
00:57:46,332 --> 00:57:50,182
terms. Beating any addiction has to be

901
00:57:50,196 --> 00:57:54,094
a choice, a personal choice. Right. Somebody can't really for

902
00:57:54,132 --> 00:57:56,950
you. Exactly. Thank you for understanding.

903
00:57:58,890 --> 00:58:01,860
I love that you're aware of that and share that, too.

904
00:58:03,810 --> 00:58:07,450
It's a big enough market in itself. There's a lot of people wanting to quit.

905
00:58:08,130 --> 00:58:11,578
Okay. I think feeling let down, too by the fact. I mean, I would

906
00:58:11,604 --> 00:58:15,298
personally like if I had been a smoker and then changed to vaping because

907
00:58:15,324 --> 00:58:18,454
I thought that was going to be the solution, only to find out it's probably

908
00:58:18,492 --> 00:58:21,780
just as bad as what I was doing. I think I'd be really

909
00:58:22,230 --> 00:58:25,454
kind of mad and annoyed

910
00:58:25,502 --> 00:58:28,522
by that. Almost like misinformation. I mean,

911
00:58:28,536 --> 00:58:32,438
that was the information they had at the time. It was intentionally misdirecting.

912
00:58:32,474 --> 00:58:35,698
But to be like, here's a solution. Oh, wait, it turns out that solution is

913
00:58:35,724 --> 00:58:39,658
just as bad. So it's cool that there's an even better

914
00:58:39,684 --> 00:58:44,002
solution. That's truly a solution. Well, thanks, everybody, so very much.

915
00:58:44,136 --> 00:58:47,338
It's great getting to kind of have

916
00:58:47,364 --> 00:58:49,560
a little reunion with everybody.

917
00:58:51,330 --> 00:58:54,838
Thanks again. It was nice meeting both of you trees and Keith as

918
00:58:54,864 --> 00:58:58,570
well. It's a joy to be in this room together so virtual

919
00:59:01,090 --> 00:59:04,682
thanks everyone. Take care. Great to see you.

920
00:59:04,756 --> 00:59:06,650
Bye now. Bye.

921
00:59:07,810 --> 00:59:11,834
As mentioned in the intro, we're using this episode to launch the 2022

922
00:59:11,872 --> 00:59:15,374
Rise award for the selected applicant. We'll work closely with you

923
00:59:15,412 --> 00:59:19,338
and your team of inventors to provide one of the following either a free provisional

924
00:59:19,374 --> 00:59:23,454
US patent application or $5,000 towards a non provisional

925
00:59:23,502 --> 00:59:27,002
US patent application. The only requirement is that you must have

926
00:59:27,016 --> 00:59:29,834
an impactful innovation that you want to share with the world.

927
00:59:29,932 --> 00:59:33,906
We welcome applicants from all subject matter areas and zip codes.

928
00:59:34,038 --> 00:59:37,634
Eligible applications will be reviewed by an internal panel based on

929
00:59:37,672 --> 00:59:40,866
equal weighting of technology, maturity, market relevance,

930
00:59:40,938 --> 00:59:44,726
economic impact and societal impact. We're going to begin taking

931
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applications today. To learn more about this award and apply,

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please visit Rise Upwithaurora.com. We'll also have a link in

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the show notes. Good luck and we can't wait to see your application.

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All right, that's all for today folks. Thanks for listening and remember to check

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us out@aurorapatents.com for more great podcasts,

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blogs and videos covering all things patent strategy and if you're an agent

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or attorney and would like to be part of the discussion or an inventor with

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a topic you'd like to hear discussed, email us at podcast@aurorapatins.com

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do remember that this podcast does not constitute legal advice and until next time

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keep calm and patents on.


Intro
RISE Award
Meet Brendan Wang, Founder of CAPNOS
Meet Theresa Smith, CTO of the Ola Filter Corporation
Meet Keith Phillips, CEO & Founder of realLINGUA
Biggest challenges in bootstrapping
How the RISE award helped and importance of patenting
Protecting your idea before disclosing and seeking funding
Patent evolution through product iteration
Discovering differentiators through patenting
Advice for inventors new to patenting
Cost savings through DIY patenting and when to get help
Patent searching and understanding how to protect the value you're providing
Taking good notes and filing provisionals early
Seeing the competitive landscape through patenting
Honing your story
Value of feedback
Marketing challenges
Using feedback to discover new market segments
Iteration and re-inventing your company
Lessons learned from smartest and dumbest steps
What kind of company are we building?
Seeking help
Taking the leap
Company updates
How to apply for RISE
Outro