An Inventors Introduction to The Fastlane Forum

[Mhinto]

Hello Fastlane Forum. My name is Matthew Hinton and I am a new member. I'm a 27 year old heavy equipment operator and I desperately want to get out of the slow lane. Luckily, the only debt I have is my mortgage and children are not in my plans for the near future. I feel that this gives me a great advantage and no excuse to fail. I went to college and received a degree in advanced manufacturing and industrial sciences. I spent 2 years working in industrial maintenance and engineering and hated every second of it. It wasn't all for nothing, though. I had to spend 7 weeks sleeping on a cot in a mobile office working 16 hour days in an aluminum smelter to get my "F*ck this moment." That could have been the best thing that has ever happened to me. Since then I've been working as an excavator while scouring the internet for a way out of this rat race.

Once I discovered audio books and podcasts I somehow found my way to @MJ DeMarco and his work. After reading TMF and Unscripted a few times I decided to join the forum. The reason I decided to join is to be apart of a like-minded community of entrepreneurs are trying to merge out of the slow lane. I want to be active here and use this forum to hold myself accountable for making weekly progress towards my goals.

I've already tried and failed at my first business attempt (roll-off dumpster rental) and I've now switched my focus to inventing. My goal is to get a product licensed. I've designed and marketed 3 prototypes in various categories and will be starting the 4th soon. After that, I may try to bring a product to market myself. I've heard so many conflicting opinions on licensing vs. venturing that I think the best thing to do is try each. If you have a preference or any advice I'm all ears.

I enjoy fitness, kayaking and snowboarding when I'm free. I'm hoping that someday I will get to spend much more time doing those activities. That, along with being able to pay for my parents retirement are the driving forces that push me toward my goals.

I will be posting to the forum weekly with updates on my progress. These post may not be great reading material but it will give me some form of accountability and connect me with like minded and more experienced entrepreneurs. I'm excited to join this community and hope that I can learn a great deal from the members as well as contribute valuable information myself. If you believe that I can help you in any way please get in touch!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome aboard my friend, appreciate the intro!

 

[BrianLateStart]

Welcome to the community Matthew

I'm in the process of trying to get my invention to market. To be honest, I don't have a lot of great info for you as I'm struggling to find my own way.

I started out with the intention of producing my invention (physical product) and I got overwhelmed. It was difficult and expensive just to get working prototypes. As I looked ahead to manufacturing, packaging, barcodes, getting it in stores,advertising, etc, etc, it seemed too much.

I decided licensing was the perfect route for my product. I studied and learned a lot about licensing. I spent countless hours watching InventRight youtube videos. I found it was near impossible to talk to anyone at a company that I wanted to license my product with. Maybe in a different product category I would have had better luck. There are companies looking for ideas, especially in the kitchen gadget world. It didn't work out for me.

So now I'm back to making it myself. It's a lot of work, but I'm making progress eating that elephant one bite at a time. It was at this point that I discovered TMF . Even though it's a lot of work, I'm glad I didn't get a license deal. I would have been giving up Control ("C"ENTS).

Trying to license my idea ended up taking a lot of my time and delaying getting to where I really need to be. Everyone's journey is different. What you think is the right path might not be. Just be ready to change direction.

 

[Mhinto]

Brian, I appreciate the response! I also consume a lot of invent right material. I even bought the course which will be coming to an end next week.

I like the idea of bringing it to market myself but I had a lot of the same fears that you listed. Although, after reviewing TMF and Unscripted it makes me want to bring it to market myself. None of my product ideas are ground breaking inventions (I have a large list). Most are small improvements to existing products.

The cold calls and follow ups do take a toll on a persons motivation and I have often wondered if I would be better off bringing products to market myself.

 

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[Rearden]

Hi Brian, I have licensed my own inventions and I have taught 100+ people to do it themselves. I am an advocated of licensing but it has its shortfalls....If you know your CENTS it doesn't completely follow the CENTS business model. You are giving up the C almost completely. The reason this has been difficult for me is that I want my licensees to focus more resources on marketing and pushing my product but I don't control that. The great thing about licensing is once you get it licensed its very passive and the money keeps coming in. Let me know if you have more questions I can help you the best I can. D