Our company does a lot of work with inventors who have fantastic innovative ideas for game-changing products, but need a little guidance taking their idea to market. I always tell them Step One is to get a clear definition of idea or invention before you can lay out the path to bring it to market.

People often get stuck in this stage because they haven’t thought through the time, processes and resources needed to make it happen. For instance, has the inventor mapped out what people and skills are crucial? One idea is to explore open innovation–those strategic partnerships that can take your ideas beyond your own brick and mortar walls.

My favorite part of the program was taking calls from inventors who had questions about licensing preparation and prototypes.

We want to help people with projects that will make a significant difference in the lives or habits of people. There are many inventions that are incremental–a little bit better and a little bit cheaper–but the true innovators are making that difference for consumers.

So what is Inventables and why are so many designers and engineers excited about this company? Inventables is a no-frills website that was launched this month where vendors of raw materials and technologies can create online profiles for their products in order to generate qualified sales leads worth their time. Inventables makes it very easy for vendors of materials and technologies to get an initial introduction to potential buyers.

Microsoft X-Box, PING Golf Clubs, and Kraft Foods are examples of buyer companies using the marketplace. Dupont, 3M, and Eastman are examples of companies participating as vendors.

I’ve been serving as an advisor to Inventables, and couldn’t be more pleased and excited for its future.

Says Zach:

“We founded Inventables to help companies innovate by sharing our excitement for what technology makes possible with the world’s innovators. We’ve opened up our once proprietary research for free to the world so that information and access to new materials that was once only available to the largest companies in the world is now available to anyone with an internet connection.”