Good afternoon everyone.
Welcome to the fifth installment of
our Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium.
I will tell you that the team that
put this women's entrepreneurship
Symposium together was challenged
to come up with something really,
really respectful and really forward
leaning for women's History Month,
which is of course March and the
team put together the idea of
having an event every Wednesday.
In the month of March,
so this is the final event and
we've had a wonderful series of
events and and you have a wonderful
panel in front of you today.
Hearing from 3 very successful entrepreneurs,
I will start off by giving you
a quick apology though that the
Secretary of Commerce who was
supposed to give remarks here is
was unable to do so last minute.
So she had a last minute
call that was time sensitive.
She needed to take that and
I know she sends her apology.
I've had the pleasure,
even though she's recently
Sworn in as Secretary of Commerce had the
pleasure of meeting with her multiple times,
and I know that she would want to be here.
She described herself in a question
and answer session with me as
being unusually accessible.
That's her phrase and I love that phrase,
and so I know she would love to be here,
and the demands of her job
have taken her away.
So unfortunately,
she she couldn't make it today,
and so I will pass on apologies
on behalf of her.
But again,
you have a wonderful panel in front of you.
I'd like to just give a quick recap of our.
For previous sessions, as I mentioned,
we've done a session every Wednesday.
We have literally reached
thousands of people,
so this has been an absolute fantastic
celebration of women's History Month
and entrepreneurship in general.
During the sessions we've highlighted the
role of women entrepreneurs that they
play in innovation and economic growth.
We've highlighted the importance
of expanding innovation to women
an under represented groups,
and we've explored ideas.
How women
Entrepreneurs and investors
And inventors excuse me can be flexible
and adaptive, so a great series.
I'd like to thank all of the people
who put this series together,
and I'd also like to thank all of the
speakers for their wonderful involvement.
I was was able to listen in to all but
one of the events myself, and again,
just absolutely wonderful subject
matter that I know has been helpful,
literally to thousands of
people throughout the country.
So with that I'm going to pass
it over to Lisa Cook,
Doctor Lisa Cook,
who is the moderator for this
panel that is in front of us.
Doctor Lisa Lisa Cook is an Edison
research fellow here at USPTO,
and she's also a professor at
Michigan State University.
So with that have a great panel.
Thank you again to everyone who's
participated and the former and
their previous events and the
upcoming event today.
So thank you very much and Lisa, I pass
it over to you.
Thank you so much.
And I really appreciate the
opportunity to moderate this panel.
These are some really dynamic women,
inventors and I just tweeted about them
and I think it's really exciting to see
living examples of great inventors,
inventors who are bringing
innovation that raises the standards
of living that we all enjoy.
Though I am pleased to moderate this
Panel today we're going to be
talking about the process of
innovation and timely innovation.
So I look forward to having
our three guests here.
Our inventors today and the
people who would be talking about
invention as well.
Our panelists are Janeya Griffin,
founder and CEO of the Commercial Iser.
Rea Huntley Founder and CEO of.
Love I Inc and Sarah Gibson Tuttle,
founder and CEO of Olive and June.
I will allow them to tell you a
little bit about themselves will start
with that and about their inventions
because they are all fantastic.
An innovative I've already heard
about them and I would like
to take a stake in each firm.
I'm not supposed to talk about that,
but that is the level of
excitement that I have
About their vision and their
execution of invention.
So why don't we start with that?
Just a quick round about the invention
that you have or the work that you do,
and we will start with.
Why don't we start with Sarah?
What we started in the opposite
direction of introduction?
Thank you Lisa and thank you
so much to everyone.
This is so wonderful and so
grateful and honored to be included
in this amazing group of women.
My name is Sarah Gibson Tuttle I'm the
founder and CEO of Olive n June.
We are a nail based
in Los Angeles.
We are all about democratizing the salon,
manicure, and pedicure,
so bringing salon perfect nails to everyone,
everywhere and our business really
focuses on making products so that you can.
Easily do a so you know easily
get salon many petty at home.
So our inventions,
which we'll talk about in a second,
but we have some patented patented products.
We also have some trademark product
so we can talk about that as well.
But we have two patented products
that Poppy and the Posey both
which make it so easy for you to
get salon perfect nails at home so
that Posey is for your petty and
the puppy is for your many so super
excited to talk about it further
and very very honored to be part
of this wonderful group.
I will go next so my name is Rea Huntley
and I'm the Founder and CEO of Levi Levi's,
a smart technology company that provides
smart food lockers to restaurants to
optimize their operations and enhance
their customers pick up experience.
So we've created a process that
allows customers to place an
online order at a restaurant,
then receive a QR code via text and email
once their food is ready for pick up.
Once the customer arrives at the restaurant,
they would simply go to the Smart Locker,
scan the QR code,
and the door pops open and retrieve,
retrieve their food, and go.
Which cannot be completed
in 10 seconds or less.
So allow customers to retrieve
their food from orders from an
insulated smart food locker rather
than interacting with staff.
Creates a faster and more efficient
pickup process and provides a
contact less solution for pickup model as
we're still in the midst of a pandemic,
so our solution actually resolved the
frustration were picking up food from
restaurants and it's just one of the
many solutions we plan to implement.
So thank you for being a part of this panel.
I appreciate the opportunity.
Hello everyone, my name is jenaya Griffin.
The commercialiser my company's name
is actually called the commercialiser
are as well but the commercialiser
is the moniker that I go by which is a
registered trademark and So what I do is
a little bit different from these women.
I actually help independent inventors
and institutions monetize their
intellectual assets and really understand
the value of intellectual property,
helping to educate them about the
processes and the different resources
that are available for them too.
Implement because I believe the intellectual
property is equitable to ownership which
is equitable to generational wealth.
So that is what my company focuses
on an I am so excited to be here and
talk to you all about intellectual
property patents and trademarks and
have this wonderful conversation
with all you wonderful woman.
Thank you for having me.
So I want to try to talk more about
how you came up with these great ideas.
Where did this passion come from?
Where did this idea come from?
And this is every day.
I can't wait to hear.
These are such varied inventions and varied
ideas while we start with you, Rea.
OK, so I've always been like a self starter
and very passionate and determined person.
So throughout my career I
worked as a network engineer,
so I've always been like
this analytical thinker.
I am and I love to solve
any challenging problem.
So my ability to really help like put
this idea into perspective really came
from me wanting to solve a problem.
So back in June of 2019 I experienced
my own personal frustration when
picking up food from a restaurant,
a place, an order online,
and then by the time I arrived at
the restaurant. My food wasn't there.
I have to wait in line for an
additional something to say the least.
I'm just calling to think about in 2019.
At that time there have.
To be a better system in place to
make this process more efficient
for not only the customer,
but the restaurant in my background,
like I said, it is within tech,
but I'm not a programmer.
I'm a network engineer,
so I took it upon myself to learn a
little bit of Python programming.
Bought a Raspberry Pi,
a QR code camera,
and a QR code reader and then actually
assembled the first prototype.
So assembled all the electronics.
Went to Lowe's to purchase the wooden.
Assembled the 1st.
Physical prototype in a word form so out
there I thought to myself I needed a
team like this was a great idea at the time.
This was pre pandemic,
so this is before the need
for contact with solution.
So I thought I was on to on to
something so I needed a team to kind
of take this to the next level.
So that's when I brought in my
two partners marcus and James to
kind of help take this idea idea
to the next level and the pandemic
kind of solidified the idea and
the need for contact less solution
within the restaurant industry as
well as other industries.
Great, so if I can just follow up on that.
How did you find this team? Did you?
How did you already know these people?
Like are these your brothers?
No, so so James, him and I actually
worked together before I actually
do consulting as well and he
was building a website for me,
so I knew James for about
almost five years now.
But I knew we had a background in
development and web development,
so I reached out to him.
I'm just going over there to
have a casual conversation,
just being friends about his newborn son.
I'm just told him I had this great idea that
I thought would be a great potential for us.
You know, if they could help me out.
That'll be great,
and he introduced me to Marcus.
So him and Marcus have they
gone to school together, went to
Bowie State University together,
so they've known each other
for over 15 years.
So once I told him about the idea,
he the first person that came to
his mind was marcus and he felt
like that would be the great person
to kind of bring this together and
complete this team and then it should
spend all three of us actually
working together where we're handling
every aspect of the business.
Whether it's fracturing process.
Design of the lockers.
The programming anything cloud based related.
We all can handle based on our
own expertise that we kind of
brings to the table.
So you basically leveraged your work and
your personal networks and they did too.
Yes, they did too.
Yeah,
and then everything that we bring to
the table makes it a perfect team.
Like we all bring a certain piece.
Other aspect that was missing
that I could have if they'll tell
you I'm a person that will figure
it out if I don't know it.
Like I taught myself some
programming so I'll figure it out.
But you can't go fast and go far
without a team so I could call my own.
But I wouldn't have been where
I am right now,
so having a team and leveraging
your networking whatever expertise
they bring to the table helps.
Fantastic, no, that's that's a great story.
Great to hear and typical engineer.
Humble engineer.
That's awesome.
You can't go fast far without a
team like what a quote.
then say then say so Sarah
will move on to to you.
Now that we have you on the mic,
where did this passion come from?
And the passion to develop
this into an invention.
I'm sure everyone listening and also
everyone on this panel has the same
light has had discussion forever.
Whatever you're doing,
you have passion in for like I think
if that is who you are as a person,
I think people are born inventors.
You know like you have this
thing and you have to do it.
So I've had a lot of those things along
the way but for me you know my father,
my uncles and inventor but my father.
and mother both entrepreneurs,
so I think I've always had this like bug
to do something and create something in
the world that is new and that doesn't exist.
When I worked in finance for 10 years
and really wanted to do something different,
I wanted to create something
new and different.
We actually started as a nail salon
chain in Los Angeles and has actually,
you know,
one salon is what we really started as.
And so as we grew that business,
what what?
My natural curiosity and my want to
make people happy then translated
into what is this market look like?
And what we found was that in nails you
know 90% of the industry in the United
States is in services is in salon revenue.
So you have this very small at Home piece.
But if you look at makeup or hair it's
55 or 60% and makeup
is at home and 99% of makeup is at home.
So you just have this like obvious gap is
the last frontier of beauty in in nails.
That hasn't been, you know,
to really hot market, but it hasn't been.
Nothing's been done with it, right?
Like?
At Home,
Nail has been kind of ignored and so I I.
I'm so naturally curious and have this
deep desire to make people happy.
And you know to the point before
like like solving pain points like
I understood that women felt well.
See women, some men but but mostly women,
mostly women category feel like
they cannot paint their own nails.
They feel like they have to go to salons
That's why 90% of revenues were insolent.
So for me,
when I saw people walking out of the
Salon's feeling good, I thought,
how can I scale that? What can I?
How can I get back to everyone and
our salon manicure was 35 starting at $35.
That's in include gels or art,
so it was a pretty, you know,
is it fordable luxury?
But it was still expensive.
And so how do you do truly
democratize something?
How do you bring something?
I didn't create something and give
it to everyone truly, well
You do it by creating
products that you know the
current product.
Before I live in June there on the
market were ascential professional
product on a shelf for a consumer.
So you look at the consumer,
you take the lens and you say, how do I make?
A Polish bottle handle that people
can actually holding both hands,
so they're writing in the left and look
exactly the same when they painted it.
How do I have a foot stand that doesn't
exist right now that translates into it?
You know, a whole system of petty
tools so that people can do there.
They can see their foot when
they're painting it, and so for me,
the passion is.
I've always had it,
but I think as I kind of really was
in the market and was seeing our
customers so happy in the salons,
I thought to myself,
how do I bring this to everyone?
And I think like everyone on this panel
like we want to create something new,
right?
We don't just want to do,
it's been done like that's not that
interesting thing to do that I would
go work for a Rockstar at their
company of things that they've built.
I really have a deep passion for
creating something new and for
really just giving new experiences.
And so for now that's in nails.
That's awesome,
so before we move on to Janeya,
I just want to make an observation.
Both of you thought of
this before the pandemic.
You'd already put this in place.
So the idea that you
should always be prepared,
you should take that Scouts motto
an when opportunity knocks you,
you grab it because you all
are thinking about the future.
You're not just thinking about solving
problems, but this happened to be.
Absolutely.
What folks needed during the pandemic.
So this is this is this is great.
This is just an observation with
respect to solving problems.
Let's move to Janeya because what she
is doing is something that I found in
the course of my research that that
a lot of other people were not doing.
This feels a real hole,
so tell us about that whole and
tell us about how you develop this.
How you found this niche,
and how you decided to.
Respond to that.
Yeah, thank you.
So I graduated from an HBCU,
historically black college University,
go Grantham,
Grambling State University
and I got 2 degrees,
so one in criminal justice and
the other in chemistry with a
concentration in forensic science,
which is completely different
than what I'm doing now.
And So what ended up happening
was I graduated and got into a
program called the Integrated
Technology Transfer Network and it
took STEM students from HBCUs.
And it taught us the business side
of things so that we could basically
translate the technical details into
a value proposition that business
people would be able to understand.
And once I was able to
understand that entire ecosystem,
and like federal laboratories and
technology transfer and how the
government spends uh-huh upwards of
$150 billion every year on taking
technologies and inventions and
basically doing R&D research and
development and commercializing
those technologies.
I I knew that there was a space where
technology could not just be in the lab,
but also in the marketplace.
And I understood from the job that I
have that a lot of people just don't
know what technology transfer is.
So once I connected those dots
and I said hey,
I actually went back to my University
and I said where's our tech transfer
office and they didn't really have one.
They didn't really know what
I was talking about.
And from then I'm just like ok.
Well,
I knew that my passion was
establishing connections so that
problem solving that's connecting
with people that's connecting,
you know,
technologies to a completely
alternative industry than what
it was originally created for.
Once I learned that skill.
So then I said, OK,
well I wanna look at HBCUs,
minority serving institutions
that may not be playing in this
space and I want to teach them
about technology transfer.
I want to help them stand up their
technology transfer programs and
then it actually translated into
my current position where I'm
a contractor at NASA Armstrong
Flight Research Center
and I help them with their
technology transfer as well.
And so maybe in 2000 I wanna say in 15.
I was an executive Board member on
the Federal Laboratory Consortium
and so that's over 350 federal labs
that all practiced at transfer,
and I understood their resources and
then I knew where those gaps were,
and I said, OK,
I'm going to take this to underserved
communities because there's no education
in around intellectual property.
We don't necessarily value
it the way that we should.
And even doing a testimony to
Congress in January of 2020.
I want one diversity and patent.
The research was even made even
more clear that there is a huge
gap that exists because you see
in terms of patent ownership.
When it comes to African Americans,
their six patents per million people
that are that are owned by African
Americans and so that there's just a
huge gap, especially when it comes to.
You know the economics of intellectual
property within within the industry,
and so I also learned that 84%
of the S&B S&P 500 companies,
their value is derived from
patents and intellectual property.
And so I said, OK, well,
if that's where the economics is,
if that's where innovation lies,
if that's where the trends are going,
then I want people who look like me.
I want people who are in
Underserved communities that may not
be able to have access to capital
or access to these resources.
I want to bring that information
to them and that's what I did.
And so I went around the country
and I spoke at every conference
I could at every round table I
could about all of the resources
at the federal labs had about all
the resources that I could find
on technology transfer and the
funding that was available so people
could start getting into tech.
And even if they weren't tech savvy,
they could at least have some sort of
intellectual property that they could
leverage to create their company or
turn their company into a tech based one,
or a tech enabled one.
That's fantastic, that's great that that
is great to hear that you have created
those through a private mechanism,
a public service, a public good.
This is this is amazing to help
support other inventors and in fact.
How the federal government get
out it's huge patent portfolio
to the rest of the world.
That's that's that's great.
One thing I'd like for you to
just mention before we go on to
more questions for everybody Janeya
is about the SBIR STTR program,
because this is something that is
through a mechanism through the SBA
is tech transfer programs that,
I think are broadly.
Underuse because most people
are most inventors,
I find who are single
who are working on their own.
Don't know about these programs.
Most of the people who know about
them are universities right?
At least that I find in my experience.
But could you just say a little
bit about that and how they might?
You might connect them to this program or
how they might get connected to this program,
because it's it's.
It's huge and it can help
businesses scale up,
do what Rea was talking about
because she had the personal
networks she had the Contacts.
The the knowledge base,
the work relationships to be able
to execute this new invention.
Many people don't have that.
Could you tell us just a little
bit about this?
I know this isn't what the session is about,
but I know you have expertise in this,
so could you say just a bit about
the SBIR and STTR programs?
So yes,
and I will not claim to be an
expert in SBIR as in STTR.
But what I do know is that I've
done the research on the different
resources that are available and
this is a lot of the funding that
I do direct people towards into.
Like you know investigating a little
bit more I would even tell Sarah And Rea.
I don't know if they have but
to look for certain.
Grants are certain SBIRs
that might be available to them,
but that what the SBIR is.
The Small Business Innovation Research Grant,
and then the STTR is a small business
tech transfer on research Grant
and so that is specifically focused
for universities so businesses can
actually pair with universities
to go after STTR.
So whether what an SBIR is is
there are eleven.
I wanna say 11 agency that
participate in this program.
There's over $2.2 billion that
is allocated for this program for
small businesses to essentially
help the government solve problems
that they are facing and so they
reach out to industry and they say,
hey,
these are issues that we're looking
to solve or these are problems
that we're looking to solve.
We want industry to help us with that
and we're going to pay you to do that,
and so you know there are three phases.
Some only go up to two phases,
but essentially you have the first phase.
You have the first phase which is.
Really specific on research and
development and then the second
phase goes into actually prototyping
and then you have the third phase,
which is actually the commercialization.
So when in in the case of phase threes
you essentially already have a customer,
which is the government and they
they buy whatever it is that you
developed because that is the solution
that they've been looking for,
but they actually develop help
you to develop it alongside you,
which I think is really great and
the money is non dilutive capital.
You don't have to pay it back.
I would say that they are creating
a much more streamlined process
because they do recognize that for
some small businesses it's very it's
very intensive to fill out an SBIR
application and then really having like
that commercialization aspect as well.
So there's a lot of different grants
that exist that will offset some of the
cost to create a commercialization plan.
And Larta is one of those.
I forget exactly the the the
name of But Lata.
I believe they're they're located in
California, but Don Breaker is another.
They help with the education around.
I'm actually going through their
program right now to just brush up on,
you know,
all of the things that are available so
that I can pass that information along.
But yes, there I like I said,
there's eleven agencies,
but it expands it all.
It goes all the way from HHS to
Department of Energy.
HHS is the health and so then you have
the NIH National Institutes of Health.
There's so many different,
even from education,
right economic development,
EDA,
and so there's so many different
ways that I think you can be
getting this type of funding,
So don't let it limit you to say like, OK,
well, I don't really have any technology.
Sometimes it might not be that sometimes
they're looking for curriculum.
Sometimes they're looking for
Ways,
especially if you're talking about education.
So yeah, little bit about that.
Thank you so much Janeya.
I gotta Matically went into Professor
Mode and I did mean to cold call
idea I I didn't mean to do that
but A plus you pass that test.
Amazing,
so thank you for talking about this
resources because I think they are.
They can be really helpful like you said
and very few people know about them.
I worked on the Department of Energy
Review of the SBIR and STTR and I
think that kind of conversation
we are having is exactly the kind
that needs to take place,
and there are many different needs,
so certainly one to take that into account.
One thing I want to ask you all.
But Janeya it is.
It is somewhat appearance how you
determine what your intellectual
property needs are,
but could you make that explicit?
Could you just give us a short
description of how
you decided to incorporate yourself,
how you decided to develop
your intellectual property,
and how you decided to protect it?
Absolutely. It's a it's like a
cute little story, but you know,
I once I figured out that nobody knew
about tech transfer and I was just like,
OK, I'm making it my mission to.
I like to say, spread the gospel.
And, go around and speak to different you
know communities around the the resources
and subject matter expertise that they
had available for them. I said, well,
I need to have a professional moniker.
I need to have something a professional
profile because I didn't want.
You know, I have fun.
And so I have, you know my.
Mike, I went to college.
I have my college life and then I
have my professional life thing and
the two had blended now obviously.
But I said, you know I want them to
be able to go to one location to be
able to get all of the information
that they need and to follow me
where you know where I may be going.
They can meet up with me.
They can, you know.
Set up book book appointments with me
to talk and so I did and I said well,
what do I do? What do I call myself?
And I'm like you know why
commercialize stuff,
but I'm not the commercialiser and so
that's when I started calling myself
and it wasn't a business at the time.
This was a moniker that I went
by and so I said,
well,
if I'm going to be talking about
the value of intellectual property
and I'm gonna be advocating for
people to own their IP,
then I probably should own mine as well.
And so that's what I did.
And I reached out to a couple of
friends that I knew that were patent
attorneys and they helped me get
a trademark and it was registered.
Its been a minute now I wanna say 2016,
2017 and so
As I was going around and talking to people,
people would ask me like, oh,
do you consult and I was just like.
Sure,
why not and then you know I started getting,
you know,
requested to speaking engagements
and different things like that
and so as that started to come,
I said,
OK,
well I need to have some sort of
like corporate entity because I
don't want to pay all those taxes.
So lot referred or so, so I did.
I incorporated I got my LLC and
then it now has transitioned into
having a business model and now I'm
actually transitioning that into a
software as a service to be able
to provide the back end for tech
transfer offices where I'm going to
help them set up on HBCU campuses.
That's awesome, that's great.
That is a great story. Sarah.
Do you have a trademark and patent and
some other type of intellectual property?
Tell tell us about your intellectual
property needs and how they developed.
Yeah, by the way,
I just like love these two women,
I mean like let's say I mean at
least at least I love you too.
But I just like these to be respectful,
but just keep talking.
I just like sit here forever.
I could be here for four hours so as a
love you as a consumer product brand like
we so we have trademarks for you know,
Logo, brand,
brand marks all of your many etc etc.
And then we have patents and we
have a patent library on not only
the product we currently have.
Out in the world,
which is the poppy like we talked
about that Polish bottle handle
and posy the foot stand.
We also have a bit of a more extensive
patent library of things we haven't
that haven't made it out in the world
yet and we're working on a few others.
Not everything that I'm sure everyone knows.
This is listening.
Not everything that you patent
is actually you can make.
It's a crazy thing.
So you you have this idea and
you hopefully patented.
Or put at least put the application
in as soon as possible.
So that then, and sometimes it just
doesn't fully come to fruition,
so I've had a few of those that I'm
not totally sure if welcome to market,
but they're amazing ideas in my head.
So if the Jetsons like exists, they will.
These ideas that looks just as well,
but the way you know I.
When I first started Olive n June,
I took my savings from finance
and start all of in June.
And then I took on a friends
and family Investor Group.
Not not,
we're not venture capital backed,
but I did have some investment and
so we went to a lawyer straight
away which was like, you know,
fantastic for us,
but not always the case for
everyone that they can, you know,
just hire a lawyer.
So there are a ton of resources that
obviously this organization Janeya
said like there are other resources,
people that you can talk to.
To make sure that you can,
you can you can file for this stuff yourself,
which is like you know, it's just.
It's very, very daunting.
So definitely use the utilized the
resources they know they're going
to share more at the end of this.
At the end this panel, but you know,
I think even if you can find someone,
that's like a look like like a lower cost,
lawyer like ultimately just someone
helping you through the process
is super helpful.
I do feel very grateful and lucky
that that was where I was at,
because I'm I'm really terrible at legal,
so I think that I I would probably
mess something
up, but. I don't think I
to Janeya's point like you.
You get help from friends, right?
You figure it out and you make
sure that you have some sort of
assistance because all of your friends
have different skill sets and so.
But we did go through a lawyer and
we do have trademarks and patents,
and I think ultimately for us like it's not,
it's not really protection of
somebody not stealing your idea,
because ultimately if a bigger
company comes along and steals my
idea my like it's a bit of like just
protection in the world of the nail
world will go crazy 'cause someone
stole my idea and it was patented.
Right, and so it's just.
It's a stake in the ground saying like this
is my first different for my panelists,
partners,
their patents and trademarks work
differently for their businesses I'm sure.
But for consumer products, it's really.
It's about putting a stake in the ground.
Kind of.
It you know, in a way,
you're making a statement to the
world versus like total protection.
And just as an just say one more thing,
sorry I'm going so and so on.
But with someone used like I've
seen people use some of our things
like all of your many and like Aram
Percent and it just depends on your.
It depends on things I have marks on
right so I could absolutely send letters.
It just depends on like do
I really care for another.
If a nail salon use Oliver many no
I kind of think it's cute and I'm
like I think that's fantastic but
let's all be one big community.
So I think as everyone on this call
is like thinking about why there.
Why they're getting IP? Then?
You think about why do you want
it and need it?
And what does it mean to you and your brand?
Because sometimes it's not
about total protection.
Sometimes it's just about making
sure that someone else can't
patent or trademark it around you.
No well said and I think one of the things
that you're pointing out there is that.
Different types of intellectual property
rights protection are complementary,
so you may not need just one,
or you might need just one and
one might be a formal way of
protection of trademark or Copyright.
And then the others might be just visibility.
So that when something goes
awry when somebody infringes,
you can make the decision of whether to
escalate it in one way or formal way,
or escalated in an informal way
that might save a lot more money.
I think it's really incredible to watch.
Coming to America and coming to America,
you know the the fast food chain that
Eddie Murphy's character is working at.
Is is such a knockoff turned out
being advertisement for the real
thing right for McDonald's?
It's it's not even worth pursuing,
you know,
assuming this one person for trademark.
Trademark infringement,
and certainly not Patent friendly 'cause
he tells you that the recipe is different,
right?
100%.
Let's say there's a opii,
like very similarly opi I,
which I'm sure everyone knows,
is a big nail brand.
They have a very.
This is the same, the same kind of idea
they have this very distinct bottle,
an overseas it mostly in Asia like it
gets knocked off all over the place.
They don't mind the,
you know the lore goes that they don't mind
because it makes people think of that bottle.
So when there is a different market they're
buying OK so they don't do anything about it,
but it's very similar.
I concept of like.
Do I want all of your many to be the many
phrase of like how much I love many sure,
so right, right right now.
Good example,
good example an and Rea how about you?
You you went through that process?
What types of intellectual property
protection did you need and at what stage?
OK, so with my background being
in government contracting pretty
much for the past 13 years,
I was completely oblivious as to what
they need to do to protect my idea.
So at the time I had a mentor and
I still do and I ran this past him
because he had just gone through this
entire process of his own invention.
So I brought it to him.
He said it was a great idea and
that I was on to something and that
this day forward going to when I
communicated with anyone I needed to
have a fully executed NDA on file.
In order to protect myself before
we can have initial conversation
and then after that he told me I
needed to start the Provisional
patent application and I had no
idea what a provisional patent was.
So I started to do research.
He explained the entire process.
Refer some actual lawyers that I could
use and then we went through that process.
So we went through file for the
provisional patent back in 2019.
Which gave us time to kind of
figure out how we wanted to.
Implement the idea in kind of
narrow out like the requirements
and everything that we needed,
so we ended up after that.
Within that 12 month period we filed
for the non Provisional patent which
is for the utility and the design.
Yeah, so we're currently utilized to
kind of protect our product and our
brand we take out in. The market.
Now that's that's awesome, and that's that.
That's an awesome story.
There, you all started from
3 very different places,
although today and you have some,
some familiarity with government
contracting in your background.
But you know this information.
Who is leveraged and and different ways.
But it was certainly informative.
Rea How did you get your mentor had added?
You know somebody who knew
something about invention.
So I actually had a business
government contracting,
so I started this business back in
2014 to provide IT consulting services
to federal government's my mentor.
Throughout this entire process has
been helping me to expand that business
where I got the W women owned small
business certification for my business.
I gotta GSA schedule,
so he was guiding me alone that that process,
but he always told me government contracting
was a great route to go down.
But it's all about who you know sometimes,
and that can be very frustrating.
So he pretty much said that if you're in it,
you're in it for the long run.
But if there's something else you want to do,
and you develop an actual product,
that's something that you
control when you own.
You have to say so into that.
So he started having me thinking
about different products.
I can technically develop,
and I was just going from here to here,
trying to think about like what
can be my a-ha moment.
But then I had to have a self
realization moment of a lot of
great businesses are built based on
solving issues and solving problems.
And the next idea that I came up
with had to be a real issue in a
real problem to actually solve.
I've known my mentor for the
longest and he's helped guide
me throughout this process.
Met him through one of my friends who
thought he would be a great mentor for me.
He's helped shape my career and
provide that backbone support for
especially things like this when it
came to the patent that I just didn't
know and I just wasn't aware of it,
because this wasn't my industry that I
was known for its government contracting
I was learning that and new.
Just about everything I could know,
but when it came into developing a product,
getting a Patent and understanding that process,
I truly relied on him to provide that
information or just a person at that.
I can bounce questions off of in
case I needed some type of clarity.
That's that's awesome.
And the reason I was asking this
question is because a lot of
my research is about how these
networks are created an leveraged,
and how folks get access to them.
So that's why I wanted to
know about your mentor in it.
It's great that you leveraged your
personal networks again and listen
to the advice of your friends
to suggest personal mentors.
That's that's that's fantastic.
That's a great story.
So I'm going to give it back
to something else
that we were already talking about,
and that was a pandemic.
I, I guessed in terms of how
applicable your technologies are
to this environment and your
businesses to this environment,
but could you tell us something
about this explicitly?
And I'm going to start with
with Janeya on this one for Janeya?
How has your business
changed during the pandemic?
Well, what I mentioned earlier
about transitioning into a software
as a service platform company.
Essentially, I was just consulting and
so once the pandemic hit a lot of the
conversations that I was having with HBCU.
kind of came to a halt and it was
just like, OK, So what am I gonna do?
I'm not sure you know I had.
I have a team and so I did end up getting.
You know, the PPP and so that was
really helpful, but I think you
know afterwards it was just like,
OK, I wanna figure out how to make
this sustainable because that's
where my focus is on is.
How do I help HBCU create a sustainable
ecosystem with technology transfer
intellectual property at the core of
that and so really just thinking about.
Well, there's only one of me right?
And so like.
If the pandemic is going to create
a space where you know I'm not going
to actually be able to go out and
consult and do these different things,
then you know I would.
I just had to figure out something
in terms of like what's a long term
strategy in a way that I would be
able to help a lot of people at the
same time or a lot of institutions
at the same time.
So yeah,
I I essentially said OK.
Well if I do some sort of like
software platform or management
platform then I can go in.
I can implement it and then just move
on to the next University in the next
institution or the next person and
really just have that running in the
background and some place where they
can go to really help them continue
to foster that sustainability.
Once I educated them about what
they needed to do. So yeah.
And then I also got another contract
which was great because you know,
obviously in the wake of the pandemic.
George Floyd was murdered and
then there wasn't an uprising.
And you know,
a lot of issues were really
coming to the forefront.
And so I started working with
Baylor College of Medicine.
They have a Trish program.
It's called the Translate Translation
Research Institute for Space Health
and they are looking to connect with
people of color looking to connect
with more diverse applicants or
diverse entrepreneurs that would
Be interested in actually translating
their products for space applications
and so with that I think it was
a really great opportunity and
so it's not quite tech transfer,
but it is really connecting people
with resources and funding around
how they can further develop
their technologies and continue
innovating in those spaces.
No awesome awesome.
Rea how about you?
How did the pandemic affect
you and your business?
So I would say every tech startup
has its own set of challenges
when launching a new product,
specially in an unproven market.
But in 2020 we never expected
to launch outsmart food lockers
in the midst of a pandemic.
So like many others, we were forced to
like adapt our existing operations.
As a result,
we had to build, test,
and deploy a new product within the
restrictions of like social distancing,
which
Kind of helped and hurted us at
the same time because we were like
hey we have this perfect idea
But restaurants at this time are
suffering their own current issues
and a lot of restaurants actually
weren't prepared to convert over
to a strictly takeout model.
So just imagine having this great
idea and you're in the faces of
restaurant owners who really don't
want to speak to you nor be around
you because of social distancing.
Just kind of trying to convince them to say,
hey,
I know you're dealing with
your own set of issues,
but I have this perfect product that can
help you a lot of restaurant owners.
Weren't accepting at that time
due to everything that they were
trying to get under control,
but then once things started to calm down,
they realized how efficient a
product like ours would make
their pick up process and a lot
of restaurants are actually trying
to improve this process by doing
like a bookshelf or an open table,
but those solutions introduce other issues.
So now you're introducing that
lack of security.
As well as order accuracy so some
restaurants could deal with theft
or just someone accidentally
taking the the wrong food,
and that's why I solution
like I was actually provides.
A better process,
whether in the midst of a pandemic
or outside of the pandemic,
so just having a smart locker
solution that we were trying to put
out was it was a great solution,
but almost bad timing to target
our target market.
So we feel like even before the pandemic,
this was a great idea.
But now restaurant owners once
things are starting to settle down,
realize the importance of having
a smart lock solution to optimize
that pick up even past the pandemic.
I feel like a lot of people,
including myself,
will still be hesitant about
picking up food from restaurants,
especially if it's sitting
on open table there.
More so concerned about how they retrieve
their food from a restaurant now.
And I don't think many people
thought about those things away
before the pandemic.
No, that's awesome. That's awesome.
Sarah, what about you?
How did the business change?
I was also gonna say like just the ability
to know your food is where it is right.
Like just being like OK I'm coming
to I know where it is like it's
not going to be on the table.
I want to talk to anyone
like I can just like zoom in,
zoom out it's pretty great.
For for Olive in June the we
launched our many system so that
all in one everything you need to
do your own nails at home your many.
At home we launched that many system
a year prior to the pandemic,
so it's it's always like everyone's like,
oh, you pivoted to at home nails
'cause we have salons right?
So we did salon product line.
At the time we've we've obviously
since close their salons and you know,
kind of a question mark for the
future for them.
But so we didn't have it,
but it was.
You know it was a business that was.
Kind of like the little sister
business to our salon business and so
obviously it's become the focus as we have,
you know,
as we have gone through the pandemic,
I think I had a grand vision of
I'm going to teach everyone in the
world to paint their own nails
an I thought Salon clients.
At least they could fix chips,
but the vast majority of this
country in the world most people
like can't afford a weekly mani.
So I'm going to give this to them.
I'm gonna teach everyone how
to paint their nails,
they they so like makeup and hair.
They have the ability to do it themselves
which no one felt like they had in nails.
So to then go through a pandemic
where people were forced.
If they cared enough to do it themselves,
we now have a very vibrant and
large community of people that are
like this is so easy.
How did I not know how to do this?
So an like thank you for solving this
problem with this system with this kit.
This all-in-one kit I don't
have to think about it.
I'm not going to a drug store and
trying to figure out what what
I need and what I don't need.
Like what's fluff and what's real so.
The pandemic has given us the
ability mean we went live Instagram
live for seven weeks in a row.
And for so 49 days of Instagram live,
which is a lot.
But we went live in like taught
everyone and just for a constant
form of entertainment.
And honestly like we just kind of ad hoc did.
It were like let's just do it.
Let's go live looks like hang out
with people and what we've created
which was so just organic and
honestly from my heart of like a
community of people that like now
they hang out with each other.
They set, they set each other up.
They like they sent Polish to each other.
I mean they do crazy things for one
another and it's an amazing thing.
So you know this has been this shiny.
This has been the best.
The shiny part right for me of the
pandemic as it's been an incredibly
hard time for people and to have
anything feel good is been really
this community and I get daily DMs
like I I probably got like 100 times
a day but I get so many people just
showing me there are many and saying
you like this last for seven days.
It says long tailed Hapiness and
you've given that to me an like
thank you and also I tell them
sometimes they have problems.
The product that is how many you get.
It's very pandemic really
Is given this community,
you know,
a real like a home and so it's just been.
It's been the brightest part of a very,
very tough year.
The one thing I would say too is that
we we closed our salons so that part of
our business was incredibly difficult.
Yeah,
but we were able to take all of our supplies
and give them to all of our manicures,
another doing at home services,
and frankly like it's better for
them in a lot of ways, right?
It's financially better for them.
It gives them schedule flexibility and then
they have supplies for one to two years so.
You know to get them so that they can be,
you know,
as as we are forging their own path,
which is a fantastic thing to give someone
any sort of help and assistance on that,
right?
It'll be scaled and amazing so.
No what?
What a great story and what a great silver
lining either I I'm thinking about the.
chutzpah for that it takes to get
on Instagram live and to do these
things and to do this or 49 days.
I am scared of you.
Well, versus are you going to do
versus with some of your manicurist?
Yeah, exactly exactly.
I don't know that took like that.
I don't know.
It's like.
I wish I was that funny or cool.
No,
I have to say major shout out to my
director of content who went live with me.
We did like split screen that
sometimes we are in person together.
When we were able to be we kind of
quarantined a little bit there for awhile.
She was absolutely and you know
to the point before right?
It's the team is the team and like she
was absolutely incredible of being like.
Let's do this this week.
Let's do a whole week of nail art and
and just it was really really fun.
Her name is Olivia and she's.
Listening like she really is like a bright,
just a bright star.
So and we share the same birthday,
so she's obviously perfect.
Well, this is this is all great this is,
you know this is really organic
innovation like you saw a problem
all of you so a problem and then
figured out how to solve it.
Brought a team together,
listen to advice and then deployed
and then build out a team even
more I'm I'm so impressed.
So we have a question from the chat.
So Janeya discussed the percent of.
Ivy Inventorship belonging
to African Americans.
She wants to know if the person
wants to know if there's a.
If there are data with respect to
the percent ownership of other ethnicities.
For example, Asian Americans.
Would you happen to have
those statistics handy?
Would you happen to know?
So let me think I know for I don't,
I don't know specifically that was awhile
ago that we did that I pulled that data,
but I do know it was six
patents for African Americans,
325 for white people,
and then not exactly too sure
for Asian Americans.
But if you do Google,
I have my testimony it has.
It's all in there.
You can just Google diversity in
patents and that will come up.
Or you can just Google.
You know how many patents are
owned by Asian Americans in that
information will come up as well.
Am I know USPTO has been doing a
lot of work around this and pulling
together a lot of reports and data
on just getting those diversity
numbers intact and so that was the
whole point of the testimony and me
Testifying on diversity in patents.
But yeah, the the data is out there.
I was surprised when I learned about
it too and the way that I broke it
down to to have like a visual was,
you know,
if you took if it's per million people,
that means you could take 13 NFL stadiums.
That's a million seats.
Only six of those were for black
people and 325 or for others,
and so it just you know it gives you that.
It allows you to just visualize that.
The big problem that exists in that big gap.
But yeah, I hope that was helpful.
Yeah,
and whoever had that question
if you wanna DM me,
I'll send you the testimony
and the data and all that where
you can find that information.
I love, I love your generation.
Clearly I'm a bit older and I've been
doing this research for some time.
You cannot Google what share of
patents belong to Asian Americans?
Even ten years ago you couldn't do that.
You could not. You couldn't.
Google share patents belong to women.
Or or or trust that most women were captured,
right?
Yeah, so so captured in the in the data,
so I appreciate your your
testimony and that's that's funny.
I do the same thing.
I refer to it I I do a lot of
additional research for testimony
before Congress and certainly
refer people to it all the time.
So thank you for that.
Thank you for that testimony and
something I'll say is just a
They give Doctor Cook her Flowers right now.
A lot of my testimony came
from that woman right there.
All of her research and her work.
I have studied her.
I have looked up all of her
stuff and I was blown away,
though by the work that Doctor Cook did,
so don't let her be so humble.
At late,
and I could say I was gonna say
something similar which was like
Lisa can you tell can I'm gonna
ask a question like I'm like I'm in
the eyes can you help me with what you
were telling us about the GDP impact
of women like more patents by women,
but most importantly, much more importantly
more patents by women of color.
Well, it's funny you all should
ask because just today,
just today the Biden administration
announced this new plan and I was going to.
This is going to be the last question,
but now that you've teed it up,
let me bring me too.
Perfect, perfect. You know.
Every professor loves to be able
to say I'm glad you asked that.
So so here we are.
You have the daily double.
Let me find my.
Find the note here.
OK, so the.
This is from the American jobs
plan that was announced today
and this is for infrastructure
and one of the elements is this.
It is to eliminate racial and
gender inequities in research
and development and science,
technology, engineering and math.
Discrimination leads to less innovation.
One study found that innovation in the
United States will quadruple if women,
people of color and children
from low income backgrounds,
and then it at the rate of
groups who were not held back by
discrimination and structural barriers.
Persistent inequities in access to R&D
dollars and two careers an innovation.
Industries prevents the US economy from.
Reaching its full potential,
this is, I mean, I.
I almost cried when I saw this.
President Biden is calling on Congress
to make it $10 billion R&D investment
at HBCUs today is shout out to you,
another msis minority serving institutions.
He's also calling on Congress to
invest $15 billion in creating
up to 200 centers of excellence
that serve as research incubators.
HBCUs another msis to provide graduate
fellowships and other opportunities
for underserved populations,
including through pre college program.
So I hope that they will incorporate
and doing this and augmenting
this infrastructure.
I hope they all incorporate
tech transfer Janeya also.
I as I learn more about that,
I'll certainly forward more,
but the precise statistic
that you are talking about,
Sarah,
is that my Co author,
Yang and I calculated that
with more women and African Americans
participating in the innovation
economy from the very beginning,
from the earliest stages we could get
between 0.6% and 4.4% higher GDP per capita.
So it benefits everybody,
not just the individuals like this.
This participation doesn't just help those
people who were are participating in it,
it can help them.
Certainly with STEM degrees and with
inventions that are commercialized,
people can be a lot wealthier.
They can have a lot higher income,
but the spill overs that's what we're
talking about for the entire economy.
My folder.
Search it.
And I would say service and public
service has recently been focused on
making sure that those those frictions
Between ideas and from getting ideas
from the lab or from one's head,
you've heard about all these ideas
and and various heads out in the
world and two commercialization
reducing those frictions.
Whether this is embodied in
workplace climate or in some form of
discrimination racial, gender ableist.
Discrimination.
I've been trying to help minimize that
to augment the free flow of ideas,
because as you all demonstrate,
ideas can come from anywhere.
They can come from any quarter and
there's so many problems to solve.
There's no shortage of problems, right?
So there's no shortage of solutions
and for what you all are articulating,
I can see the trajectory,
or at least a trajectory.
For each of your endeavors,
like for the future,
for the post Pandemic future,
there's so many things that one
could pursue as a as a follow on
to what you're already doing,
and I think that's just so exciting.
And by the way I am.
I am really impressed.
Saying that,
you all didn't say and then that's
going to be my next question.
Is that all you all have hustle?
Like you know this is this is
this is this is incredible.
This is this is just like you know,
my undergraduate RA's kind of
hustle just like I'm gonna get
this done and I'm going to see
this through and I think it is a
trait that I've noticed about
The inventor is not just the
inventors who just get a patent
for example that those who
commercialize the invention like it.
It takes a lot of steps to
put everything together.
You all are are talking about this.
You couldn't just do one thing.
There are many steps to put together
and then those steps are evolving.
For Janeya do you apply for a PPP loan
and did did you all apply as well?
By chance that.
I mean it's it's OK, OK?
But this is that.
That's a that's a complex
process in and of itself,
and she's reacting to the pandemic.
So just making sure that the
knowledge flow is happening,
that you're getting information
from as many places as you
can about how to survive.
'cause it's not just about opening a
business or getting the product to market,
it's about sustaining it,
whether it's through Instagram
live or through many visits to
restaurant owners to hesitate.
Restaurant owners it's a big deal,
so I just mentioned something
about resources.
Could you all tell us some of
the resources that you found
useful and that you would like
to share with other people?
Why don't we start with you?
Rea.
So starting out one of the resources
that I utilized a lot was this
website called Fiber an on fiber.
You can outsource a lot of work at
a very reasonable rate as well.
You can get logo designs,
you can get 3D CAD drawings,
any additional services you might need,
so literally.
For my business,
all the 3D mockups that I had
of this locker in my head,
I had an actual engineer
designing for me on Fiber.
And that's at an extremely low cost.
If I were to go to a different company,
so utilizing on the Internet and
some of the resources that they
have to kind of jumpstart your
idea and give you that foundation,
I will recommend that you utilized
anything that you can outsource
that work out too.
That way you don't feel pressured to
try and learn it and do everything,
but outsourcing some of that
works like sites like Fiber and
Upwork can definitely help you.
So so, but with humility, I guess that's
that those are the traits that I have
noticing among the three of you hustle.
But with humility you can't do everything.
Correct, OK, I'm done done project
that is just like a dissertation.
A done dissertation is better.
No dissertation centered on
project is better than no project.
So yes, good, alright?
What about you, Sarah?
Other resources that you use.
We have or what is it good? Is it perfect?
Is the enemy of good, right?
I'm like what is it?
Work is fantastic.
We absolutely use freelancers and if you
need a big project like you need a logo,
unique branding and you
can't afford a big agency,
you need to find that that local resource,
whether they work on trade or otherwise,
where you are just being you.
Just being mindful of your cash and what
you have and trying to make sure that
sometimes it's equity if it's going
to be a really big long term partner.
Obviously that's the most
expensive way you can do it,
but it's if you don't have the
cash you have to be super resourceful.
So I also frankly went down to my bank.
And the bank to bank.
Diane was like you're going to tell
me everything I want to know about
stuff and so I think you know to the
hustle and the drive and the passion.
And just like just taking everyone in your
network and not being afraid to ask for help.
Not being afraid to say I need something
you are going to get turned down.
You know, I asked,
I'm gonna be my advisor and they can't
technically beyond being an advisor
to anything that's not pro bono,
but they're incredibly helpful to me and
consistently come to me with ideas, etc.
And they're not looking official advisor,
but.
I've gotten more, you know, ideas.
An introduction from that person,
then some of my other real advisors
so you know you ask the question,
ask for help, ask for people to be involved.
Do not be afraid, and and I think,
also pushed on people who should
be helping you and may not know
that you need the help,
because I think if anything we
learned anything in the last year.
Is that not enough people,
especially people of color but
not of people period, like women,
especially as well.
Like have access to what they
should have access to.
And start leaning on people DM DM us.
You know, like as you know at least,
is like what's the end but it's
like get in touch with us like
like get in touch with the people
that you know can help you and ask
because people constantly ask me
for help and if I can't get on the
phone I will do an email.
Do email Q&A with people.
We're here like people need to be.
We need to be supporting one
another and answering questions
whenever possible because
this is an ecosystem.
So don't be afraid.
Just ask the question.
The worst someone does ignore your.
Request and say no.
That's right and and and no,
it's typically know right now, right, right?
Gotta keep gotta keep at it,
you know and and and I'll add on to that.
You know, when I started doing this research,
I was told that if I were to study
women and African Americans in patenting
that I would never get tenure.
But I would never get tenure and this is from
senior women economists imminent magnetic,
honest and I said,
you know, it's strange.
Like why did I learn all this stuff
like I should be using these tools
to find where the gaps are like
there could be so many more people
contributing to this endeavour
and for this to be turned into the
Success Act and the Idea Act for
me is just humbling right to to be
turned into legislation which says.
There was a real hole, right?
So so we have to be much more.
You know, we have to be like you,
all courageous. This is courageous.
You have an idea and you pursue that idea.
You had some hustle and you saw
it through and I think that's
just that's so commendable.
One of the questions that we've
gotten is what is the one thing
you wish you had been told when
starting your innovation journey
that you want to share with others?
Why don't we start with you Rea?
I guess they're trying to raise funding.
Wouldn't be this hard.
So I always heard there's an ocean behind
African Americans having issues with trying
to raise funding for their business.
And like my companies in a position
where we have, we have customers,
we have our lockers and restaurants
within DC, Maryland, Texas,
and we just secured another location
in Indiana, but to investors.
That's not enough, you know.
They want more traction,
but to get traction, you need funds.
So we've been bootstrapping our
business up until this point.
I mean, we're going to continue to
bootstrap it until we can secure
the investment from an investor,
but I wish someone would have told
me the truth behind funding and
how difficult it can be at times.
So too I have a question in a comment
and let me make the comment first.
1% of all VC funding goes to
African American founders.
.2% goes to African American women founders.
An 5% goes to women founders,
so so you know,
you know we didn't know each other then Rea.
But I I wouldn't have articulated
that to you because that could
have discouraged you right? And?
And by the way, it seems yeah,
I have an idea that involves Chick-fil-A.
OK. Atlanta, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. I really just kidding.
How did you, when you say bootstrapping?
First let me back up there.
What do you mean?
I'm not sure everybody knows
what bootstrapping is.
OK,
so bootstrapping is taking your own personal
funds and investing it into the business.
So we've invested about 60,000 of our own
funds into the business to get to this point.
So is this the profit
from the business or its?
This is like your savings savings.
So savings taken to put into the business
and that's developing the prototype.
That's marketing that's purchasing lockers.
Everything like that.
We've taken our own personal savings because
we are still working full time as well,
putting it into the business
to get it to this point, right?
I just I just want to make it clear.
You're going to your ATM? correct.
I'm taking money out of my personal private.
I I got it now. I said a few vacations,
right, right, right, right.
Right, right, right?
So I understand now and is that still so
bootstrapping is what you're doing now.
What has,
let's say your mentor in finance
suggest that you do next,
like given the statistics related to VCs.
What do people counsel?
Entrepreneurs like you to do if
the if the VC horizon doesn't
look good for any of you,
frankly,
then what do you being counselled to do?
Pitch competitions or or what?
Yeah so pitch competition and you
can look at loan financing.
Just different options.
That way a lot of VC's that we
spoken to pretty much will tell
us we're not in a position where
they can make that investment yet
because we haven't had that traction.
But in order to get traction
you need to have customers.
But you need to have more money,
so it's like the the money we've
invested hasn't allowed us to gain the
attraction that we need the business.
So we're hardware.
Plus software based company.
A lot of tech startups
nowadays are strictly software,
so having a 60,000 investment would
actually take them a lot further than
a $60,000 investment with a company
like ours where we incorporate both.
So being as though we've invested so much,
it hasn't allowed us to grow
where we need to grow to
Entertain those investors so
therefore the pitch competitions,
the grants different things like
that are our next best option
in order to continue to grow.
Unless we find that right investor
or Angel investor that believes in
the vision so much that they can
see past the fact that where a new
startup and we're slowly gaining that
traction but just not at a point where
A commercializing balance with him
at this point. OK OK now thank you.
Sarah, what about you?
What's the one piece of advice that you,
somebody you wish someone would
have told you at the beginning
of your innovation journey?
I'm also like let's take
that conversation offline.
I have some thoughts 'cause I have.
I do have some Angel investors,
so I'm like let's have that.
Let's have that convo and I'm very hopeful
that they invest the investment focus.
I think there has been a
shift in the last year.
I think there has been a shift last
few years for women generally,
but in the last year for women of
color I'm very focused on that and
myself as like an Angel like very
small Angel investor but also as
someone who is like how to how to how
we build these networks are reconnecting.
But I'm hoping that the institutional
investor community will wake up because
Even even me walking into a room,
the questions that I'm asked are
they start from a place of no.
And we have to everyone on this
panel is so freaking impressive.
Like come on,
we have to start from a place
where everyone gets the same place.
If everyone gets a place of no,
that's fine, but it's not that way.
And then you have these repeat serial
entrepreneurs who are white men.
It's like, I wonder why that happens.
Will they keep getting funded?
So anyway? What's my sorry?
I guess I've got forever.
What is my sorry?
The question is what was my biggest hurdle?
Sorry Lisa, I lost it.
A resource she would share with people.
That you would have been told that
you would like to have been told.
Sorry I want to get mad about that.
I just can't stop.
I think that.
I think I think similarly that it's
not like Instagram and this world
has become like everything is glossy
and everything is like you are a one
hit wonder and happens in one day.
You launch your product and you are
sold to some conglomerate in life
is perfect and I think these stories
are wrapped up in a bow for us.
It's like the founder of Spanx
like just like wanted to like.
Figure out something for for
women and then she created it.
Now she's you know billionaire and I
think that these stories are wrapped up
and then you will start listening to what?
It took and she went to 17 till
like 20 manufacturers before anyone
would pay attention to her and
then she did a small running like
all the things I think right?
Like these things are not built in
a day and they're not splashy
glossy and they're hard and there
are so many nos and as as an
entrepreneur as as an inventor,
you or someone who's going to go
through like serious like peaks
and serious valleys and you have
to want it more than you want
anything else in the world.
But if you do it, you will.
If you have a husstle and the
drive you can get there.
You can figure it out whether I
wanted to be the driver for nails,
but now we're going to be now we're
going to democratize the salon,
manicure, pedicure.
Like you know you you you change right,
you pivot you,
we view,
you adjust but it's not glossy and
I wish someone the resource for me.
You just been someone that could
give me a pep talk every day and say
it's not going to be easy everyday.
It's just not. And somebody like thats
ok because I think.
You go into this having read all the
articles and be like I'm gonna be the
next X and this is going to be great.
Hard. Right, right, right?
Right now, that's really good advice,
really,
good advice and finally to close this out.
Janeya,
what would you like to have been told
at the beginning of your innovation
journey that you weren't told?
So two things,
so one from a mental standpoint,
is that you know everything that was
happening was gonna happen for me.
Like regardless of like what was
coming at me or what kind of hurdle
was coming up to like it was there
because it needed to be there.
And at the end I was gonna be OK.
Like 'cause, you know we we stress
so much and we worry so much about
like Oh my gosh how am I gonna make
it was gonna happen and then like oh
and you're here and that's something
far in the past that you can now talk
about and give your experience on so
just that from a mental standpoint.
And then because I went to college and
Just understanding and seeing all
the resources that we pay for
that come in our tuition.
I wish somebody would have told
me to leverage that that those
free resources will not free,
but you know,
the resources that come with the
college tuition that I'm paying for.
To the best of my ability,
because then I probably would
have focused more on like OK,
what are the resources that I have access to?
And now how can I take those and solve
problems within within my community?
Because I've always been a problem solver.
I've always tried to.
Connect the dots and figure things out,
but if I would have known about the
resources that I had access to long before.
I had access to them now I think I
probably would have been a lot further.
Awesome, thank you all so much.
These are just incredible stories.
You've lived incredible lives.
You're adding so much to the
world you are such an inspiration.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
I'm going to turn it back over to
the USPTO folks who have brought
us this great conversation.
Thank you doctor Cook.
I didn't want this panel to end. my name
is Nathanya Ferguson, I'm the manager
here at the Office of Innovation.
I also want to thank Doctor Cook Sarah
Rea Janeya for the rich conversation
and sharing your personal stories
and information to help other women
become successful entrepreneurs.
I think this conversation is a reminder
of the importance of intellectual
property and how we take our ideas
from concept to commercialization.
We're not just solving our individual
problems were providing solutions
to people around the world,
that creating jobs and ultimately
improving the American economy.
As mentioned earlier,
with Drew's introduction,
we have so very excited to offer
a women's entrepreneurship program
every week in March and celebration
of Women's History Month.
We hope you have been able to join
us for the last four programs and you
have learned from our distinguished
panelists consisting of successful women,
entrepreneurs,
inventors and subject matter experts
from both industry and government.
But if you weren't able to attend or
you missed a portion of a program,
you can view the playlist of all.
Of our Women's Entrepreneurship
Symposium on the USPTOs YouTube page and
please share the playlist with others.
They may find the content to be helpful.
We hope to have the recording
for today's event posted soon.
While we have shared various
resources during previous programs,
I want to share two more USP TIO resources
that are free and available to you.
Next slide, please.
First, the USPTO assistance centers.
If you have general questions about
the Patent and Trademark processes,
such as how to start with form drive,
fill out the Patent and Trademark
assistance centers are here to help you.
If they don't have the answer,
they will connect you with
the appropriate USP.
Teal personnel are assistant centers.
Representatives are available
Monday through Friday,
8:30 AM to 8:00 PM,
except for federal Holidays.
For more information about our inventors.
Assistance Center,
you can visit their webpage at
uspto.gov/inventor assistance
For more information about our
Trademark Assistance Center.
You can visit USPTO forward
slash TM assistance. Next slide.
The second resource is are
USPTO locations web page.
There are lots of resources and
assistance to make filing for a
patent or registering for a trademark
easier and more affordable by by
using the USPT locations page.
You can select your state,
define free legal assistance for filing
a patent or registered a trademark.
You can also find a registered
patent attorney or agent.
An inventor and entrepreneur.
Organization in your state and also
which is not stated here on the slide.
You can also find a Patent and
Trademark Resource Center or centers
are staffed with information experts
trained on how to use search tools to
access patent trademark information.
You can access this page.
We are home page at uspto.gov and
clicking on your or clicking on
the USB Tio in your region box.
Or you can enter USP Tia locations
in the search
box at the top right of the page. Next slide.
So we're excited to announce two programs
that are actually happening tomorrow.
We have two great programs,
both free, both virtual.
Of course, one is an innovation
chat focused on creating innovators
hosted by our National Council for
expanding American innovation.
The other, hosted by our
Midwest Regional Office,
which will offer current and aspiring
entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn
more about intellectual property basics,
an helpful resources to assist
them with building a business.
For links to these and other free virtual USB
teal programs please visituspto.gov/events.
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Thank you for attending today's
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