April 25, 2025 • 48 mins
Join Aaron Moncur as he interviews Scott Putnam, an expert in guiding inventors through the complex journey of bringing products to market. Scott shares insights from his 15+ years of experience coaching over 500 inventors, discussing strategies for product development, licensing, and successful commercialization.
Main Topics:
- Challenges Engineers Face in Marketing Products
- Licensing vs. Venturing Product Strategies
- Intellectual Property Considerations
- Market Research Techniques
- Effective Product Pitch Strategies
About the guest: Scott Putnam is a leading product development and licensing expert, known for helping inventors bring their ideas to market. As founder and CEO of Inventor's Edge, he provides coaching, courses, and community support tailored to inventors. With degrees in education and business and experience as a coach and instructor, Scott blends academic insight with practical guidance. He’s the inventor of the Swat-N-Scoop and a contributor to Entrepreneur.com, sharing advice on licensing and innovation. He also hosts the Inventor’s Edge Podcast, where he interviews industry professionals and offers insights for aspiring inventors. Based in Dubuque, Iowa, he advocates for wellness and balanced living while continuing to mentor inventors worldwide.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Putnam (00:00):
What you're doing is becoming an expert in the
category. You want to know allof the other products, all the
other types of carrot peelers.
What are their price points?
What brands are they? So thatyou can speak to how is your
product different? What is yourpoint of difference? What makes
yours better than what's outthere? You music.
Aaron Moncur (00:31):
Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of
The being an engineer Podcast.
Today, we are speaking withScott Putnam, a seasoned product
licensing and venturing coach,creator of the innovative SWAT
and scoop and founder ofinventors edge, a platform
dedicated to guiding inventorsfrom concept to market with over
a decade of experience, Scotthas personally coached more than
(00:55):
500 inventors, helping themnavigate the complexities of
product development andlicensing. As a contributor to
entrepreneur.com and host of theinventors edge podcast, he
shares valuable insights andsuccess stories to inspire and
educate aspiring innovators.
Scott, welcome to the show.
Unknown (01:16):
Hey. Thanks so much.
Aaron, glad to be here.
Aaron Moncur (01:19):
Yeah, I've been looking forward to this, because
we talk, obviously aboutengineering and what it's like
to be an engineer a lot, and Iknow for sure. I mean, I know a
lot of engineers out there whoare inventors themselves, right?
They have a side hustle wherethey're taking their their
skills, their engineeringskills, and developing their own
(01:39):
products and trying to sellthose products. So I think a lot
of listeners are going to bereally interested in the the
advice and the insight that youcan give from from your side of
the from your side, you know,coaching inventors on licensing
and selling their products. Soanyway, well, we'll get into
that. Maybe you can. You cangive us a brief background you
(02:03):
know, kind of your history andwhat led you to to start
inventors edge and and kind ofwhat the platform is and how
it's evolved over the years.
Yeah,
Scott Putnam (02:14):
absolutely I appreciate that I've been in the
kind of the inventing andproduct development space for
over 15 years, and I've beenactively coaching inventors and
entrepreneurs full time for thepast eight years, and a lot of
the with a different companybefore I started inventors edge,
(02:38):
and I've worked with so manyengineers, and There are some of
my favorite people to work with,because they're so methodical
about things, and they thinkthrough things so well. And then
I have to kind of stretch themwhen we start talking about,
like, the marketing side ofthings, and it's almost like oil
and water. And I have a lot ofways I can help them, you know,
(02:58):
ease them into that pool alittle bit what I was seeing,
you know, over the years ofcoaching, it was strictly a
licensing model, where youcreate a concept, maybe have
some prototypes, and you youknow, you create some marketing
materials and get it out infront of companies for
licensing. And there were a lotof people who really wanted to
(03:21):
go a little further. They'relike, well, what if? What about
venturing? What if I wanted tobring this to market myself and
just get it on Amazon or get itinto retail? And it wasn't
something that we did, but it'ssomething that I've done. And so
the timing was good for me.
After eight years and workingwith over 500 people from around
the world, it was time for me tospread my wings a bit, and part
(03:42):
of what led to that was I wascoaching people on really
getting out of their comfortzone and facing fears and
stretching themselves.
Meanwhile, I was getting to apoint where I was all kind of
warm and snuggy in my owncomfort zone, so I really needed
to put myself out there, and sowe decided to go all in and, you
(04:06):
know, create inventors edge,where we have podcasts, we also
have online courses, and we doone on one coaching and
membership program. And so we'rewe jumped into the deep end, but
it's been great, fantastic.
Aaron Moncur (04:21):
Now, talk to me a little bit about you mentioned
engineers are very methodicalduring the development process,
but once it gets to, like thesales and the marketing, you
mentioned oil and water right tojust polar opposites, they do
not attract. Talk a little bitabout that, maybe, if you have
an example of it, and then what?
What are some, what are somemindsets that engineers should
(04:45):
have when it comes to sales andmarketing that maybe just don't
come naturally to us? Yeah,
Scott Putnam (04:53):
it's such a great topic. We could talk for hours
on this. One of the biggestthings that engineers, I think,
hate. To hear is good enough.
It's just like, whoa. There's nogood enough. I have to make sure
it's perfect or nothing. Yeah,it's 100% spot on or zero. And
when it comes to marketing, it'sa little bit of a different
(05:14):
game. Good enough is good enoughwhen you when you're talking
about marketing, and one of thethings that I see a lot of
inventors who are engineersespecially, get trapped in to
this mindset that it has to beperfect, and I have to perfect
my prototype. I have to test itand iterate it and test it and
(05:34):
iterate it and make sure it'sabsolutely 100% perfect and
works every time. Before I couldeven think about letting it out
of the box and through coaching,it's like, Well, how long is
that? You know, people spendyears doing this. Meanwhile, if
the product looks good or wecould get a rendering, you know,
(05:54):
make a make it look good onpaper, maybe your prototype
would look fine in, you know, ina video showing it proof of
concept, showing it working.
Maybe you still need to iteratea little bit or put some final
touches on it, but you can stillget it out in front of companies
to see if there's even anyinterest, instead of waiting two
(06:16):
or three years to perfect andonly to find out nobody wants
it. So, yeah, it does take somecoaching. And it's, it's really
fun for me. I've worked with somany engineers. It's, it's fun
for me to teach them the ideathat it's okay, that is good
enough. Let's move to the nextstep. We can always come back
and perfect it. You know, oncewe know we have some solid
(06:37):
interest, nice.
Aaron Moncur (06:40):
How about are there different platforms or
specific tools that you havefound useful for marketing a
product? Let's actually, let'sback up just a minute here. So
I'm sure the the path forwardfor licensing is very different
than the path forward forselling it yourself on Amazon or
(07:01):
wherever you're selling it, atleast, I would guess, is that
true, and then maybe talk alittle bit about what those
paths look like for each option.
Scott Putnam (07:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely, they are verydifferent. With the licensing
model, you create a product, youdo a lot of research up front
and make sure the product isn'talready there, and do some
patent researching, and reallylook at the marketplace and
become an expert in thecategory. And then we talk about
prototypes and marketingmaterials, and you really are
(07:34):
with that model, you're able toget a lot of products in front
of companies very quickly,without investing a lot of
money, where, with licensing,you're kind of going all in on
one product, not that you can'tdo multiple products or create a
line of products, but there'smore at risk and there's more
time invested, the payoff canpotentially be higher. So
(07:58):
there's definitely pros and consto it. It's it's there. They are
very different animals. In thebeginning, though, the steps in
the process are the same. You'restill doing a lot of research,
figuring out what the productis. You're iterating it. You're
getting your your list ofcompanies that you're going to
contact together. You're puttingall the pieces together, a demo,
(08:19):
video, things like that. So alot of the initial steps are the
same, but there's a point whereyou kind of split off, but, but
it's interesting too, becauseeven if, if somebody decides to
license, I call that now, likemy that's a good plan a
especially if you're somebodythat has a lot of ideas, and
(08:39):
they just keep coming to you.
Let's get them out in front ofcompanies with the idea that at
any point you can go ahead andventure it, have it
manufactured, get the packagingUPC, let's get some pricing
programs together for retail, orlet's get it on Amazon, with the
idea that once you have somesales established and some
(09:00):
reviews that could lead to alicensing deal down the road as
well. And I've done that myself,so I know that model very well.
Aaron Moncur (09:10):
What are some ways you've found effective to market
a product once it's manufacturedand ready for sale? I mean, is
it things like Facebook ads andSEO to a landing page, that sort
of thing. Yeah,
Scott Putnam (09:26):
it's a great question. It really depends a
lot on, are you doing retail orAmazon, or both, you know,
things. There's a lot ofplatforms that are helpful. As
far as, like, you know, gettingyou can do, you can do Facebook
ads, Amazon ads all day long,which are really an important
part of the process. You know,if your products on Amazon, you
(09:49):
do want to do the ads. Ideally,you're doing FBA so that people
are seeing your product. Becausea lot of people, when they shop
on Amazon, they click the primebutton because. They want it in,
like an hour. People wait towait. So if you do FBA, that's a
good way to do that. As far asother things, you know, any
(10:10):
anything is going to help. Interms of Tiktok videos, you
could create YouTube channelsfor your product. You can do
blatant. Blatant is probablyanother word, but you can do ads
for your product that can getexpensive. It's really all about
exposure. And I was lucky withour SWAT and scoop product,
because my daughter and I wereon a show on Amazon well, and
(10:32):
we'll probably get to that in aminute, but Amazon Prime video
called buy it now. So we did a92nd pitch, and so that went out
to millions of people. So thatwas, there were opportunities
like that as well that can comeup if you do, you know, go a
little further in terms ofventuring versus licensing.
Aaron Moncur (10:55):
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well, that's a great segue intoyour SWAT and scoop product. Why
(11:39):
don't you tell us a little bitabout that and the journey it
took you on and where you ended,yeah, for sure.
Scott Putnam (11:46):
So as an inventor and a product developer, you
know, we're all about solvingproblems, I think probably a lot
of in kind of that engineeringbrain, like you see something,
you're like, why can't I fixthis? Why doesn't it? This could
be so much better. And so twodaughters who are now ones in
high school, ones in college,but when they were younger,
there was a scream that was at acertain decibel that, like dads
(12:10):
and dogs could hear, and as thebug scream, and so I would run
into their room, as you know,like a superhero, and the chore
was to try to figure out how toget that spider off the wall
back outside alive, and it wasalways a matter of looking for
something and envelopes a male acup and paper like something.
Why isn't there a product that'sjust designed for this? So
(12:33):
through a lot of iterations,created SWAT and scoop, because
although we were trying to catchand release, some people want
them dead, but they don't wantto necessarily have to go get a
tissue and get really close tothem. Essentially two sided fly
swatter with a scoop in themiddle and a beveled edge, kind
of like a dustpan, so you couldswat a wasp or whatever creepy
(12:54):
crawler you wanted, and be ableto scoop it up and toss it out
without getting close to it. Sothrough some iterations. My goal
with that originally was tolicense it, and so I went
through that model and got a lotof really good feedback, but
originally I designed it biggerwith a trap door. And it wasn't
actually originally a swatter.
It was more of just a scoop. AndI called it the spider scooper,
(13:17):
to scoop them up, trap them inthere, and then just release
them back out to the wild. Andthen, through feedback from
companies, they were like, Hey,this is too big. There's too
much going on. This wholesliding mechanism would be crazy
expensive to make. Thanks. Sendus your next idea. Like, okay, I
can go back to the drawingboard. And I was sitting there
(13:40):
one day looking at a fly swatternext to my scoop, and I'm like,
Whoa, what if? What if I couldsomehow make the scoop also
Swat. And then it was like, huh,Swat and scoop, kind of fun
name. So created that, startedpitching that again as the new
iterated product, and got a lotof good feedback. Hey, this is
(14:01):
great. This is great. We loveit. Our CEO loves it. But what
they wanted was a real samplethey could actually try out. And
I had some 3d printed samples,which were okay, but you
couldn't really SWAT anythingwithout breaking it, so decided
to go all in and just venturethe product. I had some really
good mentoring from a goodfriend locally. His brother's
(14:25):
been importing products for along time, and said, Hey, and he
was trying to he's basicallyretiring. So he's like, Hey, if
you want the keys to thekingdom, I can walk you through
this and give you my rolodex.
I'm like, All right, this is theuniverse saying, do it. Yeah.
Wow. So yeah, went for it, gotit in, originally into retail
stores. I was a little freakedout about Amazon, thinking, the
(14:49):
minute it's on Amazon, you seeit, you can't hide anything.
There's gonna be 1000 knockoffswithin an hour. But it wasn't
the case. I did retail first.
But. I'm really glad we went onAmazon, because it did lead to
the being on the show, and it'sdoing well on Amazon. So
Aaron Moncur (15:07):
let's talk a little bit about that, the the
risk of Amazon with a productbeing knocked off. I have a good
friend who he's an industrialdesigner and a very talented
mechanical designer. And what hedoes for a living is is help
people design their productsright. And on the side, he's
(15:29):
designed a few of his ownproducts. And he told me, maybe
a year ago, one of the productsthat he developed, he took it
all the way throughmanufacturing, and he had, you
know, I don't know, hundreds or1000s of these made, and he put
them on Amazon. And within acouple of weeks, or maybe it was
a couple of months, sure enough,there were some knockoffs,
(15:49):
right? Chinese knockoffs thatwere priced way less than his,
and they were clearly infringingon his patent. And so he let
Amazon know, hey, I've got, youknow, these Chinese knockoffs
that are infringing on my patentand and yes, Amazon would shut
those accounts down, but itwould take a couple of weeks,
(16:11):
and then just, you know, a weeklater, another one would would
pop up. And so what he said tome was he just, he could never
figure out how to be profitableon Amazon because he spent so
much time chasing down thecopycats and trying to get them
shut down, he just he couldn'tspend enough time actually
marketing his product anddriving sales for himself. Is
(16:34):
that? Is that a common problem?
And if so, what's what's thesolution to that?
Scott Putnam (16:39):
Yeah, it's a great question. First of all, I would
say, hey, congratulations. Youhave a great product, because
they generally wait till you getto a certain point like it's
doing well, they you know,you're selling a lot of them,
then they start to show up. Butthere are some things that
Amazon's done more recently. Ifyou have brand registry, so
you'd have a trademark that youfiled, you can get what's called
(17:01):
Brand registry within Amazonthat allows Amazon to get them
off quicker. It can be a littlebit of a whack a mole game.
There is another company aswell, called their acronym is
iacc.org that helps you getknockoffs, not just Amazon, but
(17:22):
overseas, like if it's onAlibaba or AliExpress, they can
quickly. We got some knockoffstaken care of within 24 hours.
Oh, wow, yeah. So land thelandscape of Amazon is
perpetually changing, and I knowthey do want it to be more of a
premium place to shop. Andthey're they're making efforts
(17:45):
to get rid of the knockoffs.
It's frustrating, though, assomeone that has put so much
blood, sweat and tears into aproduct, you get it on there,
somebody knocks it off. It'scheaper. It doesn't work as
well, and all of a sudden, allthese horrible ratings are
showing up that affect you too.
So, yeah, I hope Amazon keepsmoving in that direction for
(18:07):
really taking care of the peoplethat have you know, brought the
real product to market,definitely.
Aaron Moncur (18:13):
Yeah. Well, let's talk about bringing a product to
market. So engineers areprimarily our audience, and they
know a lot about bringing aproduct to market, because
that's what they do. Let's talka little bit about your
experience working withinventors. You know, engineers,
I think, conceptually,understand the challenges with
bringing a product to marketbecause they're the ones
(18:35):
developing it, but probablydon't have the same appreciation
for that challenge from, like asales or a marketing standpoint,
because that's just not wherethey spend their time. And as an
inventor, you really need tounderstand the sales and the
marketing aspect and how tobring a product to market in
that context, what are some ofthe problems that you have most
(18:58):
commonly witnessed and andsolutions for how to get around
those problems? Yeah,
Scott Putnam (19:05):
it's a fantastic question. I think some of the
there's several I'll touch on. Afew specifically for engineers,
is the biggest problem is, oncethat's developed and they've
perfected it, it's like, Allright, now what? And then the
initial thought is, run out andget a patent so it's protected,
(19:25):
then I can let it out of the boxand show the world. But there's,
there's some other ways of doingit, such as filing a provisional
patent application, that you cando relatively in a very
inexpensively, and then you have12 months to shop it through.
Aside from that, you know, Ithink a lot of the stretching
(19:48):
with my engineering studentswhen I'm coaching is around the
marketing and the sales and, youknow, what do I say? Who do I
call? Who am I? Who do I askfor? What do I not say? What are
some mistakes that. People makeand and so there's, there's a
lot of coaching that happensaround that, because it's, it
isn't just here, here's thefacts. You know. It is more
(20:10):
about relationships with thepeople you're talking to in
those companies, and developingthose relationships and knowing
how to do that, as well aspresenting the product in the
right light, asking the rightquestions, getting the right
information. So all of that, Ilove coaching people on because
it's such a fun part of theprocess for me. Mistake wise, a
(20:32):
lot of inventors, really, theyget very emotionally attached to
their idea, and they kind ofskip this critical market
validation piece. And I alwaysadvise them, like I mentioned
before, to research first, makesure there's some real demand,
make sure trends are going inthe right direction, and then
having really some realisticexpectations. I think a lot of
(20:55):
inventors, you know, kind ofwide eyed, and you they think
the idea, the idea is the hardpart. It's not the hard part.
They think their idea is goingto make them a bazillion
dollars. And everybody, youknow, if companies don't want
it, they're they're idiots andall of that. It isn't a lottery
ticket. I mean, it's people haveto think of it more as
(21:16):
approaching it like a businessstrategy. It requires some
persistence and follow up andsales skills and negotiation
skills. So going from from A toZ, you really do wear a lot of
different hats, and I think forsome people, that can be
difficult, and everybody'scomfort zones sort of stretch in
different areas.
Aaron Moncur (21:38):
We have historically been, and still are
a services business. My mycompany pipeline, and we're
trying to get more intoproducts. It's new for us, and
we're, for sure, stumbling andmaking mistakes. And we have a
few products now, one inparticular that that has some
legs. We have seen some salesand interest. But it's like you
(22:05):
said, developing this productthat was the easy part, right?
This has been kind of a surprisefor me as well. We all thought,
Oh, this is such a greatproduct. Everyone's going to
want it. And it just turns outthat designing it and developing
it that was the easy part. Nowfiguring out how to sell it.
It's a I mean, this is whysalespeople exist, right? It's a
(22:27):
full time job to figure out howto sell something like that.
Where, where do you suggestinventors start? Like, what does
that process look like whenyou're coaching a new inventor?
Mm, hmm, yeah.
Scott Putnam (22:41):
It's a great question. So a lot of it,
really, I talked to them aboutyou don't have to try not to
feel like a telemarketer whenyou're calling companies, and
really putting a lot of the theweight of the sales process into
your marketing materials, whichwhat works really well is to
(23:01):
have a one or two page sellsheet that has some wow factor,
shows the product and has a linkto a video they can watch that's
about a minute or so long. So alot of the selling, the heavy
lifting of that goes to thosemarketing materials. So that's
first and foremost. I think alot of people have this idea
(23:22):
that, you know, it's going to belike the movie the boiler room,
and you're in there and you gotto do this amazing presentation.
It's really not that. It's moreabout finding the right people
within the company, makingcontact. And LinkedIn is a great
tool to do that. The telephonestill works, even though it
might sound old fashioned, andthen just getting permission to
(23:44):
send over your your materials,and then you send them. Then
it's a follow up game. So a lotof times, too, when I'm
coaching, we'll, we'll do somepractice calls. I'll pretend
like I'm somebody at thecompany, and they, you know,
they ring me, and then we justkind of go through the a typical
first call and then maybe asecond or third call that gets a
(24:06):
little more into the weeds withthe product. And, you know, what
are you looking for as theinventor, what are they looking
for? Those kinds of things,yeah, and that, that's a lot of
fun. And so really, a lot of itreally comes down to knowing the
what, what are the expectations,what does this ecosystem even
(24:27):
look like? And I have a lot ofcheat sheets and scripts and
things for emails and phonecalls and LinkedIn and so I have
a lot of tools that can reallyhelp people so they're not you
don't feel like you're so farout on the leading edge of all
of this. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur (24:43):
terrific. Well, let me take a very short break
here and share with everyonethat the being an engineer
podcast is brought to you bypipeline design and engineering,
where we don't design pipelines,but we do help companies develop
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(25:08):
also sponsored by the wave, anonline platform of free tools,
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wave. Dot, engineer, and today,we are thrilled to be speaking
with Scott. Putnam, Scott, youmentioned the importance of
doing market research right,making sure that there's
actually a need, a want, adesire for the product that
(25:30):
you're developing. What are sometools that you have found
effective to do that marketresearch? Yeah, so
Scott Putnam (25:37):
some really quick, easy stuff. Just to get started,
I like to tell people, you know,start with Google Images and
just type, try different termsthat you would describe your
products. See what comes up.
Google Shopping is a great one,Amazon, of course, if we're
talking consumer products, butsome other other, other areas to
research, and this is part of itas well. Is Google patents. You
(26:01):
can go to the uspto.gov, but alot of people find Google
patents is just a little biteasier, more user friendly for
researching products, and youhave to try different terms,
because the way you mightdescribe it in your mind,
somebody else may describe itdifferently. So really, really
digging into that, looking atGoogle Trends, are people still
(26:25):
looking for alarm clocks, or isthat gone things like that?
Aaron Moncur (26:32):
Knowing is Google Trends? Is that like a product
that Google offers? You can typein Google Trends and it'll show
you trend lines for differentproducts, yeah,
Scott Putnam (26:41):
yeah, okay, yeah.
If you just Google, GoogleTrends, yeah, it will come up.
It's a great place. And there's,you know, AI is another great
resource, you know, because itcan search the internet and
beyond and give you an idea ofwhat what direction products are
going. I like perplexity,because it'll give you the the
(27:01):
sources, so you can go to someof those websites to verify
things. It's really theresearch. Really what you're
looking at, too, is not just ismy product idea out there? You
want to know what else is evenremotely similar to it, what
else is even remotely close toit, as well as, what are the
price points of other productsin this category? What does the
(27:23):
packaging look like? So a lot ofthe research to just go into
stores and look around, youknow, see, where would your
product be in the store? Howwould it be packaged? What are
the other products that you'reseeing in that area? So if you,
if you have a, let's say, acarrot peeler innovation. I
mean, I would go into a lot ofstores that sell carrot peelers,
(27:44):
and just what you're doing isbecoming an expert in the
category. You want to know allof the other products, all the
other types of carrot peelers.
What are their price points?
What brands are they? So thatyou can, you can really speak to
how is your product different?
What is your point ofdifference? What makes yours
(28:05):
better than what's out there?
Aaron Moncur (28:08):
How about the whole Coke versus Pepsi thing,
right? Like they're basicallythe same thing. Do you how do
you coach inventors when theyhave a product that maybe is
pretty similar to something elseout there is that, can that ever
be a viable business? Or if youlook at something and say, well,
it already exists, you know,pretty much 95% the same out
(28:31):
here and and that's just the endof the conversation.
Scott Putnam (28:35):
Yeah, it's a great it's a great point. So how
different does mine have to be?
How much of an improvement doesmine have to be? I've seen a lot
of licensing deals over theyears that were really just
small tweaks on existingproducts. And how big of a tweak
does that need to be? Is alittle bit of an X factor, and
it comes down to talking throughwhen I'm coaching, you know
(28:57):
what? What is your point ofdifference? What makes yours
better? And sometimes it's justthe improvement is that it does
the same job, it's just lessexpensive, or, you know, it can
get the job done in twice thetime with half the mess, you
know, things like that, eventhough, operationally, it may
not be that different. But whatit also does is it opens the
(29:19):
question about, well, what aboutthe IEP? What does that look
like? So that's something thatyou need to go down that road
too, because the companiesyou're pitching it to for
licensing, or if you're bringingit to market yourself, you need
to make sure that runway isclear. Yeah.
Aaron Moncur (29:38):
Great. Can you share a success story, maybe one
of your clients, of course,without divulging anything
confidential, but kind ofexemplifying the process or the
journey that you take inventorsthrough and and how one of your
clients
Scott Putnam (29:56):
succeeded? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. In fact. The
client I'm thinking of. I justhad her on my podcast. We just
recorded it. It'll be coming outin a few weeks. Yeah, I had a
fantastic client who had areally, a clever kind of a, I'll
call it, a kitchen gadget thatsolved a problem that she was
(30:18):
having and other people werehaving, and she was very, kind
of apprehensive abouteverything, like every step of
the process was because it wasall new to her. She had never
done anything like this, and butshe had a great concept. And we
talked a lot about, you know,going through the steps and
(30:39):
creating a cell sheet. And, youknow, how do we do that? Or are
we going to do a rendering? Or,you know, what is your actual
physical prototype look like?
Because sometimes, if it looksgood enough, you can take a
picture and put that on a cellsheet. And luckily, her son had
helped with some 3d printing,and so she had a very nice
looking prototype, so we usethat on her cell sheet, and she
(31:02):
she worked hard in terms ofdoing the research. Really knew
the space, because she had beenlooking for her exact product
for a long time. So she knew,already knew all of the products
that were out there and theprice points and all of that
stuff. So once we had what whatlooked like the close to the
(31:24):
finished product, I think we dida few little touch ups with some
photoshop work to kind of cleanit up a little bit, but got it
on a sell sheet. We had hercreate a one minute video that
we can embed into the sellsheet, and got a list of
companies together, she filed aprovisional patent application,
and we stretched our comfortzone a lot when it come came to
(31:45):
reaching out to companies, but,yeah, I'm so proud of her. She
she did it, and she had, Ithink, three companies that were
interested. And I remember oneof the coaching calls early on,
I said the best problem you canhave is to have multiple
companies interested in this. SoI'm going to wish this upon you.
I must have waved a magic wandor something. She ended up
(32:07):
having three companiesinterested, and ultimately made
a good decision to go with oneof them that ended up being the
biggest company, and wentthrough that process, you know,
negotiated a licensing deal, gotour product licensed. I was at
the housewares trade showearlier this month, and saw her
(32:29):
product at the trade show. Sothat was wow, like a proud
teacher moment for me. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur (32:36):
phenomenal. Very cool, great story. All right,
how about when it comes tointellectual property, you
mentioned making sure the runwayis clear. Now, I think the
short, easy answer is work withan IP attorney and make sure
that all your ducks are in therow there. But what are some
high level insights that youmight have that New Inventors
(33:03):
might not be aware of. Whatshould people be keeping in mind
as they begin searching theintellectual property landscape?
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Scott Putnam (33:57):
Yeah, I think one thing to remember is that a
patent alone doesn't always stopthe knockoffs, so which that may
burst a few balloons here, butit just gives you the ammunition
to fight them. But you reallyneed a strategy to enforce it,
and sometimes, you know, strongmarket presence is just as
(34:20):
valuable as a patent. So thereis some strategy behind
dominating the marketplace. So alot of companies that you pitch
products to the patent, questionalways comes up, and they I'd
say the vast majority reallywant an issued utility patent.
But our model isn't to wait tillthat happens, because it can be
(34:41):
18 months before it's evenreviewed, and up to, like, three
years or longer before it'sissued. So you can get in the
game much quicker than that. Andcompanies understand the value
of dominating the marketplaceand really being the first to
market. There's a lot of powerin that. And. Yeah, a lot of in
a lot of cases, a really wellprepared provisional patent
(35:04):
application is enough to startdiscussions with companies. And
it's a really nice tool, becauseit offers you the priority date.
And if you file a nonprovisional within 12 months,
your non provisional sort ofclaims that earlier priority
date. So it almost sort of getsto go back in time. And I would
(35:27):
say, high level, high levelstuff, really doing your own
research. And remember, even ifyou're working with a patent
attorney, don't just hand themthe idea and tell them to, you
know, let you know when it'sdone. Be involved in the
process, and remember, you arethe expert in this category. You
know more about your productthan anybody does, so don't be
(35:49):
afraid to really shareeverything you can and
everything you know with apatent attorney if you if you go
down that road and readeverything they do, and if
they're missing the marksomewhere. Make sure to bring it
to their attention, becausethey're they're not perfect. And
the other thing too is patentattorneys, there's they come in
(36:11):
all shapes and sizes, so andwhat I mean by that is their job
is to get you a patent. Theirjob isn't necessarily to get you
a super strong patent. So a lotof times you have to help them
fight for a stronger patent.
Case in point, with with my SWATand scoop I had, we I being new
at it at the time and not reallyfully understanding patents, and
(36:38):
I'm still learning. You know,I'm not a patent attorney, but
the first claim in a patent isthe independent claim, and it's
the most important claim. So ifyou're not infringing on that
first independent claim, you'renot infringing on the patent. It
doesn't mean you wouldnecessarily get one if yours is
too similar to something else,but it's, it's an important
piece to know. So when I wrotemy provisional, I just put
(37:01):
everything in the kitchen sinkinto it, which is okay, but my
patent attorney, when he draftedit, there was some things in
there, in the independent claimabout the handle, just because
it was just things that Ithought of to reduce materials
and things like that. But onceit was in the independent claim,
somebody could have come outwith the exact same product and
(37:22):
not had the specifics that I hadabout the handle, and they would
not be infringing on my patent.
So understanding kind of how theindependent claim works and how
it fits into the equation is sohuge,
Aaron Moncur (37:39):
that's a huge insight. Thank you for sharing
that you have, if I'm notmistaken, a background in, like,
health and wellness and lifecoaching. Is that right?
Scott Putnam (37:49):
Yeah, yeah. I'm a certified life coach. And
sometimes, when I'm coachinginventors, you know, I wear that
hat. I wear a lot of differenthats. Sometimes I'm the, you
know, the therapist, like, laydown couch and tell me about
your mother, and I'm thecheerleader, and sometimes I'm
the, you know, the footballcoach blowing the whistle. So
the background in that is my, mywife and I brought our two
(38:13):
little girls to China, and welived in China for a couple
years, and when we we came backdue to some family health
issues, and that was about thetime we learned about plant
based eating and the power ofthat. We watched Forks Over
Knives documentary, and read TheChina Study, and really explored
(38:34):
that as an option, mostly forjust prevention. But it was
about the time that I had aphysical, and I was 44 at the
time, and was the first timeanybody's ever used the word
obese to me, because I was neverlike a an overweight kid or a
chunky kid. So it was like this,this moment where, who are you
(38:57):
talking to? What me and I waslooking at the doctor who had a
very roten belly himself. Sogood company here. But, and it
was really a wake up call for methat okay, you know, I'm well
into the, you know, body massindex being very much obese, but
(39:18):
I didn't necessarily feel likeit, but also high cholesterol
and some other, you know, healthindicators that it was time to
make a change. And that wasabout the time we learned about
plant based eating. So went allin with that. Cholesterol
dropped, weight dropped. I lostabout 65 pounds. Started, wow,
doing a couch to 5k and justkept with the running for a
(39:39):
while, which is hilarious to me,because I've always hated
running my whole life.
Aaron Moncur (39:45):
Well, congratulations that that's a
huge accomplishment. Thanks.
Yeah, our whole
Scott Putnam (39:50):
family is is plant based since 2013 and it's just
it's been, it's been an amazingjourney as a family, and we live
in the Midwest. Where it's allmeat and dairy and lots of
processed unhealthy foods, whichI guess that's probably the
story for all of America. So,yeah, I do believe in taking
(40:10):
care of the body and the mindand good health really leads to
better decision making, andthat's critical in business. And
you know, I like to tell people,you know, it will help you avoid
burnout. You're going to havemore energy. You're going to
sleep better if you just gethealthy, because it is a long
game. And I encourage inventorsto work in more focused sprints,
(40:33):
you know, and take breaks ratherthan kind of endlessly being on
this grinding treadmill.
Aaron Moncur (40:41):
I'm curious to hear what you your take on
protein, because protein is allthe rage right now. Feels like
best. I don't know, five yearsor so, everything is protein,
protein, you know, it's, uh,protein pasta and protein bread
and protein whatever, right?
Protein candies. It's, insane.
It's it's everywhere, andtypically one thinks of like
(41:06):
meat and maybe dairy, as well asbeing high sources of protein
plants. Of course, there you canfind higher protein based
plants, but, but it's maybe morechallenging to get enough or a
lot of protein out of plants.
Talk a little bit about that, ifyou would do you think the the
craze for protein is warranted.
(41:30):
Do we really need that muchprotein in our diets? And then
follow that up with, if you aretrying to get we'll just say a
reasonable amount of protein inyour diet, whatever that is. How
do you do that on a plant baseddiet?
Scott Putnam (41:45):
Yeah, it's, again, it's such a great question in
this country, especially, sortof meat is synonymous with
protein. And when people, evenif you go to a restaurant, you
order a salad or whatever, orjust some pasta, like, Oh, do
you want to add some protein tothat? Meaning, do you want to
add some meat to that? And Ididn't know that was a question
(42:08):
I had, and I get that questionall the time. Well, I didn't
know plants had protein, butthey have a ton of protein. Even
broccoli has more protein percalorie. I know it's less
calories, but than red meat, andit's Have you ever heard of
anybody being hospitalized dueto low protein or lack of
(42:30):
protein? No, I haven't. It justdoesn't happen. And it's really
interesting. In the book thatChina Studies, Dr T Colin
Campbell went to China thinkingsome of their health issues are
protein deficiencies. When hegot there, what he found was
most of the the healthiestpeople in the country were the
(42:51):
ones that ate the least amountof animal products, and the ones
that lived maybe in more urbanareas, that had more access to
meat and dairy wasn't such a bigthing, but had more access to
meat and just ate more animalbased diets, had higher levels
of all kinds of diseases. And itwas like, wait a minute, what's
(43:11):
going on here? And so reallylooked into it and and found out
that a lot of oh, we'reespecially in the US. It's like,
listen to your grandma andgrandparents, right? Eat more
veggies. But it's something thatin this country anyway, we
think, you know, the bigbodybuilders, weight lifters,
(43:34):
like to be healthy, you need toeat lots of animal protein or
lots of meat. And it's really,when you look at the data. It's,
it's quite the opposite. Andthere's some really specific,
great plant based foods thathave tons of protein. I mean,
black beans and lentils andquinoa are absolutely packed
with protein. So, yeah, ifyou're, if you're not literally
(44:00):
starving to death, you'reprobably getting plenty of
protein, even on a plant basedor a vegan diet, it's it's all
in there, and it's enough. It'sjust trying to get over the idea
that, Oh, I need more. I needmore. I need more. So yeah,
there's another documentary I'llmention real quick, called the
game changers, and it's aboutthese professional athletes,
(44:22):
especially football players,that switch to a plant based
diet, and how their performanceimproves and the recovery time
improves. It's, it's reallyfascinating,
Aaron Moncur (44:31):
interesting. The game changers. He said, huh,
yeah, I'm gonna have to watchthat one. All right, it's good
movie, fascinating. All right,well, Scott, let's see. I think
we'll start wrapping things uphere. I'm going to steal a trick
from Tim Ferriss and ask you ifyou were to have the ability to
(44:54):
put anything on a giantbillboard that millions of
people would see as they'redriving past. And say, millions
of inventors. Would see asthey're driving past, what would
that thing be?
Scott Putnam (45:03):
Wow, that is a great question. Thanks. Tim
Ferriss,
Aaron Moncur (45:07):
thank you.
Scott Putnam (45:08):
Tim Ferriss, yeah.
I think one of the quotes that Ilove is people don't care how
much you know until they knowhow much you care. And I think
that would be at the top maybe.
And then below that of theBillboard would be that your
ideas matter. You know, we'reall put on this planet to
(45:31):
express ourselves and ourcreativity. And I think for a
lot of people, if you have avenue for that, if you have a
plan for that, and some someguidance. You know, you don't
have to be a lone wolf. Maybethat would be right below it.
You don't have to be a lonewolf. And as inventors, and I
know a lot of engineers, you'resort of on this, you know, on
(45:53):
this, this path, and you'regoing through the woods and
you're alone. And so what I'mtrying to do is, and what I'm
doing with inventors edge isreally bringing people together
with our membership and saying,Hey, you don't have to do this
alone. There's a lot of supportout there and guidance and can
help you stay motivated, and,you know, create a nice, clear
(46:14):
path so you know the direction,or get help with the direction
that you want to go. And we'reall in this together.
Aaron Moncur (46:23):
Terrific, wonderful. Well, Scott, how can
people get a hold of you?
Scott Putnam (46:28):
I think that the best way is just through our
website. It's inventors dash. Wedo have a dash edge.com and
there you can sign up for aweekly email blog if you want
some great information, we havesome FAQs. There's a Contact Us
link there. I'm also onLinkedIn. I would love to
connect with anybody. You can DMme if you, if you, you know,
(46:52):
just have questions, or you justwant to set up a a time to talk.
I'm happy to do that, and I canshare more about what I do and
how I help people and maybe evenoffer guidance about what what
you're looking for. And I loveengineers. You're some of my
favorite group to work with,because you're very organized
(47:13):
and methodical and, you know,like, like, step by step
processes, and that's somethingI've been helping people with
for a long time. So yeah, pleasereach out. I'm available.
Wonderful.
Aaron Moncur (47:25):
All right, Scott, well, thank you so much. I sure
appreciate you being on the showand sharing all these wonderful
insights with our audience.
Scott Putnam (47:32):
Thanks My pleasure.
Aaron Moncur (47:33):
I'm Aaron Moncur, founder of pipeline design and
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the episode to learn how yourteam can leverage our team's
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automated machines and customfixtures, complemented with
(47:53):
product design and R D services.
Visit us at Team pipeline.us. Tojoin a vibrant community of
engineers online visit the wavedot engineer, thank you for
listening. You.
What you're doing is becoming an expert in the
category. You want to know allof the other products, all the
other types of carrot peelers.
What are their price points?
What brands are they? So thatyou can speak to how is your
product different? What is yourpoint of difference? What makes
yours better than what's outthere? You music.
Aaron Moncur (00:31):
Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of
The being an engineer Podcast.
Today, we are speaking withScott Putnam, a seasoned product
licensing and venturing coach,creator of the innovative SWAT
and scoop and founder ofinventors edge, a platform
dedicated to guiding inventorsfrom concept to market with over
a decade of experience, Scotthas personally coached more than
(00:55):
500 inventors, helping themnavigate the complexities of
product development andlicensing. As a contributor to
entrepreneur.com and host of theinventors edge podcast, he
shares valuable insights andsuccess stories to inspire and
educate aspiring innovators.
Scott, welcome to the show.
Unknown (01:16):
Hey. Thanks so much.
Aaron, glad to be here.
Aaron Moncur (01:19):
Yeah, I've been looking forward to this, because
we talk, obviously aboutengineering and what it's like
to be an engineer a lot, and Iknow for sure. I mean, I know a
lot of engineers out there whoare inventors themselves, right?
They have a side hustle wherethey're taking their their
skills, their engineeringskills, and developing their own
(01:39):
products and trying to sellthose products. So I think a lot
of listeners are going to bereally interested in the the
advice and the insight that youcan give from from your side of
the from your side, you know,coaching inventors on licensing
and selling their products. Soanyway, well, we'll get into
that. Maybe you can. You cangive us a brief background you
(02:03):
know, kind of your history andwhat led you to to start
inventors edge and and kind ofwhat the platform is and how
it's evolved over the years.
Yeah,
Scott Putnam (02:14):
absolutely I appreciate that I've been in the
kind of the inventing andproduct development space for
over 15 years, and I've beenactively coaching inventors and
entrepreneurs full time for thepast eight years, and a lot of
the with a different companybefore I started inventors edge,
(02:38):
and I've worked with so manyengineers, and There are some of
my favorite people to work with,because they're so methodical
about things, and they thinkthrough things so well. And then
I have to kind of stretch themwhen we start talking about,
like, the marketing side ofthings, and it's almost like oil
and water. And I have a lot ofways I can help them, you know,
(02:58):
ease them into that pool alittle bit what I was seeing,
you know, over the years ofcoaching, it was strictly a
licensing model, where youcreate a concept, maybe have
some prototypes, and you youknow, you create some marketing
materials and get it out infront of companies for
licensing. And there were a lotof people who really wanted to
(03:21):
go a little further. They'relike, well, what if? What about
venturing? What if I wanted tobring this to market myself and
just get it on Amazon or get itinto retail? And it wasn't
something that we did, but it'ssomething that I've done. And so
the timing was good for me.
After eight years and workingwith over 500 people from around
the world, it was time for me tospread my wings a bit, and part
(03:42):
of what led to that was I wascoaching people on really
getting out of their comfortzone and facing fears and
stretching themselves.
Meanwhile, I was getting to apoint where I was all kind of
warm and snuggy in my owncomfort zone, so I really needed
to put myself out there, and sowe decided to go all in and, you
(04:06):
know, create inventors edge,where we have podcasts, we also
have online courses, and we doone on one coaching and
membership program. And so we'rewe jumped into the deep end, but
it's been great, fantastic.
Aaron Moncur (04:21):
Now, talk to me a little bit about you mentioned
engineers are very methodicalduring the development process,
but once it gets to, like thesales and the marketing, you
mentioned oil and water right tojust polar opposites, they do
not attract. Talk a little bitabout that, maybe, if you have
an example of it, and then what?
What are some, what are somemindsets that engineers should
(04:45):
have when it comes to sales andmarketing that maybe just don't
come naturally to us? Yeah,
Scott Putnam (04:53):
it's such a great topic. We could talk for hours
on this. One of the biggestthings that engineers, I think,
hate. To hear is good enough.
It's just like, whoa. There's nogood enough. I have to make sure
it's perfect or nothing. Yeah,it's 100% spot on or zero. And
when it comes to marketing, it'sa little bit of a different
(05:14):
game. Good enough is good enoughwhen you when you're talking
about marketing, and one of thethings that I see a lot of
inventors who are engineersespecially, get trapped in to
this mindset that it has to beperfect, and I have to perfect
my prototype. I have to test itand iterate it and test it and
(05:34):
iterate it and make sure it'sabsolutely 100% perfect and
works every time. Before I couldeven think about letting it out
of the box and through coaching,it's like, Well, how long is
that? You know, people spendyears doing this. Meanwhile, if
the product looks good or wecould get a rendering, you know,
(05:54):
make a make it look good onpaper, maybe your prototype
would look fine in, you know, ina video showing it proof of
concept, showing it working.
Maybe you still need to iteratea little bit or put some final
touches on it, but you can stillget it out in front of companies
to see if there's even anyinterest, instead of waiting two
(06:16):
or three years to perfect andonly to find out nobody wants
it. So, yeah, it does take somecoaching. And it's, it's really
fun for me. I've worked with somany engineers. It's, it's fun
for me to teach them the ideathat it's okay, that is good
enough. Let's move to the nextstep. We can always come back
and perfect it. You know, oncewe know we have some solid
(06:37):
interest, nice.
Aaron Moncur (06:40):
How about are there different platforms or
specific tools that you havefound useful for marketing a
product? Let's actually, let'sback up just a minute here. So
I'm sure the the path forwardfor licensing is very different
than the path forward forselling it yourself on Amazon or
(07:01):
wherever you're selling it, atleast, I would guess, is that
true, and then maybe talk alittle bit about what those
paths look like for each option.
Scott Putnam (07:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely, they are verydifferent. With the licensing
model, you create a product, youdo a lot of research up front
and make sure the product isn'talready there, and do some
patent researching, and reallylook at the marketplace and
become an expert in thecategory. And then we talk about
prototypes and marketingmaterials, and you really are
(07:34):
with that model, you're able toget a lot of products in front
of companies very quickly,without investing a lot of
money, where, with licensing,you're kind of going all in on
one product, not that you can'tdo multiple products or create a
line of products, but there'smore at risk and there's more
time invested, the payoff canpotentially be higher. So
(07:58):
there's definitely pros and consto it. It's it's there. They are
very different animals. In thebeginning, though, the steps in
the process are the same. You'restill doing a lot of research,
figuring out what the productis. You're iterating it. You're
getting your your list ofcompanies that you're going to
contact together. You're puttingall the pieces together, a demo,
(08:19):
video, things like that. So alot of the initial steps are the
same, but there's a point whereyou kind of split off, but, but
it's interesting too, becauseeven if, if somebody decides to
license, I call that now, likemy that's a good plan a
especially if you're somebodythat has a lot of ideas, and
(08:39):
they just keep coming to you.
Let's get them out in front ofcompanies with the idea that at
any point you can go ahead andventure it, have it
manufactured, get the packagingUPC, let's get some pricing
programs together for retail, orlet's get it on Amazon, with the
idea that once you have somesales established and some
(09:00):
reviews that could lead to alicensing deal down the road as
well. And I've done that myself,so I know that model very well.
Aaron Moncur (09:10):
What are some ways you've found effective to market
a product once it's manufacturedand ready for sale? I mean, is
it things like Facebook ads andSEO to a landing page, that sort
of thing. Yeah,
Scott Putnam (09:26):
it's a great question. It really depends a
lot on, are you doing retail orAmazon, or both, you know,
things. There's a lot ofplatforms that are helpful. As
far as, like, you know, gettingyou can do, you can do Facebook
ads, Amazon ads all day long,which are really an important
part of the process. You know,if your products on Amazon, you
(09:49):
do want to do the ads. Ideally,you're doing FBA so that people
are seeing your product. Becausea lot of people, when they shop
on Amazon, they click the primebutton because. They want it in,
like an hour. People wait towait. So if you do FBA, that's a
good way to do that. As far asother things, you know, any
(10:10):
anything is going to help. Interms of Tiktok videos, you
could create YouTube channelsfor your product. You can do
blatant. Blatant is probablyanother word, but you can do ads
for your product that can getexpensive. It's really all about
exposure. And I was lucky withour SWAT and scoop product,
because my daughter and I wereon a show on Amazon well, and
(10:32):
we'll probably get to that in aminute, but Amazon Prime video
called buy it now. So we did a92nd pitch, and so that went out
to millions of people. So thatwas, there were opportunities
like that as well that can comeup if you do, you know, go a
little further in terms ofventuring versus licensing.
Aaron Moncur (10:55):
The Product Development expo or PDX is your
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(11:18):
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PD Expo. Dot engineer, that's p,d, e, x, p, O. Dot engineer,
well, that's a great segue intoyour SWAT and scoop product. Why
(11:39):
don't you tell us a little bitabout that and the journey it
took you on and where you ended,yeah, for sure.
Scott Putnam (11:46):
So as an inventor and a product developer, you
know, we're all about solvingproblems, I think probably a lot
of in kind of that engineeringbrain, like you see something,
you're like, why can't I fixthis? Why doesn't it? This could
be so much better. And so twodaughters who are now ones in
high school, ones in college,but when they were younger,
there was a scream that was at acertain decibel that, like dads
(12:10):
and dogs could hear, and as thebug scream, and so I would run
into their room, as you know,like a superhero, and the chore
was to try to figure out how toget that spider off the wall
back outside alive, and it wasalways a matter of looking for
something and envelopes a male acup and paper like something.
Why isn't there a product that'sjust designed for this? So
(12:33):
through a lot of iterations,created SWAT and scoop, because
although we were trying to catchand release, some people want
them dead, but they don't wantto necessarily have to go get a
tissue and get really close tothem. Essentially two sided fly
swatter with a scoop in themiddle and a beveled edge, kind
of like a dustpan, so you couldswat a wasp or whatever creepy
(12:54):
crawler you wanted, and be ableto scoop it up and toss it out
without getting close to it. Sothrough some iterations. My goal
with that originally was tolicense it, and so I went
through that model and got a lotof really good feedback, but
originally I designed it biggerwith a trap door. And it wasn't
actually originally a swatter.
It was more of just a scoop. AndI called it the spider scooper,
(13:17):
to scoop them up, trap them inthere, and then just release
them back out to the wild. Andthen, through feedback from
companies, they were like, Hey,this is too big. There's too
much going on. This wholesliding mechanism would be crazy
expensive to make. Thanks. Sendus your next idea. Like, okay, I
can go back to the drawingboard. And I was sitting there
(13:40):
one day looking at a fly swatternext to my scoop, and I'm like,
Whoa, what if? What if I couldsomehow make the scoop also
Swat. And then it was like, huh,Swat and scoop, kind of fun
name. So created that, startedpitching that again as the new
iterated product, and got a lotof good feedback. Hey, this is
(14:01):
great. This is great. We loveit. Our CEO loves it. But what
they wanted was a real samplethey could actually try out. And
I had some 3d printed samples,which were okay, but you
couldn't really SWAT anythingwithout breaking it, so decided
to go all in and just venturethe product. I had some really
good mentoring from a goodfriend locally. His brother's
(14:25):
been importing products for along time, and said, Hey, and he
was trying to he's basicallyretiring. So he's like, Hey, if
you want the keys to thekingdom, I can walk you through
this and give you my rolodex.
I'm like, All right, this is theuniverse saying, do it. Yeah.
Wow. So yeah, went for it, gotit in, originally into retail
stores. I was a little freakedout about Amazon, thinking, the
(14:49):
minute it's on Amazon, you seeit, you can't hide anything.
There's gonna be 1000 knockoffswithin an hour. But it wasn't
the case. I did retail first.
But. I'm really glad we went onAmazon, because it did lead to
the being on the show, and it'sdoing well on Amazon. So
Aaron Moncur (15:07):
let's talk a little bit about that, the the
risk of Amazon with a productbeing knocked off. I have a good
friend who he's an industrialdesigner and a very talented
mechanical designer. And what hedoes for a living is is help
people design their productsright. And on the side, he's
(15:29):
designed a few of his ownproducts. And he told me, maybe
a year ago, one of the productsthat he developed, he took it
all the way throughmanufacturing, and he had, you
know, I don't know, hundreds or1000s of these made, and he put
them on Amazon. And within acouple of weeks, or maybe it was
a couple of months, sure enough,there were some knockoffs,
(15:49):
right? Chinese knockoffs thatwere priced way less than his,
and they were clearly infringingon his patent. And so he let
Amazon know, hey, I've got, youknow, these Chinese knockoffs
that are infringing on my patentand and yes, Amazon would shut
those accounts down, but itwould take a couple of weeks,
(16:11):
and then just, you know, a weeklater, another one would would
pop up. And so what he said tome was he just, he could never
figure out how to be profitableon Amazon because he spent so
much time chasing down thecopycats and trying to get them
shut down, he just he couldn'tspend enough time actually
marketing his product anddriving sales for himself. Is
(16:34):
that? Is that a common problem?
And if so, what's what's thesolution to that?
Scott Putnam (16:39):
Yeah, it's a great question. First of all, I would
say, hey, congratulations. Youhave a great product, because
they generally wait till you getto a certain point like it's
doing well, they you know,you're selling a lot of them,
then they start to show up. Butthere are some things that
Amazon's done more recently. Ifyou have brand registry, so
you'd have a trademark that youfiled, you can get what's called
(17:01):
Brand registry within Amazonthat allows Amazon to get them
off quicker. It can be a littlebit of a whack a mole game.
There is another company aswell, called their acronym is
iacc.org that helps you getknockoffs, not just Amazon, but
(17:22):
overseas, like if it's onAlibaba or AliExpress, they can
quickly. We got some knockoffstaken care of within 24 hours.
Oh, wow, yeah. So land thelandscape of Amazon is
perpetually changing, and I knowthey do want it to be more of a
premium place to shop. Andthey're they're making efforts
(17:45):
to get rid of the knockoffs.
It's frustrating, though, assomeone that has put so much
blood, sweat and tears into aproduct, you get it on there,
somebody knocks it off. It'scheaper. It doesn't work as
well, and all of a sudden, allthese horrible ratings are
showing up that affect you too.
So, yeah, I hope Amazon keepsmoving in that direction for
(18:07):
really taking care of the peoplethat have you know, brought the
real product to market,definitely.
Aaron Moncur (18:13):
Yeah. Well, let's talk about bringing a product to
market. So engineers areprimarily our audience, and they
know a lot about bringing aproduct to market, because
that's what they do. Let's talka little bit about your
experience working withinventors. You know, engineers,
I think, conceptually,understand the challenges with
bringing a product to marketbecause they're the ones
(18:35):
developing it, but probablydon't have the same appreciation
for that challenge from, like asales or a marketing standpoint,
because that's just not wherethey spend their time. And as an
inventor, you really need tounderstand the sales and the
marketing aspect and how tobring a product to market in
that context, what are some ofthe problems that you have most
(18:58):
commonly witnessed and andsolutions for how to get around
those problems? Yeah,
Scott Putnam (19:05):
it's a fantastic question. I think some of the
there's several I'll touch on. Afew specifically for engineers,
is the biggest problem is, oncethat's developed and they've
perfected it, it's like, Allright, now what? And then the
initial thought is, run out andget a patent so it's protected,
(19:25):
then I can let it out of the boxand show the world. But there's,
there's some other ways of doingit, such as filing a provisional
patent application, that you cando relatively in a very
inexpensively, and then you have12 months to shop it through.
Aside from that, you know, Ithink a lot of the stretching
(19:48):
with my engineering studentswhen I'm coaching is around the
marketing and the sales and, youknow, what do I say? Who do I
call? Who am I? Who do I askfor? What do I not say? What are
some mistakes that. People makeand and so there's, there's a
lot of coaching that happensaround that, because it's, it
isn't just here, here's thefacts. You know. It is more
(20:10):
about relationships with thepeople you're talking to in
those companies, and developingthose relationships and knowing
how to do that, as well aspresenting the product in the
right light, asking the rightquestions, getting the right
information. So all of that, Ilove coaching people on because
it's such a fun part of theprocess for me. Mistake wise, a
(20:32):
lot of inventors, really, theyget very emotionally attached to
their idea, and they kind ofskip this critical market
validation piece. And I alwaysadvise them, like I mentioned
before, to research first, makesure there's some real demand,
make sure trends are going inthe right direction, and then
having really some realisticexpectations. I think a lot of
(20:55):
inventors, you know, kind ofwide eyed, and you they think
the idea, the idea is the hardpart. It's not the hard part.
They think their idea is goingto make them a bazillion
dollars. And everybody, youknow, if companies don't want
it, they're they're idiots andall of that. It isn't a lottery
ticket. I mean, it's people haveto think of it more as
(21:16):
approaching it like a businessstrategy. It requires some
persistence and follow up andsales skills and negotiation
skills. So going from from A toZ, you really do wear a lot of
different hats, and I think forsome people, that can be
difficult, and everybody'scomfort zones sort of stretch in
different areas.
Aaron Moncur (21:38):
We have historically been, and still are
a services business. My mycompany pipeline, and we're
trying to get more intoproducts. It's new for us, and
we're, for sure, stumbling andmaking mistakes. And we have a
few products now, one inparticular that that has some
legs. We have seen some salesand interest. But it's like you
(22:05):
said, developing this productthat was the easy part, right?
This has been kind of a surprisefor me as well. We all thought,
Oh, this is such a greatproduct. Everyone's going to
want it. And it just turns outthat designing it and developing
it that was the easy part. Nowfiguring out how to sell it.
It's a I mean, this is whysalespeople exist, right? It's a
(22:27):
full time job to figure out howto sell something like that.
Where, where do you suggestinventors start? Like, what does
that process look like whenyou're coaching a new inventor?
Mm, hmm, yeah.
Scott Putnam (22:41):
It's a great question. So a lot of it,
really, I talked to them aboutyou don't have to try not to
feel like a telemarketer whenyou're calling companies, and
really putting a lot of the theweight of the sales process into
your marketing materials, whichwhat works really well is to
(23:01):
have a one or two page sellsheet that has some wow factor,
shows the product and has a linkto a video they can watch that's
about a minute or so long. So alot of the selling, the heavy
lifting of that goes to thosemarketing materials. So that's
first and foremost. I think alot of people have this idea
(23:22):
that, you know, it's going to belike the movie the boiler room,
and you're in there and you gotto do this amazing presentation.
It's really not that. It's moreabout finding the right people
within the company, makingcontact. And LinkedIn is a great
tool to do that. The telephonestill works, even though it
might sound old fashioned, andthen just getting permission to
(23:44):
send over your your materials,and then you send them. Then
it's a follow up game. So a lotof times, too, when I'm
coaching, we'll, we'll do somepractice calls. I'll pretend
like I'm somebody at thecompany, and they, you know,
they ring me, and then we justkind of go through the a typical
first call and then maybe asecond or third call that gets a
(24:06):
little more into the weeds withthe product. And, you know, what
are you looking for as theinventor, what are they looking
for? Those kinds of things,yeah, and that, that's a lot of
fun. And so really, a lot of itreally comes down to knowing the
what, what are the expectations,what does this ecosystem even
(24:27):
look like? And I have a lot ofcheat sheets and scripts and
things for emails and phonecalls and LinkedIn and so I have
a lot of tools that can reallyhelp people so they're not you
don't feel like you're so farout on the leading edge of all
of this. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur (24:43):
terrific. Well, let me take a very short break
here and share with everyonethat the being an engineer
podcast is brought to you bypipeline design and engineering,
where we don't design pipelines,but we do help companies develop
advanced manufacturingprocesses, automated machines
and customs. Mixtures,complemented with product design
and R D services, Learn more atTeam pipeline.us. The podcast is
(25:08):
also sponsored by the wave, anonline platform of free tools,
education and community forengineers. Learn more at the
wave. Dot, engineer, and today,we are thrilled to be speaking
with Scott. Putnam, Scott, youmentioned the importance of
doing market research right,making sure that there's
actually a need, a want, adesire for the product that
(25:30):
you're developing. What are sometools that you have found
effective to do that marketresearch? Yeah, so
Scott Putnam (25:37):
some really quick, easy stuff. Just to get started,
I like to tell people, you know,start with Google Images and
just type, try different termsthat you would describe your
products. See what comes up.
Google Shopping is a great one,Amazon, of course, if we're
talking consumer products, butsome other other, other areas to
research, and this is part of itas well. Is Google patents. You
(26:01):
can go to the uspto.gov, but alot of people find Google
patents is just a little biteasier, more user friendly for
researching products, and youhave to try different terms,
because the way you mightdescribe it in your mind,
somebody else may describe itdifferently. So really, really
digging into that, looking atGoogle Trends, are people still
(26:25):
looking for alarm clocks, or isthat gone things like that?
Aaron Moncur (26:32):
Knowing is Google Trends? Is that like a product
that Google offers? You can typein Google Trends and it'll show
you trend lines for differentproducts, yeah,
Scott Putnam (26:41):
yeah, okay, yeah.
If you just Google, GoogleTrends, yeah, it will come up.
It's a great place. And there's,you know, AI is another great
resource, you know, because itcan search the internet and
beyond and give you an idea ofwhat what direction products are
going. I like perplexity,because it'll give you the the
(27:01):
sources, so you can go to someof those websites to verify
things. It's really theresearch. Really what you're
looking at, too, is not just ismy product idea out there? You
want to know what else is evenremotely similar to it, what
else is even remotely close toit, as well as, what are the
price points of other productsin this category? What does the
(27:23):
packaging look like? So a lot ofthe research to just go into
stores and look around, youknow, see, where would your
product be in the store? Howwould it be packaged? What are
the other products that you'reseeing in that area? So if you,
if you have a, let's say, acarrot peeler innovation. I
mean, I would go into a lot ofstores that sell carrot peelers,
(27:44):
and just what you're doing isbecoming an expert in the
category. You want to know allof the other products, all the
other types of carrot peelers.
What are their price points?
What brands are they? So thatyou can, you can really speak to
how is your product different?
What is your point ofdifference? What makes yours
(28:05):
better than what's out there?
Aaron Moncur (28:08):
How about the whole Coke versus Pepsi thing,
right? Like they're basicallythe same thing. Do you how do
you coach inventors when theyhave a product that maybe is
pretty similar to something elseout there is that, can that ever
be a viable business? Or if youlook at something and say, well,
it already exists, you know,pretty much 95% the same out
(28:31):
here and and that's just the endof the conversation.
Scott Putnam (28:35):
Yeah, it's a great it's a great point. So how
different does mine have to be?
How much of an improvement doesmine have to be? I've seen a lot
of licensing deals over theyears that were really just
small tweaks on existingproducts. And how big of a tweak
does that need to be? Is alittle bit of an X factor, and
it comes down to talking throughwhen I'm coaching, you know
(28:57):
what? What is your point ofdifference? What makes yours
better? And sometimes it's justthe improvement is that it does
the same job, it's just lessexpensive, or, you know, it can
get the job done in twice thetime with half the mess, you
know, things like that, eventhough, operationally, it may
not be that different. But whatit also does is it opens the
(29:19):
question about, well, what aboutthe IEP? What does that look
like? So that's something thatyou need to go down that road
too, because the companiesyou're pitching it to for
licensing, or if you're bringingit to market yourself, you need
to make sure that runway isclear. Yeah.
Aaron Moncur (29:38):
Great. Can you share a success story, maybe one
of your clients, of course,without divulging anything
confidential, but kind ofexemplifying the process or the
journey that you take inventorsthrough and and how one of your
clients
Scott Putnam (29:56):
succeeded? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. In fact. The
client I'm thinking of. I justhad her on my podcast. We just
recorded it. It'll be coming outin a few weeks. Yeah, I had a
fantastic client who had areally, a clever kind of a, I'll
call it, a kitchen gadget thatsolved a problem that she was
(30:18):
having and other people werehaving, and she was very, kind
of apprehensive abouteverything, like every step of
the process was because it wasall new to her. She had never
done anything like this, and butshe had a great concept. And we
talked a lot about, you know,going through the steps and
(30:39):
creating a cell sheet. And, youknow, how do we do that? Or are
we going to do a rendering? Or,you know, what is your actual
physical prototype look like?
Because sometimes, if it looksgood enough, you can take a
picture and put that on a cellsheet. And luckily, her son had
helped with some 3d printing,and so she had a very nice
looking prototype, so we usethat on her cell sheet, and she
(31:02):
she worked hard in terms ofdoing the research. Really knew
the space, because she had beenlooking for her exact product
for a long time. So she knew,already knew all of the products
that were out there and theprice points and all of that
stuff. So once we had what whatlooked like the close to the
(31:24):
finished product, I think we dida few little touch ups with some
photoshop work to kind of cleanit up a little bit, but got it
on a sell sheet. We had hercreate a one minute video that
we can embed into the sellsheet, and got a list of
companies together, she filed aprovisional patent application,
and we stretched our comfortzone a lot when it come came to
(31:45):
reaching out to companies, but,yeah, I'm so proud of her. She
she did it, and she had, Ithink, three companies that were
interested. And I remember oneof the coaching calls early on,
I said the best problem you canhave is to have multiple
companies interested in this. SoI'm going to wish this upon you.
I must have waved a magic wandor something. She ended up
(32:07):
having three companiesinterested, and ultimately made
a good decision to go with oneof them that ended up being the
biggest company, and wentthrough that process, you know,
negotiated a licensing deal, gotour product licensed. I was at
the housewares trade showearlier this month, and saw her
(32:29):
product at the trade show. Sothat was wow, like a proud
teacher moment for me. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur (32:36):
phenomenal. Very cool, great story. All right,
how about when it comes tointellectual property, you
mentioned making sure the runwayis clear. Now, I think the
short, easy answer is work withan IP attorney and make sure
that all your ducks are in therow there. But what are some
high level insights that youmight have that New Inventors
(33:03):
might not be aware of. Whatshould people be keeping in mind
as they begin searching theintellectual property landscape?
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Scott Putnam (33:57):
Yeah, I think one thing to remember is that a
patent alone doesn't always stopthe knockoffs, so which that may
burst a few balloons here, butit just gives you the ammunition
to fight them. But you reallyneed a strategy to enforce it,
and sometimes, you know, strongmarket presence is just as
(34:20):
valuable as a patent. So thereis some strategy behind
dominating the marketplace. So alot of companies that you pitch
products to the patent, questionalways comes up, and they I'd
say the vast majority reallywant an issued utility patent.
But our model isn't to wait tillthat happens, because it can be
(34:41):
18 months before it's evenreviewed, and up to, like, three
years or longer before it'sissued. So you can get in the
game much quicker than that. Andcompanies understand the value
of dominating the marketplaceand really being the first to
market. There's a lot of powerin that. And. Yeah, a lot of in
a lot of cases, a really wellprepared provisional patent
(35:04):
application is enough to startdiscussions with companies. And
it's a really nice tool, becauseit offers you the priority date.
And if you file a nonprovisional within 12 months,
your non provisional sort ofclaims that earlier priority
date. So it almost sort of getsto go back in time. And I would
(35:27):
say, high level, high levelstuff, really doing your own
research. And remember, even ifyou're working with a patent
attorney, don't just hand themthe idea and tell them to, you
know, let you know when it'sdone. Be involved in the
process, and remember, you arethe expert in this category. You
know more about your productthan anybody does, so don't be
(35:49):
afraid to really shareeverything you can and
everything you know with apatent attorney if you if you go
down that road and readeverything they do, and if
they're missing the marksomewhere. Make sure to bring it
to their attention, becausethey're they're not perfect. And
the other thing too is patentattorneys, there's they come in
(36:11):
all shapes and sizes, so andwhat I mean by that is their job
is to get you a patent. Theirjob isn't necessarily to get you
a super strong patent. So a lotof times you have to help them
fight for a stronger patent.
Case in point, with with my SWATand scoop I had, we I being new
at it at the time and not reallyfully understanding patents, and
(36:38):
I'm still learning. You know,I'm not a patent attorney, but
the first claim in a patent isthe independent claim, and it's
the most important claim. So ifyou're not infringing on that
first independent claim, you'renot infringing on the patent. It
doesn't mean you wouldnecessarily get one if yours is
too similar to something else,but it's, it's an important
piece to know. So when I wrotemy provisional, I just put
(37:01):
everything in the kitchen sinkinto it, which is okay, but my
patent attorney, when he draftedit, there was some things in
there, in the independent claimabout the handle, just because
it was just things that Ithought of to reduce materials
and things like that. But onceit was in the independent claim,
somebody could have come outwith the exact same product and
(37:22):
not had the specifics that I hadabout the handle, and they would
not be infringing on my patent.
So understanding kind of how theindependent claim works and how
it fits into the equation is sohuge,
Aaron Moncur (37:39):
that's a huge insight. Thank you for sharing
that you have, if I'm notmistaken, a background in, like,
health and wellness and lifecoaching. Is that right?
Scott Putnam (37:49):
Yeah, yeah. I'm a certified life coach. And
sometimes, when I'm coachinginventors, you know, I wear that
hat. I wear a lot of differenthats. Sometimes I'm the, you
know, the therapist, like, laydown couch and tell me about
your mother, and I'm thecheerleader, and sometimes I'm
the, you know, the footballcoach blowing the whistle. So
the background in that is my, mywife and I brought our two
(38:13):
little girls to China, and welived in China for a couple
years, and when we we came backdue to some family health
issues, and that was about thetime we learned about plant
based eating and the power ofthat. We watched Forks Over
Knives documentary, and read TheChina Study, and really explored
(38:34):
that as an option, mostly forjust prevention. But it was
about the time that I had aphysical, and I was 44 at the
time, and was the first timeanybody's ever used the word
obese to me, because I was neverlike a an overweight kid or a
chunky kid. So it was like this,this moment where, who are you
(38:57):
talking to? What me and I waslooking at the doctor who had a
very roten belly himself. Sogood company here. But, and it
was really a wake up call for methat okay, you know, I'm well
into the, you know, body massindex being very much obese, but
(39:18):
I didn't necessarily feel likeit, but also high cholesterol
and some other, you know, healthindicators that it was time to
make a change. And that wasabout the time we learned about
plant based eating. So went allin with that. Cholesterol
dropped, weight dropped. I lostabout 65 pounds. Started, wow,
doing a couch to 5k and justkept with the running for a
(39:39):
while, which is hilarious to me,because I've always hated
running my whole life.
Aaron Moncur (39:45):
Well, congratulations that that's a
huge accomplishment. Thanks.
Yeah, our whole
Scott Putnam (39:50):
family is is plant based since 2013 and it's just
it's been, it's been an amazingjourney as a family, and we live
in the Midwest. Where it's allmeat and dairy and lots of
processed unhealthy foods, whichI guess that's probably the
story for all of America. So,yeah, I do believe in taking
(40:10):
care of the body and the mindand good health really leads to
better decision making, andthat's critical in business. And
you know, I like to tell people,you know, it will help you avoid
burnout. You're going to havemore energy. You're going to
sleep better if you just gethealthy, because it is a long
game. And I encourage inventorsto work in more focused sprints,
(40:33):
you know, and take breaks ratherthan kind of endlessly being on
this grinding treadmill.
Aaron Moncur (40:41):
I'm curious to hear what you your take on
protein, because protein is allthe rage right now. Feels like
best. I don't know, five yearsor so, everything is protein,
protein, you know, it's, uh,protein pasta and protein bread
and protein whatever, right?
Protein candies. It's, insane.
It's it's everywhere, andtypically one thinks of like
(41:06):
meat and maybe dairy, as well asbeing high sources of protein
plants. Of course, there you canfind higher protein based
plants, but, but it's maybe morechallenging to get enough or a
lot of protein out of plants.
Talk a little bit about that, ifyou would do you think the the
craze for protein is warranted.
(41:30):
Do we really need that muchprotein in our diets? And then
follow that up with, if you aretrying to get we'll just say a
reasonable amount of protein inyour diet, whatever that is. How
do you do that on a plant baseddiet?
Scott Putnam (41:45):
Yeah, it's, again, it's such a great question in
this country, especially, sortof meat is synonymous with
protein. And when people, evenif you go to a restaurant, you
order a salad or whatever, orjust some pasta, like, Oh, do
you want to add some protein tothat? Meaning, do you want to
add some meat to that? And Ididn't know that was a question
(42:08):
I had, and I get that questionall the time. Well, I didn't
know plants had protein, butthey have a ton of protein. Even
broccoli has more protein percalorie. I know it's less
calories, but than red meat, andit's Have you ever heard of
anybody being hospitalized dueto low protein or lack of
(42:30):
protein? No, I haven't. It justdoesn't happen. And it's really
interesting. In the book thatChina Studies, Dr T Colin
Campbell went to China thinkingsome of their health issues are
protein deficiencies. When hegot there, what he found was
most of the the healthiestpeople in the country were the
(42:51):
ones that ate the least amountof animal products, and the ones
that lived maybe in more urbanareas, that had more access to
meat and dairy wasn't such a bigthing, but had more access to
meat and just ate more animalbased diets, had higher levels
of all kinds of diseases. And itwas like, wait a minute, what's
(43:11):
going on here? And so reallylooked into it and and found out
that a lot of oh, we'reespecially in the US. It's like,
listen to your grandma andgrandparents, right? Eat more
veggies. But it's something thatin this country anyway, we
think, you know, the bigbodybuilders, weight lifters,
(43:34):
like to be healthy, you need toeat lots of animal protein or
lots of meat. And it's really,when you look at the data. It's,
it's quite the opposite. Andthere's some really specific,
great plant based foods thathave tons of protein. I mean,
black beans and lentils andquinoa are absolutely packed
with protein. So, yeah, ifyou're, if you're not literally
(44:00):
starving to death, you'reprobably getting plenty of
protein, even on a plant basedor a vegan diet, it's it's all
in there, and it's enough. It'sjust trying to get over the idea
that, Oh, I need more. I needmore. I need more. So yeah,
there's another documentary I'llmention real quick, called the
game changers, and it's aboutthese professional athletes,
(44:22):
especially football players,that switch to a plant based
diet, and how their performanceimproves and the recovery time
improves. It's, it's reallyfascinating,
Aaron Moncur (44:31):
interesting. The game changers. He said, huh,
yeah, I'm gonna have to watchthat one. All right, it's good
movie, fascinating. All right,well, Scott, let's see. I think
we'll start wrapping things uphere. I'm going to steal a trick
from Tim Ferriss and ask you ifyou were to have the ability to
(44:54):
put anything on a giantbillboard that millions of
people would see as they'redriving past. And say, millions
of inventors. Would see asthey're driving past, what would
that thing be?
Scott Putnam (45:03):
Wow, that is a great question. Thanks. Tim
Ferriss,
Aaron Moncur (45:07):
thank you.
Scott Putnam (45:08):
Tim Ferriss, yeah.
I think one of the quotes that Ilove is people don't care how
much you know until they knowhow much you care. And I think
that would be at the top maybe.
And then below that of theBillboard would be that your
ideas matter. You know, we'reall put on this planet to
(45:31):
express ourselves and ourcreativity. And I think for a
lot of people, if you have avenue for that, if you have a
plan for that, and some someguidance. You know, you don't
have to be a lone wolf. Maybethat would be right below it.
You don't have to be a lonewolf. And as inventors, and I
know a lot of engineers, you'resort of on this, you know, on
(45:53):
this, this path, and you'regoing through the woods and
you're alone. And so what I'mtrying to do is, and what I'm
doing with inventors edge isreally bringing people together
with our membership and saying,Hey, you don't have to do this
alone. There's a lot of supportout there and guidance and can
help you stay motivated, and,you know, create a nice, clear
(46:14):
path so you know the direction,or get help with the direction
that you want to go. And we'reall in this together.
Aaron Moncur (46:23):
Terrific, wonderful. Well, Scott, how can
people get a hold of you?
Scott Putnam (46:28):
I think that the best way is just through our
website. It's inventors dash. Wedo have a dash edge.com and
there you can sign up for aweekly email blog if you want
some great information, we havesome FAQs. There's a Contact Us
link there. I'm also onLinkedIn. I would love to
connect with anybody. You can DMme if you, if you, you know,
(46:52):
just have questions, or you justwant to set up a a time to talk.
I'm happy to do that, and I canshare more about what I do and
how I help people and maybe evenoffer guidance about what what
you're looking for. And I loveengineers. You're some of my
favorite group to work with,because you're very organized
(47:13):
and methodical and, you know,like, like, step by step
processes, and that's somethingI've been helping people with
for a long time. So yeah, pleasereach out. I'm available.
Wonderful.
Aaron Moncur (47:25):
All right, Scott, well, thank you so much. I sure
appreciate you being on the showand sharing all these wonderful
insights with our audience.
Scott Putnam (47:32):
Thanks My pleasure.
Aaron Moncur (47:33):
I'm Aaron Moncur, founder of pipeline design and
engineering. If you liked whatyou heard today, please share
the episode to learn how yourteam can leverage our team's
expertise developing advancedmanufacturing processes,
automated machines and customfixtures, complemented with
(47:53):
product design and R D services.
Visit us at Team pipeline.us. Tojoin a vibrant community of
engineers online visit the wavedot engineer, thank you for
listening. You.
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