He Invented a Safer Way to Unclog Gutters | Derek Thompson's Sputter Inventor Journey

Every great invention begins with a problem that everyone else has learned to live with.

In this episode of Everything Intellectual Property, we sit down with Derek Thompson, inventor and founder of The Sputter, a patented tool designed to safely unclog gutter downspouts—all while keeping homeowners safely on the ground. What started as a simple observation about a common household problem evolved into a mission to make home maintenance safer for everyone, especially seniors, veterans, and anyone who shouldn't have to risk climbing a ladder just to keep water flowing properly.

Derek shares the remarkable story behind developing the Sputter, from identifying the problem and designing the solution to navigating the patent process, product development, manufacturing, and bringing an entirely new product to market. He opens up about the challenges every independent inventor faces, the emotional highs and lows of entrepreneurship, and why persistence often matters more than having the perfect plan.

00:00 – Meet Derek Thompson & the Story Behind the Sputter
01:48 – The Gutter Problem That Inspired the Invention
06:14 – Why Cleaning Gutters from the Ground Matters
11:37 – Developing the Product and Early Challenges
17:52 – Patents, Protecting the Invention & Intellectual Property
24:28 – Manufacturing and Bringing the Product to Market
31:45 – Entrepreneurship, Persistence & Learning Through Failure
39:21 – Advice for First-Time Inventors and Product Developers
46:54 – Growing the Business and What's Next for the Sputter
53:42 – Final Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Hear

#DerekThompson #Sputter #Inventor #Patents #IntellectualProperty #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #ProductDevelopment #Manufacturing #StartupJourney #FounderStory #HomeImprovement #GutterCleaning #DIY #SmallBusiness #PatentProcess #InventorLife #EverythingIntellectualProperty #ConsumerProducts #InnovationPodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to another episode of Everything Intellectual Property. Today we have a very special guest with us. This gentleman has created a tour to use the unclogter downspouts. Please help me welcome the founder of the Sputter, Derek Thompson. How is it going, Mr. Thompson?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

I am blessed, uh, David, and thank you for uh having me today.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Oh, for sure. And uh, I know we've been kind of talking uh about the last week or so about kind of inventing and uh entrepreneurship, and uh, I'm excited to talk about your product here today, uh, as well as kind of some other things. Uh, but for the audience who may not be familiar with your tool, the sputter, can you maybe give a uh a quick description of what that includes and what that consists of? And I also have a video to play to help out with that description as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

The sputter is the you want me to wait for the video to stop? No, well, you can you can explain it uh or describe what the video is playing. Well, that's the whole premise behind this tool is being safe, using it from the ground. Um, it's not a substitute for cleaning your gutters, but what it is is an emergency relief tool um to keep water flowing in your gutters. Um, leaves are not the problem with your gutters. There's always water. When water sits there, the weight of the water starts to pull the gutters down, which pull the faces down, which make the roof start to wear uh a lot quicker. So this tool was made just to help people, seniors, um uh veterans who physically can't do ladders. It was made to assist people in good home maintenance. That's what it that was the purpose for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Gotcha, gotcha. And and let me ask you about the inspiration. Uh, and we'll talk about kind of your upbringing and your uh background here in a little bit. But what was that kind of inspiration or that aha moment for you to say, okay, I need to kind of create a tour to resolve this issue? Was this something that you were kind of dealing with personally? Did you kind of was hearing stories from friends and family members dealing with it? What was that kind of moment to make you say, Okay, I have to kind of create something that's called?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Originally for me because it was a headache for me. Um, I would pay, and this was over 15 years ago. I mean, I was paying to get my gutters clean. A week later, wind blow, it rained, gutters get full, can't get back out the house. And I'm like, you know what? I need to create, I need to figure out a way to keep water flowing until I can clean the gutters. Uh, because I realized it wasn't the leaves, it was the downspout was clogged, and that's where all the water from the basement was coming from. So I went out in the garage, took a paint roller, honestly, prayed about it and got some wisdom, and created this tool. And I used this modified paint roller for about eight years. Um, and it just worked. And my son saw it, and one of his friends, and they was like, Dad, um you may be on to something. And I kind of blew it off. Um, and my wife, like long story short, my wife went out to visit one of her friends, and her husband had some patents, which was not his. Long story short, he had a friend who was a patent lawyer who listened to what I had to say, investigated it, and here we are. Um it's a, you know, like I say, this was meant, and that's why the price point is where it is. Um, and the only reason the price point is as high as it is is because in retail or e-commerce, they take 50%. So you got to make sure you can produce it, have some profitability. So that's where it is. But the whole goal was to put something in the market that everybody could afford to help keep the maintenance of their property up.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

And let me ask you this: what's the kind of the biggest thing that people don't understand? Again, you talk about uh gutters. Again, every house has gutters. I know when we were talking last week, we talked about every house has gutters, so it's not like just because you uh you know, everybody's dealing with this issue in some form or fashion. And you know, a lot of times, you know, we want to get our gutters clean, and uh, you know, that may cost money. And but this seems like, like you said, this is the clogging of the gutter. So what what what leads to that clogging of the gutter that that makes this tool so effective to kind of clean that, or from at least from an emergency standpoint?

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Well, usually um it's usually a few different contributors. You get small little twigs in there that start to lay across there with the leaves pile up. It could be the um, we just went through probably last month, all this brown fuzz stuff that's floating around. Well, well, all that get wet and like cotton, so it starts to stick and it starts to build up a little bit. Um, and that's what creates the the little cover that sits over the downspout hole.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Okay, okay, and that makes sense. And I I was kind of in preparing for this interview, it was interesting because I was uh and I've came across this product before in terms of the leaf uh what is it, the leaf gutter or something like that. Whereas guard, yeah, the leaf guard where you put it over the gutters to kind of prevent the leaves from getting in there, which again that helps. I would imagine that that helps kind of prevent the clog up as well. But it seems like this product to the extent that some homeowners or you know, you know, whoever has leaf guards on their gutters, this still works with that, correct?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yes. Um, actually, some of the first few I saw was that people had leaf guards. Wow. Um, the original leaf guards, the problem with all the original leaf guards were they went on flat. So if the leaves got up there and was wet, they would just lay there wet and cover the drain holes. Since then, leaf guards have got a little bit better because they angled now the screen a little bit to allow the leaves to blow off. But the problem with leafeguard is they're not good for pine needles. Pine needles still get in those holes, still clog up the downspout. So this is why people with leaf guard by the sputter it because they still got to unclog the downspout. It's good for leaves, but the um the pine needles and the little stuff get through the holes, and you're right back to square one.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

No, for sure. And then one of the things that we were talking about last time is uh, you know, here in Michigan, I know we're both in the Michigan area, which you know, we get we get we get snow, we get uh a lot of rain in the wintertime, which kind of leads to those icicles specifically along the edge of the roof, along the gutters, and a big part of that is because the fact that things are not flowing uh properly down that down spot, correct? Yep, and I do it um in the winter.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I use it in the winter uh because if I know it's gonna snow, or even if it's the snow and it really hasn't froze yet, I take the sputter and stick it up in the down spot to create a hole. So as it melts, it has somewhere to go.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Right. No, that makes sense. And then another thing you had said earlier, uh again, we're just kind of keeping it uh surface level at this point, talking about gutters and icicle buildup and uh things that kind of are more so presented around that gutter area, but this can present a bigger challenge from a foundational standpoint where you're talking about water getting into the basement, getting into the foundation, causing cracks. Can you talk a little bit about that aspect? Because again, that can lead to a lot more money down the line, which this tool can kind of help help you know prevent.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Usually the only place I get water in my basement comes from the downspout, one in the front of the house and one in the back of the house. Those two I have to make sure um I get clean, uh, I keep open. Um, and the thing with the sputter, the one in the front of the house, you some downspouts are under eaves. You know what I mean? They they kind of drain down and there's an eave on top of it. So that's why the sputter is kind of flexible. It allows you to twist and turn and to get it to go down in there to open it up. But when I go in the basement and see water on the floor, I know exactly where it's coming from. It's the downspout. As soon as I go open those up, no more water, right? And my neighbors had the same problem. Um uh I thought it was just isolated to me, but a couple of my neighbors are doing one of the downpours. They're like, Derek, we saw water coming in. We went in to open the downspout. They're like, Man, this is anything else you invent, let us know. We want it.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

No, let me ask you this because you talked about not when you purchase this. I'm assuming that you just get the actual stock, uh, the the sputter. Uh, but from an extension pole standpoint, I know we got to get creative, but at least kind of growing up where we grew up at. Uh, now is this like the extension pole? Does that come with it? Can you kind of just buy those from your hardware store? How does that work to be able to kind of screw this on or attach it to the extension pole to get up there?

SPEAKER_01 9:01

It well, it's threaded, it's a three-quarter inch just nominal thread that's universal to 95% of anything, extension pole, broom handle, it does mop handle, it don't matter. Um, and uh Myers originally was pushing me to package it with an extension pole. The problem I have with that is it takes the price point from 1995, now you up to 50 something dollars. Um, and that's with a small extension pole. If you go to a larger extension pole, it becomes a lot more. And so what I told Myers was I don't want to start getting in the business of selling somebody else's extension pole in order to sell my tool, right? Um, for the most part, most people have something. 80% of people got a broom handle. Let's consider it done at that point, you know what I mean? So that's one of the reasons why I didn't do that, David, is because the variable was just too much. How how long, how big extension pole you need? A 12-footer, 15-footer, a 20-footer, you know what I mean? And I felt like if I put a 15-footer in the pack and somebody needed 25 feet, they wasn't gonna buy it because they didn't need the pole. So um, after I kind of gave that argument to Myers, they they agreed. They agreed. I'm like, the the sweet part about this is $20 get you this tool, bing, and that's it.

unknown 10:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

No, yeah. And again, as you start to kind of lay that out, that that does make sense as far as okay, you know, I'm how much pole do we need? And do I want to kind of buy a uh a pack that has a 10-foot pole when I need a 20 or kind of vice versa, that type of a thing, which can start to kind of make it difficult to for for a customer to justify the price. Uh, now do you I would imagine that you give feedback uh from the feedback perspective? Do kind of customers kind of have something that they can kind of use with it. Is that typically what you kind of see from people to buy that they have something, like you said, a broom or whatever the case may be that they can just screw on there to kind of you know get the job done?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah, yeah. Most of the people buy it because they already have some have something. I've real I've had no complaints about people arguing about why didn't I sell extension pole because they kind of get it. Um, you know, if you looked at the sputter and then you went and looked at the price of extension pole, you you could do the math in your own mind. And you know, now you're looking at a whole different price point. So for the most part, you know, this allows people to go get what they need. If you if they need a 30-foot pole, then they're if they're willing to invest in the 30-foot pole, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yeah, no, yeah, and that makes sense. I think the big thing that even maybe we didn't talk about earlier is the fact that this allows you to kind of unclog the drain from the ground floor. I know, you know, back in the youthful days, I don't know about you, but for me, even though I'm still kind of young, I remember you know being what teenage years and just going up on the roofs and kind of doing things. And uh, hey, I'm not doing that anymore these days. I like to be on uh the the ground surface and being able to uh kind of have this tool, like you say, using it with some type of an extension, pole or whatnot to unclog the drains as well as get frisbee, gets get things off the roof. It seems like uh this is definitely a utility to cover more than just even a downsprout. Like I said, getting frisbee, getting different things off the roof without having to climb the roof or pay to somebody to climb the roof or get on the roof to get things down.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah, you know, with as many and the way our weather patterns are changing. I can't tell you the branches I pull off the roof that just fall up there, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:40

No, yeah, you you you sure are right about that. And next thing you know, like you said, you having to pay somebody a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars to go get branches off the tree, uh the roof, so they don't cause further damage. It seems like this thing is definitely uh worthwhile for that, in addition to those other things that we talked about. Let I guess let me ask you this. Uh, from a from a standpoint, again, I know you're retired now, and as I was, like I said, doing some preparation, I saw that you were doing a lot had a lot of project manager experience. Was this something that you always thought to yourself that you wanted to be an entrepreneur, come up with a product, or is this something that just kind of really came out of nowhere based on your own uh experiences with kind of the issues that you were solving with the sputter?

SPEAKER_01 13:21

No, this has been my whole background. I yeah, I've always created. I mean, my original background is I'm an automotive draftsman. Um, so I I started on the board uh with triangles and compasses and went to CAD. So my original background was I created stuff. I was a Ford design engineer. So if you look at like the F-150s and you see where they got those adjustable pedals, well, I created that with Dura. I mean, there's so many inventions I have, but all the intellectually owned to uh to the people you work for. I was meet met with a guy at one of the uh my church men's group, and he works for Taycom. And when I was telling him all the stuff I made on semi-trucks, is I up armored every semi-truck in Iraq during the Iraq war. Um, and all of the stuff you see on there, those were my inventions, but Halliburton on them because they were paying the tab. So, you know, it's all I'm always looking for a better way to do something or a more efficient way. That's just how my brain is wired.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Well, and that makes sense. Uh, and I know you talked about the ownership of it. This is, I think, a great segue until the intellectual property. So it seems like kind of from your days as an engineer and kind of developing product, uh, whether that's for uh armored vehicles, whether that's for uh domestic vehicles, it seems like you have experience with intellectual property. Uh, so with this product, were you able to get some IP on it, whether it's patents, design patents, utility patents, how did that process work?

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah, we got design and utility. I mean, we we we covered the gamut. Um, you know, once we looked for a couple years and let me preface, I waited 10 years every I waited 10 years before I even thought about patent this because being a business guy, one of the things I know if you go kicking in somebody's, you go playing in somebody's backyard, make sure your pockets are deep enough to play the win. Um, so when I went and looked at all of the gutter cleaning manufacturers out there, what they had, where they were at. Um I went globally, I looked at all of the gutter tools, especially Australia, because everybody kept telling me what Australia didn't got nothing to compare to what I have. So after looking at it globally, I'm like, okay, um, we need to cover the gamut on this. This is not only a design, this is a usage because there ain't nothing else out there for the downspout. There's one thing that they call a downspout auger that you use from the ground up from the bottom of the downspout. I'm like, who gonna do all that? I mean, that's a lot. So I went for the full gamut. I mean, a lot of people said that you know they complain about spending money uh with their patent lawyer. I don't have that problem. Look here, charge me because I know where this is going, and I want to make sure we cover so so we're covered in the US, Canada, Mexico, China, the EU. Um, because I'm like it's a global tool.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So no, and that was going to be the the next question. I'm glad you answered that because again, like I said, this is not just a US thing. Uh again, pretty much all houses around the world have gutters on them. So I would imagine that you will this will have utility in other countries as well, which it seems like, like you said, Canada, Mexico, China, I'm sure countries in Europe, you kind of protected this thing uh globally, it looks like.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yep, yep, I mean, because here lately, about a month ago, we had a couple orders through Lowe's for Hawaii. And I'm like, okay, I'm like, you know, there's something to be said. Then I started to remember there's a lot of parts on the islands of each Hawaiian island that's just rainforest area. Yep, you know what I mean? And I'm like, oh, okay, okay, or they could use this on the extension pole to grab coconuts. I don't know what they do, but I mean, it's a versatile, it's a versatile tool, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:27

No, and this is actually another good point that you brought uh brought up in terms of just kind of being in Lowe's. How did that kind of partnership or how did that uh happen? Because again, a lot of times people want to get into these uh kind of different stores, the Lowe's, the the Walmarts, the targets of the world. How did that come about to be able to say, okay, now I'm a partner with Lowe, and Lowe's is is uh kind of selling my product?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

You know, let's I let let's start by saying people need to do a lot of the stuff they don't want to do, they need to make themselves go do it because usually that's where the fruit is at, the places you don't want to go. I mean, so I went to an event uh to support the Southfield Um Chamber of Commerce. There was a guy there who made a carpet pulling machine, got to know him. He sent me an email saying, Hey dear, here's the vice president of Lowe's Global Purchasing email. So I sent this guy an email and he was very big in community service. So I sent him an email and say, Mr. Bose, look here, not not asking to get in your store, but I want to know how I support you on your community endeavors. We're we're we're a community-based company. Uh, whether I work sell stuff with Lowe's or not, it doesn't matter. Two seconds later, I get a call from two buyers. So his two buyers work with me. And so they was like, you know what, Derek, we like this. It's like, but let us tell you how this has got to work. There's like for us to take this back up the food chain to him, we got to go through 15 different levels of people to say yes. Wow. They say, so if you can join a group, uh uh there's a platform called Range Me. And Range Me have a bunch of new products, that's what they do. And this is where all the buyers and retailers go to look for new products. So I signed up for Range Me, $99, and they every year Lowe's have what they call into the blue, where they go pick small businesses with new products to come to uh North Carolina to present. Long story short, I got picked.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

So when I went in, um I had done my due diligence, I had a presentation together. I knew what I knew how much Lowe's made every week from gutter tools and uh hardware tools. I knew my numbers and I knew um that they did they did they have 16 million sales every week. That's just in the US. This is 16 million sales in the store. This is the store, this ain't e-commerce, right? So my thing was okay, 16 million. Let's just say we could do a half a percent, a half a percent of that every week coming through the store. Oh we we we sell ourselves. So, long story short, when I went in to do the presentation, it was a brother, and he was like, I don't want to hear your presentation. And I got mad. So there was a blessing. My son went with me and was kicking me on the table to shut up, and he took over because the guy was just saying, Look, you don't need to present to us, we already want your product. What you need to do is go back and put stuff in the place that if we have we needed more infomercials to explain how to use the tool. I got so he put me on a mission to go do that. We did that. Um, I did that, had that done, got to the point that we were about to sign the deal. Then I didn't hear from him for a few weeks, couldn't find out he was gone. And I'm like, no. So by the grace of God, I had the vice president's email. So I could send Bill Bowser email to Mr. Bose, he's gone, yada yada. This is how, and they made sure I got in. But now here's the thing that people need to understand for for getting into like lows. I mean, I pay $115 a month for EDI. So it ain't like you got to be connected to do business with these guys, even on the e commerce site. So that's every month. Um the onboarding process is almost a three month process. Um, but now the I got it done in less than a month. Which, well, because I'm up every morning at two, three o'clock anyway, and corresponding with the technicians, they're all in India. So you get the emails in the middle of the night before you wake up. And then by the time you respond, they gone. So you done lost two days. Soon as they email will hit my inbox, I reply, we got it done. So that was one of the benefits for me being up in the middle of the night is I could take care of stuff right then and there and move the needle a lot quicker. So I just say that to say, David, that when people want to do stuff like this, they need to look at the whole gamut because you got to spend some money long before you make some money. So you need to be prepared for this.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

No, and that's the man, that's a part of the game. I'm glad you said that. I know when people come to me as an IP attorney, as a patent attorney, and say, you know, I'm not even gonna say that about the call I got yesterday. But anyway, when people come to me and they kind of want to nickel and dime more on the patent fees, it's like, man, you got a million, or you want everybody want to sell a million dollars, but you don't want to sell. I mean, you don't want to spend a couple dollars on the front end and make sure things are protected, make sure you put yourself in the best position possible to have the most success long term, and that always kind of uh, you know, it's is is is mind-boggling to me because they're trying to kind of skim. And I get it, you a small business, you're on a startup company, you're trying to not overspend, which I 100% understand that, but then uh to try to kind of nickel and dime kind of your way when you're kind of have million-dollar uh dreams with the product or with the business. That always something that was uh interesting. And to your point, man, you got to spend some money long before you start to really make some money. And do you have that in you to do that? Yes or no? Uh I guess that remains to be seen.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Well, well, you know, that's just like I've been um trying to instill in a lot of the vendors in our black and vendors group is you want something for nothing. I don't care how you slice it, how you dice it, call it what it wants, but you don't understand the landscape for one, and what you guys don't get is business is about uh relationships. You got to plant good seed in order to get a harvest somewhere. See, just like the expo. Uh only one or two people showed up from the black and business group, and it's like, dude, I mean, this is how I met you, just be in there. See, you if you ain't out there, then you can't get there. I mean, so we got a little ways to go, David, on the mentality of where we are. Um, like I tell people, you make you make concessions to buy whatever you want to buy when you want to buy it. So now if this ain't important to you, then shame on you. This this should be the top priority. I mean, um, there's people look at me like, how do you do that? I'm like, dude, it ain't like I have the money to do it, but what I've learned over time is I can't afford not to do it. So I may I make sure I do it because if I'm broke, at least at least the boat is in the water now. But trying to hang on to a few dollars and the boat is still on the dock, that's a loss, no matter how you look at it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

So no, yeah, I definitely agree with that. And uh man, I think you summed it up perfectly with that. So let me ask you this uh just a couple more questions for you. Uh, and this is a two-part question that I always like to ask. What was the biggest breakthrough that you had with the sputter up until this point in time? Was it getting in lows? Was it kind of some other thing? Then on the flip side of that, what was the biggest challenge that you had to overcome with the sputter? We all know that business entrepreneurship, and this is why I like doing these uh interviews because you see Shark Tank, people see these other different shows and they just see all the good, but it's like, no man, this is you got ups and downs, it's like a roller coaster going through this thing sometimes. So uh it's kind of challenges that you have to overcome, and everybody has to overcome them. It's not just kind of you and your business. Uh, so I guess like I said, the first question what was the biggest breakthrough with the sputter up until this point in time? And then on the flip side, what was the biggest uh challenge that you had to overcome with uh the product and the business?

SPEAKER_01 26:09

You know, the biggest breakthrough was the Michigan uh um inventors coalition, to be quite honest. I mean, when I you know, my whole thing, David, was before I got to spending a lot, a lot of money, um, I wanted to see what people's perception was. Because if their perception wasn't good, I could have the cure for cancer. It don't matter, it ain't it ain't going nowhere. Right, right. Um that that that makes sense. Go ahead. So being up there, and I won. Um, I I kind of won the pitch competition because and I wasn't even participating. That was the that was the sad part about it. But what I did was like Joe Finkler, who was the president, uh Steve Canton, who got all that cat stuff, the cat guy who and Petco and all that. When those two guys said, you know what, this is the best invention I've seen in about 10 years. Wow, that that that that meant something to me because I'm like, here's some some OGs heavy hitters game.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

You know, and that makes you want to keep going because again, like you said, like I was said earlier, man. Sometimes you're like, Man, do I want to keep doing this? Like you said, you can't really afford not to, but you know, though those slow moments kind of have you thinking, but when you have kind of the OGs and the successful people, you get those kind of moments to keep pushing, those are important uh as you're going through things.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Well, you know, and this is what I always tell people too, David, is um they need to go on rangeme.com. Um, and I suggest that because I'm like, you could do the basic $99 for the whole year, and I say, where else you gonna get a salesman for $99 for a whole year? I say, and what it really does, and that was the other thing that put um uh wind in my sales too, because when I went on range me for the whole lows thing, right? And that's the only reason I went on low on the range me was to get into the blue. But then the owners of range me would call me and they'd be like, Dick, could you please go on and fill out your pro because I did a crappy profile because I wasn't looking to do nothing, I just went on for low. So I'm like, I don't need to put my stuff on here. These guys were calling me every day. Please go in and update your profile. They're like, you got buyers looking at your stuff everywhere right now. Wow, wow, and when they did that, I'm like, okay, so this is why I figured they may not take it right now, but everybody's gonna take this gut or two. They just waiting to see what proof of sale look like in the market, and is it something that's gonna uh gravitate toward the customer base? But after that, it was like I really don't care no more. Yeah, I mean, I I'm a business guy, so no don't mean nothing to me. I mean, I get no every day. I'm a black businessman and automotive. Give me a break, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Oh, yeah, you're definitely right about that. You're definitely right about that. And then I guess uh as far as kind of the the the challenges that you had to overcome, can you maybe kind of at least talk about at least one of those?

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yeah, uh most of the here's why I think most of the challenges um in all of this is just financing, um, just being able to go as far as you could go where your dollars allow you. Fortunately, you know, I was blessed enough that I kind of knew what to do, bits and pieces, long before I kind of got there. So I already had a tool maker, I already knew what my tools were gonna cost. So one of the things I did was set my family down. And I was like, look, all you guys make very good money, and you got money in 401ks and you ain't getting but three and a half percent. Let's fund the company. If we fund the company annually, I give you back 5% on what you give me. And so far, everything's been running good. I said, because this way I don't have to go get bad money. Um, when this when this makes it, we make it because we finance it ourselves. We don't owe nobody anything. So that's kind of what I did, and my family said, let's do it. And that's what we do. We sit down, we go through the numbers. We need new inventory, we we buy new inventory, but we own our own tools, the whole nine yards.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

No, I mean, and I love that. I really love that, like you said, before you go out and get this super crazy interest rate and things like that. Number one, to uh be able to go to the family, which they're gonna have your back, no, more than no finance lenders and whatever the case may have, and then they kind of understand a product, and and and it seems like like at the end of the day, it can be a family-owned business. So it seems like you're able to kind of get that point across, which uh man, that that's something that I think a lot of people should should take going forward. I guess I hadn't heard that one before, but I really like that one. And then I guess the last two questions is number one, what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs? Again, you're somebody who kind of did this really as you're retiring, which I always like because entrepreneurship is not this kind of it's it's not like okay, you have to be rich, you have to be uh, you know, knowing a whole lot, have a whole lot of money, or again, it it can kind of run its kind of the phases, or it can be for anybody. Uh, but what advice would you give to that aspiring entrepreneur who is trying to get up or at least make a decision on whether or not they get off into the game or not get off into the game? I know we all have ideals because if there's one thing that I know, when I tell people I'm a patent attorney, they like, hey, I have an ideal. So we all have ideals, but what advice would you give to that person who's trying to kind of really come to a decision on what do I do with my ideal? Do I really do something about it, or do I just shelve it and do something else?

SPEAKER_01 31:55

No, you know, first and foremost, they got to be honest with themselves. Um, you know, don't start nothing uh half, half doing it and expect ultimate result results. It don't work that way. So the first thing I tell people is you got to decide, is this a hobby that you just want to pursue for your own self-gratification to do this? And and you can do a cheap $150 uh provisional patent, whatever it is, if that's what you want to do. But if this is something that you want to put in the market, do your research first. Um, make sure you understand your path because for me, uh I'm still on my path. I haven't deviated from nothing I wanted to do because I knew where all the roadblocks and the potholes were to begin with. So it's nothing new. So I just tell people do that. And for most of all, be a hundred and ten percent committed. Um, nobody who I know has made it, even if with inventions or in the business world, ain't nobody made it on the first go round. Um until you get some heartaches, until you know the where the bottom is. Look here, you ain't coming back to the top. So be prepared, but don't give up. Um, and understand this is a process, this this is a learning process. So every day you just learn something, man. Um, you just learn something.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

No, for sure. And man, I 100% agree with that. You know, you tell about a jersey in the background, you can tell you can see it a little bit, but playing football for Michigan State University under Coach d'Antonio, you always said, man, you either in or you out. There's no gray area with this thing. You're either in and you're committed to the program and what we're trying to accomplish, or you're out. You can't be one foot in and one foot out. And I think what you said summed that up perfectly, and you got to be committed to it. Uh, and again, I you know, that's really we talked about entrepreneurship and kind of coming out with a product, but I think that's life. If you're trying to have success in anything that you're trying to do, whether it's your marriage, whether it's your uh your business, man, you got to be committed to it. You can't kind of give this half-hearted effort and think that you are going to have success at that thing. So, and I absolutely love that advice in terms of being 100, 110 committed to it. And uh, I guess the last question I'll ask you is uh, and maybe the most important question: how can people follow you in the sputter and purchase the product? I know we talked about Lowe's, but I'm sure it's other platforms and stores and uh you know, ways.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

We on Amazon, Walmart, and they can just go to the website and there's buttons on there that they can pick whichever one they want to buy from, they could buy it. We used to sell it through our website, but um shop the Shopify cost that to do that just was not worth selling it ourselves. It was just like we ain't there yet. Now, when we get up to about a hundred thousand units, half a million units, then it becomes advantageous to do that because you can take care of all the fees and the logistics of it. Right now, my thing was who do I drop this off to and it becomes their problem. Um, so so with Amazon, I send them 300, Walmart, I send them 200, um, and then they just sell, and then I just replenish the inventory, which works good for me. I don't have to buy packaging, I don't have to do all that. Where Lowe's, um, Lowe's will not let me do that yet because I'm still a single uh BBU. But the good news for Lowe's is FedEx is two two blocks from my house. So that's all the little stuff people have to think about. Well, I want to do e-commerce. Well, what does that mean? How far is FedEx from you and UPS? Because if you got to drive 10 miles to keep going to drop off a package, is it worth it? Is the cost worth it for you? Only reason Lowe's work for me, trust me, if FedEx wasn't that close to my house, I wouldn't be doing business with Lowe's. I really would because the squeeze ain't worth the juice, the juice ain't worth the squeeze at that point. But because it's so convenient, yeah, it's it's a win.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Oh man, and I like that. And I think one of the things that you kind of really hit on really throughout this interview is man, you got to make sure the numbers work. We can all have this great ideal and this great invention, but if the numbers not numbering, you can't make no money off of it, then don't don't you know, don't don't let this thing be fool's goal to try to sell stuff when you're gonna be losing out on money, man. The numbers gotta make sense based on who you're dealing with, what platform you're selling it on. And at the end of the day, you have to be able to make money. And if that if it's kind of not if it's not just happening like that or the numbers don't work out, then uh maybe you want to kind of rethink your strategy and kind of go back to the drawing board.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Yep. I mean, this is why, like for like for Rocket Morch, I mean for uh Marathon Petroleum on Wayne State, when they buy bulk, they get discount, they get them for 12. So this is why you gotta pricing is everything. I mean, this is why you gotta make sure, make up your mind. Am I in this for a business or is this just a hobby? Because if it's a business, you got to make sure the numbers work, even in the in worst case scenario, the numbers work.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Oh, yeah, you you can't just run them in a good good situation, like you say. You gotta run up in that bad situation to make sure that you uh you know, like you said, they still number in at that point. So I definitely appreciate the talk. I think you gave a lot of Jews audience members. Hopefully, you guys had your pens, your papers out, and was taking notes because uh Mr. Thompson, he definitely uh spoke about a lot, especially when you're talking about numbers. And again, I love what you said about kind of doing the things that a lot of people are not gonna do. Go to those different uh uh you know events and get a part of those groups, uh, reach out to people who uh you know you think it'll be a long shot. Don't be afraid to be told no because uh that's just a part of the game. A lot of those things that you told is is is is definitely going to uh help out in the long run when you're talking about businesses, particularly when you're talking about small black businesses. Uh, it's a way, man. You're doing it, you're doing some great things. It was good, good to see you at the uh event last weekend at Michigan State University. And uh, I'm glad to be able to get you uh on the podcast and really talk about your story. And I again, I think the the the actual product is a pretty uh a good part product that has utility, not just only in the uh wintertime and the fall time. It's you know, it's it's something that's good to have around the house because you never know what you're gonna use it for, whether it's kind of dealing with the gutters or just trying to get twigs and uh leaves or objects off of your roof. So I think it has a lot of utility. And uh, you know, this was a good one to be able to kind of talk through your story. So I guess I'll give you the last final words before we close out here. Uh no, it was a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Um, you know, and I I think that's uh I enjoy uh telling my story, I enjoy encouraging people because we don't get enough of that. Um all we see is the reasons why not to do something. Give me a break. You know, if you're breathing, do it. Uh you know, because the day you stop breathing, you can't do it. So live with no regrets. Get up, get it done. And failure is always success anyway.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

So I like that. I like that, and I think that's a great way to close out on an audience. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this one. And I'll catch you guys on the next one. You guys take care.

unknown 39:14

Peace.