Creative Nerve: What It’s Really Like to Start a Business

The creative art of science.  What would imaginative people do without their basements and garages? Those have been the home birthing centers for many a band and handcrafted chair. But geniuses of technology, mechanics, engineering and design like to hang out there, too. 

And here’s something useful for all of them: GarageInventorLive.org. I saw part of this organization’s debut Tuesday when its founders launched their nonprofit, Cleveland-based creation with a conference called “Reinventing ‘Made in U.S.A.,’ “ held at Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center.

The collection of speakers, including members of NASA; funders; and engineering, manufacturing, marketing, commercialization and legal experts, were there to offer know-how and reinforce GarageInventorLive’s message of dedication to helping inventors figure out how to develop their ideas into products and sell those products to industries and a public that need them.

The point of all this, as GarageInventor’s mission statement explains, is to encourage American ingenuity and manufacturing and make the nation more economically competitive. The organization plans to offer inventors and contract manufacturers a “supply chain” of assistance and advice on invention development, commercialization and marketing.

Started by Mary Kaye Denning with help from Dick Clough, the dean of Cleveland’s marketing industry, GarageInventorLive.org sounds as if it could become a significant champion for the cause of creativity. So all you weekend tinkerers and sci-tech start-ups, take heed: This might be a resource that you need.  

And when you have your cool, wizardly products developed, give me a call. There might be a place for what you make in The Geniocity Shop.