I learned this morning on WNYC that one of, if not the hottest conduits of start up money is in Israel, and the minimum investment chip is $10,000 – and the money is pouring in…
The CEO, intoxicated with success, gave as an example an idea I invented two months ago and sent to my daughter Athena who is an advanced programmer and has her own app.
I had lost my I-Phone and in my anxious travail I thought why not put a tiny transponder on it, and on the house keys for that matter, so you could buzz and find them – and then wham, the Israeli app investor boasted that they had this “new” idea of putting a transponder on a key ring.
Good ideas pop into heads all the time but most like me experience the chagrin of having somebody else putting it into production and reaping profit and yes, sometimes failure.
I’ll give you another example.
Years ago I fell into conversation with my flight seat neighbor who offered that he had invented something new from which he hoped to make a lot of money. I cajoled him to reveal his secret and he did – a small horseshoe-shaped pillow to put around your neck for sleeping on planes.
Working on the 1964 World’s Fair for RCA I met a George Nelson designer, Phil George, who introduced me to the idea of making a sketch of a new idea and selling it to a manufacturer.
I came up with a 3-partition case for holding records and stuff, and took it to a firm that was actively looking for new ideas. I even made a model of it which I have in the basement.
They stole the idea and never paid me a penny of royalties and I see these all over the world now – I have even bought some of them. But it is painful.
Designer Ken Brozen told me about a new company that was going to make and retail products for the elderly ,and I thought about my Bridgehampton Sunday breakfast neighbor, Cleon Swayze, who had to down a bunch of confusing pills each morning. I dreamed up the idea of a multi partition plastic case so that you could load a week, or a month of pills at one time. Ken submitted the idea but then nothing.
Later when Maggie started on pills, and then more pills, I described my pillbox idea to the doctor and he pulled one out – seems it got invented.
Now I have this newspaper and every month we print 12,000 copies and I get the impression that some people read it, so when I get the idea we should put a hospital and a medical research center on top of St. John’s terminal I just say it – I really don’t care if some billionaire steals the idea.
