We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maria Stroud a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

As a kid, I would always see my dad creating things we use to call it rigging things up. My dad & a friend of his created a really amazing system, but the friend went, got a deal, and did not cut my dad in on any of it. I always thought that was so wrong & unfair. Fast forward, I get a dog who had a dominance issue which I was told neutering was the only solution but I wanted him to have puppies so I decided to create a solution myself. Unbeknownst to me, that would spark my inventing spirit and I love creating cool innovations. As I begin to navigate this tough confusing Invention Industry, I took many classes, attended conferences, had coaches, and most importantly I have such an amazing mentor Dave who still supports me to this day so I started to achieve much success. After getting a few patents & prototypes I had people coming to me asking me if I could help them so I would send them a bunch of information but none of them ever did anything with it because come to find out it was too difficult for them to understand. So after I won a few awards & was honored by the USPTO I was asked to start my company to help inventors from concept to market and that was May 2019. So I created not only my company but a proven process & system that supports, consults & helps inventors on all stages of their Invention Journey. We help research, patent, product marketing, prototype and fund their ideas.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Problem: There has been a huge problem in the invention industry with people not being able to bring their new innovations to market, being taken advantage of, getting their ideas stolen, and losing lots of money. Invention Creation Innovation is not something that they teach in school
There are a limited number of inventor resources, no official inventor courses or programs in schools, and the cost is extremely expensive and takes a long time. This leaves minorities and women in low-income areas the inability to acquire and afford inventor resources
Solution: Mes & Co to help the underrepresented inventors bring new innovation to the market without the fear of being taken advantage of, their idea being stolen, and affordable inventor resources.

Most Proud of: Global IP Expert/Successful Patented Inventor. Maria is a Patent Expert Invention Coach with more than 10 years of experience and success in the Invention
Industry She teaches consults mentors inventors all over the USA on patents, research, prototype, product marketing, licensing, investments, etc
-Successful Patented Inventor, 20+ patents in multiple countries, 6 invented, 10 total products
-Patent Expert/Invention Coach
-Michigan Inventors Ambassador
-Michigan Chronicle Top 40 Under 40 2019
-USPTO honoree for Black History Month
-Who’s Who Black In Detroit Honoree
-Human Resource Professional
-Global Intellectual Property Speaker

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Most inventors come up with an idea but only ever to get a patent in which they are not able to maintain or it expires so they never make it to a completed product. I have made many prototypes & products but it tooks practice, research, help and many years. So I will tell you the 1st step to developing a product is to do your research to figure out the cost of the materials, find a manufacture, find a prototype engineer and make sure there is a market to sell your product because if there isn’t a market for customers to buy your product then you are wasting your money. The 2nd step after you’ve gotten a go ahead from the 1st step results is to file a provisional patent to have protection on your idea, concept or invention for 1 year while you’re developing a prototype. You really want to have peace of mind while contacting engineers, manufacturers, investors or telling anyone about your idea. Once completed the 3rd step is work with an engineer or manufacturer to develop your prototype/product, you can even do it yourself. Go shopping in stores or online, find a comparable product to your invention and start building a prototype off that by adding your innovation. Some places to find a manufacturer is the engineering department at local colleges, Alibaba, prototype companies and google, this is how I found the right ones by using all these sources. The lessons I’ve learned is that when you are first starting out as a new inventor you do not want to develop a product that cost over $15-20 dollars because the manufacturing will become very costly and it will be hard to find an investor to not only take a risk with you but also invest a large amount of money to develop it.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The absolute best source of new clients for me is referrals from existing clients or people who know me. Also, 2 other best sources for me was social media and word of mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mesandco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mesandco_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariaLiziStroud
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-lizi-stroud-129b7a48/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8kISWWXjuhyjHgMO1g9mVg?app=desktop