To answer the question posed by the title of this post, more that we expected. The HIA event turnout for the show was double what they expected. The show topped out at 250 attendees and the little room was jam packed with inventors, businesses, and service providers. I was impressed!
An MBA student that has been working with me for the summer thought of a great idea to get people to visit our booth . . . hand out free cake! It worked, we didn’t have to take any home. We of course decided to continue our trade show trend of wearing our light bulb (or chef, or pope) hats to draw attention.
The quality of the speakers is what impressed me the most. Apparently the guy who invented the reusable home air filter is from Houston, who knew? He spoke. So did another guy who made money on a weed-eater attachment, and now owns a product development company in Houston. So did Richard Scruggs, a very well connected venture caplitalist, angel investor, serial entrepreneur, and currently head of the Texas A&M Center for New Ventures & Entrepreneurship. All the speakers gave great advice such as:
- make sure your invention sells before putting too much money & time into it,
- be persistent,
- don’t listen to “experts”,
- look to friends & family for startup money,
- start small & grow big (not the other way around),
- learn and read everything you can about invention and entrepreneurship.
Helpful advice no matter what your going into.
Bryan Daigle
Some Pictures from the Show
