First place winner, Chuck Meyers with his StringGator product, stated, “Immediately following the completion of FastPitch, the process was off to a swift start. Melissa Westphal’s Rockford Register Star article sparked interest in the StringGator, which resulted in new local connections and multiple bids on production. That, combined with the EIGERlab’s resources, has shortened the time to production.
Accomplishments include registering with the State of Illinois and securing www.StringGator.com; web design is yet to be finalized. Trademarking and market research are in progress, and manufacturing of the StringGator—in the Rockford Region—is on target for the second quarter of 2014.”
Second place winner, Adrian Vasquez who invented the NZ3 (hair dryer attachment), stated, “Introducing the NZ3 hair dryer at the America’s Beauty Show last year was a big success. Our NZ3 hair dryers are now selling at: local salons; Miami Beach, Florida; through distribution centers in Chicago; and online. We’ve created a marketing commercial and a product tutorial on YouTube to further increase sales.”
Last, but certainly not least is, Edgar Marin-Ruiz who placed third with his product, the Breeze Welding Helmet. He shared, “The progress we’ve made has been slow, but productive with finalizing the design of the helmet. A third and final prototype will be completed during the first quarter; and production will start soon thereafter. We have completed the steps to incorporate as Breeze Works Inc. Our next goals are to complete of the business plan, obtain funding, build our website; create a logo and market the helmet.”
