Industrial Design / Inventor Community: Inventor’s Circle

When someone has an idea, getting input on the industrial design can be the hardest part of the inventing process. That’s where groups like Inventor’s Circle come in and have come in for over a decade.

The Innovation Initiative Co-operative Inc., also known as the Inventor’s Circle (@inventorscircle), was formed with the goals of assisting private individuals with developing their ideas and advancing innovation.

The ultimate goal was to boost the Canadian economy through new and original products or services without competition. The need at the time was for a safe and affordable place for independent innovators, entrepreneurs, and related professionals to interact under, thus the Innovation Circle was born.

To be optimally effective, the Innovation Circle aims to maintain a positive environment where they can:

• Receive free guidance and education
• Learn to protect their ideas
• Avoid common and often costly mistakes
• Critiques of the industrial design of a proposed product
• Learn from qualified teachers and have access to professionals
• Have opportunities to share and collaborate with like-minded individuals
• Bring inventive ideas to fruition

The group ensures all members have access to free education ranging from subjects like business basics and idea generation to intellectual property protection. Assistance with acquiring grants and finding investors is also provided. Almost a family, they guard against and repel those who try to take advantage of vulnerable inventors.

With only two main policies that are in no way unreasonable, they welcome all inventors with open arms. 

1. They do not provide assistance for inventions that are non-medicinal drugs, pornography, or any other product or service deemed to be illegal, dangerous, or illicit.
2. They do not assist inventions with inventions that are unethical or potentially harmful in any way to the general population, the environment, and animals.

Inventor’s Circle acts as a community, an industrial design focus group, a school, a financial adviser, and a family. Give it a shot and attend a meeting…

You can check out their LinkedIn here!

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!