We've all heard of the “Butterfly Effect” but there's another phenomenon that occurs which relates to the inventor community. This is the Vilardi effect. John Vilardi has the talent and foresight to take an idea that you send him and make it larger than life with the amazing 3D drawings or renderings as well as the other services he can provide. John has worked his magic for me on a few occasions. I'm always amazed! As with everything there's no guarantee your idea will become a commercial success when John works his magic, but you can rest assured it won't fall short because of the visual presentation.

For me John was also an inspiration. Late last October on a Sunday night I decided to touch base with John. I remembered from reading here on the forums he had much deserved success with his "Follow Me Lighted dog leash". John stated that his lighted leash prototype had been drawing dust on the self for a few years. He had contacted Inventors Angels and it wasn't long till they had an interested party and a short time later a “licensing agreement”. I know you're not supposed to have a favorite child but my favorite "Baby" had been collecting dust for about 3 years as well. I had very good feedback on this patented invention when I tried to get a licensing agreement on my own, which also included a submission here at Edison Nation, but the timing just wasn't right. My options had seemed to play out. I contacted John to inquire about Inventors Angels. I wasn't sure if I wanted to throw my hat in the ring again! As most everyone knows inventing can be very frustrating the majority of the time. John talked highly of Glen at Inventors Angels and what he brought to the table. It wasn't long till I received an email from John that said had been talking with Glen on the phone, on another matter, and had mentioned to him I would be making a submission. Well, that gave me a reference and helped nudge me off dead center.

I blew the dust off my notes, found my old email strings and renders that John had provided and submitted my invention to Glen. In less than a week he had a company ready to commit to a licensing agreement. It seemed my dreams might be coming true!! But wait …. before we could dot the I's and cross the T's on a licensing agreement with company "A" up pops company "B" with a much larger marketing foot print that indicated they were very interested in my invention as well. The risk versus rewards made testing the waters with company "B" seem scary, but logical, since they needed some time for due diligence. So in the last few nerve wracking months company "B" has made prototypes, analyzed field test results, conducted surveys, did costing and everything else involved with a true due diligence process. They never wavered though it seemed some days I could barely breath!! Along with all the above hurdles, we decided to throw in a pandemic in the mix for good measure.

I'm happy to say the ink is dry on a licensing agreement. I'm very blessed!! I won't launch the product here in the forums at this time, but will show those "Baby" pictures closer to time for product launch! The final design work and tooling are the next stage in the process. This last stage of getting to market looks to be more time consuming than what's been done to date because of various time lines involved but I've got a really big smile and plenty of coffee to help me through the wait!

Sidebar: Company "B" indicated they were very much in expansion mode in spite of the current economic conditions! Keep submitting those ideas!