WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderLaid-off teacher becomes inventor

Laid-off teacher becomes inventor

By Marissa Alter

ROCKFORD (WREX) - A local woman who lost her job can now call herself an inventor thanks to Rockford's EIGERlab.

Dian Valentine was a special education teacher for more than a decade. But a year and a half ago she was laid off and suddenly found herself with more than enough free time.

"I always see things as they can be, not as they are," Valentine says.

It was that mentality that led her to decide now was the time to work on an invention.

Her idea would eventually be known as the Smart Hook, a gadget to hang a purse or bag from to keep it off the dirty floor.

"But I didn't know what to do with it. I was scribbling up ideas, and I didn't know where to go with it from there."

Valentine saw an ad for a patent workshop put on at the EIGERlab by the Small Business Development Center. She showed up and learned about a club for inventors.

"A lot of people have great ideas, but they don't know how to get it to market or turn a profit," explains Mike Cobert, Rockford Area Ventures Business Manager. "So we started what we call the Venture Club."

There Valentine found other people who'd been in the same position she was and offered advice. The club also brought in experts.

"Not many of us have the patent expertise, the marketing expertise, the design--all the things that are needed to actually get a product to market," Cobert says.

Besides services, EIGERlab has a rapid prototyping machine. That let Valentine get a prototype for relatively cheap. What isn't inexpensive: manufacturing Smart Hooks. Valentine could save money sending the work overseas but decided against it

"I employed a lot of people locally in Rockford, have two different companies working on them, and I'm very proud of the fact that a lot of Rockford people are working on them."

For more information about EIGERlab's services, go to www.eigerlab.org or www.rockfordareaventures.com.