Today Mouser Electronics Inc. and celebrity engineer Grant Imahara unveiled the third video in the Engineering Big Ideas series, part of their award-winning Empowering Innovation Together™ program. To watch the third video in the series, go to https://mou.sr/EIT2019-3.
In part three, Imahara meets with Josh Lifton, President of Crowd Supply, a successful crowd funding platform based in Portland, Ore. Crowd Supply partners with creators and entrepreneurs who utilize the service to tap pools of small contributions from the public to fund ideas. The company also provides mentorship from their staff of product development veterans, filling a role similar to a business incubator.
“In the prototype stage, creators are often plagued by funding challenges and face design bottlenecks,” says Glenn Smith, President and CEO of Mouser Electronics. “Platforms like Crowd Supply give designers access to a wealth of monetary and intellectual resources, opening avenues to innovation not previously accessible.”
“By helping address major issues in funding and launching products in general, Crowd Supply helps level the playing field for creators by sharing these essential resources,” adds Imahara.
Imahara’s and Lifton’s conversation takes a look at the processes and resources available to help innovators best determine whether it’s feasible to manufacture their ideas. Throughout their discussion, they examine the process of taking an idea from concept through to prototype, to eventually a product that someone will want to buy or invest in.
The Engineering Big Ideas series is sponsored by Mouser’s valued suppliers Analog Devices, Intel®, Microchip Technology and Molex. The global electronic component distributor is teaming up with engineer Grant Imahara for the fifth consecutive year to present the Engineering Big Ideas series, which explores the process of turning an idea into a product and examines the path to commercialization — from discovery to design and eventually development.
The Empowering Innovation Together program has been one of the most recognized and notable electronic component educational programs since 2015, highlighting a range of innovative developments from IoT and smart cities of the future to robotics technologies.