I needed that: looking for an innovative product customers will buy? Think of what you need in your work or hobby

Entrepreneur, May, 2002 by Don Debelak

WHERE IS THE NEXT MILLION-DOLLAR idea hiding, just waiting to be discovered? In many cases, it could be right under your nose--at your place of work, or perhaps as part of your favorite hobby. Inventors who work ideas gathered from jobs or activities they're familiar with are most likely to find success, for a variety of reasons: For one thing, the inventor really understands what target customers want because he or she is also part of the group. Second, because the inventor is already familiar with the products currently on the market, he or she can usually introduce a product that doesn't have much competition. And finally, when selling the product to customers, potential buyers perceive the inventor not as a salesperson, but rather as "one of us." It's a powerful situation that doesn't necessarily guarantee success, but it's definitely as good as it gets.

On-the-Job Training

When you know a particular industry inside and out, you have the opportunity to innovate solutions to major problems. Case in point: Dan Tribastone, 37, who started out with an aerial photography business. After realizing he'd need to supplement this income, Tribastone went to work as a paramedic, and eventually he ended up working as a registered nurse (RN) in an orthopedic operating room.

Back in 1994, Tribastone found that opportunity and entrepreneurship collided in those operating rooms. It was there that he realized the serious shortcoming he eventually fixed. Specifically, during orthopedic surgery, the body part undergoing reconstruction is constantly flushed with water. As Tribastone describes it, "The spent fluid was collected in small containers. An operation could produce 75 to 100 liters of fluid, [which required 25 to 35 canisters]. Nurses were constantly having to disconnect and reconnect containers." The containers were connected to two lines--one to the hospital's vacuum line, and the other to the drainage tube from the operating table. Nurses typically had to make 150 to 200 new connections to the waste fluid connectors during every single procedure.

Tribastone thought the problem could be fixed by purchasing larger containers. But after scouring RN trade magazines, he realized such a container didn't exist. So he requested samples from container manufacturers he located in a resource book called the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers (available inmost larger libraries or at www.thomasregister.com). "I got dozens of samples, most of which collapsed from the vacuum pressure," he explains. "But finally, I was able to find a steel container that held up. I added two connection ports and started to use them at work."

The containers were a big hit in the operating room, cutting the number of changes required to a fifth of what it had been, so in 1995, Tribastone decided to place a small ad in the Operating Room Nursing Journal. When he got $1,000 in orders, Tribastone was convinced he had a winner. But long days in operating rooms and nights spent in his basement workshop took their toll. "One day, one of the doctors told me I looked terrible and asked me if I was all right," he remembers. "I explained what I was doing at nights, and the doctor thought I had a wonderful idea." That same week, the doctor set Tribastone up with an investor, and by 1997, Tribastone started selling the product--a disposable 3.5 gallon Omni Jug canister priced at $25. The next year, his company, Waterstone Medical in Falls Church, Virginia, sneaked into the black. In 2001, sales approached the $5 million mark.

One of Tribastone's biggest advantages was that he truly understood how customers would use the product. "Sales were a lot easier when customers realized that I came from the operating room trenches," he says. According to Tribastone, that experience also paid off at trade shows such as the one held by AORN (Association of Operating Room Nurses): "Nurses immediately recognized I wasn't a smooth-talking salesman, but instead was really just one of them."

You Need a Hobby

Tribastone discovered his innovation among the struggles of his work. Vinu Malik had an even more strenuous trial as his inspiration. By 1998, Malik, now 34, had been competing in triathlons for eight years. He had become completely fed up with the large water bottles he needed to carry to stay hydrated. According to Neil Malik, Vinu's business partner and brother, "The bottles were cumbersome and could easily start bumping against the runner."

Vinu decided he could develop a better water system. In his mind, the solution would feature multiple small bottles, so the weight of the water could be spread out around the runner's waist. He went with four flat bottles that. attached to a belt. Then, as an extra touch, Vinu curved the bottle spouts in one direction so they would face away from the runner's body.

When Vinu recruited his brother Neil, they sunk $5,000 into their Cambridge, Massachusetts, venture, Fuel Belt Inc., and started selling the product on the Web. They ran a little ad in Triathlete magazine and sold $25,000 worth of products in the first three months. According to Neil, 32, "We weren't sure how much the ads helped, because in a small [and] connected community like triathletes, word travels fast."