This was the first time we had a business meeting on (the picnic table), and we would have many other meetings always on that “picnic table.” I called the product idea: “Key Keeper,” it was a device that made it so when you couldn’t find your keys you pressed a transmitter button, and the key ring had a device on it that would beep and light so you could locate them. I still lose my keys all the time. Well, Sand thought it was great like I said, “we needed a patent” and she said “I don’t know how to make a patent but I’ll go to the library and see if they have any books on the subject.”
Now Sand was a few years older than me, and she was a substitute teacher at the schools in the area, and very smart, so she agreed to do the patent search, and see if we could get it patented. I gave her a contract stating if we could get the idea sold she would make a percentage when we would introduce it to a manufacturer. Well to make a long story shorter, we did everything but where not able to get the design patented or prototyped because I didn’t know how to do the electronics in the design. So we then decided after many months and long hours of work to drop the project and try something else. I had thought up some toy ideas and I thought toys would sell easy. But before I did, I sent a copy of “Key Keeper” to a top company to see if they would be interested in helping us develop it. They first acted like—wow, this is great, but then they said they had done a review of a small group and it was turned down by the public. I was shocked, and thought, “Oh well, if people don’t want it, well, I guess that’s the way the ball bounces.” But two years later guess what, our disclosure document ran out of our design protection, and there it was on the market in a top magazine, and it was the company I showed it to. (GREAT.)
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