1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,680 Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn from the CTO of Stanley Black and Decker on what makes a great new hardware product and how to pitch it. 2 00:00:10,070 --> 00:00:12,630 Narrator: You're listening to the Product Startup Podcast. 3 00:00:13,470 --> 00:00:22,990 Narrator: The show that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors, product developers, manufacturers, and hardware industry professionals. 4 00:00:23,270 --> 00:00:30,290 Narrator: Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial idea to getting your product on store shelves. 5 00:00:30,290 --> 00:00:36,690 Narrator: We're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business. 6 00:00:36,930 --> 00:00:45,630 Narrator: Hosted by Kevin Mako, one of North America's leading experts on hardware development for small product businesses. Now, on to the show. 7 00:00:46,430 --> 00:00:53,650 Kevin Mako: Welcome back, everyone. Today I'm very excited to introduce Mark Maybury to the show. Mark is the chief technology officer at Stanley Black and Decker. 8 00:00:53,830 --> 00:00:58,810 Kevin Mako: He's also a member of the Defense Science Board and was a chief scientist of the United States Air Force. 9 00:00:59,230 --> 00:01:03,030 Kevin Mako: Today, Mark is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers 10 00:01:03,030 --> 00:01:11,990 Kevin Mako: on what makes a consumer product great in 2022 and how to consider these things from the design phase through to production, then on to scaling up. Now, on to the episode. 11 00:01:13,030 --> 00:01:14,270 Kevin Mako: Hey, Mark, welcome to the show. 12 00:01:15,070 --> 00:01:22,550 Kevin Mako: Thank you. Good to see you, Kevin. Likewise, good to see you as well. It's good to see your team members at the Make 48 competition a month ago and supporting that. 13 00:01:23,130 --> 00:01:30,790 Kevin Mako: And it was great to see all the activity. It was fun being a judge there as well. So great to meet your colleagues there. And of course, they're the ones who introduced me to you. 14 00:01:31,350 --> 00:01:40,490 Kevin Mako: Very excited to have you on the show as a CTO of Stanley Black and Decker today to talk about what makes great products within the tool industry and 15 00:01:40,490 --> 00:01:48,950 Kevin Mako: also just general tips on innovation and how companies can actually submit to Stanley Black and Decker, their invention ideas and some other things you're working 16 00:01:48,950 --> 00:01:54,670 Kevin Mako: on in the community. So much appreciated for you being on the show today. Thanks for having me, Kevin. Give us a bit of a background. 17 00:01:55,110 --> 00:02:04,790 Mark Maybury: How did you get to be the CTO of Stanley Black and Decker? Well, I actually spent 31 years in the public sector working for the federal government in a 18 00:02:04,790 --> 00:02:09,390 Mark Maybury: national laboratory, actually eventually leading one of the federal laboratories. So I got a chance 19 00:02:09,390 --> 00:02:18,730 Mark Maybury: to really, you know, foster invention as a chief technology officer, as a chief security officer. About four years ago, Stanley Black and Decker decided they wanted to 20 00:02:18,730 --> 00:02:26,230 Mark Maybury: have their first chief technology officer. So I got a call. And it was a life-changing event in the sense that 21 00:02:26,230 --> 00:02:32,730 Mark Maybury: having worked almost exclusively in non-profits organizations, I all of a sudden was thrust 22 00:02:32,730 --> 00:02:38,530 Mark Maybury: into this global product-oriented, purpose-oriented organizations. So it's just been a great, 23 00:02:38,890 --> 00:02:44,010 Kevin Mako: pleasure, a great ride and working with some phenomenal people all across Stanley Black and Decker across the world. 24 00:02:44,510 --> 00:02:48,170 Kevin Mako: That's amazing. Tell everybody, for those, I'm sure almost everyone 25 00:02:48,170 --> 00:02:57,070 Mark Maybury: does know, but for those who don't or for a refresher, what does Stanley Black and Decker do? So we're a global and diversified industrial that 26 00:02:57,070 --> 00:03:04,690 Mark Maybury: includes tools of storage business. You probably all of your folks maybe in their home have some of our products, whether they be 27 00:03:04,690 --> 00:03:11,050 Mark Maybury: DeWalt power tools, indoor hand tools. They may have some of our storage devices. They may have 28 00:03:11,050 --> 00:03:20,010 Mark Maybury: our Stanley products, craftsmen, et cetera, et cetera. There's basically a large portfolio of really exciting tools and storage. 29 00:03:20,070 --> 00:03:28,650 Mark Maybury: But what most people don't realize is that we also have have an industrial and an outdoor business. So, you know, we have ride on mowers and snowblowers 30 00:03:28,650 --> 00:03:35,450 Mark Maybury: that we manufacture, but also in our industrial business, nine out of every 10 vehicles, cars or 31 00:03:35,450 --> 00:03:42,690 Mark Maybury: light trucks that are on the road today are held together by robotically inserted Stanley Black and Dekar fasteners. We produce a billion fasteners a year. 32 00:03:43,370 --> 00:03:50,790 Mark Maybury: So it's a really, it's a very inventive company. You know, we invented the dustbuster, which many of us have in our house for NASA to collect 33 00:03:50,790 --> 00:03:57,010 Mark Maybury: moon dust, but we invented the first core list drill, Black and Decker, we're just inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. 34 00:03:57,150 --> 00:04:03,130 Kevin Mako: So there's a lot of thousands and thousands of patents and great innovations. It's a great place to be. 35 00:04:04,060 --> 00:04:13,120 Kevin Mako: Amazing. I mean, it's a huge company that's doing a lot of big things in the industry. And I know that you as well, you have the Stanley Ventures arm, which invests in startups. 36 00:04:13,420 --> 00:04:20,540 Kevin Mako: You have the accelerator. You've got a whole bunch of programs, awards. You're involved with things like the Make 48 TV show. So you've been deeply 37 00:04:20,540 --> 00:04:26,220 Kevin Mako: involved, and the company's been deeply involved in the inventor space for a long time. You've 38 00:04:26,220 --> 00:04:32,640 Kevin Mako: worked with a lot of different ideators and startups, both investing in, nurturing, partnering with, et cetera. 39 00:04:33,180 --> 00:04:42,880 Kevin Mako: So you've got a tremendous amount of experience and you've seen really what works and what doesn't. So to kick it off today, especially in your industry, what makes a great 40 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:47,220 Kevin Mako: product from what you see, especially in emerging a new product from a startup or 41 00:04:47,220 --> 00:04:55,680 Mark Maybury: an inventor that's developing their first tool, gadget, widget, whatever, that's in your space, what have you seen that really works well? 42 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:03,720 Mark Maybury: As you noted, Kevin, you know, we're very unique in the sense that we really believe in a diversified approach to innovation. 43 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:12,440 Mark Maybury: And certainly you need the inventive piece, you know, something that's creative, that's novel. Then importantly, it's got to also be something that fulfills a human need. 44 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:19,940 Mark Maybury: So that's probably the single most important thing is, you know, what are the pain points, what are the irritants, what are the challenges? what are the inefficiencies? 45 00:05:20,620 --> 00:05:25,480 Mark Maybury: Where's the friction that that new idea solves? And that's really 46 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:35,260 Mark Maybury: important. It's also important that it solves it in a way that's scalable, solves it in a way that creates value for the company creating it, for maybe the suppliers producing 47 00:05:35,260 --> 00:05:43,840 Mark Maybury: it, you know, supporting that. But importantly, also for the customers. The best products are ones that people not only buy, but are passionate about. 48 00:05:43,980 --> 00:05:52,920 Mark Maybury: They become advocates for it. We look for purpose. You know, we have a purpose for those who make the world. We're for the inventors. We're for the creators, for the 49 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:57,940 Mark Maybury: caretakers. We're for those people who contribute to others in the world. And because of that, 50 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:03,420 Mark Maybury: we want a product that's got a purpose, but we also want it to create value. And increasingly 51 00:06:03,420 --> 00:06:10,620 Kevin Mako: today, we also want those products to be environmentally and socially responsible. Those are additional elements of success. 52 00:06:11,140 --> 00:06:20,840 Mark Maybury: That's interesting in terms of the environmentally and socially responsible angle. It's obviously a hot topic today. You're really seeing that as a primary pillar industry-wide? 53 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:31,200 Mark Maybury: Absolutely. Well, in fact, even more so, we have draft regulation from the SEC that's likely going to guide areas like cybersecurity, which 54 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:39,680 Mark Maybury: we're very aggressive in addressing, but also environmental social and governance topics. And so we early on, 55 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:49,760 Mark Maybury: and to your audience, the creators and inventors, very early on, we've committed to, for example, making our manufacturing processes, scope one and scope two, carbon neutral 56 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:55,560 Mark Maybury: by 2030. And we're already actually ahead of, we measure this, we're ahead of the gain. By 2050, we intend to have our 57 00:06:55,560 --> 00:07:04,920 Mark Maybury: scope three, all of our suppliers, and also the usages outside of our walls essentially be also carbon neutral. And we are making good progress to that. 58 00:07:05,100 --> 00:07:13,880 Mark Maybury: The nice thing is by setting a clear northern star, you really marshal a whole bunch of interests. So, you know, for example, a couple years back, 59 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:19,100 Mark Maybury: well before ESG was even a topic. In the second year of our accelerator, we took half of the 10 60 00:07:19,100 --> 00:07:25,760 Mark Maybury: companies we accelerated every year and we said we want them to be eco-friendly packaging and eco-friendly materials companies. 61 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:32,780 Mark Maybury: And so today I'm proud to announce that we just recently made available in the Home Depot bio-based degreaser. 62 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:42,440 Mark Maybury: So you can go out and buy an actual biologically based degrecer instead of some petrochemical sort of capability. And similarly, one of the things I'm 63 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:47,100 Mark Maybury: excited about. I never used a chainsaw until I came to Stain the Blackened Decker and I got mine 64 00:07:47,100 --> 00:07:53,620 Mark Maybury: and they're incredibly powerful but also safe and importantly cordless and not actually as heavy as the old clunkers. 65 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,980 Mark Maybury: And today now we offer DeWalt Barcane oil, which is completely 66 00:07:58,740 --> 00:08:07,820 Mark Maybury: biologically based biodegradable. It literally smells because it is, you know, based on natural oils. It smells like, you know, your salad dressing. 67 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:12,420 Mark Maybury: So I think one of the things we look to the inventors and the makers to do is to be the chain. 68 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:18,420 Kevin Mako: to be the ones that see the strategic trends, to get ahead of them, to invent and innovate 69 00:08:18,420 --> 00:08:27,230 Kevin Mako: business models around where we are today so we can get to a much greener and more socially responsible future. That's powerful stuff. 70 00:08:27,690 --> 00:08:29,850 Kevin Mako: And I think about two of the things that you mentioned 71 00:08:29,850 --> 00:08:35,330 Mark Maybury: there in terms of passion and scalability. And those two kind of go hand in hand together. 72 00:08:35,730 --> 00:08:40,930 Mark Maybury: Explain why those two things are so important, especially for a scaling new product. 73 00:08:41,950 --> 00:08:46,550 Mark Maybury: Well, you know, when you want to scale, there are multiple dimensions, I'm sure, as your audience 74 00:08:46,550 --> 00:08:55,850 Mark Maybury: appreciates there, you want to certainly start with, you know, something that has a broad need that's going to satisfy a social requirement as we were talking about. 75 00:08:55,970 --> 00:09:04,570 Mark Maybury: So there's the scale, if you will, in terms of the desire for that product. And then once you realize that as you're fulfilling that need, you want to design for manufacturing 76 00:09:04,570 --> 00:09:11,330 Mark Maybury: ability, whether it's, you know, using platforms or using, you know, renewable materials, reusable materials, whatever. How are 77 00:09:11,330 --> 00:09:16,410 Mark Maybury: whatever that manufacturerability is, you know, maybe it's low energy. We have some really cool, 78 00:09:16,730 --> 00:09:25,870 Mark Maybury: cold forming processes that are part of our special sauce where we significantly reduce waste. But it might simply be, you know, making it something with an abundant supply. 79 00:09:26,450 --> 00:09:34,910 Mark Maybury: If I can make a battery that doesn't require very limited and potentially dangerous source materials, then instead 80 00:09:34,910 --> 00:09:41,250 Mark Maybury: make a battery from salt, for example, that's, you know, replete and abundant, that would be a great 81 00:09:41,330 --> 00:09:45,230 Mark Maybury: way in which you can scale because you don't have a supply chain reduction. Similarly, 82 00:09:45,730 --> 00:09:53,850 Kevin Mako: you want to think about how you scale through your channels, scale financially, scale customer. So when we think of scale, we think of it holistically, right, the full life cycle, 83 00:09:53,970 --> 00:09:56,050 Kevin Mako: create a little grave of that product. 84 00:09:56,810 --> 00:10:05,030 Kevin Mako: It's interesting because most people, when you think of scale, the first thing that jumps to mind is sales. How do I sell more? Right. And that's the holy grail. But when you're 85 00:10:05,030 --> 00:10:13,730 Kevin Mako: looking at it on a global scale like Stanley Black and Decor, you're trying to think of scale of all stakeholders, which is. important to think about in the early phases. 86 00:10:13,910 --> 00:10:20,590 Kevin Mako: And I love how you even brought the environmental element into the concept of scale. So how can you think about your environmental or social 87 00:10:20,590 --> 00:10:26,390 Kevin Mako: impact in the beginning as you're designing and developing the product, thinking about how you're actually going to run your manufacturing? 88 00:10:26,710 --> 00:10:33,970 Kevin Mako: Because there's lots of options when it comes to manufacturing. Most people don't realize that, even though you have a final design, final prototype, there's many choices. 89 00:10:34,570 --> 00:10:41,250 Kevin Mako: And actually design, let's call it tweaks or iterations that'll happen from that transfer to like final design for manufactured, finish. 90 00:10:41,330 --> 00:10:46,410 Kevin Mako: prototype, all set and prepared for production, and the actual production itself, where the production 91 00:10:46,410 --> 00:10:50,770 Kevin Mako: engineers and your design engineers will be working collaboratively together to iron out those final 92 00:10:50,770 --> 00:10:54,910 Mark Maybury: details. Within that are choices. And many of those choices can be impacted if you're thinking 93 00:10:54,910 --> 00:10:59,070 Mark Maybury: about that North Star you're talking about of scale, not just in all the traditional ways, 94 00:10:59,190 --> 00:11:04,970 Mark Maybury: but also scale in terms of your environmental impact, which seems like it's a theme through everything you're talking about today. 95 00:11:05,270 --> 00:11:15,250 Mark Maybury: Absolutely. I think environmental impact, because it may be that the single supply, most expensive element of supply is energy or water. Things that you're not 96 00:11:15,250 --> 00:11:18,510 Mark Maybury: even anticipating when you're doing the design, you're thinking of, oh, I've just got to get a 97 00:11:18,510 --> 00:11:23,870 Mark Maybury: microcircuit. Well, microcircuit may be very important, but it may turn out to be not the primary cost. 98 00:11:24,350 --> 00:11:34,110 Mark Maybury: So you've got to look at ability, you've got to look at complexity, simplification, lots of engineering methods like platforming and other methods that can be applied. But also, 99 00:11:34,310 --> 00:11:42,130 Mark Maybury: you have to think about for all resources. You've got to think about people, right? Do you have enough people. Right now, we actually have more demand than we have supply. 100 00:11:42,890 --> 00:11:51,010 Mark Maybury: Right. So, you know, and so have you anticipated ahead of time how complex the manufacturing process is going to be? And have you 101 00:11:51,010 --> 00:11:55,690 Mark Maybury: anticipated how you can appropriately affect automation? When you're looking at scale, you've got to 102 00:11:55,690 --> 00:12:05,250 Mark Maybury: build things in lots of 10,000 or 100,000 or in our fasteners business, a billion, producing a billion fasteners, right? You cannot have human inspection. It's not going to work. 103 00:12:05,350 --> 00:12:11,770 Mark Maybury: So you have to use artificial intelligence and vision and automation to support that process. Now, interestingly, 104 00:12:12,430 --> 00:12:18,070 Mark Maybury: some people may automatically jump to the conclusion of, oh, well, you're just going to automate everything and go robotic. 105 00:12:18,230 --> 00:12:27,710 Mark Maybury: Well, it turns out actually that companies that don't roboticize in a study of 1900 Spanish manufacturers actually reduce employment by 20%. This was done over 10-year 106 00:12:27,710 --> 00:12:34,590 Mark Maybury: study. Those that invest in robotics actually increase employment by 50%. So there's a 70% differential. 107 00:12:34,590 --> 00:12:38,830 Mark Maybury: But importantly, they're anticipating to your question of scale, how 108 00:12:38,830 --> 00:12:47,270 Kevin Mako: am I going to manufacture this in a combined human machine way? And having the humans do the right things and not waste their time on the wrong things, like 109 00:12:47,270 --> 00:12:55,910 Kevin Mako: visual inspection of a billion fasters. It's not going to happen. And so you have to think about putting automation in the right places to support that scale. Smart. 110 00:12:56,090 --> 00:13:02,490 Kevin Mako: You're thinking further down the line at all elements, right? When you're looking at scale, I love the multifaceted approach to it, very valuable. 111 00:13:02,490 --> 00:13:10,390 Kevin Mako: and something that even if you're in the early design phases of a product, you should really be thinking down the line about how you're actually going to scale and expand. 112 00:13:10,690 --> 00:13:18,630 Kevin Mako: Because if that thing that you want to happen, happens, meaning people want to buy your product, demand is there, then you've got to be ready to fulfill that. 113 00:13:18,810 --> 00:13:21,010 Kevin Mako: Otherwise, you're leaving opportunity on the table. 114 00:13:21,690 --> 00:13:27,350 Kevin Mako: And that can be very costly to a startup. So DFM, you know, design for manufacturing is extremely important. 115 00:13:27,730 --> 00:13:33,930 Kevin Mako: And something that really should be thought out from the early phases and all the way through is we're seeing even at the biggest, levels with Stanley Black and Decker. 116 00:13:34,230 --> 00:13:40,850 Kevin Mako: And speaking of which, I want to talk a bit and use some of the time to hear your experience from what makes a great pitch because Stanley Black and Decker 117 00:13:40,850 --> 00:13:45,310 Kevin Mako: has a whole pitch program that works with inventors and small 118 00:13:45,310 --> 00:13:52,270 Mark Maybury: manufacturers, small product businesses on a variety of different levels. So just take a bit of time here to explain to the audience 119 00:13:52,270 --> 00:13:59,810 Mark Maybury: what makes for a great pitch, what makes for a great pitch and product from what you've seen from some of the best that have approached you. 120 00:13:59,990 --> 00:14:07,470 Mark Maybury: Yeah. So we certainly look for some of the key elements that you might find in a business canvas. So, you know, we want to know, is the product 121 00:14:07,470 --> 00:14:14,530 Mark Maybury: satisfying a real genuine human need? It doesn't necessarily have to be something, by the way, that exists that people know about it, right? 122 00:14:14,570 --> 00:14:22,430 Mark Maybury: People didn't know they needed an iPhone until they got one. We have artisian, which is a home bar that's a new product that's forthcoming from, 123 00:14:22,570 --> 00:14:32,210 Mark Maybury: actually from an inventor, right, to our Black and Decker brand, which focuses on lifestyles and new kinds of experiences. It's really exciting brand. 124 00:14:32,330 --> 00:14:39,130 Mark Maybury: We would have never thought about that ourselves, and yet it's something that some very creative individual, a set of individuals, you know, 125 00:14:39,230 --> 00:14:47,650 Mark Maybury: invent it. You want it to be something that's exciting, something that is fulfilling. It also has to create a value. It's got to save time or save money or save the environment, 126 00:14:47,830 --> 00:14:50,910 Mark Maybury: just something of genuine, hopefully many things. 127 00:14:51,670 --> 00:14:58,050 Mark Maybury: Certainly it's something that you, you know, we also look, of course, at the inventor teams, right? We want people who are passionate 128 00:14:58,050 --> 00:15:05,670 Mark Maybury: about something, but we also want people who have humility, right? Things are not going to go right. Things are going to happen. 129 00:15:06,270 --> 00:15:13,570 Mark Maybury: And when those things happen, it's not a question of really happen. It's a question how you as an inventor, as an innovator, respond to that. If a particular 130 00:15:13,570 --> 00:15:22,550 Mark Maybury: product formulation doesn't work or maybe is not safe, how do you make it safe inherently? If it's not sustainable, how do you design it so it is sustainable? 131 00:15:22,690 --> 00:15:32,650 Mark Maybury: We've invented a new, so we have a new, really neat rail cutter to make railways more efficient. We've introduced a bio-based lubricant with that. Why? 132 00:15:32,930 --> 00:15:42,910 Mark Maybury: Well, it turns out the inventor, a small company called Dynamic Green Product out of Texas, Scott Porter, the CEO, decided, hey, look, let me work and 133 00:15:42,910 --> 00:15:50,430 Mark Maybury: find where the need is across Stanley Black and Decker. Zoom in on this particular new product that's coming out and say, we could make that product 134 00:15:50,430 --> 00:15:59,670 Mark Maybury: better. And so that bio-based lubricant makes the cutter significantly lower temperature. It increases the speed so you can cut faster. 135 00:16:00,190 --> 00:16:08,630 Mark Maybury: And it also makes the blade wear longer. And so it does all of those things. And by the way, environmentally friendly. And so it's kind of like, you know, Bing, Bing, Bing, 136 00:16:08,830 --> 00:16:15,290 Mark Maybury: people didn't know they needed that. You know, it's cooler. It's better. It's longer lasting. Oh, by the way, it's also Mother Nature is smiling. 137 00:16:15,290 --> 00:16:19,050 Kevin Mako: So I think we're looking for those pitches that 138 00:16:19,050 --> 00:16:26,710 Mark Maybury: that are, certainly they're exciting, right? You want them to generate passion, not only by the inventor, but more importantly, by the consumer, right? 139 00:16:26,830 --> 00:16:32,730 Mark Maybury: So they're, they're demanding more of this, that they're going to buy more of it. And essentially, the product's going to sell itself. 140 00:16:33,330 --> 00:16:38,810 Mark Maybury: And how does somebody actually reach out to Stanley Black and Decker to pitch something? There are multiple ways. 141 00:16:39,010 --> 00:16:47,770 Mark Maybury: You know, we're very much a believer in the ecosystem kind of approach. Why? One of my favorite African proverbs is, if you want to go fast, 142 00:16:47,930 --> 00:16:55,270 Mark Maybury: go alone, if you want to go far, go together. Well, interestingly, we've actually, our experience has been that if you go together, 143 00:16:55,610 --> 00:17:00,710 Mark Maybury: that is if you work together with others in your ecosystem, you can actually go faster and far. Right. 144 00:17:01,190 --> 00:17:05,470 Mark Maybury: What do we do? Well, one of the things we do is right on our homepage, we have submit 145 00:17:05,470 --> 00:17:13,410 Mark Maybury: your idea. So you can just go to Stanley Black and Decker, submit your idea, and you can say, I got a thing. And, you know, as I was sharing before, we do analysis, how much. 146 00:17:13,410 --> 00:17:21,810 Mark Maybury: much we get, we get probably three to five percent of the material that comes in, turns out to be actually applicable and of interest to our customers. 147 00:17:22,050 --> 00:17:26,570 Mark Maybury: Sometimes it may be in interest to our customers, but we're not the right ones to manufacture. Maybe we just don't have the right 148 00:17:26,570 --> 00:17:32,890 Mark Maybury: facilities or it's not really, doesn't fit in our product line. So one, they can submit their idea. Those are for patented ideas. 149 00:17:33,570 --> 00:17:43,250 Mark Maybury: In addition, they can submit every year. We pick 10 companies that we accelerate. And so jointly with tech stars, we've done this here in Hartford. We're just about to have 150 00:17:43,250 --> 00:17:49,010 Mark Maybury: our investor day in Baltimore later this month for the next 10 cohorts. We're excited because we're 151 00:17:49,010 --> 00:17:53,930 Mark Maybury: working together with Upsurge, which is a local underprivileged organization focuses on the 152 00:17:53,930 --> 00:18:02,330 Mark Maybury: underprivileged communities within the Baltimore area, trying to encourage more innovation and invention from that underserved community. And we also invest. 153 00:18:02,570 --> 00:18:11,330 Mark Maybury: We have a Stanley Ventures organization that picks companies where we take minority stakes because we want those companies to succeed in other markets other than tools. 154 00:18:12,050 --> 00:18:18,730 Mark Maybury: They might be new battery companies. There might be new digital companies, IoT companies, robotic companies. There are all kinds of companies we're interested in. 155 00:18:19,130 --> 00:18:26,750 Mark Maybury: And then finally, we give grants. So every year, we have a process which we just started this year called the Impact Challenge. 156 00:18:27,350 --> 00:18:29,430 Mark Maybury: And we pick nonprofit organizations. 157 00:18:29,810 --> 00:18:36,670 Kevin Mako: They submit every year. And again, this is all available on our website. We want to stimulate the vocational trade schools, 158 00:18:36,670 --> 00:18:43,110 Kevin Mako: the construction trades, the makerspaces, the high schools and other schools that facilitate more 159 00:18:43,110 --> 00:18:47,590 Kevin Mako: makers. So those are several ways your viewers can participate if they want to engage with us. 160 00:18:47,830 --> 00:18:55,030 Kevin Mako: Early on, you mentioned that you have a very holistic approach to working with the invention community and the innovators and small companies. 161 00:18:55,250 --> 00:19:03,430 Kevin Mako: It's amazing to see how many different ways that Stanley Blackendacker has for small emerging hardware startups to get involved with your 162 00:19:03,430 --> 00:19:12,730 Kevin Mako: organization, especially if it's a good fit. And that three to four, 5% yield rate is impressive. Work with many Fortune 500 companies that are significantly lower than that. 163 00:19:12,910 --> 00:19:21,710 Kevin Mako: So it's amazing to see that you're actually able to do something or help that quantity of startups that are coming into the ecosystem that you have created. 164 00:19:22,130 --> 00:19:31,450 Mark Maybury: Before I let you go, I want to talk big picture here because you've done some amazing talks on some of the secrets of innovation, big picture thinking on what 165 00:19:31,450 --> 00:19:36,330 Mark Maybury: entrepreneurs and hardware startups can be thinking about in terms of how to be a great innovator. 166 00:19:36,330 --> 00:19:42,590 Mark Maybury: Can you just walk through high level some of those elements and then I'll let you go. Yeah, sure, Kevin. It's a great question. 167 00:19:42,930 --> 00:19:51,810 Mark Maybury: So, you know, one of the things we've learned is from actually studying inventors, both the contemporary ones, the ones that were fortunate and privileged to work with every day. 168 00:19:51,910 --> 00:19:58,910 Mark Maybury: And we learn as much from the inventors as we give to them. When we started almost 180 years ago, you know, we were just a little startup, right? 169 00:19:59,290 --> 00:20:06,150 Mark Maybury: And there are lots of great stories we don't have time for, but sometime maybe a future podcast, I can tell you some great stories, Stanley's stories, about, 170 00:20:06,730 --> 00:20:16,070 Mark Maybury: invention and innovation and marketing, so on. But one of the things is just observe carefully, right? Da Vinci's hydrodynamics inventions were inspired by rivers, 171 00:20:16,370 --> 00:20:24,930 Mark Maybury: right? His flight, you know, ideas and machines were just inspired by looking at birds. Monalisa, right, smile, the muscles, right, on humans. 172 00:20:25,070 --> 00:20:34,710 Mark Maybury: So be a passionate learner, not only a lifelong learner, but a careful observer of the social, of the behavioral, of the scientific and other activities around you. 173 00:20:35,170 --> 00:20:43,790 Mark Maybury: Second, listen very deeply. You know, Edison solved everyday problems because he focused on pain points, but he did something more important. 174 00:20:44,130 --> 00:20:52,450 Mark Maybury: He's actually my favorite inventor. Why? Because he created the meta invention, the laboratory, right? So he created a process to accelerate learning. 175 00:20:52,770 --> 00:20:59,210 Mark Maybury: And because of that, we have the light ball, right? We have the phonograph, right? We have the ticker tape, right? All of those things and many, many others, right? 176 00:20:59,450 --> 00:21:03,830 Mark Maybury: One of the most inventive people in the world. Think about that model. Think out of the box, right? 177 00:21:04,050 --> 00:21:12,130 Mark Maybury: Whether it's Nikola Tesla's ideas of wireless electricity or Ford's study of others, he actually came out and studied Stanley and looked at how we did things. 178 00:21:12,590 --> 00:21:20,870 Mark Maybury: Experiment with purpose, right? It's interesting. I'm the former chief scientist of the United States Air Force. We did not invent flight, right? 179 00:21:21,090 --> 00:21:27,550 Mark Maybury: It turns out when we wanted an airplane, we gave a bunch of government contracts, none of which produced an aircraft. 180 00:21:27,930 --> 00:21:35,750 Mark Maybury: What happened? A couple of brothers and a dinky little shed, right, on a windy plane who knew 181 00:21:35,750 --> 00:21:45,290 Mark Maybury: how to build bicycles had purpose. They wanted to fly. They weren't going to do anything to fly. By the way, the propeller blades, a small fact, were 80% 182 00:21:45,290 --> 00:21:53,690 Mark Maybury: efficient. Some of the airplanes today, we don't have props that are roughly 80% efficient. Amazing what they did. And then finally, collaborate, just like we do. 183 00:21:53,850 --> 00:22:00,710 Mark Maybury: Why do we have such an ecosystem approach? Because we learn from others, whether it's Leonardo or Benjamin Franklin or Thomas 184 00:22:00,710 --> 00:22:09,170 Kevin Mako: citizen, they were Renaissance people, right? And so be a Renaissance person, try to learn from everything, incorporate everything into your life. 185 00:22:09,430 --> 00:22:18,290 Kevin Mako: And you'll be, one, you'll be richer for it. You'll be happier for it, more fulfilled for it, but you'll also be more inventive and more creative and more innovative. 186 00:22:18,430 --> 00:22:26,910 Kevin Mako: And so with that, I encourage everybody to continue to leverage those secrets of innovation and come up with your own. What a great set of five key principles 187 00:22:26,910 --> 00:22:34,350 Kevin Mako: to think in terms of innovation. That applies to anyone listening to this podcast. podcast right now, no matter what part of the inventive journey you're in. 188 00:22:34,530 --> 00:22:41,850 Mark Maybury: So, Mark, thanks again. And as always, I'm going to put the links. Marks gave a few different options for getting involved with Stanley Black and Decker. 189 00:22:41,990 --> 00:22:48,350 Mark Maybury: I'm going to put all those links in the show notes for anyone who wants to click through. And of course, you can just go to their website, just Google them and you'll be 190 00:22:48,350 --> 00:22:52,370 Mark Maybury: able to find it there as well. Mark, thanks so much for all your words of wisdom today. 191 00:22:52,690 --> 00:22:59,050 Narrator: And we look forward to talking further. Thank you, Kevin. And happy innovation to everyone out there. Thanks, Mark. Take care. Bye. Bye. 192 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:11,040 Narrator: to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big success. 193 00:23:11,180 --> 00:23:19,340 Narrator: This podcast series is brought to you by Mako Design + Invent, the original and leading firm in North America to provide global 194 00:23:19,340 --> 00:23:26,540 Narrator: caliber in-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product business clients. 195 00:23:26,660 --> 00:23:32,240 Narrator: If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to MakoDesign.com. 196 00:23:32,540 --> 00:23:41,440 Narrator: That's M-A-K-O Design dot com for a free consultation from one of Mako Design's four design studios from coast to coast. 197 00:23:41,780 --> 00:23:43,800 Narrator: Thanks for listening and see you next time.