In this Podcast Episode

Rob McNealy interviews Louis Foreman, Creator, Executive Producer and Lead Judge of the Everyday Edisons® television show.

Louis Foreman’s Bio

In 2004, Louis Foreman began developing the concept for a reality show that would help make inventors’ dreams come true, while educating America about the complex product development process. Today this award winning national PBS reality series is known as Everyday Edisons® and its mission reflects Louis’ biggest aspiration: to fuel the innovative American spirit. In addition to being an inventor, Louis is also committed to educating others on the topic of intellectual property.

Louis’ experience as Founder and Chief Executive of Enventys®, an integrated product design and engineering firm, led him to develop this educational reality series featuring ordinary inventors. A surprising number of inventors are ordinary people with great ideas that aren’t necessarily interested in developing a business around their invention. Most are looking for someone to take their idea, validate it and develop it for them. Louis developed this concept for Everyday Edisons, a show which could develop the brilliant ideas of ordinary people who otherwise would never pursue their innovative dreams.

Louis is a prolific inventor, holding nine registered U.S. patents. He is also a founding member of The Inventors Network of the Carolinas, a non-profit organization that empowers inventors through education, support and networking opportunities. In 2007, Louis became the publisher of Inventors Digest, a 20-year-old publication devoted to the topic of American innovation.

In December 2007, he was appointed by United States Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez to serve for a three-year term on the nine-person Patent Public Advisory Committee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Over the past 20 years, Louis has also created five successful start-ups and has been directly responsible for the creation of more than 10 others. His interest in entrepreneurialism and developing innovative products began while a sophomore in college, with his first company founded in his fraternity room. Louis graduated from The University of Illinois with a Bachelors of Science in Economics.

In April, my wife Kristie and I started writing a monthly column for ColoradoBiz Magazine’s website.  Our monthly columns cover startup and small business topics, and correspond well with the other content we provide here at Startup Story Radio.  Our very first column featured three successful, Colorado based “dorm room” entrepreneurs.

This month, we’re discussing 5 websites you can use to stretch your online marketing dollar using free or cheap online networking and advertising options.  Please check it out, and tell us what you think!

Nononina, a company owned by Will Mayall, Kathryn Henkens and Guy Kawasaki, formally announced the launch of a new website this month called Alltop. According to Guy Kawasaki’s blog, Alltop is

a news aggregation site that provides “all the top” stories for forty of the most popular topics on the Web. The headlines and first paragraph of the five most recent stories from forty to eighty sources for each topic are displayed. Alltop stories are refreshed approximately every ten minutes.

On Wednesday, April 2nd, Alltop launched it’s Startups category, and we were thrilled when Guy emailed us personally to tell us that Startup Story Radio had been included. We’re in very good company in the category, along side feeds from sites like TechCrunch and Entrepreneur. Check it out!