What is your business?
Lightning Launch is a product development and licensing firm. We work with inventors who are trying to get their product on retail shelves, whether it be through growing the business organically or licensing the product to a marketing firm that will pay them a royalty.
Is there a story behind your business?
We started Lightning Launch after having developed, launched and licensed out our own product, SeatPets. SeatPets is a kids product that goes on the seatbelt of the car and functions as a pillow for the child to rest their head on when they fall asleep. It also has pockets for them to carry their trinkets on the car ride.
We launched SeatPets as a Direct Response product, our first spot aired in July 2012. We had a very successful launch with our original design, which was a cute monster type character. We quickly had interest from retailers, including Toys R Us, Bed, Bath & Beyond and the holy grail, Walmart. Taking on those mass-market retailers meant having big pockets and rather than taking on anymore risk, we decided to license the product to a company who already had a history with mass-market, including Walmart.
Having spent years learning this business and building relationships, we decided that we would continue our work in the inventor space, forming a new company called Lightning Launch.
What problem(s) are you/your business trying to help solve?
Inventors can spend a LOT of money on meaningless services; everyone is selling something. We’ve met with inventors who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a patent but still don’t have a prototype and don’t know that the product will actually function. Or, they’ve gone out and spent thousands of dollars on a prototype not realizing that similar items are already available on Amazon.
What we’re trying to do is help inventors get to market in a way that they’re never too far ahead of themselves; they don’t order too much inventory, don’t spend too much money before securing a licensing deal and so forth.
Why do you like being a part of the bigger CI Works puzzle?
We moved our business from Newburyport to Amesbury last fall and it has been wonderful. There is ample parking, utilities are included and the people are wonderful. There is such a variety of tenants and an abundance of ways that we may be able to collaborate, if not now than perhaps in the future.
What’s cool about your team?
We have a great team that is so eager to learn and they just love working with our inventors. Our team has a great eye for product and they have great relationships with buyers and licensees, which always increases our chances of a sale or licensing deal.