Patent Success Stories
Patent Success: Getting Funded
Acquiring patent rights on your invention is one thing but forming a fundable business venture around the IP and technology is another. Starting up a company is exciting and for many inventors, it is their chosen path to commercialization. There are many things to consider when starting a company and growing it to the point to where an investor would want to bet on your success.
One of the best resources I have found is the free diagnostic called the Minimum Fundable Company® (MFC) Test, created by Bryan Brewer, founder of Funding Quest. Answer the 20 questions o the MFC Test and it will give you a measure of your level of readiness to secure funding for your company.
One of Bryan’s clients—Lisi Global, Inc.—has been successful at developing a technology, securing patent protection, forming a company, writing a business plan, and securing funding to help move them to the next level of growth. Co-founders Jason Crisp and Jeffery McComb conceived of the idea of using high-voltage electricity to kill underground soil pests called nematodes. These parasites typically attach to the root of a plant and deplete the plant’s vigor, resulting in more than $150 billion in crop losses annually.
They were joined by third co-founder Ekaterini Riga, PhD, as inventors on a patent that was granted in 2018. The company has continued to innovate its hardware solutions and has raised approximately one million dollars in investor funding. Lisi Global is planning its first commercial applications of their Direct Energy System (DES) to kill nematodes on golf course greens in Florida this summer.
Lisi Global executives (L to R): Conan Doherty, Director of
Partnerships; Jeff McComb, COO; Jason Crisp, CEO.