STEPHEN

TRANOVICH

Stephen Tranovich

INTERVIEW

60

A good thing to keep in mind is that 20

projects from each of those categories

win $1000, and then go on to the finals,

so we still have 40 projects that are

going through. Even if you don’t think

your project is going to win, even if you

think your project is in no way ready, just

entering makes you a member of a really

incredible online community. I’ve written

a few emails to people who were like,

“What? I never thought that was going

to happen! Thank you, thank you, thank

you”. So, you really never know.

HS And that big prize money, is that

in the form of seed money to get the

product on the market, or can the

winners just take the cash and go home?

ST People can take the money and go

home and never work on it again, if they

are so inclined. Normally if they’ve put in

enough energy to actually make a project

worthy of winning the top 20 round,

they’re pretty dedicated to the project

and to taking it forward, so I would be

surprised if that happened.

The top 20 projects are always

impressive. I’m always impressed by

them. Someone who’s put that much care

into their project and got to that stage

• they’ve got more to do. Engineering –
  there really is no end to it.
  What we have seen is people who
  have a more or less complete prototype,
  take the money, and then try to use that
  money to solidify it for manufacturing
  and make it manufacturable. On our list
  of success stories, there’s a very long list
  of people who left the prize and had very

Right

Not much of a

mechanic? It doesn’t

matter – if your idea’s

good, you can build

it in cardboard – just

build it!