September 2009 Meeting with Sam Weaver, Serial Entrepreneur

Meeting Notes from September 19, 2009 by Steve Yoder, TIA Recording Secretary.

Joe Martin opened the meeting.  He noted that the TIA will be electing the 2010 officers and board members at the November meeting.  Service opportunities are available; please consider serving on the Board of Directors.  Bylaws are available for those who which to review the duties of each officer.

We had several new members and visitors join us.  We were joined by Keith Waters with Third Dimension Models, Inc., who set up a display of various prototypes showing his firm's capabilities.  We continue to experience strong growth and interest from the community.

Sam Weaver, who spoke to our group in April 2008, joined us again, to provide an update on his projects and offer advice and encouragement to those in attendance.  Sam used visual aids during his presentations. 

Sam's focus this year has been the development of renewable, clean energy. He noted that certain things are out of our control and unforeseeable, such as the terrorist attacks, which tripled the cost of his uranium enrichment project, and the sharp decline in the stock markets.  Sam quoted E.B. White regarding planning his day, "I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."

Currently Sam is involved in several projects.  He ran through the list providing updates on each of those projects.  The projects discussed were:

1. Eterne
2. Cool Solar
3. Sizzle
4. Red Diamond Ceramics
5. Proton Power
6. Cool Energy

Sam currently expects great benefits to come from resveratrol research, which is being supported through the Eterne business.  He is also expecting big things from the sterling engine technology applied to his SolarHeartTM Engine and the corresponding SolarSmartTM Controller for home use. 

Sam is perhaps, most excited about recent developments in solar/thermal energy where his patented CHyPTM Engine uses cellulose from switchgrass, sawdust, newspapers, or even junk mail for distributed hydrogen power generation.  He has found that the process of creating the hydrogen, not only provides on-demand energy, but is also a viable low-cost alternative to current commercial hydrogen production. 

One lesson that Sam is learning during this process is that new technology is not readily embraced by municipalities.  He said that everyone is in line to be the SECOND one to use the technology.  He is confident that the CHyPTM Engine will be a big hit because it addresses many of the downfalls of other energy sources.  He refers to the acronym SOCCER to describe the benefits. Scaleable, On demand, Clean, Carbon neutral, Economical, and Renewable.

In conclusion, Sam shared some business wisdom with us.  He noted that growth demands the temporary surrender of security and reiterated the thoughts of Thomas Edison saying. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

During the question and answer session, Sam was asked how he manages to develop ideas that seem to overcome or obsolete his earlier work.  Sam pointed out that Life is not Linear. He always goes into a project with a plan, but oftentimes resources are diverted as new ideas emerge. These ideas often come from previous projects and are applied to current technology not available or recognized at the earlier dates.

Product Design, Development and Distribution by Igor Alexeff

Igor attended the whole day workshop described in last month's newsletter, on September 10 at the Holiday Inn, Cedar Bluff, Knoxville, TN. The organization claims that they will evaluate your invention or patent, and if it meets their requirements, will commercialize and market it for you. They accept only one invention per month. They do not request up-front payments, so this appears to be different from the usual invention submission companies. For more information, call Ray Marshall at 606-256-0962, or email at ray.marshall@pdthree.com. They are located close to Knoxville at P.O. Box 1783, Mt. Vernon, KY 40456.

One surprising fact is that they had 39 confirmed attendees, 50 people interested, and I was the only attending inventor! They had space for 45 people, and a staff of about 8. A patent attorney, Russ Weinzimmer, drove down all the way from New Hampshire in one day (18 hours) for the event.