When Brian Riley and Kyle Jansen launched Guardian Bikes in 2015, they had a lot of experience with the bicycle marketplace. Mr. Riley owns Surestop, a bike brake manufacturer that licenses its brake technology to major manufacturers like Schwinn. Surestop brakes insure that pressure to both the front and back hand brakes is applied evenly […]

Joseph Parisi invented GuardLlama after a young woman on his college campus was murdered. He realized that, while she probably had a phone with her, she didn’t have the time to use it. When someone is in danger, seconds count. People won’t have time to get out their phone and call 911. GuardLlama solves the […]

Savannah Cowley and Samuel Agboola appear in the Tank seeking an investment in their Flag Photo App, an app designed to print high quality photos for customers for free. The reason they’re free is there are ads on the back of each photo. Say you took a nice family photo on your smart phone and […]

Rick Pescovitz created Under the Weather Pods, his chair tent for outdoor sport spectators, after freezing his butt off at his son’s early morning soccer game. That very night, he designed the first prototype. Like the picture above shows, it’s a soccer mom (or dad) chair with a little tent around it. Multiple pods connect […]

Cam MacKugler invented Seed Sheet to make gardening  easy. While living on a friend’s farm, he loved the fresh produce, but not the complexities of managing a garden. When he envisioned Seed Sheet, he drew the prototype with a crayon. That was in 2012. In 2015, he got the business started when he raised over […]

Mylen Yamamoto re-invented chopsticks while flying to Asia and now she wants her company, Cropmade, to be the new, “green standard” for Asian cuisine. Cropsticks are the first product her company produces. They are chopsticks made from sustainably harvested bamboo that come complete with a detachable holder. Once used, they can be composted or “upcycled” […]

Former pet industry salesman Brandon Zavala created cat wine so he could share social moments with his cat, Apollo. Brandon loves his cat and his wine, so he created a whole line of different flavored cat wines (and dog wines too) so he could sip and relax with his feline friend. He named the business, Apollo Peak, as […]

Mark Bernstein began the quest to create Meal Enders, his appetite suppressant lozenges, when his doctor suggested he lose weight. Bernstein was the type of guy who, when presented with a plate of cookies, wouldn’t take one – he’d take six. He was a chronic over-eater. Now, he uses his Meal Enders to control his […]