Shawn Warner was watching his two-year-old daughter drawn irresistibly and dangerously to the plugs in an electrical outlet. Failing to find a product that made it easy for adults to plug and unplug items, but was still safe from tiny fingers, Walker started tinkering.
The result is “Secure Connect,” which is being manufactured for Warner at Erie Molded Plastics in Erie. Now Warner is applying the knowledge he's gained about taking a product from concept to manufacture with Warners Innovation Solutions in Altoona, his “invent help company” for other inventors and entrepreneurs.
Electrical engineer by education, landscape company owner by trade, Warner says “the hardest part is to get [a product idea] out of your head and make a prototype. It has to be designed in a way that can be mass produced, a feat on its own.”
Warner sold shares of stock to raise money and worked with a number of local businesses and resources to develop Secure Connect, including ABCD Corp., Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the Small Business Development Center at St. Francis University and Actuated Development.
Along the way, Warner applied for and won the coveted Good Housekeeping Seal and is actively working on distribution of Secure Connect, which will surely get a boost when it is featured on Lifetime Network's “Designing Spaces” on Oct. 5.
In short order, his company has acquired 18 patents and will be launching Umbbies, a full line of electrical products for contractors in the next 60 days. The company already has seven full-time employees and Warner's business plan is to have his own factory up and running in five years.
Source: Shawn Warner, Warners Innovation Solutions
Writer: Elise Vider
