THE IAA STORY
by
Chuck Umeda 0006
The IAA (Inventor’s Association of Arizona) exists
because of the faith and faithfulness of Susan Moore and Lisa Lloyd, the
co-founders. Lisa had an idea for a
hair barrette, the French Twister. Lisa
had short hair at the time and very short on finances, being a single parent at
the time. She struggled through the prototyping stages trying different kinds of
plastics found in the home. Lisa
cut, shaped, heated and bent the plastics.
She tried different things to hold the hair in place on the device.
Susan provided emotional and financial support and encouragement.
Together, they persisted.
A mold was
made by a local plastics molding house. Again,
lack of funds made it necessary for a financial arrangement in the sales.
Packaging designs, photo sessions with herself and hired models added to
the expenses. But once made, the French Twister was eagerly bought at
beauty salons in Tucson.
But
licensing to an established company was the goal.
They went to the stores where hair products were sold, looking for names
of manufacturers. Susan found a
package bearing the name, Scunci. It
even gave the address and telephone number.
Just before Christmas, Susan called the Scunci number at an hour when
people normally would not be in their offices.
Custodians, maybe, but not the owner!
But it was the owner, who
listened to Susan’s story. This
opened the door for Lisa to provide the sales figures and details about its
acceptance in Tucson. A licensing agreement was made with Scunci.
The product has been a wonderful success story.
Was
it coincidence or Providence? Both
Susan and Lisa have a strong faith in God.
Their faith was rewarded. But
they also had made a promise to God.
The IAA is the result of that promise.
They had vowed to form a non-profit organization to help other inventors
through the patenting, prototyping, marketing process because of the hardships
they faced and overcame to make the French Twister a reality.
Both Lisa and Susan put considerable personal finances, effort and time
into the IAA to make it a success.
It started
in Tucson. But Lisa moved to
Phoenix where another chapter was formed. The
number of patents awarded to IAA members by the Patent and Trademark Office is
increasing every year.
Today, Lisa
is back in Tucson and busy with other ideas and patents. She is the President of the IAA.
Husband Chris Lloyd is the Executive Director. John Stuart is the Chair of the Phoenix Chapter with Linda
Schurman as Vice-chair. Both the
Tucson and Phoenix Chapters are continuing to grow and help people develop,
patent and turn their ideas into marketable products.
