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Seeking inventive charity ideas

The Edison Nation Web site will ask Charlotteans for their input on helping the disadvantaged.

If you're familiar with the Emmy Award-winning PBS television show “Everyday Edisons,” you already know the work of Louis Foreman and his staff at enventys, a Charlotte-based product-development firm.

The reality show solicits ideas from aspiring inventors around the country, picks about a dozen to develop each season, and follows the journey from napkin sketch to store shelves.

Edison Nation, the show's Web-based offshoot, pulls in thousands more ideas from creative minds across America and funnels the best to major retailers trawling for the next big thing.

Now Charlotte Mission Possible, a coalition of media outlets concerned about Charlotte's charitable needs crisis, has enlisted Edison Nation's help in the search for solutions. Instead of seeking novel consumer products, Edison Nation will ask Charlotte residents to visit a new Web site with their ideas on helping the disadvantaged.

“We've never done this before,” Foreman said, “but we're going into this with high expectations.”

Founded in 2001, enventys has garnered national attention for its novel approach to product innovation and for the products.

Among the best-received ideas: Emery Cat, a scratching post whose sandpaper surface files cats' claws while they play, and Workout 180, a fitness product that accommodates a variety of exercises. Emery Cat just launched with Wal-Mart last month, and former pro football player Jerry Rice is cutting an infomercial for the Workout 180.

To Foreman, the promise of such products reinforces his belief that if you get enough people and ideas together, they'll find solutions.

“The answers to most problems already exist,” Foreman said. “They just haven't surfaced yet. … What our Edison Nation model allows is for everyone's voice to be heard.”

Foreman, an entrepreneur himself, knows how exhilarating it can be to build a product or business.

The 41-year-old started a sportswear company while still a student at the University of Illinois. He came to Charlotte in 1995 to launch a NASCAR-themed racing apparel company called Track Gear. He sold it a couple years later and briefly retired, a wealthy man before his 30th birthday.

After a brief stint as president of Charlotte-based Parker Athletic Products, he founded enventys. He did so in part because he grew tired of the bickering that crops up in business circles when an idea doesn't work.

“There is no accountability,” Foreman said. “I wanted to change that model and create a company that would have ‘skin in the game' and be responsible for success.”

Enventys operates out of a 100-year-old renovated mill near Bank of America Stadium.

On the “Everyday Edisons” TV show, the group invests nearly $500,000 per idea, money it doesn't get back if the product fails. The inventor gets 10 percent of sales revenue for 20 years.

The Edison Nation Web site, www.edisonnation.com, shops ideas to major retailers, splitting licensing proceeds 50-50 with inventors.

People who've worked with them praise the group.

Charlottean Robyn Pellei asked Foreman for help after taking a product-development class he taught at Central Piedmont Community College. Raising nine children, she came up with ideas for helpful child care products such as the Bandette, a personalized label for kids' cups and bottles.

With enventys' help, she's completing a deal with the Babies ‘R Us chain.