Local Group Plans to Back Inventors

More than 60 people filled a recent meeting in Murrieta, kicking off an effort to further the products of local inventors and entrepreneurs.

The initial Murrieta Inventors and Entrepreneurs Society workshop took place Monday at the Murrieta Public Library and was hosted by the city of Murrieta Economic Development Department. The group involves some key players with the background to help these budding minds find funding and develop prototypes.

"I'm the dreamer," said George Bennett, a 59-year-old mechanical and electrical engineer. "I have been thinking about this for a while."

Bennett, who has 43 patents of his own dating back to the 1970s, with 10 currently pending, said he believes there are many Murrieta residents commuting to high-tech jobs who may have ideas. He did a patent search in the area, and saw that there were 765 patents by people who live in Murrieta.

"That translates to 120 inventors. What this means is there are a lot of people who would like to meet here," Bennett said.

He's no stranger to start-ups; he ran his own consulting firm on the side for six years, and has served as a consultant for 50 companies.

"I know what needs to be done and I know what the needs are. The first thing was to find out who the inventors are in the area."

The meeting brought out other people important to the group's cause, such as a local patent attorney and a finance expert.

Bill Demmin, 66, now retired, was the founding president of . Because of his finance background, Demmin says he is conservative when it comes investing and ask others to.

"The worst thing you can do is have people lose money," Demmin said.

So he has begun seeking out what are known as angel investors--people who invest their own money in small start-ups--and hopes to grow it to include 30 or 40 investors.

"The beauty of an angel group is that angels, when they invest, are also people who are in the field of what the company is trying to invest in," Demmin said.

"If we have an active angel group here, I believe it puts us on the map with other angel groups in Southern California.

"What I find are there are an incredible amount of resources in this valley, we just don't know each other yet. I believe the synergy we can create together can create businesses and lead to jobs."

Bruce Coleman, economic development director for the city of Murrieta, attended and helped facilitate the group's initial meeting.

"We were very pleased with the large turnout for this meeting, which is an indication of the level of interest in creating new companies locally," Coleman said.

"In addition to those who attended the meeting...we have already received a number of phone calls from other interested individuals and are working with them to link them to business assistance resources in our community.

“...We recognize that the Murrieta/Temecula Twin Cities region is a very entrepreneurial area," Coleman said. "We are pleased that the city of Temecula will be joining with us in this regional process.

Coleman said the city would be happy to host additional meetings for the group.

"We want to reach out to our many local inventors and entrepreneurs in this region.

"Our objective is to build relationships with sources of financing, business assistance groups such as the which just opened an office at Rabobank in Murrieta, and others in the private sector who can help grow technology businesses locally."

Both Bennett and Demmin have put hours of research into the project, and are committed to seeing it through.

To start, Demmin envisions the group acquiring a 3-D printer, which he said will "get some of these ideas off paper" and into the form of a prototype.

Bennett would like to secure some office space, where local inventors would be able to come and develop their initial product.

"This is not an incubator, this is an accelerator," Bennett said.

For more information, email innovationgroup@verizon.net.