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LYNX™ Fastners Makes Popular Science Inventions of the Year List
Date: 10/1/08
Member: Len Duffy
Chittenden Research & Development
Len Duffy, founder of Chittenden Research and Development, LLC developed the "Ultimate Cookbook Holder", which was a sellout on QVC. He has been busy since we last heard from him in 2005 operating Chittenden Research and Development, LLC, an invention, design, and product development business primarily focused on his growing family of fastening technologies. The LLC was set up as an organization to develop inventions as well as license them.
Recently Len has been developing LYNX™ Fasteners (www.LYNXfasteners.com) as an alternative brand to Velcro® and other fastening systems. The company's new website does not sell products directly, but provides information on its fastening devices and applications.
Len does not think of himself as an entrepreneur, but more as just a creative person. He believes inventors often tend to be less interested in the sales and promotional aspect of things than in developing products and the whole creative end of development. Entrepreneur or not, Len has some outstanding entrepreneurial characteristics from the success of the "Ultimate Cook Holder", which recently sold another 1800 orders on a QVC five minute network television show. He and his son are still manufacturing this product and selling it directly through its own website, www.overtheedgeproducts.com.
Although no grants have been given to the business, many awards have been. In 2007 Len was recognized by both Popular Science Magazine and Entrepreneur.com for their "Inventions of the Year" selections. In 2005 he was awarded the Grand Prize of NASA Tech Briefs' "Create the Future" contest. Len was also featured in the "Ultramaterials" book as well as the "Materials Connexion Library". Other publication features have included Nikkei Market Journal in and numerous articles on the web. "My inventions have received some great international publicity, but my biggest problem right now is finding time to follow through on all the resulting inquiries. Ultimately I expect several of these fastening systems to end up in a number of common household and business products. I truly enjoy the creative side of what I do, though I'm often frustrated with the business aspects." Len
For the future Len hopes to have sold the technology outright and have a strong entrepreneurial partner running the business, while he continues to develop new ideas. He also wants to take up painting again, which is one of his favorite hobbies. The most important lesson that Len has learned in his career is that he can't do it all.
Len gives credit to InventVermont for helping in his career path, helping him make several good contacts, for informative programs and the encouragement to keep going and to never give up. "I feel that InventVermont is an excellent place to network with others and would definitely recommend InventVermont to other inventors." Len
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