American Inventor 2, Episode 7: Focus Groups and Pitches

Welcome back to American Inventor! Tonight, only six inventors remain in a two-hour episode. School teacher Ricky DeRennaux with HT Racers, fire-fighter Greg Chavez with Guardian Angel, single mom Elaine Cato with the 6-in-1 Backless Brassiere, grad students David Moeller and Craig Forrest with the Claw, brothers Mike and Joe Miller with the Wrap Away Dispenser, and store owners Denise and George Tucker with EZT4U are all hoping to advance.

Tonight, they have $50,000 and just four weeks to turn their ideas into working prototypes. Then, in the pitch of a lifetime, they will face the judges one last time. Only three will move forward to compete for the million dollar prize.

The six finalists from our nationwide search descend on Los Angeles. For the next four weeks, our six finalists will be locked in a fierce competition to become the next American Inventor. They will share one workspace, battling side by side for the million dollar prize.

George and Denise Tucker believe in dreaming big, and would like to go from being mall store entrepreneurs to being millionaires and the next American Inventors.

Elaine Cato grew up with hard times, always in poverty, but she always had her dreams, and believes that you must go after your dreams, that they will not come to you. She is a single mom, and wants the best for her daughters.

Craig and David are MIT and Harvard grad students, studying under the brightest minds in America. They've invested countless hours in their invention, putting their academic careers on the side to go after their dream for the Claw.

Ricky DeRennaux invented the HT Racers out of one goal: Challenge the youth of America, and they shall achieve. Now, as an inspiration to his students and his family, Ricky pushes forward in his pursuit of the American dream.

Fire-fighter Greg Chavez invented the Guardian Angel fire suppression system to help save lives. He has seen too many lives lost due to Christmas tree fires. Supporting a huge family on a fire-fighter's salary, Greg has not had the money to make a working prototype. Now with his $50,000, he is able to make one.

Brothers Mike and Joe Miller invented the Wrap Away Dispenser for ease of using plastic and foil food wrapping products. The brothers get ready to compete to make it to the top three.

Next, we see all the inventors sitting in a classroom-type room, and our host, Nick, tells them that they are all the final six inventors in the competition, and to look around the room. They all look at each other, and Nick tells them that one of them in the room will win one million dollars. The inventors are very aware that they each have very big competition in the others.

Pat summons them to focus group testing, and tells them they have to bring their best to the group. Nick tells us that focus group testing is critical. Inventors think that America will love their products. Tonight, we see them find out for sure.

The inventors gather in an observation room, where they are able to watch each focus group and inventor through a one-way mirror. They all look pretty nervous about it. I don't blame them!

First up is Ricky DeRennaux. His target group has been kids aged 11-14. His focus group consisted of kids aged 11-14. It did not go well. The kids didn't like his invention. Ricky says he felt blindsided, and he was upset.

Next up it’s George and Denise Tucker, and their focus group is made up of tea drinkers. None of the tea drinkers like the EZT4U. Denise and George are stunned.

Mike and Joe Miller are next, with a focus group of homemakers, who love the Wrap Away Dispenser!

Craig and David are next with a focus group of bike riders. It doesn't go well at all, none of them would buy the Claw.

Greg Chavez is next with his focus group of homemakers. There are questions about product liability, but all-in-all, it goes very well. They understand the need for the Guardian Angel.

Next for her focus group of women is Elaine Cato. She gets a great response from her group!

Pat assembles the group to let them know that he will be taking all the focus group decisions and information back to the other judges. They all need to work on their last pitches to the judges, which have to be great enough to win them over, because tonight, they will be eliminating three of them.

And with that, the focus group part is over.

Elaine, having no business background, has to rely very much on her design team to help her. She has decided to make her bra in all sizes, which will hugely help her mass market appeal. Things are looking very good for Elaine.

Denise and George find out that their product does not produce water hot enough to properly brew tea. They have to redesign the product, and that means that the consumer has to boil the water. I don't think this is going to go very far. If the consumer has to boil the water, they really don't need EZT4U, they can just make their tea the way we've been doing it for years. I don't think that the EZT4U is needed by anyone. Meh.

Ricky was very wise to really listen to the kids in his focus group. He tells his design team that he thinks his target market of kids aged 11-14 is too old to appreciate the HT Racers. I like that he really heard what the kids were saying, and even though he was still feeling the sting of their words, he took what they said and did something about it. He and his design team lowered the age of the core group by about four years.

Greg Chavez runs into timing issues. He and his design team have only four weeks to do something that would normally need about a year to complete. His product absolutely cannot fail, it has to work for liability reasons, it can't malfunction or not work. Wow, talk about serious pressure! They run into some issues with the testing of the alarm and the water pouring down. But they fix the issues and get it to work. It's really cool to see the water come down and put the fire out, and Greg is so happy.