Over the years, individuals with the inspiration to create have been rewarded with patents, sales figures and sometimes wealth. In the hopes of finding the next great thing, Visa is holding its annual "Ideas Happen" contest, offering $25,000 each to the 12 contest winners.
Matt Griffin, a 1998 Ball State University architecture major who currently lives in Indianapolis and works as an urban planner for the city of Carmel, said it was a snack that inspired him to create the Baker's Edge, a baking pan created to eliminate burnt edges on baked foods.
"I was watching this show where this kid created a baking pan and made a lot of money," Griffin said. "...And I was eating a corner-brownie, one from the edge of the pan. I thought, 'This is really good, I wonder if I could make a pan so I could have all corner-brownies.'"
From there Griffin designed the pan and out-sourced its manufacture. The key difference in the Baker's Edge baking pan and a regular 9 x 13 inch baking pan are the extra walls rising from the pan's bottom. This assures that foods with fillings or layers will be held in place and that all foods will be cooked evenly throughout due to an increased surface area that distributes heat.
"The edges never get dried out and crispy," Griffin said. "They're chewy, people like that."
According to Griffin, any recipe that calls for a 9 x 13 inch baking pan can be made in the Baker's Edge. The pan can also be used as a one piece roasting pan by sitting the roast atop the inner walls of the Baker's Edge and putting vegetables underneath.
"I've been trying to sell this thing ever since I created it," Griffin said. "I saw the "Ideas Happen" commercial and thought I'd give it a shot. Inventing has been a hobby of mine for seven or eight years. I want to control my own destiny... Right now my hero is Ron Popeil, this stuff is just fun to do."
The "Ideas Happen" contest began in August, when Visa first began running commercials featuring various people pitching ideas ranging from exposing the world to new music to the creation of a better toilet. The contest is open to all 18-29 year-olds from the United States with an original idea pitch. Entrants are limited to submitting one pitch that may only be used in one category. Entrant's pitches were accepted on the "Ideas Happen" Web site from Aug. 16 to Oct. 20, with entries separated into three categories; entrepreneur, community, and self-expression.
The thirty finalists were chosen between Nov. 2 and 9 by a panel of three judges, one for each category: designer Todd Oldham will decide the winners for the self-expression section, Christy Haubegger, founder of Latina Magazine, will choose the winners for the community section and Subway sandwich shop founder Fred DeLuca will choose winners from the entrepreneur section.
Voting for the competition began Nov. 11, with votes being accepted on the "Ideas Happen" Web site to determine four winners from the 10 finalists in each category. Today is the last day for voting with the 12 winners being announced on Jan. 14.
At press time, Griffin and the Baker's Edge were ranked number one in the entrepreneur section of the "Ideas Happen" contest. Other entries in the contest include the Splish Splash Bathmat, a kit geared towards parents with young children that includes soap crayons, reusable design sheets and disposable Splish Splash mats that absorb water lost from the tub, The Spainer, a combination spoon/strainer that can be used to drain extra liquid from soups and cereal, and No More Blind Spots, a system to be manufactured for automobiles that will eliminate blind spots by matching preset mirror angles to their corresponding turn signals.
"I hope I win," Griffin said. "The plan is get the money, make the pans, get them out there, sell them and take them to a Home Shopping Network. Right now, my wife and I are the primary sales people."
As for other products, Griffin asserted that he has more ideas, but said "My wife has put the invention cap on me. I've got to concentrate on this for now."
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