Kane Kramer has been around long enough to remember the days when government support for inventors was scarce. Programmes like Dragons' Den and The Big Idea were non-existent and the lone inventor was portrayed as a bit of a crackpot. "You were embarrassed to say you were an inventor, because of the stereotype," recalls Kramer. "There was nothing geared to an entrepreneurial individual to assist them. I got so fed up I thought, 'we can't do any worse than nothing at all'."
So In 2001, he helped set up the British Invention Show (which now attracts around 300 inventors each year from around the globe) and in 2003, the British Inventors Society (BIS) was born. Kramer acknowledges that people's perceptions have changed: "In the last five years there's been a new appreciation of technology. You've got the acceptance of the general population and the media that innovation will bring solutions to our problems."
The BIS was established to help inventors by providing access to educational, technical, commercial, and legal information so that "individuals were not individuals anymore, they were surrounded by experts," explains Kramer. Another goal was to build inventors' clubs around the UK to champion innovation and build links with universities in order to "to assist the development of prototypes and research" and with Business Links "to help with funding".
There are 18 such organisations in the UK now, and they're expanding overseas: "We're assisting the opening of an inventors' club in Bahrain," says Kramer. "If we want to sell our products internationally, we have to go where the business can be had."
Kramer says government bodies are making grant funding more available than "ever before" while the BIS "could give three of four very sound leads according to what type of field the inventor comes from." Conversely, Kramer admits funding is still the biggest barrier to innovative entrepreneurs. "We would always like to see more investment," he says. "I wouldn't criticise business angels for lacking savvy in spotting something well ahead of the game. I would criticise institutions and banks for having a blind spot, for lacking the vision to invest in a high-risk product."
He'd like to see them more involved at grassroots level, he adds: "It would be good if they spent a little more time and money on their research at the seedbed rather than saying 'the good ones will rise to the top'." He points to the example of big firms such as Procter & Gamble. "P&G is at all the innovation shows. It's not waiting for someone else to pick up the bright ideas-it wants to be there first, because as far as invention's concerned, that's where the bandwagon starts."
When he's not championing the cause of other entrepreneurs, Kramer is putting the finishing touches to his own invention, Monicall. It enables a legally binding agreement to take place between two people on the telephone, explains Kramer, and will be available early this year. "People get screwed on a daily basis because other people don't honour their agreements. This makes people's oral communication accountable," he claims.
