ILPS2e24- Kickstart Your Idea; Kevin Mako Talks About How He Helps Inventors Launch Their Product
Feb 26, 2019
Kevin Mako is the Founder and President of MAKO Design + Invent, a 25-person invention development firm with offices in Toronto, Austin, and the UK. His entrepreneurial spirit was ignited during his early teenage years when he started several ultra-small businesses that built a wealth of knowledge and experience for his eventual life passion, MAKO Design + Invent. While attending one of the top business schools in North America, the Richard Ivey School of Business, Kevin incorporated MAKO in his third year at just 22 years old. Graduating as Section Class President with an additional specialization in Entrepreneurship, Kevin continued his education at the University of Hong Kong studying manufacturing and supply chain management.
MAKO Design + Invent was the first firm in North America to offer full-service professional physical consumer product development services to start-ups, and is now the largest firm in the industry in both Canada and Texas. The company provides home inventors and product developers with end-to-end consumer product development services that turn invention ideas into successful businesses. MAKO is tremendously proud to be completely grassroots and organically built with zero financing, debt, or investors. While most of Kevin’s time is spent growing the firm, Kevin also spends a great deal of time progressing the product development industry as a whole through guest speaking engagements, building robust strategic partnerships, and advancing the development of entrepreneurship through initiatives such as The Industrial Design Guild, Inventors Meetups, and the MAKO Student Innovation Awards at Ryerson.
Sitting on the Board of Trustees for Lakefield College School, a Board Member of the Brookfield Institute for Entrepreneurship, an Advisor for Next Canada, and recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award, Kevin has been recognized as a standup member of the industry for his community involvement and outreach. For his industry impact, outstanding leadership and rapid business development, MAKO Invent was named one of the best companies in the US in 2016 by Entrepreneur Magazine and made the Inc5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America list. MAKO was given the award for Best Industrial Design by Creativepool in 2018, as well as named to the prestigious Entrepreneur 360 list, and named Best Product Design Firm in North America for 2019 by LUX Life Magazine.
Kevin is also the Founder of the Generation Fund, a registered charity focused on funding university placements for top high school students in financial need. As a strong believer in developing an entrepreneurial spirit, Kevin also personally finances and invests in small businesses and start-ups primarily in the professional services industries. He finds people who excel at a single skill, then through both financing and one-on-one mentoring, helps them develop their own businesses capitalizing on that talent.
His budding partnership with Shark Tank’s Robert Herjevac and Avenger’s Colbie Smulders started with Frito-Lay’s Dreamvention competition. This is a competition where families across North America enter an invention idea to win their invention idea being brought to life and a whopping grand prize of $250,000. Thanks to Kevin and MAKO Design, MAKO has changed the lives of young inventors and their families two years in a row and counting!
During his spare time, Kevin enjoys playing competitive squash and hockey year-round. During the summer months, Kevin spends his weekends exploring the outdoors. As someone with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Kevin actively learns something new every few months which has included playing a variety of instruments, flying planes, and studying philosophy. His company MAKO recently opened up a new office in the booming Design District of Miami, Florida. Exciting times ahead!
The Inventors Launchpad – Roadmap to Success Series is presented by Inventors Launchpad in beautiful Tampa Bay, FL and hosted by Carmine Denisco. Carmine is an accomplished Author, Entrepreneur, Inventor and Co-founder/Managing Partner of Inventors Launchpad. Along with his business partner Rick Valderrama has changed the face of the invention industry and look forward to helping inventors from all over the world move their ideas forward. For more information please visit www.inventorslaunchpad.com