Allison Conti and Michael LaBrie

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Written by Dennis Spielman

Founder and CEO of Watkins-Conti Products, Inc., Allison Watkins-Conti is a recognized leader, inventor, and speaker. Raised in an entrepreneurial environment, she witnessed the formation and creation of sustainable businesses and has experience in many facets of business management. In 2015, Conti conceived the solution for an issue that affects an estimated one in three women. She designed, patented, engineered, and manufactured, Yōni.Fit, a nonsurgical, intravaginal device for women suffering from stress urinary incontinence. The device is entering the FDA approval process. Her company was awarded Most Promising New Venture of the Year through the Oklahoma Venture Forum.

“We've done clinical trials at Stanford and NYU and Thomas Jefferson University, and I’ve filed intellectual property utility patents,” said Allison Conti. “Right now, I have five utility patents issued in the United States, and those have been filed in 17 countries. Then I have got three trademarks and two design patents as well.”

Speaking on the business side of intellectual property, Conti compared having these protections to owning real estate. They increase the value of your business and set up a picket fence around your idea so that nobody else can steal it.

Mike LaBrie is a shareholder with McAfee & Taft in Oklahoma City.  He has been practicing intellectual property law since 1994 and was a mechanical engineer for Schlumberger before attending law school. LaBrie is active in patent prosecution, patent portfolio management, trademarks, copyrights, and software and is the leader of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group and Biotech Industry Group.

“The key to monetizing the idea or the invention is to protect it,” said Mike LaBrie. “Otherwise, if there's no intellectual property protection and you roll the product out, then anyone can copy it and basically take it and commercialize it themselves. And so, the intellectual property, it creates obstacles for competitors, and it provides long-term protection so that you can commercialize it, go through the FDA process, license it, sell the product, those sorts of things.”

“If you have to raise money, people want to ensure that whatever their funding is protected,” Conti added. “Jenny Martel is the head of Global Brand Protection for Colgate Palmolive, and she sits on my board, and she's just constantly talking about trademarking and how important it is because even if you roll a product out in the United States, and it's, for example, not trademarked in China, they can go and counterfeit your goods and pretend they're you.”

LaBrie agreed with Conti and added he had seen increased problems lately, especially in China and some other countries, and trouble can arise in several different situations.

“One is where you have customs issues,” said LaBrie. “If you have a product manufactured in China, for example, but you don't have a trademark registered in China, then you can have difficulty exporting it out to the United States, in addition to people just registering your trademark in China and manufacturing and selling goods under that name.”

One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is rolling the product out or disclosing the product without first filing a patent application, said LaBrie.

“In the United States, you have one year from the first public disclosure to file a patent application,” said LaBrie. “Other countries require what's called absolute novelty, meaning you have to file a patent application before the first public disclosure or commercial sale.  So, if you disclose it too early, you may miss the one-year bar in the United States, but you may also be prohibited from filing foreign patent applications in other countries.”

“I think that founders really make a mistake of trying to do everything themselves and not hiring the best lawyers,” said Conti. “For me, it's non-negotiable. I'm going to hire the best lawyers for every contract.”

Even if entrepreneurs do not have the funds to protect their intellectual property fully, LaBrie said they should have a strategy. They should know what they are going to do, when they will do it, and when they will file for the patent and trademark applications.

Conti and LaBrie will speak to Oklahoma Venture Forum Power Lunch members on Wednesday, December 14, 2022. The event will be held at The Venue at Crew in Downtown Oklahoma City from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm and will be open to members and guests both in-person and virtually via ZOOM. Both Conti and LaBrie recommend attending the monthly event.

“I've met a lot of different companies that I do business with now through the Oklahoma Venture Forum, so it's a great networking opportunity,” said Conti. “And even if we didn't do business, I've learned a lot from people in the conversations and met a lot of new, interesting businesses and different vendors that can help. For example, an insurance company that I work with now that it's hard to get clinical trials insured, that I was connected through the Oklahoma Venture Forum. I highly recommend attending all of the luncheons for those reasons.”

“I think something that stands out at OVF is the diversity of backgrounds. You have entrepreneurs, you have service providers, you have funders, you have a lot of different resources that can be valuable regardless of what your company does,” said LaBrie. “I think the diversity of backgrounds will help make people successful and great contacts.”

Register here to attend the December 14th OVF Power Lunch

OVF Chairwoman
2022-2023
Jennifer McGrail
Executive Director
Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology

November is traditionally the month we set aside special time to give thanks. OVF is certainly thankful for our members and sponsors. Without each of you, we could not continue to foster innovation and economic growth.

Did you know that November is also when the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators who launch startups, drive economic growth, and expand human welfare occurs? From November 14 through November 20, Oklahomans will take part in events dedicate to the celebration and empowerment of entrepreneurs. We will join 10 million people across the globe to collaborate and engage with organizations and individuals to bring awareness to entrepreneurship and its possibilities. If you are interested in seeing what events are happening in Oklahoma and across the globe, visit https://www.genglobal.org/gew/events.

While our next OVF Power Lunch falls right before Global Entrepreneurship Week, we invite you to join us for our November Power Lunch as we gain insight into possible legislation impacting entrepreneurship. Please remember to join us at our new meeting location at the Crew Workspace. Parking is free right across from the building. OVF Power Lunches are a great opportunity to invite new colleagues, friends, and potential founders!

We look forward to seeing you at the October OVF Power Lunch. We encourage you to invite a guest that might like to experience all that OVF has to offer!

Kindest Regards,

Jennifer McGrail

OVF Chair, 2022-2023

Register here to attend the October 12th Power Lunch

Keeping Politically Aware for your Business Legislative Panel hosted by Tyler Powell and Tom Robins 

by Dennis Spielman

Tom Robins is the president and founder of the Oklahoma Innovative Technology Alliance (OITA).  Robins described OITA as the home and voice for Oklahoma Innovation and Technology where their number one priority is creating a workforce talent pipeline for their members as they grow. Previously, Robins spent time in D.C. after graduating from college and went to Utah State, got his master’s in political management from the George Washington University, worked for the Senate judiciary and other projects in Washington D.C. on political campaigns. In Oklahoma, he was the Deputy Secretary of Energy for the previous governor, helping advise and handle energy policy and all of its forms for the governor.

Tyler Powell owns the firm CSS Partner, assisting in government affairs and political strategy, helping client’s kind of all sizes, including OITA. Before starting CSS Partner in 2017, Powell was the Deputy Secretary of Environment where he met Robins. As the Deputy Secretary, Tyler oversaw implementation of the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan, the Water for 2060 Act, and the Lesser Prairie Chicken Range Wide Conservation Plan.

“Policy and politics impact in the innovation technology industry, but it might not be something that people think about,” said Tom Robins.

For the Oklahoma Venture Forum, Powell and Robins will host a panel discussion along with Representative Nicole Miller and Senator Julia Kirt. Members will get an update on what happened in the elections, which will be the night before the Power Lunch Event. Topics will include the implications of the elections, both for D.C. and locally, and how that'll impact over the next couple of years, innovation, and technology.

“I think obviously it's going to be super topical given kind of it's the day after the election,” said Tyler Powell. “What will the next two and four years look like? What are those issues that, if I've got a business I need to be thinking about, or in the case of stuff that we're going to be promoting, how is that going to go through and change based off the current dynamics of what the legislature looks like?”

Kirt, Miller, Powell, and Robins will speak to Oklahoma Venture Forum Power Lunch members on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. The event will be open to members and guests both in-person and virtually via ZOOM.

“OVF brings together investors, entrepreneurs, business leaders, innovation and technology leaders, and engaging and educating, engaging elected officials or policy makers is an important opportunity for that community,” said Robins. “We can learn from one another.”

Register here to attend the November 9^th OVF Power Lunch

Mike Orr
President, Digital Oil and Gas Solutions

Over the last 30 years, Mike’s area of influence has involved roles that have shaped a unique perspective of critical thinking and common sense to solving problems and developing people for both the workplace and life. Recognized as a change agent that sees opportunity in every situation based on a simple approach that technology is the easy part.

Mike’s current role involves leading Digital Oil and Gas Solutions for TEAM International. Prior to joining TEAM, Mike had global responsibility for strategy, planning, and infrastructure for Murphy Oil Corporation. Mike also has patented several technologies.  His recent areas of focus includes creation of an IoT framework, Data Management as a Service platform, and a turnkey service model designed to meet operators where they are at.  He has been part of multiple industry firsts, leveraging strategic partnerships that center around rapid system installation of applications, hyper converged infrastructure, and SDWAN footprints, including a 6-month global deployment of full suite SAP across 6 countries, Network as a Service model, and several cloud-based technologies. 

His experience also includes portfolio management roles at Phillips 66 as well as leading the technology transformation projects to separate ConocoPhillips into two global leaders.  His experience covers Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream.   

Additional experience’s includes roles at Williams, Deloitte, McDonalds, Saint Francis Health System, and the oil patch. 

Register here to attend the November 9^th OVF Power Lunch

Sharina Perry
Founder/Inventor Utopia Plastix | CEO of the Utopia Model Companies

Sharina Perry was born and raised in a diverse community in Hobbs, New Mexico. She and her family moved to Oklahoma when her father received a job transfer in the oil and gas industry. Sharina is the mother of three amazingly brilliant and spirited children.

Sharina’s current professional corporate roles revolve around her Utopia Model owned and operated companies. All formed to strategically launch her vision for creating and developing sustainable solutions across global platforms.

These include CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Utopia Genetics, LLC; CEO Eden Grow, LLC, Managing Partner Utopia Solutions, LLC; and Managing Partner Utopia Wellness, LLC. Sharina is the Founder/Inventor of Utopia Plastix, a patented plastic alternative formulated into compounded plant-based resins using agricultural crops. Sharina is also the creator and developer of the Utopia Model, a sustainable eco-system business model. Utopia's compounded plant resin allows manufacturers to use their current equipment as they produce the sustainable, alternative plastic products that the world is demanding.

Sharina is known for her strategic business structure and keen ability to effectively execute. Viewed broadly as an out of the box thinker and innovator. She has challenged herself to shatter glass ceilings and continues to excel in every endeavor she takes on. Sharina Perry is a serial entrepreneur with a long history of starting and growing new ventures.

At the age of 24, as the Director of Operations Sharina fast tracked her company to becoming the largest retailer of satellite systems in the nation. Three years later, Sharina started her own company with a 30k investment. It was repaid in 2 months and her company ended the year with gross revenue of over 2.5 million. She went on to become the only African American female owned company in the industry and was in the Top 5 MDU/FTG providers and a Top 10 Public/Private provider. She launched her business into large corporate and government contracting as a prime contractor. Sharina was the first to introduce the concept of suite type services (cable, internet, phone, etc) to the largest MDU property management company in the state of California.

Sharina holds a considerable number of certifications in business structure, strategy, and development. Sharina believes a hands-on approach and leading by example makes for the most effective leaders. Being highly result driven, Sharina sees this approach as a major reason she is so effective. A key focus for Sharina the past 6 years has been economic development for minority and small business owners. Sharina continues to work with major clients on strategic plans to “shift” at the key timing their industry demands it. With the events of 2020, her strategies helped small business owners not only survive, but also experience increased revenue streams and opportunity.

Utopia Plastix was recently featured on Advancements TV on Bloomerberg TV hosted by Ted Danson as a solution to plastic waste.

Sharina was featured in the April/May 2022 issue of Woman's Day Magazine as an Eco-Hero.

CURRENT ACHIEVEMENTS AND ROLES

• Global Patent and Trademarks 
• Advanced Certification in Sustainability and Circular Economics from University of Cambridge Judge Business School
• State Chamber of Oklahoma Council of Advisors 
• Sustainable Tulsa Board Member 
• Resource Committee Chair 
• Governors Minority Business Council 
• Business Engagement Committee Chair 
• Innovation District STEM Education Committee 
• Resolution Sub Committee Chair 
• Strategic Planning Committee Co-Chair 
• OKC Community Economic Resiliency Plan 
• Advisory Committee 
• Black Women Business Owners of America
• Founding Board of Directors 
• U.S. Chamber Supplier Diversity Task Force Member 
• OLAN Member 
• Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma
• WISN Committee Member 2021
• Vanguard Award Recipient 
• Environmental Excellence 2022
• Oklahoma’s Most Powerful and Innovative Women
• Journal Record 2021
• On the Horizon Award 
• OKC Young Professionals 2022
• OKC (Oklahoma City) Most Influential Young Professionals 2022
• I AM SISTA Businesswoman of the Year Award 2022
• Teachers Appreciation Foundation Supreme Excellence Dignitary Award

Register here to attend the November 9^th OVF Power Lunch

Growing Through Acquisitions

Written by Dennis Spielman

Kris Murray’s entrepreneurial journey began in college when a friend suggested they should start a web development company. While in high school and college, Murray was interested in web development, video production, graphic design, and how to code, but throughout most of his college career, he was a biology major. Before making a significant life pivot, Murray had some terms.

“I was like, ‘Sure, we’ll start a company if you secure the first client,’” said Kris Murray. “And essentially, I threw some numbers at him, like, ‘If you can kind of guarantee that both of us will make X amount of money for the first year, I’ll jump in this crazy idea with you,’ and like two weeks later; he had all the stuff secured. He had sold to different people and secured a lump sum of money and a retainer covering our living expenses.”

As time progressed, Murray’s original business partner wanted to exit, so Murray bought him out and then merged with a friend’s video production company, where they were outsourcing all of their video work. They joined forces and created a new brand called Spark.

“At the time, people’s choices were to hire an ad agency, where typical ad agencies had not kind of caught up with the changes of digital media, so they were billing high hourly rates and didn’t really know how to engage new media, or hire a person internally and have to pay their salary, pay for their equipment, pay for their health insurance, and stuff like that,” said Murray. “We were the no-brainer choice because we were cheaper than both options available to them, and it was like, hey, if we hate these guys, we can fire them because they’re essentially a contractor, and we can move in a different direction. So again, we saw pretty quick success with that. I think our goal was to get like 20 clients, and we met that goal within two weeks.”

With Spark, Murray loved they were helping solve unique problems for people. He found companies would be great at providing their goods and services to people, but they didn’t know how to connect with potential customers, and that’s where Spark excelled.

“We had a client early on say essentially we were the best investment they had ever made in marketing, and that was like a big moment for me,” said Murray. “When I started realizing that people see us as an investment, this is a partnership, this isn’t a typical contract engagement, and this isn’t a service. They feel like we are jointly moving towards their shared success.”

Murray knew Spark’s next phase of growth would be through acquisitions. Their first acquisition was Scissortail Media. Murray admired the company’s high-end impactful work. Through circumstances, the owner of Scissortail Media had started a virtual reality software platform and was looking to pursue that avenue. The creative and storytelling aspect of video production was an area Spark needed to grow, so they acquired them to get the talent, equipment, and proprietary story craft process.

“We did an acqui-hire, where we hired all the staff,” said Murray. “Whatever Scissortail Media’s best year was, we doubled that in the first year of our acquisition. We gave all the staff a raise, we kept everybody on through the transition, and we carried that through with our future acquisitions, is we always tried to retain the entire team.”

For the following acquisitions, they used the Traction system, an entrepreneurial operating system, to help explore core values, systems, processes, and what is needed to get to the next phase. Murray identified Casey Cornett with Cornett Marketing and later Studio Flight.

“With all of our acquisitions, we always did cash deals, where we never got into debt because of acquisitions,” said Murray. “I wanted to have an agency that was working citywide, statewide, nationally, globally, and by the time we consolidated the brands and everything, we had great local clients, we had great statewide clients, we had great national clients, and we had great global clients. In all service areas that we were a part of, we were, in some ways top of that, working with top-tier clients. We were getting top-tier clients to work with us, so it was the completion of the original vision.”

Kris Murray will speak to Oklahoma Venture Forum Power Lunch members on Wednesday, October 12, 2022. The event will be open to members and guests both in-person and virtually via ZOOM.

“My advice would be a lot of people think that they need seed capital to get started, and for some things, you do need seed capital, but I would encourage people to market test their idea and do as much as they can to bootstrap whatever product or service they’re doing, and then once they have marketed tested their service or product, and they have a good idea of what the demand will be, then if they need capital, do growth capital,” said Murray. “We never did any kind of investment, so we bootstrapped everything. Honestly, I’ve got friends that have done capital rounds, saying, ‘I wish we had bootstrapped things,’ because one thing that capital does is it accelerates all of your problems. Money accelerates everything, so if things are going good, it accelerates things, but if things are not figured out or going well, it can run you off a cliff pretty fast.”

Register here to attend the October 12th Power Lunch

Brent Smith
Chief Communications Officer
Firefly Energy Services, LLC

Brent Smith is the Chief Communications Officer of Firefly Energy Services, a privately owned Oklahoma LLC company engaged in creating gas and liquids storage solutions.  Our core business provides solutions to utility power generators, petroleum and chemical complex processing facilities, industrial park complexes, high-growth utility markers, and LNG facilities.

Firefly has developed new patented GasLoop™ storage technology that reduces emissions and carbon footprint, stabilizes baseload, enables resource mix optionality, and eliminates contamination, loss, pollution, and safety issues that exist prevalently with existing storage options. GasLoop™ Storage Solution:

• Co-Locational underground Gas/Liquids Storage
• Resilient on-demand fuel supply solution
• Renewable and hydrocarbon supply peaking/balance tool
• Renewable energy source transition enhancement

Environmentally responsible solution GasLoop™ Benefits:

• Fully scalable to match capacity demands & growth objectives
• Customized to match user conditions
• Capital and Operational cost savings over traditional storage
• Environmentally mitigated to address traditional in-rock challenges
• Multiple industrial applications for gas, liquid, or blended applications

Register here to attend the October 12th Power Lunch

Pinkey Patel
Founder and CEO
The Snapback

Pregnancy has ample resources and is often a beautiful experience, however postpartum is isolating and does not come with a manual. The average time between delivery and the first postpartum visit is 6 weeks and 40% of women don’t make it there.

The SnapBack App is the only all-in-one, evidence based postpartum resource and community mother’s need. The app provides delivery specific rehab techniques, time released what to expect for the baby/mom, tracking features and an anonymous community forum.

Our mission is to provide postpartum mothers with credible, efficient and affordable resources and community. Our brand values all center around effective healing, it is imperative to us to operate on credibility, transparency, and intentionality. When you’re doing something as visceral and life altering as growing a human, the resources you receive during and after should reflect that magnitude, they should be as thoroughly developed and as seriously considered as the life we create. We create tech for the future.

It’s time we create tech for moms who birth the future.

Register here to attend the October 12th Power Lunch

Jennifer McGrail
Executive Director and OVF Chairwoman, 2022-2023
Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology

Wow! That is the best word I can think of to describe the energy and momentum that continues here in Oklahoma surrounding innovation and entrepreneurship. With the recent EDA Build Back Better Regional Challenge announcements, Oklahoma was only one of two states to receive news that two separate projects were award funding. These two projects were the direct result of collaborative work by many, many, organizations, all working together to toward build strong regional economies and spur economic growth. Many of our OVF members and supporters were part of these efforts and to each of you, we say thank you!

The excitement of the announcements carried over into our first OVF Power Lunch of the season. Our speakers entered a room alive with enthusiasm and excitement. Their presentations showed how founders here in Oklahoma are tackling large challenges and can impact almost everyone. Our October event will provide different perspective on starting a business when Kris Murray, joins us to talk on business exits and how to build and consolidate brands. We will also welcome pitch presenter, Brent Smith, with Firefly Energy Services, to talk about their new gas and liquid storage solutions.

We look forward to seeing you at the October OVF Power Lunch. We encourage you to invite a guest that might like to experience all that OVF has to offer!

Kindest Regards,

Jennifer McGrail
OVF Chair, 2022-2023

Register here to attend the October 12th Power Lunch

Creating a Flow for Innovation

by Dennis Spielman 

Ryan Coe has been in the oil and gas industry his entire life, the fifth generation in his family line. Where Coe is now in energy was not the path he expected for himself. Straight out of college, he went to work at Chesapeake.

“I got comfortable with mashing together data sets and applying them towards my specific discipline, which was land, and that not only gave a ton of support to our land team to be able to be more efficient, but it also really sparked a massive passion that I had no idea that I possessed until this opportunity came along,” said Ryan Coe. “It gave me the ability to provide creative problem-solving into my day-to-day routine, and it’s what’s been driving me since that moment. I’ve been incorporating technology into most of the things I do regularly here at Flogistix, and it’s been a wild ride, frustrating, but I love it.”

Coe is now the Corporate Product Manager at Flogistix. Primarily, Flogistix is a compression service company that’s incorporated innovative technology to optimize its fleet and the runtime and efficiency of its operators. His role includes reviewing Flogistix’s products and seeing, from an industry expert perspective, where’s the application, what should be changed, what shouldn’t be changed, and helping facilitate the best development and product fit they can achieve.

For companies looking to advance and innovate with technology, Coe said the best thing they can do is create an environment where their employees feel comfortable and are not afraid to ask questions.

“They’re not afraid to come up with those weird ideas that they may be concerned, “What is the person next to me going to think about it if I say, ‘Oh, this is a way to solve a problem,’ and it’s just off the wall crazy?” I have always encouraged people when they have an idea, talk about it, bring it up,” said Coe. “If you’re doing something monotonous or repetitive and you think there’s a better way to do something, there probably is a better way to do something.”

Coe also added that people should be confident in the value they add to your company because not letting people think and express their thoughts and creativity hampers the organization. See what you can solve using technology versus, “Let’s just continue to do it the same way because we’re afraid to learn something new.”

With the EPA’s concern about fugitive emissions, the next facet for Flogistix is trying to answer and solve some of those problems because it’s massive. Thousands of wells are outdated, so they’re some of the biggest emitters.

“It’s a much bigger problem than people realize, but we are incredibly confident that we know how to address it,” said Coe. “We’re always developing new solutions to make things more efficient on our end and the customer side. I have no idea where the next step is, but I know that it will be in the energy space, and I know that it will involve technology and creativity.”

Ryan Coe will speak to Oklahoma Venture Forum Power Lunch members on Wednesday, September 22, 2022. Coe was introduced to OVF last year, and while he initially didn’t know what to think of the forum, he’s come to see OVF as a great way to build a network of companies looking out for each other. The event will be open to members and guests both in-person and virtually via ZOOM.

“It’s incredibly cool to bring some of these smaller organizations together that are all kind of fighting a common battle, trying to get established, trying to figure out what to do to give themselves an advantage and to be able to come together sort of as a consortium and collaborate amongst each other,” said Coe.

Register to attend September 2022 Power Lunch