Engineer Your Idea Into a Reality – A Success Story of a Toy Company Founded by a Chemical Engineering Student

The following is a summary of Episode 35 of my podcast, The Engineering Career Coach (TECC) Podcast. I will summarize the main points in this post; however, you can also listen to the show through the player below or by subscribing on iTunes. I offer a career-changing tip at the end of each podcast session.

In this session of the TECC Podcast, I interview a chemical engineering student who raised over $88,000, to convert her idea of empowering young women into a reality.

Supriya Hobbs is a Chemical Engineer by training and the founder of Miss Possible, a start-up toy company with a mission to empower girls to dream big and pursue careers in science. As the daughter of two chemists, Supriya never thought she would pursue a career outside of the sciences and engineering, but she and a fellow recent engineering graduate, Janna Eaves, were frustrated to find themselves among the minority as women in their classes, which gave them an idea. They realized that strong role models and early exposure were critical to their career decisions and therefore decided to launch a toy company to help girls see all of the career opportunities that science and engineering could bring them. Supriya graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May of 2014, and is currently working as an engineer in the pharmaceutical industry while launching her start-up.

Taking an idea and making it a reality is a very challenging thing to do. When you have an idea that you want to realize, you MUST act on it to make it happen. If you are passionate about it and take action, you’ll see how it can come to life and shift your career in the most powerful way.

Supriya discussed the following steps, which can help you to take your idea and make it a reality:

1. Decide to make it happen. Take that mental leap. In order to build the confidence needed to take action, seek inspiration from other people like mentors, alumni, and family members. Talk to people who have done things similar to what you plan on doing or people with similar goals and values. This will inspire and motivate you to take the right action.
2. Find the right people with right skills. Figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are and build your team accordingly. As engineers, we sometimes tend to think that because of our education, and all of the knowledge we are exposed to in school, we can do everything. However, if you’re pursuing a lofty goal, you’ll need to get help from people who can fill the gap of the things that you can’t do and recognize where your time is most needed.
3. Talk about it. Talk to people you will be serving about your idea. This will help you understand what they are looking for and what they need. There is tremendous value in interacting with them and getting buy-in early on in the process. This is an important point that can really help you become a better engineer, whether you have a specific goal you are pursuing or not.
4. Seek validation. Try to gage people’s interests, and ask them to support you and your ideas. Getting positive comments from people can be easy, but getting people to back and even fund your idea will truly validate the idea.

Is there an idea you have that you would like to implement whether it be for your engineering company or your own personal project?

Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success, found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website at EngineeringCareerCoach.com to access all of the free engineering career resources he has created to help engineers succeed.