- Tell us something about yourself, your background
I was born and raised on the southside of Chicago, IL in a middle-class family. My Father was a Veterinarian, and my Mother was a Science Educator. I have two younger brothers and one older sister. On my Mother’s side of the family are a Doctor, a Lawyer, a Professor, and a high level college administrator. My Mother was insistent about myself and my siblings doing good in school and obtaining a college degree. My Father owned and operated a successful Veterinarian hospital for over 40+ years for dogs and cats. I get my insights for running a business from my Father. Ever since being a young child my Father would have me get up early in the morning and go to his hospital. My Father would often tell me not to work for anyone and to be your own Boss. He always stressed about always being on time and not arriving after clients. I remember greeting clients, obtaining client information and conveying the issue clients were having with their pet to my Father, answering phone, guiding clients to examination rooms, assisting in surgeries, counting checks and money for the day, depositing daily earnings into my Father’s bank account, assisting in surgeries, mopping floors and cleaning cages.
It is from my Father the inclination for me to be in business.
I did not like dealing with vicious dog and cats and the blood during surgery thus being a Veterinarian was not for me. So in 6th grade, I had a friend that I would go over to his house to build Go-Karts. I really liked building Go-Karts which set me on the path to be wanting to be a Mechanical Engineer. But as I approached high school, home computers started becoming very popular. I remember having a VIC 20 and a Commodore 64. I taught myself how to program and Code in Basic and Assembly language. The Commodore 64 at the time was known for its quality sound so I got into electronic music. On the weekends, I would get together with two high school friends, and we would have jam sessions with the Commodore 64, synthesizer, drum machines, and other electronic music equipment. I really liked production of sound and blinking lights from the music equipment. This set me on the path to be an Electrical Engineer. I knew that to be an Electrical Engineer you had to be good at Math and Science thus I took a lot of Math and science courses in high school to prepare me to be an Engineer. In my senior year of High School, I chose to attend Tuskegee University for Electrical Engineering. Studying engineering was no easy journey. I spent many of sleepless night working out engineering problems alongside classmates to pass upcoming exams. I graduated from Tuskegee with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.
I wanted to further my education and ended up securing a Masters in Electrical Engineering. I took many courses in the area of RF/Wireless Communications Systems and taught labs to undergraduate Electrical Engineering students. I graduated from Tuskegee University with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. My first job was working for Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona. Raytheon is a defense contactor and I was hired as an Electrical Engineer in one of their missile programs. At Raytheon, I did design and testing of circuit cards that went into the radar of a missile. I was not a fan of the hot weather in Arizona and wanted to come back home to Chicago with cooler weather. I obtained a position with Molex working in the area of high speed design and testing for fiber optics back in the Chicagoland area. I was really into RF/Wireless design and test. My dream company that I wanted to work for was Motorola. I ended up working for Motorola once as a permanent employee and twice as a contractor. I worked for Motorola in several capacities: GPS for Onstar, Power Amplifiers for Cellular Base Stations, and Police and Firefighter public safety radios. In addition, I worked in the medical device arena with Medical (MRI and CT), Infusion Pumps, and Bone Cutting instruments for GE Healthcare, Siemens, Baxter Healthcare, and Stryker. Also, I taught at DeVry University in the Electronics Technology and Biomedical Programs.
Many Family and Friends were asking me how they could bring their ideas to life. Thus, I saw it as business opportunity and formed iMagine-it-Tech. iMagine-it-Tech helps inventors to bring to life their ideas so that it can be brought to marketplace. iMagine-it-Tech was launched in March 2013 and will be celebrating 10 years of helping inventors in March of 2023.
- Tell us about your venture with a brief explanation:
My venture is iMagine-it-Tech. iMagine-it-Tech helps inventors to bring product ideas to life so that they can be brought to the Marketplace.
- How/Why did you start as an entrepreneur? What set you off?
Since being a young child and helping my Father at his Veterinary Hospital I always wanted to have my own business. Instead of choosing to be a Veterinarian like my Father I chose to be an Electrical Engineer. With family and friends knowing that I had an engineering background they were consistently asking how they could bring their product ideas to life. It is for this reason I saw it as a business opportunity and formed iMagine-it-Tech to help inventors.
- Tell us a bit more about your venture:
iMagine-it-Tech encourage clients to launch a business, gain access to capital, manufacture their product thus generating inventory, and making sales of their product.
- Website & Social media links
Website: Click HERE
Facebook: Click HERE
Twitter: Click HERE
LinkedIn: Click HERE
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