Yue Fan, his Pattern Clock, and the MORE Program, Part II

Yue needs some help applying for a patent for his Pattern Clock: "I wrote a non-provisonal patent by myself, so we know it's bad. We know it's really bad." Luckily, as MORE Program Director Jessica Pfeiffer explained to the Detroit Free Press, "We're here to be mentors and provide helpful connections between entrepreneurs in Ann Arbor and Detroit."

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Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Education & Training | Financing | Innovation | Start-Ups | The MORE Program | University of Michigan | Yue Fan

The MORE Program at the University of Michigan does more for young entrepreneurs than just give them grant money. Yue Fan said that "the MORE Program is a program that helps students get experience and get knowledge in starting their own companies."

Yue needs some help applying for a patent for his Pattern Clock: "I wrote a non-provisonal patent by myself, so we know it's bad. We know it's really bad."  Luckily, as MORE Program Director Jessica Pfeiffer explained to the Detroit Free Press, "We're here to be mentors and provide helpful connections between entrepreneurs in Ann Arbor and Detroit." Connections such as possibly finding a good patent attorney.

Yue told me more about his activities with the MORE Program: "We have weekly meetings and we get to ask the directors, Brian[Balasia] and Jessica [Pfeiffer] for advice at any time [...] during our weekly meetings we get to bring up what resources we need and what we're kind of getting stuck on that they'll work to find the resources we need to keep going."

"Every week we meet, one team gives a presentation about what they're doing so we learn a little bit more about eachother and we learn a little bit more about what we might run into as we progress along."

So where has Yue progressed to now? He's considering advertising the Pattern Clock on New York City radio. Although it would cost him $3,600, which seems like it would be a lot of money, the advertising would "make about 500,000 impressions." 

"It's amazing how effective radio advertising can be," said Yue.

Anybody can pre-order the Pattern Clock through the website. He's already gotten 1,000 pre-orders, of which "a few hundred" were in the first few days after being "featured on gizmodo.com, a tech blog, and other blogs." About the large amount of pre-orders, Yue said, "it's a pretty good indicator that people want to buy this."