Seven Hills Councilman Pete Draganic’s campaign last year for a seat on Cuyahoga’s new county council didn’t go so well: The Republican was trounced by Parma Democrat Chuck Germana. But Draganic has found a higher calling than county government reform: eradicating toddler messes.
He’s invented and patented the Reflo Smart Cup, a variation on the venerable sippy cup. It’s an open cup with a plastic insert that controls the flow of liquid no matter what angle a child drinks from.
Draganic says he started mulling over the idea when his children — now in high school and college — were young. He experimented with some early, unsuccessful versions.
This article appears in Jun 8-14, 2011.
I’m a little surprised by negative tone of this article. For starters, I don’t know if I was “trounced” by Germana. The final results for that race were 55% – 45%.
As for the value to Ohio, had I not used the Chinese for a minor part of production I would not have been able to start at all. The hope is to create some local jobs with all of our packaging and distribution happening right here in the Cleveland area.
Furthermore, I contacted a number of companies here for what I eventually and reluctantly took to China. Local companies were very slow to respond and some were not interested at all. The company I use in China has been incredibly responsive and professional… not entirely a matter of cost but of service. My experience has shown me that a lot of US companies can learn a lot from some of their overseas competition.
The end result? I was able to produce a product that I may not have otherwise been able to produce at all because of cost and this will create some good Ohio jobs given the interest our product has received from many major buyers. It will also create plenty of tax revenue for our local government.