I like watching Shark Tank clips throughout lunch breaks. Seeing on a regular basis folks pitch their concepts to the sharks intrigues me.
After I immigrated to the U.S., the present had simply began airing. I keep in mind Googling “utility patent” for the primary time as a result of the sharks stored asking entrepreneurs if they’d filed one.
I stored watching as a result of I draw inspiration from different folks’s tales of resilience and seeing their visions grow to be actuality. For many people, a tv present is the one window right into a world we didn’t develop up in. Whenever you don’t have already got somebody in your community to indicate you the trail, you discover the trail and the inspiration the place you may.
Have you ever ever questioned what it really takes to grow to be an inventor? You’re not alone. I requested myself that very same query, however earlier than I even began heading down the trail to creating it occur, doubt crept in:
- “Somebody’s already considered that.”
- “Is my thought even adequate?”
- “Isn’t this only a characteristic, not an invention?”
- “How will I really implement that?”
- “The place do I even start?”
Doubt is the commonest a part of the innovation journey and, sadly, no one talks about it sufficient. Generally, all you want is a delicate push and the suitable publicity. Publicity has a method of quietly doing its work, even once you’re not able to act on it but.
My journey from curiosity to motion began a number of years in the past on the AnitaB.org Grace Hopper Convention, the place I attended a tech careers workshop. I noticed the Mental Property desk and sat there. An IP lawyer was main the dialog, inspiring me sufficient that I pursued a pre-law observe in college, to not grow to be an IP lawyer, however one thing had been planted.
I’ve at all times been a builder of imaginative and prescient, threading concepts and other people collectively, and letting ardour and curiosity cleared the path. I simply didn’t at all times acknowledge that because the makings of an inventor.
After I joined Cisco, I seen the corporate’s Inclusive Neighborhood Girls’s Inventor Community (an ERG identified internally as WIN++) selling its patent mentorship program, a deliberate effort to open the door for extra folks to submit concepts and embrace a wider vary of voices to form innovation. I learn each e mail and announcement, increase the arrogance to use for this system with out even understanding anybody with my position or title at Cisco who had carried out the identical. I had nothing to lose.
What made this expertise thrilling wasn’t simply the truth that a patent may come out of it — It was collaborating with folks I had by no means labored with earlier than, throughout fully totally different components of the enterprise. That inspiration drove me to use and take part in this system in each 2022 and 2023.
My creativity began flowing. I met like-minded folks. We introduced to fellows and distinguished engineers at Cisco. I discovered a mentor who taught me to strategy problem-solving otherwise.
In July 2025, I obtained the e-mail — our patent had been issued. It felt full circle. Behind that second was a whole lot of work, a whole lot of conferences, and other people from totally different corners of the enterprise who got here collectively round a novel thought to resolve an issue — find out how to safely and universally modernize legacy networks. That form of collaboration doesn’t at all times get acknowledged. This time it did, and all of our names are on it.
As a options engineer, my job is to seek out assets and translate issues into options. The patent program was no totally different. Colleagues began coming to me asking in regards to the course of. They hadn’t joined it themselves, not as a result of they weren’t progressive sufficient, however as a result of they assumed it wasn’t for them and by no means tried. Many didn’t even comprehend it existed.
What I realized from Cisco’s WIN++ Patent Mentorship Program is that good concepts don’t have a job title. Skilled mentors are there to information you thru the method. You don’t stroll in needing to have all of it found out. I’d like to see extra options engineers take part as a result of our buyer interactions give us a extremely distinctive perspective.
Patents shield Cisco’s aggressive benefit and contribute to a long-term innovation technique. Each patent filed strengthens the portfolio and alerts that innovation can come from anybody and anyplace within the enterprise. Some patents block competitors. Some open doorways. And a few encourage. The worth isn’t solely measured in income. A patent journey story creates a ripple impact, encouraging others to innovate and multiply the impression throughout the group.
In case you are sitting on an thought, that is your signal to behave. Early publicity issues. Supportive packages matter. Sharing info issues as a result of somebody in your orbit might be speaking themselves out one thing sensible proper now.
In case you’re at Cisco, don’t overlook the WIN++ emails and inner mentorship alternatives. In case you’re someplace else, test what your employer affords. In case you’re going solo, USPTO packages, innovation hubs, fellowships, and grants exist at each stage. The bottleneck is normally consciousness, not eligibility.
I discovered the useful resource. I used it. Now I’m sharing it.
In case you made it this far hoping to catch a shark, sadly, they’re out. However your potential? Undoubtedly IN!
Carry your curiosity to an inclusive crew the place good concepts don’t require a particular job title. Discover Cisco careers now.
