Over the last 11 years and two months, businessman Merlin A. Bumrose, ABD, has pitched 1,697 proposals for new businesses, an average of 152 per year, to various venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Among Bumrose’s proposals was a shop that sells only things that fly, a bicycle-only delivery breakfast muffin bakery, binoculars that are also a digital camera, a small collapsible selfie drone, earphones that cancel the noise from clapping, a backpack drone for hiking and camping, hiking poles that provide distance measurements, a detachable velcro shirt pocket, a bronze alloy for park statues that repels pigeons, a mailbox that automatically trashes junk mail, a pet collar that sends out the pet’s location, a portable water cooler that runs on ammonia, a spray that keeps friendly dogs from jumping on you, a laser-light mosquito counter, and regenerative breaking for bicycles. To a T, none of Bumrose’s pitches were successful, but Bumrose says he’ll never admit defeat.
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