Meet Rising Star: Mary Juetten, Founder of Traklight, a low-cost alternative and software tool to help you protect your intellectual property. She’s located in Arizona and would love to connect with you on Twitter and Facebook.

Would you like to be featured? Email us at [email protected].

Shine - briefly tell us about the company you’ve built and the inspiration behind building it.

After a mid-career return to law school, I was shocked by the stories of small companies and inventors losing their ideas or receiving cease and desist letters because they have accidentally infringed on others’ Intellectual Property (IP). My vision was to create a low cost, simple software tool as an alternative to the traditional first attorney visit and help startups save time and money.

Bootstrap and/or raise money – How are you funding your business? Are you seeking capital?

We are completely self-funded, except for a recent Arizona Fast Grant award of $7,500 to assist us with commercialization. We are not actively seeking capital but would entertain strategic partnerships that involve access to customers.

The Goods: What platform are you using and how did you find the right developer?

We are using the following: UNIX operating system, Apache HTTPD web server software, PHP & MongoDB.  And wow - finding the right developer was a huge challenge and sadly not a unique experience. On the third try, I went with a CTO that I knew from a past job who shares our values and also was willing to do a mockup to see if we were aligned with no strings attached.

Three things you wish you knew when you first started:

First, I wish I was technically literate enough to better communicate on programming issues (still not there but working on it!) and a close second is that I wish I knew about more of the business resources in my own city. Third, I wish I would have taken some social media 101 training because I still do not know Pinterest, just joined today!

Going big: What are you working on to drive growth?

I am working on content for our lead magnets, I love creating these educational white papers and videos. We are also developing partnerships with companies that share the same customer base. And finally, I am working with attorneys who wish to pay us to have their potential clients use our site to identify IP and then return to their offices to protect that IP. 

Staying connected: Which national and local networking organizations, conferences have you found most valuable?

I am a proud member of the growing 85 Broads Phoenix Chapter and also of 85 Broads.com. This group has been great for meeting women from all different industries and age groups plus provided some excellent educational experiences. Also my involvement with very dynamic CFIRA group associated with Crowdfunding has led to many new partnerships and friendships. I am also active with our Arizona Tech Council and find their events very good value. I did enjoy DEMO 12 last fall in San Jose, I loved all the energy!

Challenges: What is holding you back and how can we help you?

Just getting the word out there us because it is a new concept to use software to identify your IP and many people think that they do not have any IP because they do not have a tech business but every business or idea has IP!  Thank you to Empower Lounge for featuring Traklight and that helps alot!