BUSINESS

The Battery's Best Friend

Five years ago, Jeff Sloan had an idea.
Today, Masco Industries is manufacturing it.

Staff Writer

E

ach year, Masco In-
dustries hears 800
to 900 pitches from
inventors who hope
their products will
be developed by the manufac-
turing giant.
From those, Masco makes
just four or five deals.
Yet Jeff Sloan, a 30-year-
old Birmingham en-
trepreneur, was not fazed by
such odds. He was deter-
mined to see his invention —
a device that protects car
batteries from dying — come
to fruition.
The Battery Buddy is a
computerized switch that at-
taches to the battery and
monitors its power level. If
the battery is in danger of
discharging completely —
say, when you left the lights
on —the Battery Buddy will
automatically switch off,
effectively disconnecting the
battery.
When the Battery Buddy
switches off, a motorist
simply presses the reset
button to start the vehicle.
Today, about two years
after Mr. Sloan's first
meeting with Masco, the
company owns after-market
manufacturing rights
throughout the world for Mr.
Sloan's brainchild, the Bat-
tery Buddy. It is available
for automobiles and boats.
In addition, Mr. Sloan
worked out a deal with
Masco so he and others could
also sell the product. Many
auto dealers throughout
metropolitan Detroit offer
the Battery Buddy as an
add-on to new cars.
The product, about $60 for
the car Buddy and $70 for
the marine Buddy, is
available through catalogs
and some local stores.
"There were so many
times I thought this was a
dead deal," Mr. Sloan said.
"But we just kept on going
even though the odds were
against us."
Masco officials knew the
Battery Buddy was some-
thing the company could
manufacture. At their first
meeting, Mr. Sloan brought
a prototype designed by an
engineer.
Masco officials were skep-
tical.

Director of New Products
and Development Dennis
O'Connor wondered whether
a market existed for the Bat-
tery Buddy.
Mr. O'Connor knew that
new cars came equipped
with many gadgets to pre-
vent motorists from leaving
on lights and other items
that wear down batteries.
A few days after his first
meeting with Mr. Sloan, Mr.
O'Connor's doubts
diminished. He had just pur-
chased a new car, complete
with warning bells. Despite
the warnings, his daughter
forgot to turn off some elec-
trical accessory, leaving Mr.
O'Connor with a dead bat-
tery.
"This made me think that
no matter how sophisticated

Jeff Sloan and his
Battery Buddy.

"We just kept on
going even though
the odds were
against us."

Jeff Sloan

your vehicle is, your battery
may still go dead," Mr.
O'Connor said. "Now I have
a Battery Buddy on all of my
cars."
Since distribution began
four months ago, Masco and
Sloan Products have sold
between 15,000 and 20,000
Battery Buddies throughout
the world.
Next year, Mr. O'Connor
said, Masco may launch a
large advertising campaign
to effectively market the
product.
"I think it will be a very
successful product," Mr.
O'Connor said.
The Battery Buddy is not
Mr. Sloan's first success
story. As a student at the
University of Michigan, Mr.
Sloan did some research on
horses and purchased an
Arabian stallion. He learned
how to ride and show the
horse, which began to win
prizes.
With financial assistance
from his father, Flint
urologist Bernard Sloan, Jeff
Sloan purchased another
horse. This time, he had
hopes of launching a busi-
ness. Although he was ac-
cepted to law school, he

Photos by Glenn Triest

KIMBERLY LIFTON

chose the horse business as a
full-time profession.
The second horse was also
a winner. So, at his fa-
ther's urging, Jeff Sloan pur-
chased a horse farm in
Metamora. What started as
a six-stall barn turned into a
60-stall horse breeding farm
where Mr. Sloan housed 80
horses for show and sale.
Jeff Sloan ran the farm
with a staff of 14. Then, in
1988, he got his lucky break.
The farm was growing, and
it had caught the eye of
other investors. When he
was 26, an Atlanta investor
made a generous offer to
purchase the farm, which
later moved to a larger
facility in Georgia.
Jeff Sloan was already
working on the Battery
Buddy, and he was toying
with the idea of marketing
other people's inventions.
Selling the farm provided
enough financial resources
to start other business ven-
tures. Law school was out of
the question.
He wanted to spend his life

as an entrepreneur, an open
field that would allow him to
create, develop and market
new technologies — his own
as well as others. The Bat-
tery Buddy became a pro-
duct of Sloan Products.
"Inventing takes a keen
sense of awareness," he said.
"You encounter situations
in life which can be improved
upon. You must go with it."
After mastering the Bat-
tery Buddy, he was anxious
to launch other products.
He said everybody has
ideas. But not everybody

knows what to do with ideas.
Jeff Sloan always has been
innovative, friends and
relatives said. So his drive
and determination to sell his
idea didn't surprise anyone.
"I expected it of him," said
his brother, Richard Sloan,
who transferred from college
in Colorado to U-M to work
with his older brother.
The concept of the Battery
Buddy started one rainy,
cold night in a parking lot.
Mr. Sloan witnessed a man
stuck in the lot with a dead
battery. No one had jumper
cables.
"I started thinking about
various ways to prevent this
from happening. The next
day, I was off to the library."
He knew nothing about
batteries. For weeks, he
went to the General Motors
library in Flint, reading
everything he could find
about batteries.
"He used to bring home
stacks of books and just bury
himself in a room," Richard
Sloan said
Next, Jeff Sloan hooked up
with a former General Mo-
tors engineer who directed
development of a prototype.
His first patent application
was rejected in 1986. But the
product was patented on
Feb. 20, 1990 — Jeff Sloan's
29th birthday.
Now the business is focus-
ed on selling the Battery
Buddy and bringing other
people's inventions and new
technology into the world.
The business comprises just
Jeff and Richard. They work
from an office in Jeff's Birm-
ingham home.
Recently, Sloan Products
signed a deal with two doc-
tors from St. Joseph Hospital

The Buddy is shown
attached to a car
battery.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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