Local inventor’s product reaches national spotlight

UPDATE: 6:15 p.m.

Bill Schlanger said has worked as an entrepreneur for most of his life.

“I had my first business when I was 16,” Schlanger said. “I was going to high school and college at the same time, and I was actually selling equipment to the University of California at Riverside.”

Throughout his career, he said he’s developed nearly a dozen patents, and has called the Palm Springs iHub home for his business, EV Enterprises, for about four years.

But he said a new product he helped develop is sweeping attention across the country.

With the help of the company Mytee based near San Diego, Schlanger said he and others designed a new floor polisher.

The polisher is equipped with a battery source, sparking new ways of sustainable energy versus traditional power methods like cords into an outlet.

“It’s a fairly simple concept,” Schlanger said. “It’s a battery, and then we have a little computer in there that keeps track of how much energy is in the battery. That enables the user to plan their cleaning.”

He said the organization managed under the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership [CVEP] has helped startup companies like his get coaching, and provide more opportunities in the area.

“Our cost of living is much lower,” CVEP CEO and Palm Springs iHub Managing Director Joe Wallace said. “And we have an available workforce that’s willing to get out there and learn new things, to have a good job.”

Wallace said CVEP and the iHub work with 100 startup businesses rolling out new ideas liked to sustainable energy in the Coachella Valley.

“Charge-rate controllers, energy-management devices, and the use of lithium-ion batteries, and any other batteries invented in the future, those technologies are translatable into other things,” Wallace said.

Schlanger said the floor polisher was recently featured at a show in Chicago.

He said his company is also working on using testing his battery source on devices including scooters used at local grocery stores.

For more information on the Palm Springs iHub, click here.

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ORIGINAL STORY: 2:27 p.m.

An invention developed in Palm Springs is gaining national attention, all thanks to a local organization helping out Coachella Valley entrepreneurs.

Bill Schlanger is one of about 100 innovators that have been assisted by the Palm Springs iHub, in unison with the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership. The organizations have helped local startup businesses get their products off the ground.

Schlanger’s newest invention is equipped with a battery source that is sparking new ways to manage renewable energy while doing chores that have become routine in many households.

Zak Dahlheimer will introduce you to Schlanger’s new invention on KESQ at 5 p.m. and on CBS Local 2 at 5:30 p.m.