Stand up

John Toner has been an inventor since he was 10 years old, keeping a book full of inventions. In college, he started a company that provided 3-D animations and an Android application for trial attorneys. In the past few years, he taught himself 3-D printing and built a virtual reality game, remaking the ice castle from “Frozen” for his niece.

The 31-year-old is now navigating the world of bringing an invention to market, and it hasn't been easy. In addition to his day job in the rapid prototyping division at American Express in St. Petersburg, Toner is dedicating six hours a day to his invention company, SynergyWiz. “It's a labor of love. It's what I enjoy doing,” he says.

For more than a decade, one of Toner's biggest frustrations was charging cell phone headsets separately. He also wasn't impressed by the lack of innovation in the mobile industry during the past few years.