Once upon a time (now) in a far away land (here) a product development company (us) came upon a great product concept. The inventor was eager to get his idea developed and because of the nature of this specific industry, time to market was paramount. The product was beyond our inventors technical expertise, required more funding than our inventor had on hand and needed a substantial company (and developed business model) behind it for it to be successful.
So what does the inventor do?
A few possible options and the philosophies that drive them:
1. Partner aka Joint Venture- The inventor should partner with anyone that can help the product get off the ground. If our inventor gives partners equity or royalties, the partners are more likely to produce. Partners in this case might provide business development, prototypes or funding (best case scenario all of the above). However this strategy can become difficult with the different groups performing different tasks at the same time. The inventor becomes more of a supervisor of several corporate departments than an inventor
2. Do it alone - A classic inventor perspective that is enforced by misconceptions of intellectual property theft, good ideas are good ideas forever and I can do anything. Time to market is important and this option can take years (even with help).
3. Raise $ - Money can solve everything and the inventor could focus on raising funds to purchase the service of the additional pieces. Unfortunately this strategy can be a catch 22, where the inventor needs to both prove the business plan and build a prototype to get funding.
4. Abandon - If I can’t do it, no one can. Obviously the worst option for a great idea. Fear of failure, idea theft and being taken advantage of drive this hopeless perspective that many “idea” people without prototypes follow like a religion.
But what is an inventor to do?
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackFor this project, the inventor turned to academia for help building the business plan to raise $. However, what I have learned is that many inventors would like to turn to a licensing company like Big Idea Group and trade their idea for a royalty agreement (if they get picked). Flashpoint has moved a product through the Big Idea Group (although the inventor eventually backed out). This was several years ago and so I am researching this avenue thoroughly for a future blog post.