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The ‘Inventor Script’

The ‘Inventor Script’. “Invention, Innovation, Success… and the Kryptonite of Funding” Nick Pelling – nickpelling@nanodome.com – 079 6789 3615. What is invention ?. It’s a lot of things in parallel : The process of changing the world An activity enriching patent lawyers

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The ‘Inventor Script’

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  1. The ‘Inventor Script’ “Invention, Innovation, Success…and the Kryptonite of Funding” Nick Pelling – nickpelling@nanodome.com – 079 6789 3615

  2. What is invention? It’s a lot of things in parallel: • The process of changing the world • An activity enriching patent lawyers • A retreat from the world into concepts • An ego-trip compensating for failure

  3. What is innovation? It’s a lot of things in sequence: • Turning an invention into a real thing • Turning a real thing into a business plan • Iteratively improving that business plan • Finding funders for that business plan • Making the business plan a business

  4. What is success? It’s a lot of things that rarely happen • Inventing something genuinely new? • Getting patent(s) granted? • Getting your product onto the market? • Building a respectable market share? • Selling your startup for obscene money? • Spending time with your spouse & kids?

  5. All in all… • Invention is anti-social (and hard) • Innovation is social (and hard) • Success is badly defined (and hard)

  6. And yet, there’s that ‘script’… Yes, the ‘Inventor Script’: • “Invention  Innovation  Success” What kind of person can genuinely ‘own’ that vast spectrum of human activity?

  7. Inventor as ‘Superman’ A modern-day ‘Renaissance Man’: • Detail-oriented / precise – engineer • Imaginative / perceptive – visionary • Experienced / evaluative – ‘grey fox’ • Well-connected / influential – networker • Persuasive / business-minded – MBA

  8. So, you’re supposed to be… A highly-networked ‘grey fox’ visionary engineer with an MBA. And guess what? Even that doesn’t necessarily help!

  9. What’s wrong with this script? • Extremely limited support from banks • Dragons Den has poisoned the well • “Backers” replaced by “business angels” • Success as funding fait accompli • 1x money in, 10x money out • De-risked, ever-further downstream

  10. Funding is Kryptonite! If you’re Superman, funding is Kryptonite It weakens, controls & destroys you! Use your inventive mind to build up your business without external funding!

  11. The Inventor Script 2.0… The world has changed, so has the script! Now, pretty much whatever you invent… • Build / patent / sell it yourself! • Bootstrap business from your home! • Your customers prove that it works!

  12. OK, but… how? Hundreds of practical, cheap techniques: • “Lean”, iterative development • Customer development, web ‘funnels’ • 3d printing for (near-)functional testing • Soft tooling for early production

  13. Success, redefined… Ponder this: Big successes grow from small successes! Invention  innovation  small success  moderate success  big success

  14. In summary… • Funding is Kryptonite, don’t rely on it! • Replace ‘success’ with ‘successes’ • Apply your inventive mind to innovation • ‘Cheap’ and ‘good’ are not opposites! • The biggest real challenge is selling • Ask yourself: how can I start small?

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