World Changing, Billion Dollar Azure Sphere Invention - Now What?

That is an interesting story.  It shows the complexity behind having everything click together successfully. 

-Sean

I'd definitely agree that the idea - whilst it might seem valuable - is unfortunately only a small part of the puzzle. I speak from experience. Believe it or not, the idea for social networking and the first site to implement it was down to myself and some friends back in 1999. We had a site up and running and grew to hundreds of thousands of members very quickly. The UK press and VCs were very slow to understand this new idea and US-based VCs and advertisers we only interested in physically US-based companies. We watched as Friendster, then My Space and then Facebook took over. (We were the long-gone everyonesconnected.com.)

Anyway, my story is beside the point. If you really think it's a valuable idea and it something patentable (apparently ours wasn't) then maybe spend some money on a patent before sharing it. You may still find that despite the fact that we techies do the important and tricky stuff, a lot of success is unfortunately down to marketing, finance and all that nonsense. Good luck with your idea anyway!

I found the challenge of "getting them to search for it when they don't know they'd want it" with video game development.

I spent 3 years developing an indy game that is published on Steam - the leading digital provider for video games.  The game is targeted to 14 and under and the quality of the game meets and exceeds some that sold millions of copies. 

After over a year, I've gotten just 48 purchases on Steam.  :-)  Steam won't even send you a check until you at least clear $100 in profit and it cost me $100 to publish through them.  So, I lost on this deal.  (Learned a heck of a lot, though, and it kept me out of bars.)

I found that without a major marketing investment to create a buzz, games are just a needle in a haystack with the other million games on Steam.  But, I don't want to do such an investment to find that it flops anyway.

So, my only solution is - if you want to make video games, apply at Electronic Arts and be a good employee.

-Sean

Hi Doug,

This is a accurate description of the situation and pitfalls of trying to take a product to market. I have with my products had only one success, 3 break evens and many failures. Each time I have opted for picking a potential manufacturer / marketer and approaching them without Patent or NDA. I am upfront about an almost unreasonably small royalty payment so as to encourage the marketer to make the investment.  Most companies don't even want to know what your idea is. They are afraid that they already have the idea in their development dept and listening to you will give you some claim to an idea that they already consider proprietary. If one proceeds with the idea of not taking a chance and protecting the idea from theft you are most likely to end up with a very expensive failure sitting on your shelf, even if the product would have saved the world. The Marketers control access to the market though sites like ebay do allow one some opportunity to test market things. The only catch there is that the buyer has to know that he has need of your product so that he can bring it up in a search. There is no easy way to put the product in front of a general audience that may have need of it but not know it.

John

Check youtube ycombinator videos, they are great and are about lots of issues entrepeneurs  face during development of startups. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg

Very good perspectives.  These points bring peace. 

Not acting on an idea comes with a feeling of regret.  I remember a movie quote from the early 80's - you don't regret the things you did - you regret the things you didn't do.  In this case, regret for not at least trying.  But, the reality of it, as you say, is that most inventions or innovative products are not born to market by the inventor today.

Ideas I get mostly would come to market through a company like Whirlpool.  Most likely, they probably have the same ideas already prioritized and sorted.  It's either the slow wheels of a Fortune 500 company making the idea lag behind a few years or their marketing research doesn't support that its the right time to introduce it, yet.

Someone at work put the thought in my head that project competitions, particularly the lucrative ones such as at Hackster, are a way for big companies to extract innovative ideas for free.  That thought, too, brought that "I'm a chump" feeling.  Your points bring peace to that thought as well.  If anything, entering a good idea in a contest is a great way to publish one's creativity, get a little reward for the effort, and put a timestamp on when you introduced it.  If anything, they add up to a body of work that is fun to reflect on in later years regardless if the ideas turned into products independently.

See ya',

Sean

Doug has given a good summary - I'll add a couple of points of my own.

Good ideas are 2 a penny - but it takes real time and effort (and/or money) to take a good idea and turn it into a business.

I've made a good living over the last 45 years out of electronics, I have zillions of ideas -  I don't value them and I don't bet on them, I charge for my time and don't take risk - it hasn't made me rich but it hasn't made me bankrupt or given me ulcers either !

So first you need to work out what you want:

to be happy ?

to be rich ?

to do good ?

to devote you life to getting rich ?

etc

and then what you are prepared to do and to risk to get there.

MK

This is a complex question.

It is very rare for a great idea to make the originator rich, but it happens just enough that everyone expects to be able to duplicate the success stories.

There are some ways to do it, which may not be attractive, but first some reality.

1. In almost all cases where great ideas lead to products that generate large revenues, the entity that receives most of the revenues is the one that invested the money needed to turn the idea into a product and distribute the product to the market. The idea itself is worth something, but it is often just the wages that one would earn for the time spent if they were paid to come up with new ideas. This is not the only scenario, but in this common scenario the only way to make lots of money is to come up with many great ideas.
2. Another issue is that of all the great products that would make good profits under the right circumstances, very few actually end up to be profitable. This also implies that in order to ensure a very profitable product it is necessary to launch many good products - because maybe only one in a hundred goes ballistic. Predicting which one will go ballistic is pretty much impossible without actually launching all the products.
3. A third issue is that even with a great idea, it is very, very difficult to convince anyone to invest in taking it to market. (because people with money know about point number 2 - there is high risk no matter how great the idea is) One of the unattractive methods I alluded to above is that entrepreneurs must convince investors that the product is a sure-fire winner in order to obtain funding, but of course this is almost never the case.
4. A fourth issue is that it is expensive to develop and launch a product in a way that it stands a chance of making lots of money. Even just getting a product certified for sale (like a CE Mark or FCC certification) can cost more that the technical development.

Alternatives:

1. One alternative is to invest everything you have including all your time and all you can borrow in the slim hope it is enough to produce a good product and introduce it to an effective sales channel. This has the most potential to make you rich, but it has the most personal risk and the actual chances of success on the first try are minuscule.
2. A second alternative is to find investors who believe in the product and are willing to take the risk. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to find investors that you can live with. They are going to want a return on their investment, usually a guarantee against some collateral, or they will want control of the company (51% ownership) etc.
3. A third method is to sell the idea. This is still a lot of work, especially if you want a lot of money, and you will need legal NDA's etc so you can disclose the idea without it getting ripped off. Many potential sources will be reluctant to sign an NDA with an unproven company or individual.
4. A fourth method it to sell the idea and receive royalties on sales. Same problems.
5. A fifth method is to find an angel investor. If they don't find you, you will need a sales pitch that is even better than your great idea just to get an audience. If they find you, you need to be extremely careful not to get your idea taken without compensation. Either way this is super rare.

There are other methods to launch great products, but they generally are characterized by requiring a a huge amount of both technical and non-technical effort and lots of money or unattractive scamming techniques.

Don't let any of this discourage you, great products find their way to market every day. Just be prepared to make an effort and go through a steep (and often painful) learning curve along the way.