Are You An Entrepreneur? I'm Forming a Support Group Just for You!

Hi Randall,

I am currently doing some work with a budding entrepreneur looking to use drones to assess agriculture and other tasks.

They are still in the evolution stage, but I am providing technical and management support as needed to help boost them along.

They might actually be able to form a business eventually, but time will tell.

DAB

I wouldn't describe myself as an entrepreneur now, but definitely in the past. I'd certainly be interested in listening in on the group. I'd love to quit my job and start something with a mix of hardware and software, but there's nothing coming to mind right now though.

I having been doing some leg work in this direction for the last 3 years. But something concrete is yet to come out of it.

Sounds like a superb idea.

Cheers

DAB

Fred27

snidhi

Thanks for responding to my discussion.

What I found really interesting in the brief stories you all told is that one-size-does-not-fit-all for anyone interested in doing something entrepreneurial.

Don appears to be the furthest along. He is working with someone or for someone. He has a target industry: agriculture. They have a target product: drone. I'm not sure if he is going to be providing a drone service for agriculture or building a drone solution to sell to agriculture. Important difference and the financials could be quite different. I've seen some videos or read some stories of drones used in agriculture so my question is what would make this product/service unique? And what about need? How needed is the service in real and concrete terms? How big can this business be? It sounds regional. but I don't know.

David has some business development experience. A big plus. But he's working now and looking for something (a mix of hardware and software) to pursue. That's a pretty broad range of things. So it appears to me  where he stands is a pretty common place for a lot of entrepreneurs: an issue of focusing. Writing up a business plan is one way to get focusing, albeit often a painful one! Attending a few hardware/software conferences in his area might be a good way to see what people are now doing and a chance to talk to people. I have found that a lot of businesses organically grow out of what the individual is currently doing. In other words: all business is local. That's where it begins and then it expands out under the right conditions.

S Nidhi has done some "leg work" for 3 years but nothing has materialized yet. What have you discovered from this leg work? Is there anything that sounds more realistic than other ideas? It's been my observation that people are always looking for that "disruptive product" or "killer app" that will totally change the world. But these things are rare. A good example to me is home automation: it clearly could be described as disruptive. It can change all kinds of businesses: OEMs, building contractors, architects; it is growing but it hasn't taken off so boldly that everyone is dying to have smart homes. So what is practical or realistic? Then build on that.

my few cents,

Randall

Hi Randall

I have started and had several small businesses related to electro mechanical technologies over my lifetime. I am currently officially retired though I still spend many hours each day experimenting and dabbling with different aspects of electronics. I have always been market orientated but I haven't always been successful. Success has a lot to do with finding the right niche at the right time and this is often a combination of luck and inspiration. I think your idea for this group could be useful and interesting. It would be great to have element 14 showing some interest in the entrepreneurial ideas of the members. If you set it up I will follow it.

John

I'm currently developing the firmware for a fleet control system with some entrepeneurs. I think creating a new group is a good idea!

Hi Randall,

I would describe myself as entrepreneurial but not necessarily an entrepreneur these days - although never give up on finding the next big thing ;-).  In the past I have participated in several large start-ups and would follow a new group avidly.

Hi Randall,

This is an interesting proposal, but I can see that you will have data sharing issues if the group deals with specific information.  Not sure if it is within scope to have NDAs and a private group not visible to the rest of the community.  I'm currently helping a friend who is developing a server/client application for Windows and iOS (so all software).   The technical stuff is well developed, but the business part is not.  I guess this is typical of an engineering driven startup. 

Ralph

Sounds like an interesting group, and just the sort of networking help a startup needs.

While I agree with ralphjy about sharing the IP part, there are many other things that a startup needs to learn.

Marketing, Pricing, protecting their IP, supplier chains, design for manufacture, packaging, warranty, lead time, customer support, quality control, repair strategy .... etc.

Some of these may break a startup right after they think they're doing well.

So the ability to reachout or network and gain information might be one of the benefits where the NDA is not required, it can make a world of difference.

I recall some very useful advice we got way back when two of us were working for ourselves doing repairs.

1. Never ring the customer the moment you fixed it, as that may establish the time it took for a repair ... in some cases the charge was more than a couple of hours work.

2. Always include a small misc charge to cover incidental materials, cleaning products, etc ... we were doing a few pcb repairs, so it was necessary.

Just these two items helped with the number of small jobs we were doing that weren't really paying the bills.

Mark

Hi

Please count me in as well.

I am interested