Entrepreneurness

Things are finally becoming clearer, a little more into focus each day. I'll give some information that I've learned this week that is very important if you end up doing any of this stuff. Patents and Trademarks Patents are a way to obtain an offensive (and expensive) stance on a utility, design, or plant invention that you may have. There are other ways to protect an invention... like a trade secret, but if your end product is meant to end up in the hands of consumers, it can most likely be reverse engineered. For example, if you are inventing a new bike, and do not file a patent within one year of your first sale or introduction to the public, anyone can create the same bike by "reverse engineering" to figure out how its made, and then sell it. The Coke formulation is a trade secret, but has worked this way because of the large amount of ingredients used and specified process to produce. However, if Coke had filed a patent for their formulation, their recipe an...

Do you have the "So, I have an Idea, now what?" syndrome? I've heard this a lot, and all I can respond is there is no easy answer for that. I bet then you've also heard the saying that an idea is a dime a dozen. I know some people consider it "easy" to come up with an idea, though I think it's less trivial to come up with a good idea. In my world a good idea is not just one thought, it is a stream of consciousness built from a problem, followed by a logical solution that is well supported against all sides of argument. Unfortunately, most of us are not Major Nelson with Jeannie besides us to blink us a finished product. In order for our dreams and ideas to become a reality, it does take time. There are many carefully set up ploys that will quickly get other companies rich. I don't know of a single company that is out there to get you rich. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. From what I've heard, the resources advertised on TV like ...

Being an entrepreneur is definitely not a job of quick rewards. If you are thinking of starting a company, or being your boss, and expect things to happen at a snap of a finger, you'll be disappointed. But, if you are willing to be persistent, stubborn, and combine some naiveness with passion, you may just have a shot. I've been at this thing seriously for 7 months now. In that time I've taken classes, networked, gotten familiar with the area and what it has to offer, familiarized myself with Stanford, and have taken action with my projects. I feel that I've been setting up my chessboard. I'm getting all my pieces set up so when I really start playing I'll be prepared for any obstacles my opponent throws my way. I've researched and inquired about everything from the patenting process to funding, technical development to marketing. It's less costly and timely to learn from other people's mistakes then making my own. As a result of doing a large...

On February 26th 2009 and October 10 2008, I blogged about the bits of fate that brought me out to California that involved IDEO and Tom Kelley's book, " The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm ". Then I mentioned how I found out about Tom Kelley speaking, and had the opportunity to meet him. And how I ran into David Kelley, and had the opportunity to meet him. Yesterday I had lunch with an IDEO employee whom I met through a mutual friend. I met her in Palo Alto and we decided to eat at a local Thai restaurant. The host shows us to our seats, a very small two person booth, right next to one other small two person booth, that is nicely tucked away in a corner of the restaurant. After 10 minutes of sitting down and talking about IDEO and what had brought me out to California...the host seats two people in the booth right next to us. I moved my backpack for the person who would be sharing a bench with me. To my... di...