So you have a great new technology...

The first question we need to ask is "Who is going to pay for what you have?". This is not who you think needs it or who you think will use it. We mean professionals who have stated, preferably in writing, that they would pay real money for it. This is the crux of converting a great technology, solution, idea or whatever, into a commercial proposition.

The reality of commercialisation is that it is not actually about great ideas. Commercialisation is about finding an idea that is ‘good enough’ and locking this down and taking it to the market. Commercialisation is about persuading someone somewhere that they should take a big gamble and change their product or business – these will be your customers.

To answer the first question - we carry out a market qualification. We re-position your ‘idea’ in terms of function and performance and then qualify the opportunity using a combination of our unique ‘direct market feedback‘ mechanism coupled with conventional market research. This investment in a 3rd party market qualification informs your route-to-market strategy and your intellectual property protection strategy (too many people rush to protect their intellectual property without understanding the market opportunity – the resultant patent position is then too weak to secure any licence value and too weak to attract investment).

Being 3rd party and independent the market qualification also gives a valuable confidence boost to prospective investors because it demonstrates real customer interest and demand as opposed to the typical message "our technology is really good and will be really useful and everyone will want it" which doesn’t help the investors.

The second question is "Are you the best person to make decisions on: route-to-market strategies; pricing; production; suppliers; customer relationships; contract negotiations; business models; management accounts...?" In most cases it is best for inventors/technologists/academics to stick with being responsible for the ‘idea‘ and let someone experienced and skilled in the ‘commercial game‘ to drive the business opportunity forward.

Contact us and we can give you real practical advice and support and help give you a clear way forward, possibly by using our Groundworks service.