

Ask HN: Theoretical innovation to actual company? - gsastry

Hi HN,<p>For stuff more general than the usual web startup flow chart (i.e. come up with an idea and implement!), what is the process to from theoretical innovation to actual product? A friend has come up with a theoretical innovation that arose out of his PhD thesis that has potential for several software projects of varying scope. He believes that he can write an application that utilizes this innovation in ~6months to a year.<p>What is the next step? Is there a series of steps we should go thru? Like draw up a business plan, identify user base, etc? What kind of stuff should we be thinking about?
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skmurphy
Talk to prospective customers, see what they would pay for which capabilities
before you write any code. The risk is not whether you can write the
application, but whether you write an application folks want to use and pay
for.

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ScottWhigham
I'm not so sure about this one. You can't always talk to prospective customers
because they may or may not see the application of the technology until it
hits them in the face. Sometimes talking to prospective customers is the right
thing to do and other times you're better off building the prototype/demo and
seeing what impact it has.

I don't know - maybe the OP should ask prospective customers... I don't know
enough about the idea to guesstimate whether this is a good strategy or not.

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ScottWhigham
Are you a geek too or are you the business person?

Advice #1: Be wary of what you read on these boards. A lot of folks will tell
you that you need to do "x". Well, what they aren't telling is that they think
"x" will work for you but what do they really know about your idea? Zilch. "x"
might have worked for them or for a friend and now they pass it along to you.
They are trying to be helpful yet that doesn't mean they are helpful. Be wary.

Advice #2 - Decide whether you and your friend actually want to be the
implementers or you want to sell the idea for someone else to implement.

Advice #3 - Consider talking to a patent attorney if it is an interesting
enough model.

Finally, the process to go from idea to product varies too widely for me to
offer specific advice. If your friend can code it in 6-12 months, here's what
you have to consider:

* If it can be coded in such a short period of time, how quickly can it be copied?

* If he can code it by himself in 6-12 months, how realistic are his timelines? It's often that I find my project estimates to be wildly optimistic...

* If he can code it by himself in 6-12 months, how much faster could he do it with a team of four other people who are very talented working alongside him 60 hours a week?

* Assuming that a team of 5 can code it inside of 90 days, is there an opportunity cost lost by waiting the extra 90 days (for your friend to code it alone)?

* How long will it take to raise financing (to fund the 5 person team)?

etc

Good luck!

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run4yourlives
Do.

Stop talking and theorizing and just do.

