Innovation and the Inventor

Here is an interesting dilema. You invent a thing. You are creative, inspired, brilliant or lucky, but you invent something the world needs it does not yet have. Now what? Well here’s the thing. Many times, inventors enjoy the process of inventing. The process of taking the new product to market is, as I stated in a comment reply yesterday, so long, arduous and frusterating that they give up or go broke. What are the possible next steps? I’ve made an incomplete list;

Your Invention, what next?

1. To patent or not to patent?
2. Keep the idea or sell it to someone else and let them take it to market?
3. Create a brand
4. Create a business plan
5. Find backing (capital): your own, f&f’s, angels or venture
6. Spend your first round of seed money
7. Spend your second round
8. Spend your third round
9. Manage your growth
10. Keep it or sell it and move on to the next big invention (see #2)

I invite all inventors to comment on their experiences. Revamping and revising this list would be the goal. I know what the textbooks say. I know what the probabilities are (of success and failure). But, what has been your experience?

I used to think that “take it all the way to the market” would be the only satisfying option. But now, I wonder if “selling it for the most you can and let someone else do all that work” might not be a better way.

I sometimes think that inventors are much like artists. An artist might be a brilliant painter, yet horrible at selling his/her own work. Of course, most of us, would like to be good at everything. So we strive to beat the odds and do it all. I still believe in that. The striving to beat the odds thing. It’s what keeps us inspired.