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Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Way To Approach Big Companies With Your Product?
New submitter ily2013 writes: My family have invented a product that will prevent electrical related fires for homes and businesses. A patent has been filed and approved worldwide, which includes the United States. Now I would like to take this product, and ask Apple/Microsoft/Big vendors to see if they would be willing to integrate our product into their existing and future products, because we believe the product will truly change the way safety of electric/electrical devices are viewed. What is the best way to approach this? Should I start by cold-calling Apple/Microsoft/Big vendors? or send them a mail/email?
... it'll help...
and one of us will send it up the chain if it looks useful
Sig: I stole this sig.
then wait for them to come to you.
If you're cheap, start by posting about it to an online forum.
Oh, wait...
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
You wait N years for them to independently come up with your same invention, achieve market penetration, and sustain profitability. Then you sue them for $700 trillion.
As the topic says: first get a lawyer.
Suppose some company does take an interest, they'll want to craft a contract that could potentially screw you.
If they decide to simply buy you out, you'll need one there too.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
They'll take care of the rest.
I think you are on the wrong page. Try here: http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-...
You'll almost certainly end up screwed. Instead, build a company around your product and work on making it successful. Since big companies are always on the lookout for the NEXT BIG THING, they'll eventually come to you. That's the time to sellout.
Dude. We get it. You personally don't like Google. That is all well and good, but this isn't the place and time to drive the point home (We call that off topic here on Slashdot, as you know based on your SlashID Number.) Off you go now ...
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Make competing products using your patent. When you overtake Apple and Microsoft in marketshare, they'll investigate why this is happening. When they realize that they're uncompetitive because of all the electrical-fire-related expenses that they have and that you don't, they'll have no choice but to license your patent.
Get on Sharktank, and what ever it is don't be an idiot, as long as you get to keep at least 51% take the deal.
Please tell me you've invented the fuse. Or the circuit breaker! (I'd make a quip about an AFCI, but how many would get it?)
Might be time for you and your family to adjust your medications.
Just some observational evidence, but big companies do not seem to buy ideas or technologies. . . they do seem to buy customers, though. Of course, you probably are wanting to sell the idea so that you do not have to worry about the annoying customer part of product development. . . Interested to see what stories of such an elusive thing will pop up here. . .
However, if I were you, I would just go ahead and hit up kickstarter at this point. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
If not, forget it. Your solution won't work. If you want to know why it won't work, hire an electrical engineer to explain.
You partner up with a patent troll. Then you covertly start to spread careful crafted hints about the working of your invention at places where the engineers of your mark gather.
They will invent it again themselves and hopefully implement it without to carefully checking existing patents.
Then you sue.
Don't try to bat with the big boys. They will either slaughter you in negotiations or laugh you out of the room. If your idea is truly a good one and you are too busy or too lazy to execute it yourself, why should they gamble their time and money on your idea?
If your product is unproven and is just a patent, you have brought them nothing and that's about what you should expect to be offered for your technology. That's the unfortunate truth. Your best bet is to find a small- to medium-sized electronics company, get them sold on why your idea is so great, and try to set up a licensing deal if they don't offer to buy the technology outright. If your product is good and/or you are lucky maybe it will hit the big leagues.
Like a typical start-up nowadays: start a company, get your name out, wait for the take-over offers to come in.
And stop writing introductions like the above if you want some real interest. Like that it'll end up with the rest of the "I'm interested in your product, please open the attachment" scams I get every day.
A patent has been filed and approved worldwide, which includes the United States
Post a link to the patent application or design docs since it is already protected under the patent approval process and I'll tell you why it's a really fucking dumb idea.
No one wants your shitty LUDDITE product. If you app it into an app, modern app appers will app it with other apps!
Apps!
Hire somebody who knows what they're doing. Have him do this part. Pay him a reasonable flat fee, hourly rate, salary or give him a reasonable share of your profits or sell your IP to him for a fair price.
Inventing X and selling X are very different activities. Books are written about rare people who do both. Unless you want people to tell your story to their kids, just farm out this part, kick back and enjoy knowing you made the world a better place and got to retire early.
Engineers tend to find devices to include in their designs via salesmen and distributors. If you have a product, partner up with a sales rep who sells things similar to your product. If he's any good he knows who to approach to get new ideas through, and can get you visibility.
The odds of you approaching a company like that any other way are not easy. You can call the front desk but you'll never find the right people. You want to find system and hardware engineers I imagine. But be prepared for a tough sell, these guys (and i know from personal experience) have tight deadlines and very directed tasks and aren't appreciative of disruption, particularly if you have product and it's not the right form factor or your supply chain isn't sorted out. A good sales rep knows how to make this happen and get their attention.
1. Hire someone who knows this kind of stuff.
2. Listen to them.
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!
Find a trade show that you can afford and put together a display and show your product. Then find an investor with lots of money to foot the legal bills when the large companies steal your idea and call it their own. Better yet shop it around to some venture capital firms and see if they are interested. If they are not you probably know all you need to know about the prospects of your invention.
Sometimes having the best product in the world is not enough. You need to learn to sell or get someone who know how to do this. Give this a read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse...
Are you sure the big companies are even appropriate? Maybe working with a more specific company somewhere in the supply chain will get you better results.
First off, there is no such thing as an international patent. You file a patent in one country, and then can file for a PCT which - if it's granted in the first country - means other PCT signatories will agree to "respect" the patent. But you really still need to file in those other countries to get true protection (I recommend filing in the US, Germany, Japan, and China - you'll cover the biggest markets in the world, ones counterfeiters will not ignore, and you will cover the source of most counterfeit goods - and China is very protective of their own filed IP).
Next, roll it yourself. Prove it's capable of actually making money. So you invented something - big deal. Unless you can make money with it, it's worthless. So start your own small business, show that there is a market for it. You don't have to sell tens of millions or make millions in revenue. Just a small stream will show it's commercially viable.
THEN pitch the idea of licensing or buying the company to bigger players. Target contract manufacturers, not direct end-customers. I've had a LOT better success getting factories to license my patents, then they reuse them with their bigger clients. Going straight to the end customer (Microsoft, Apple, Dell, etc) is very hard to do; getting their CM to accept it (the Foxconns, Flextronics, Fosters, and Quantas of the world) would be more receptive.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
You need to do several things, not just the "best" one.
They may include:
- renting a booth and presenting at a trade show
- advertising in trade journals
- establishing an online presence, so people can find you via Google, etc.
- contacting companies that specialize in marketing a product like this to other companies (for a cut)
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
I'm pretty sure the Amish already solved the electrical related fires problem.
There are a couple of methods of marketing your product. But the method which requires the least amount of up front capital is to pick up the phone and speak to the people who would have the power to decide whether to buy your product or not. This is the most difficult method but it is also the method most likely to work for you. And by difficult I don't mean technically hard, it will be emotionally hard as you will be told no over and over and over and over and over again.
Step 1 is to identify who would be the person that makes the decision about your product. Don't aim for purchasing or procurement aim for the relevant engineering manager or higher. Again general rule of thumb is to aim as high as you can get in contact with. It is easy to be referred down, almost impossible to be referred up. Before you pick up the phone you want to have identified at least, absolute minimum, 100 targets. Linkedin will be your friend here.
Step 2. Practice you sales pitch with your friends and family. Over and over and over again. Make it short, make it relevant, and have in mind your clear goal. Get your friends and family to play the biggest bastards they can. That way the actual calls will be easy. Keep in mind you will NOT make a sale on the first call to someone.
Step 3. Pick up the phone and dial and dial and dial and dial and dial. Get used to being stopped by secretaries, pas and every other possible reason you can think of. Get used to being told to fuck off and die. And then on the 99th call or the 456th call you will get some interest.
As for the people telling you will get screwed by the big guys I beg to differ. I supply services to massive multinationals and am a small operation. Some of them I choose not to work with because they have stupid contracts but the majority deal perfectly well with me. Good luck
First I was interested in something they already had (a mirroring ramdisk software & I'd written one myself, but more importantly, a BLOCK level diskcache (most caches in use today don't operate @ that level, but instead @ a logical filesystem level)).
I looked @ their product & began "tinkering" with some of its setttings - I found I could get BIG boosts out of its performance (like 40++%) by doing so...
So, I approached them DIRECTLY by email with this AND a prototype of a ware I ended up selling to them (sourcecode) - BEFORE THAT THOUGH, I mailed myself a copy of the source & project on diskette (which in a court of law, establishes patent-pending afaik, due to a government seal on the letter - that to this very day, I have not opened (not supposed to unless courts need it afaik)).
In the end:
This ended up with myself paid for it pretty well (for a few hours work only), & them going on to a FINALIST placement @ Microsoft Tech-Ed 2000-2002, 2 yrs. in a ROW, in the hardest category there: SQLServer Performance Enhancement.
APK
P.S.=> I.E.-> I went DIRECT to the "big company" (bigger than I, that's certain, & a certified MS parther) by email & it worked out!
I've also done this with other things over time too (toolkits for various language compilers written in say, VB or C/C++, & ported those codebases to Borland Delphi/Object-Pascal + made a buck or two selling those ported units/headers to them)
I wish you the same luck in your endeavor (I got lucky but IF I can? So can you)... apk
You don't approach big companies, they approach you. Your proper position is standing, bent over grabbing your ankles with your pants in the down position.
Start a business that sells your idea. You can sell schematics, or something. Once you start having decent sales, contacting large companies will be easier. If you make enough, you won't have to contact them, they will contact you.
The reality is Apple and Microsoft are not likely to be interested in paying you if it doesn't increase their own profits. And lets be honest, the way most people view electrical-related fires is "not at all." You're not going to revolutionize it. So in your case, you may have a business plan to lobby the California government to pass a law that all devices include your safety feature.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Your options are either to either sign-up with a patent troll and sell the patent (if you are a jerk and just looking for cash) or to partner-up with some "angel investors" or kickstart etc to actually create a business. You'll need to secure enough funds to not only try to make and sell the product but also to be able to mount the inevitable patent suits if your product succeeds and the big boys start copying you or the Chinese start cloning your stuff and shipping it into the country.
Why not go to the big companies?
I've personally seen this experiment run a number of times (NOT on any invention of mine, this is not a bitter tale of personal woe). First, many big companies keep an eye on patents as they get approved, and you can bet that if they are interested in your stuff they will either contact you or they will have already had their people look through your patent to see if they can do the same thing by a method you failed to claim in your patent. I've seen this play-out. They see a patent for something and want to do it, their internal team comes close to an equivalent but has some "issues" on their version, so they invite in the patent holder and have nice chats with him to "negotiate" and end-up milking him for more info, then break-off the negotiations either directly or by proposing something unreasonable that makes the pesky inventor withdraw. The odds are that any contact with the big boys will actually just be them probing you for free info that will help them on their version. If the big companies REALLY like what you have, they'll sometimes just wait for the patent to expire. I worked on some of the early collision avoidance stuff for cars back in the early 80s. The big auto companies were all interested, but not about to actually PAY for it. Now that the related patents are expired, a bunch of the companies that were approached are putting these systems into their cars, and the guys I worked with got NOTHING for all their work and money and time.
Why would two software companies be interested in a building wiring issue in the first place?
Hit them in the head with it.
It is simply impossible. Big companies are just not interested in independent inventors; they want absolutely nothing to do with you and will most likely show you the door. Now that you have your patent which include full disclosure, you can expect them to infringe it. When they do infringe your patent, they are daring you to sue them. When you do sue them they will tie you up in court for decades because they have better lawyers and they pay them more than they will ever pay you to buy your invention. Your only rational choice is to start your own company to build a few and sell a few. There is no other way for you to go. Done, period, full stop.
Most large companies have an "unsolicited ideas" policy, where essentially if you approach them and pitch your world changing widget, they reserve the right to take the idea and do what why wish with it.
Generally they don't ACTUALLY do this, but they publish that as their policy, to deter the armies of nutbags who waste their time with crazy or bullshit ideas.
If they think your idea is viable or interesting, they will approach you with an NDA.
However, ideas are cheap, execution is everything. Building something that actually works and is viable in the market is far more valuable than the original idea, as so many ideas the sound great in pitches are pretty crap in practice, and the big players aren't interested in digging deep through the pile of shit for the occasional diamond that was crapped out.
Ideas are maybe 10% of a product
"our product won't set your house on fire" is not a selling point anyone will be interested in. As long as they conform to appropriate CE/UL/Whatever regulatory specs that is all they need to do - why should they buy your idea?
Fires from products made by big manufacturers aren't exactly common - the main risk is from fakes and Chinese crap that doesn't meet existing standards.
. For any major safety innovation to succeed, it would need to be written into product standards, a process that takes many, many years. And if it's patented that greatly reduces the likelihood of it being incorporated into a mandatory standard.
My advice would be to give up now and don't waste any more money and effort on patenting something nobody will buy
We are in the 3D printer gig economy private space post-scarcity future, folks. Don't deal with Luddite companies, do it yourself!
Fires from the products you mentioned are pretty rare compared to say space heaters, stoves, toaster ovens etc.
And thus find out there is no such thing as a worldwide patent.
I worked for a "very large computer company" (retired). I interviewed and hired many engineers.
I know of zero situations where we bought a design from an individual and developed the product. We bought companies but not individual patents from a person.
You may want to try Kickstarter or something similar. Or, attend a trade show and demonstrate the product and attempt to get a venture capital firm interested in the product.
Unless you get that thin ready made, with all certifications, descriptions, and cheap, distributed by standard suppliers, your product will remain a niche.
(Hint here: It competes with fuses, NTC current limiters and safe regulators)
Don't worry, if they really like the idea they'll steal it and then sue you for infringing on their vaporware product.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I think HP has a process you can follow, but that may only be for chopsticks with in-built soy sauce dispensers.
Nullius in verba
You invented the fuse! Good for you!
1. Invent idea... done
2. Get worldwide patent... done
3. Change your hosts file... invoke apk now
See subject: Just factual from my end - you ever do the same or better in the art & science of computing than what I wrote?
APK
P.S.=> Somehow I am betting a BIG "NO" from you, as I've never seen anything by bigfinger76... lol!
... apk
Insurers are in fact a major, major source of funding for safety initiatives of various kinds, because reducing -their- customers' claims reduces their costs. You may have noticed your home insurance company sends you stuff about fire safety and burglary prevention on a regular basis. This month, they probably sent you something about Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and fires. If you haven't seen this because you don't yet have your own home and car, perhaps go upstairs and ask your mom if they insurance bill is around somewhere. In the envelope you'll see safety tips.
You've probably heard of Underwriters Laboratories, the #1 organization in the US for ensuring products meet safety standards. "Underwriters" in the name means insurance underwriters.
So how does this all work with profits? Suppose in 2014 you bill $350 million in premiums, spend $270 million paying claims, $40 million on marketing, $10 million on customer service and overhead. You end up with a net profit of $30 million. With me so far?
Now suppose your customer outreach, telling YOUR CUSTOMERS how to be safer, reduces their claims by 5%. A 10% reduction in claims is $13.5 million. You've just increased your profit from $30 million to $43.5 million. So a modest 5% reduction in claims from your customers increased your profit by 45%.
Companies generally like to increase their profit by 45%, so that's why insurance companies are in fact a primary driver of safety in the US.
This question sure got a ton of really crappy answers. The fact is big companies buy stuff from and cut deals with little guys all day long. I got a good tip for a basic script from a guy who makes those calls for a living, and cuts deals worth millions of dollars all the time. Right now I don't particularly feel like posting it here, though.
If you want to let me know how to get in touch with you I'll tell you what the pro told me. I had posted my GPG key so you can encrypt your contact info if you chose to, but Slashdot won't let me post such a long string.
Preferably a PE in EE. Even if you have the start of an idea, anything dealing with safety and electricity will need to go through UL and or CSA. The specifications for anything that touches hazardous voltages is not easy to digest and apply if you don't have experience with it. Without approval, your device will sit.. Also, patents for actual electronics are HARD to enforce. They nature of circuitry is not obvious by just looking at it. You have to spend a lot of investigation just to know if somebody has done something your patent covers.
Five steps will do you.
(1) Get a patent
(2) Find an adorable blond little girl or baby who was horribly burned and scarred (living is required, as that means they can appear on camera a lot), preferrably on one side, so you can pan around from the "isn't she cute" to the "OMG!" side at any photo op, on 20/20, on 60 Minutes, and so on
(3) Get the parents to sue the shit out of the company that made whatever product was the culprit in the fire for not including your safety device (doesn't matter if it wasn't invented at the time)
(4) Get it written into the regulations that your device is required
(5) Profit!
If you want the justice system to protect you for nothing, get arrested for a crime and show you're broke. Absent that, laws and courts are for those who can afford to pay for them.
After the matter is closed, contact your old high school teachers and tell them how good a job they did in preparing you for life.
BTW here are two more reasons. First, 48% of property and auto insurance in the US is provided by coops, called mutual insurance companies. These include Nationwide, Mutual Of Omaha, State Farm, etc., and of course the 100 or so other insurance companies with "mutual" in the name.
Mutual insurance companies don't make a profit. Any excess money is refunded to customers, who are the owners. So for half the insurance companies, keeping the customers safe is keeping the owners safe, and saving the customer money is saving the owners money, because the customers -are- the owners.
Another major thing is that a large building costs between $10 million and $3 billion to build. One building can be worth a significant portion of everything the insurance company has. Insurance companies, like other business, don't like to go bankrupt, so a major fire or collapse is a BIG deal to them. One or two major events can absolutely put them out of business.
See answers here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
and here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
...smaller companies. Seriously. People talk. Especially the tech wonks who deal with this stuff. Make a good product, give your customers what they want, under-promise and over-deliver. Do all that, and if your product is really revolutionary and a good value, the big companies will come calling.
Don't.
The big guys are happy with things just rolling along most of the time. It's the small guys that want a game changer so that they can get somewhere. After they have built it up to the point where it is selling the big guys may condescend to notice.
A fairly old example but a product that you are probably using.
After Netscape's web browser got popular Microsoft decided they wanted one too.
They bought what became Internet Explorer from a company called Spyglass. As part of the deal they offered a fairly high percentage of sales royalties and Spyglass jumped at the deal despite it being not a great deal of money up front.
Microsoft gave it away for free so the royalties were zero.
"prevent" is a very strong statement. How has this been tested?
"A patent has been filed and approved worldwide"
There is no such thing. Your patent gets approved in the country you file in, then under the WPO, you can have it validated in every WIPO country. You pay for validation in each country of course.
I call BS.
An idea by itself is almost worthless, unless you can turn it into a business. THEN try to sell it to a big company if you still want to.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/am...
Woops, looks like this has already been invented. http://edison.rutgers.edu/pate...
If a patent has been grant then show it to us. It is protected at that point and patents are publicly available so inquiring minds want to know...link or it didn't happen.
You either need to find an entrepreneur or be an entrepreneur. Seriously, the hard work is just getting started. You may have a technology, but you don't have a product, a market, a business model, or a customer. So start learning about how you build companies. There are plenty of online classes or books at the library. And forget about starting with big companies just because they are big, you need to find the companies that are hurting the most from the problem you are solving - electrical fires.
You will get the key for unlocking your data only if you buy my product!
Dear [name of CEO],
I have developed a small application that will discreetly install itself on computers and encrypt all data in the filesystems. You are currently enjoying the benefits, as you will soon hear from your emlpoyees; please gather $[huge number] in used bank notes and await further instructions.
Yours sincerely ...
... invented a product that will prevent electrical related fires ...
I think you have either:
A very large ego
A very poor understanding of electrical engineering
Poor language skills (and thus haven't described your invention well)
Regardless of which is true, all paths lead to most certain disappointment.
Given the amount of Hoverboards that are spontaneously combusting at the moment have you thought about approaching them? http://news.slashdot.org/story...
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Find a niche application. Smaller companies are easier to deal with. Identify one specific product that would really benefit and focus on that. (Maybe something for Xmas tree lights. A stand-alone RCD type adapter with your invention in it, perhaps.)
Patents are expensive. I have lots. Typical cost to grant is $3-5k per country, with annual renewal fees of maybe $500 per country (after the fifth year). It's often worth forgetting the world and focusing on your home market.
You need to get to market - any market - ASAP to start covering those costs. A big company would likely want to license the IP and leave you with the bills. If you can't afford it, the patents will die. At that point the big company gets your idea for free. Any big company you approach will check you out. Credit reports, personal and business history, any previous inventions, etc. If they think you're not going to be able to succeed alone, they'll be more inclined to wait it out.
Don't overlook product testing requirements. Anything involving electrical safety will need independent testing and certification. This isn't cheap.
Learn as much as you can about the inventions game. Patent law, business and marketing, manufacturing. If you want to become a professional (i.e., earn a living out of it), there's a lot to learn. No one wakes up one morning and becomes a surgeon, airline pilot, lawyer etc. Becoming a professional inventor is no different. From personal experience, you're looking at a few years of hard work and study.
Investors (private and corporate) are primarily looking for credibility. The more you know, the more you've achieved, the better your chances. Get some hard evidence for your chosen market. (How many fires each year related to Xmas tree lights..?)
Create a good story around the idea. Maybe you've had a personal issue with electrical fires. Maybe a young or elderly member of the family suggested the idea. The media like those kind of stories!
Someone has suggested "Shark Tank". Don't dismiss the opportunity. With a good story and well thought out business plan you can stand your ground. Even without getting investment you can still obtain some good publicity. I've been there - it puts you on the map. (For the record, yes I got investment.) A lot of people watch these shows, and even if you don't get a deal, there's a chance someone will see an opportunity the "Money Tigers" didn't. It's quite common for people to be approached by investors after the show.
On a related note, there are lots of business competitions out there following the same "pitch to investors" model. Local ones are a good bet. You'd be amazed how few people actually apply for these, so your chances of picking up an award (and possibly assistance) are actually quite good.
Finally, don't get over emotional about the idea. You often hear about someone's "baby", their "pet project", their "brainchild". Businesses exist to make money, not spend it. If the idea is going nowhere and becoming a burden - kill it off. I've seen people get into serious financial difficulty chasing their dream. Remember that winners are those who make the least mistakes.
I wish you well with your venture. It's not going to be easy, but it is possible. Whatever happens, learn from it. You will have other ideas that will then benefit from the experience.
A product that stops electrical fires, you say? Well if you want big companies to buy it, then all you have to do is "think of the children." Get politicians at the local or national level to pass laws and regulations that require electrical products to have your kind of product. And then, gasp, look at what is in the market - your product.
Crony capitalism at its best. It's amoral and filthy, but it works.
Love sees no species.
If you already have a patent then there is no reason for you to not describe it to us in detail.
Doesn't always work like that...
If you have a retail product, the retailers (and their distributors) won't touch anything with any legal implications. A cease-and-desist from your lawyer will clear the shelves pretty quick. There's plenty of other products they could be stocking, so they won't risk any bad PR with yours. (It would have to be an extremely lucrative product to take the risk.)
The real problem is that they won't stock your genuine version of the product either until the legalities are sorted.
I've been through it.
And their lawyers aren't necessarily any better than yours. In patents court, a lot depends on the inventor's testimony. It's not always about proof, in many cases its down to convincing the judge.
The search report will be published 18 months after the application.
Your patent attorneys will then know about any possible infringement, and they have a legal duty to inform their client. If you continue selling after that date it's pretty easy to prove either willful infringement or negligence.
Possibly makes sense not to perform a search if it's a short lifespan product, but you're risking a lot of R&D investment just to avoid willful infringement. You'd still be liable for standard infringement regardless.
Won't matter. Infringement is still infringement.
You might avoid additional damages for willful infringement, but you can't just plead "I didn't know" and get away with it.
Step 1: Hire a lawyer.
Step 2: Hire a product development company Here is one I'm sure there are many.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit.
I have tried what you are attempting. Same thing will likely happen. You will run into the attitude that if the idea has any merit they would have thought of it. At least you have a patent.
Your best bet, partner with a good lawyer ( otherwise you won't be able to afford the subsequent legal costs ). Send proposals to lots of companies. If you idea is really useful and can be made profitable then sooner or later someone will put it into a product, forgetting where the idea came from. File your lawsuit(s) and set back and get rich.
I have people come to me with idea for products many times in the last 20 years. They are always concerned someone is going to "steal" their idea. I tell the all the same thing, if your idea is any good you won't have to worry about them stealing it, you will have to ram it down their throats.
Even more directly, do you know who writes the National Electric Code that is generally adopted in toto by every state and local government? The NFPA - a group founded by insurance companies to get fire suppression sprinklers included in buildings to prevent fire deaths and property loss. They have over 300 standards now that are generally accepted as one of the gold standards in safety.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Having sold technology to big organizations (and not so big) for 35 years here are a few suggestions. First off make sure you have endorsements from as many recognizable entities as you can get: UL certification, fire departments, electrical engineers and such, you can't have too many. Next get your device installed in something, anything to prove its' viability - any reference is better than none. And this will most likely be at least partially on your dime. Selling to big organizations is the same as selling to government; you're dealing with a bureaucracy - very rarely is there a quick sale. You will need to get as high up the totem pole as you can from the get go, else you'll be mired in an endless cycle of having to sell to people who can't make the decision to purchase. You must sell from the top down, and you must make them want it - you're presentation will have to include (in your case) demonstrable catastrophic failure of their product from a viable real life circumstance and evidence of mitigation when your device is in play (a video would suffice). Sounds daunting doesn't it? It is. Your best bet is to partner with an organization that already has a relationship with the target organization, they know their way around the politics inside, and believe me that is paramount. I wish you the best of luck. There is nothing more important to our economy than entrepreneurship.
As you've discovered, ditching class actually was a bad idea, and those California policies do make things expensive. Whem I was in my 30s I went back to school at WGU. Earlier this year I had to decide if I wanted to own two homes or just one. I decided to sell the old one rather than renting it out. It also helped that I quit spending my time getting stoned.
See subject: You've run DRY of 'em as they've stopped & means you issue 'em! Since you spoke it clearly means you're out of them.
* LMAO @ U here, but I'm also doing it here FAR MORESO (since 'truth hurts' about YOU) -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
(Abused moderation != VALID justifiable moderation...)
APK
P.S.=> ... "ne'er-do-well" that you clearly are... apk
WGU? Not exactly the most demanding school, but congratulations on finally finishing your bachelor's.
Or maybe we could acknowledge a few facts instead of being condescending dicks.
FTR, most of my friends under 35 rent, and the majority of them have graduate or postgraduate educations.
SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling
listen to crazily risk-adverse and/or idiot lawyers. How is it "objectively reckless" to not have a policy banning employees from reading patents? How does such a policy affect whether there is "an objectively high likelihood that (any) actions constituted infringement of a valid patent?” Moreover, it seems to be good law that an effort to design around a patent is evidence of an objectively LOW likelihood of infringement of a valid patent.
You may be right that companies indeed do this, but not for a good reason. Also, you're providing terrible legal advice otherwise- one good way to get a totally useless patent is to be unaware of what the prior art actually says.
Hey, look, I've totally independently developed this thing, having ignored existing patents! I did ask some attorney who isn't engaged in the state of the art I've been working on to see if he could check some existing patents, though. Wait, what do you mean my patent is so broad as to be unenforceable and invalid? Isn't it the patent examiner's responsibility to find EVERYTHING relevant and make sure I've appropriately limited my claims?
This question reminds me of an old story.
As you all know, Henry Ford was a notorious anti-semite. One day long ago he was approached by the three Cohen brothers. They said they had this great invention. To demonstrate, they took Henry out into the parking lot on a hot day. They asked Henry to sit in their car, which was swelteringly hot. He sat down. They pressed a button and, lo and behold, cold air started filling the car. Henry was amazed. He knew right away this invention would change cars forever, since it would condition the air in them, something no one else was able to do at the time. They immediately started negotiating over the price of this new invention.
The money part of the negotiation was easy. They settled on a very big number. But there was another issue that caused disagreement. The Cohen brothers insisted their name must be attached to every unit. But Henry Ford was an anti-semite and he couldn't be associated with such an obviously Jewish name. They haggled and haggled. Finally they came up with a perfect compromise. Instead of their last name, Cohen, Ford agreed to use their first names, Norm, Hi, and Max. Ta dum!
Technology created to stop a table saw blade when it contacts skin. Happens fast enough to avoid serious injury. Attempts to sell to major companies fail: They do not want it. Starts his own company and now makes some of the highest rated saws on the market.
Being a landlord generally makes money, because the rent is more than the mortgage. In other words, renting typically costs more than owning.
So the question becomes, are they:
1) Saving up a down payment.
2) Uninformed
3) Planning to move to a new city soon
4) Not that interested in their own financial well-being
A friend of mine is a forensic investigator for fires. He has been the 'expert witness' on literally hundreds of cases across the US.
If a house or business burns down and there is an Epson printer in the house (for example) that was plugged in at the time of the fire, after the insurance company pays out they go after Epson to recoup some of their losses. Even if it was already determined that the fire was obviously caused by a lamp in the house that fell over (most common). Or a meth lab. Or an old car in the garage. Or an arsonist. He has seen all of these things in the courtroom. It doesn't matter what caused the fire - they will sue Epson, LG (there was a LG TV in the house), Whirlpool (washer and dryer was in the fire), Samsung (the fridge), Lenovo (the laptop), and so on.
The insurance company will sue $Epson, who will usually settle out of court (because it's cheaper to settle than to pay lawyers to fight the case, and it could hurt their reputation). The average payout to the insurance company is around $30k per case, but significantly more if a child died in the fire (imagine that all over the papers - APPLE IPAD MAY HAVE BEEN CAUSE OF DEATH OF THREE CHILDREN IN FIRE). In the end, taking into account all of the electronics devices plugged in at the time of the fire, they may even bring more money in from the settlements than they paid out to the people they insured.
The interesting part is, out of all of the investigations and court cases he has done, not a single fire was found to be caused by any of the electronics companies he was hired by as the 'expert witness'. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but it's very rare.
So two things. First, anything that's UL listed is pretty damn safe. As was previously mentioned, the insurance companies are part of UL and have every interest to be sure nothing unsafe makes it to market. This sort of nullifies the necessity for your invention. Second, you will be opening yourself up to these lawsuits too if you do this (so you better be pretty well-insured).
Good luck to you and your family!
SONET
> Companies generally like to increase their profit by 45%, so that's why insurance companies are in fact a primary driver of safety in the US.
What make you so sure it is only 45%?