Musings on Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Thursday, July 01, 2004What Do You Do After You've Got Something That Works?
Say that you have developed engineering specifications or requirements that you believe will solve the problems of the marketplace, or you have a technology that can achieve things. And you know that it’ll provide either economic benefit or performance benefits. Okay, so you have a technology or a prototype. Now, what next? What do I do after I’ve got something that works?
Marc Umeno of Strategix Ventures asks the question out of experience. After earning his PhD in Physics and working as a scientist, Marc returned to school, earned a MS in Entrepreneurship and then did post-graduate work in the School of Hard Knocks as the founder and chief technology officer of NeoMed Technologies, a medical instrumentation company based in Cleveland. A few months back, Marc handed the tiller of NeoMed to a new CEO and followed his wife, Dorota Umeno, to Bozeman. Bozeman is the home of Strategix Vision, a respected industrial design, engineering, and product development consulting firm, which had recruited Dorota to become its vice president of marketing. Subsequently, Marc and Dorota lead the launch of Strategix Ventures, the new equity-for-service arm of the company.
So what should you do after you've got something that works? If that something is a complex device used by human beings, Marc and Dorota would like you to consider partnering with Strategix Vision or Strategix Ventures to bring your product to market. Their value proposition is compelling:
- Reduce time-to-market
- Reduce product development risk
- Reduce staff and rework costs
- Enhance and accelerate the ability to attract investment capital
Through a combination of reduced fees plus equity, Strategix Ventures aims to align its interests with its entrepreneurial partners, share in the risk, and share in the upside.
I'm sold. But, after all, I've been engaged in venture consulting for the last eight years. In fact, five years ago, I was involved in a collaboration with Palo Alto-based Lunar Design and others in an effort to systematize and professionalize the practice of taking equity in lieu of consulting fees. The concept attracted enough attention to result in an Inc. magazine cover story in April 1999. In retrospect, the unfortunate title of the article, "How to Get Rich in America," was probably the kiss of death. We were getting close, but the bursting tech bubble hit the industrial design community hard, and the notion of venture consulting fell out of favor.
Marc and Dorota's attitudes toward their business reflect a maturity and sophistication that was more scarce a few years back. In my Quick Take interview of the two of them this afternoon, I asked them why they want to work with young companies given the uncertainties. Marc confessed, "I feel I'm almost obligated to help people" make technologies real by bringing them to market. Dorota said, "I find it fulfilling to help young companies, or people with great ideas, that can help benefit all of us." Marc added," So why not do that for a living?"
