For the last three years or so, I've been working on my new invention. Unfortunately I can't tell you exactly what it is even though it's fully patented and I've shown it to a good number of the potential market. It's an instrument designed for opticians to use, so my new mission statement is very simple: To sell one to every optician in the world!
My Eureka moment came three years ago when thinking about a particular problem that affects opticians and their patients on an everyday basis. I took it upon myself to solve this and gave myself two days off work to think it through. After wandering the streets without any distractions I came up with a theoretical solution. Now all I had to do was raise money and get it made.
I needed a visual representation of my Big Idea so that any potential investors would know what I was on about. I remembered being blown away by an episode of The Apprentice in which the contestants went to a company to get a 3D model made in 24 hours. After a little bit of research I found out the name of the modelling company and duly made an appointment to meet them. They told me that a model would cost about £20,000, which sounded steep (only because I had no idea how much these things cost). Later on, I was to find that these development companies consider £20,000 a tiny budget.
My next step was raising money. I didn't have a clue how much it would cost to get this thing to market and thought that £150,000 sounded about right. I then found two potential investors: I met the first one in July 2005, a guy who owned an investment firm and who said yes purely on my verbal description. I figured that I didn't need to spend £20,000 on a demonstration model so I went to potential investor number 2, a friend of a friend, who also said yes! I decided to go with the second guy as he owned a large manufacturing business and understood the process of developing a new product from conception to market.
So now I had the backing and the idea - what next? Well, patenting came first and then we had to go about actually getting the thing made. The product has a whole load of electronics and, even though I knew what I wanted the device to do, I had no idea how it would actually work and be designed. We then went to various product development companies and finally settled on PDD, a well-known firm based in London. That was in March 2006. We needed an electronics development company too, and after wasting the best part of a year with a company that simply couldn't deliver - which threatened the whole future of the project - we found the ideal electronics partners: Tactiq. Between PDD and Tactiq we have the dream development team. There have been many highs and lows over the last few years and the whole project has been enormously rewarding, creating something incredibly useful from a germ of an idea.
Now, nearly two years on, after realising that £150,000 was a ridiculously low budget, we are due to launch at Silmo - the world's largest optical trade show - in August 2008. The feedback we've had so far has been breathtaking - from our market research, we haven't had anyone knock the product - they all want it! We have been to some major chains who want multiple units when it's ready.
As and when I have news, I'll post it. I hope to announce the officlal launch later this year. |
