Journey of a entrepreneur, one step at a time
“Thank you. I am delighted and proud to have you involved. I feel like we’ve come full circle.” My old professor said in his closing remarks at our third meeting on Zoom. The first two meetings were to align the Committee on short and long-term goals and our processes. I was looking forward to the third meeting where we were going to get our hands dirty in the life-changing moments.
This afternoon I had a follow-up call with a prospective investor, Tom, to review our pitch deck. We were going through questions about our use of funds, exit strategy, market and sales plan, and milestones. As we were talking, I sensed that he was formulating an idea in his head. Then Tom asked me, “What is the scope of the problem you are trying to solve? What is the best opportunity to maximize investor capital? Is it to focus on the dementia and senior living market, or is the scope broader than that with applicability to drop the technology into 5 or 6 different verticals?”
What market is experiencing massive growth and has is the focus of only a handful of investors and VCs? I will make it even easier; 1 in 6 people in the US will be a part of this market by 2050. Easier than that, it is a $740 Billion market today: the answer… the senior care market.
Engage plastic manufacturers or full-service prototyping shops early in the process when going to production. Your mechanical engineer and industrial designer can only tell you so much about your product’s type of plastic and production method. Working directly with their business development or solution engineers at these manufacturers is the best option to minimize mistakes. They have a wealth of information in terms of material, lead time, cost, etc. They will tell you what to do and what not to do for your application. They are the experts on plastics.
Since March, I have been working with my team to adjust our existing dementia safety wearable to help organizations manage the risk of COVID-19. The goal was to convert the features focused around dementia monitoring to the general population focused on contact tracing, social distancing, and geofencing.
I cannot speak for all incubators or accelerators, but I can talk to the two that I have been apart of thus far in my startup journey. From my experience of working out of a co-working/incubator space, the single point of failure is consumerism. Yes, you read that correctly, but maybe not in the way you think.
My first employee fell into my lap. In August 2018, I had this crazy idea that there was all this “free” and “non-dilutive” money out there through foundation and government grants that we could take advantage of if we only knew how. I had too much on my plate and wasn’t going to have time to take this on, so I went looking for someone to help.
From my searching, I stumbled upon this article written by Rahul Vohra, the founder and CEO of Superhuman. He boldly states that “product/market fit drives startup success – and the lack thereof is what’s lucking behind almost every failure.” This point is well taken and very real to me. The quest to find and achieve true product/market fit is the single most worrisome milestone for founders. Until you hit this point, there is no clear way to drive growth, revenue, success of your company.
The investor call ended, and on cue, my partner called me to discuss.
“Sales 101, get a face to face meeting with them.” He forcefully said. “They have expertise in the industry, understand the problem, and have experience in startups. They check all the boxes.”
45 degrees, I’ll take it for Chicago spring weather.I thought as I left my apartment for work. It was the middle of the morning and I was heading to my office in downtown Chicago.
“You know, I’m 65 years old and I have a broken knee and replaced hip; I just can’t run anymore,” said the elderly woman, sporting a suit with salt and pepper hair. “I am thankful the bus driver waited for me to get on as I need to get to work pronto.”
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