As part of our series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked veteran technology executive and investor Ron Weissman to share his thoughts on how startups can achieve success. This is the next of his commentaries and we welcome your comments.
By Ronald Weissman
The setting: A buffet line at a Silicon Valley VC pitching event. An entrepreneur, not on the program, recognized me as a VC who had heard his pitch before.
The action: The entrepreneur drags me out of line, insists that I see his demo NOW! and corrals me into a corner, balancing his laptop on a stack of cartons.
“Ok, you’ve got my attention,” I sigh, with more than a hint of annoyance.
He launches into a demo of a complex app doing who knows what on screen. “See,” he says, “it all works, just like I told you it would!”
“Uh…,” I sputter, “what exactly am I looking at?”
“My app,” he says, “the one I told you would revolutionize multi-application business collaboration!”
In his mind, simply witnessing his demo will instantly convert me from a skeptic into an investor. In my mind, I can fake an urgent call (the surest way to flee a tedious demo) or be polite and suffer in silence. Holding a lunch tray, I can’t readily grab my phone, so, once again, I resign myself to the latter course – death by demo.
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By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
Over the past six months since we launched our new blog, our Commercialization Ecosystem series explored what works, what doesn’t and what must change to get technology to market. We featured the perspectives of dozens of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers from across North America and the U.K. Your feedback was outstanding and your support of this approach drove us to easily beat almost every traffic objective we set for the blog.
So, what’s next?
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This is the 32nd article in a continuing series that examines the state of the ecosystem necessary to successfully bring technology to market. Based on dozens of interviews with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, business leaders, academics, tech-transfer experts and policy makers, this series looks at what is working and what can be improved in the go-to-market ecosystem in the United States, Canada and Britain. We invite your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
While there will no doubt be the occasional post that will still fall into the Commercialization Ecosystem category, today marks the official end of this series with which we launched our new blog back in February. Next week, we will introduce several new series, but first, let’s conclude our three-part recap of what we have learned about getting technology to market.
Two weeks ago, we began with insights and practical advice on securing investment capital and finding champions to help get your technology to market. Last week, we continued with commercializing university IP, the value of mentor capital and what it means to be lean. Today we conclude with the strategic role marketing must play from day one of a startup, engaging with your community and what role government should play.
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Thank you for being with us for the seventh month of our new blog. In case you missed any, here is a recap of our posts from August, beginning with, in chronological order, the latest installments in our series, The Commercialization Ecosystem.
August 2: Getting university IP to market: How Canada falls short by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 4: Is your invention novel enough to warrant a patent? by David French
August 10: Getting university IP to market: Who needs to step up? by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 15: Getting university IP to market: Levering youthful ambition by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 22: 30 considerations for getting tech to market: Part 1 by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 29: 30 considerations for getting tech to market: Part 2 by Francis Moran & Leo Valiquette
August 31: File early, file often to accommodate changes in U.S. patent law by David French
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, David French, a senior Canadian patent attorney with 35 years of experience, explores impending changes in U.S. patent law and how these will impact how technology companies must manage their patents to protect their Intellectual Property.
By David French
In about 18 months, U.S. patent law will undergo its most dramatic change since 1952, possibly since 1836. These changes will have an effect on Canadian businesses who seek to obtain U.S. patents, but those changes are not so profound as to require a significant departure from good practice under Canadian law. Nevertheless, it’s important for anyone managing patents to appreciate the significance of these coming changes.
The new, proposed U.S. patent law
This new legislation has been promoted as introducing first-to-file criteria into U.S. patent law for granting patents. It does, indeed, do that.
But the patenting requirements of the new law extend far beyond the first-to-file requirement. The first-to-file requirement simply addresses the situation where competing applications are filed for the same invention. The new law will introduce the concept of “absolute world novelty” as a limit to the grant of a U.S. patent. And, the law will add further novelty limitations which should be appreciated by Canadian businesses who wish to preserve their U.S. patent rights.
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By Ronald Weissman
