General > General Technical Chat
Possible to invent an electronic device without capital have any here done this?
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Beamin:
There are a lot of smart people here on this forum and I'm sure many of you are inventors. I won many invention awards as a school kid, but thats just for creativity and practicality. In 3rd grade I won with a "Drive by wire" where the steering wheel was connected to motors eliminating power steering racks pumps maintenance etc. I had a few more inventions I won over the years. So creativity runs in my blood and my family.

So right now I have two great ideas which if I owned a company or had a degree and engineering lab with lots of capital I would be on my way right now.

One invention finds lost pets specifically dogs and another is a simple idea where a group of soldiers would know in seconds where sniper fire or other fire is coming from using simple off the shelf technology that would cost a few hundred per unit or to be competitive with industry a couple thousand. I would like to give out the whole details but once its on the internet it becomes public info.

I'm sure some here  are inventors that had no resources and made it. I'll post some threads asking about things like I always do. FYI I have only been posting to my own posts because Im having a hard time seeing and dont want to flood the forum with a myriad of questions.

BTW is there a way to invert the color on this forum? My iphone I can change almost everything to "dark mode" where you get that old school computer look black background white/colored text. Makes  it 1000X easier to see. I know there is some wway in windows to invert but it inverts everything like video and pictures so then  I cant see those. Come on microsoft apple figured it out... :scared:
jpanhalt:
Many of the well known names in electronics begin with very little.  I would say that was without capital, but of course, they did need some money.

Here are four names  that come to mind:
Bill Hewlett (Hewlett-Packard)
David Packard (Hewlett-Packard)
Michael Dell (Dell Computer)
Varian brothers (Varian Associates)


bob91343:
Times have changed.  Nevertheless, inventions are welcome as long as they aren't just ideas.  Investors want to see something that works, not plans or ideas.  So you will probably have to build your idea and be able to demonstrate it.  And you have to prove you aren't infringing on some patent.

In other words, the technical part is not enough.  You have to have a convincing presentation and convey your ideas with authority and salesmanship.  Then you appeal to those whom you feel may have an interest and wherewithall to finance it.
sandalcandal:
Money/capital is out there and available for "free" if you know where to look and are willing to work for it (and of course you should be willing to work it). Starting our own business we were able to obtain tens of thousands of dollars which was certainly more than enough for us to develop proof-of-concept hardware and start getting "traction" despite the high costs of power electronics and ESS hardware. This was purely through local grants, without the need to give up equity/ownership or take out any sort of loan; though there were requirements for reporting and transparency obviously. This was also fairly recently and in Australia. The general impression I get is that entrepreneurship money is much easier to come by in the US.

I'd suggest having a look around for any local small business or entrepreneurship grants. I see DoD awarding many grants to small US domestic businesses to produce proof-of-concepts (some of them quite questionable) so that might be a good idea to look into for your gunfire locator idea. They also will be able to give you plenty of good input with first hand experience using similar devices which should be invaluable in developing your product. Failing that, you might have to enter an arrangement where you give up ownership/equity i.e. get "investment" but you'll need to be properly and well prepared if you want to do that.

I'd also suggest doing some reading (or maybe watching videos) to get some foundational knowledge of entrepreneurship. This book is more targeted towards Australia but I think the general principles are good and apply anywhere; the advice provided is solid and inline with advice I've received from many experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders.
https://www.asx.com.au/documents/resources/EntrepreneursGuide_REV_5_16.pdf

For videos, some good sources are Y Combinator, and Slidebean. Though I would caveat these are very Silicon Valley in perspective so if you don't live in Silicon Valley YMMV. Also plenty of people sharing their small business entrepreneurship experience on YouTube if you're looking to run something more moderate in scale.

Also Shark Tank is a load of bullshit reality TV show. Don't think for a moment real world entrepreneurship is anything like what they represent there.


--- Quote from: bob91343 on September 25, 2021, 03:55:58 am ---Times have changed.  Nevertheless, inventions are welcome as long as they aren't just ideas.  Investors want to see something that works, not plans or ideas.  So you will probably have to build your idea and be able to demonstrate it.  And you have to prove you aren't infringing on some patent.

In other words, the technical part is not enough.  You have to have a convincing presentation and convey your ideas with authority and salesmanship.  Then you appeal to those whom you feel may have an interest and wherewithall to finance it.

--- End quote ---
Certainly not enough to have a cool idea. You need to convince investors there is a market for your product (product-market fit), the amount you are asking for is commensurate to this market opportunity and most importantly that you (and your team) are capable of pulling through given the money. I don't think anything else has ever been the case but I wasn't alive and raising money 50 years ago :-//

There are plenty of investors which have given talks published on Youtube describing what they are looking for in entrepreneurs in an effort to attract high quality investment opportunities.

Edit: I'll also add that though not yet "successful" we've managed to develop commercial prototypes and obtain patents (which might satisfy OP's idea of "inventing") and done so as per OP's question; without personally having any "capital".
PaulAm:
You're in the US so you should look into what's available from DARPA; they have many small business programs to encourage innovation.

You can make yourself a small business by forming an LLC.  Costs around $50 and there are online law firms to supply everything you need.  Tax reporting is minimal until you start to make some money, but it gives you some cred.

Get yourself a company email address to go along with the LLC.  Again, there are cheap ways to do this.  Practically no one will respond to a gmail address.

The majority of small businesses fail but that doesn't mean people don't make money off them.  I was involved in two startups; one failed and the other transitioned into something different but I did OK off of both of them.  Watch venture capital though.  Their game is to put out enough funds so they can control things when it starts to make money.  Owners and founders are often pushed out at that point.

Patent issues can be a killer.  These days they are more to restrict innovation.
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