Emlyn O'Regan wrote:
> > I agree. So why aren't we out building that system today? Wanna put
> > together a business plan and go looking for funding? Seriously.
> I'm a bit afraid that the business plan would look something like:
> 1 - Get lots o money
> 2 - Spend lots o money doing heaps of cool research into genetic
> programming, play around with oh so excellent equipment, discover some
> excellent stuff, have a bloody fantastic time
> 3 - Run out of money with no products/market to show for it,
> 4 - get a slapping (eek) from the VC(s)
> 5 - Reputation in ruins, become a tramp, scavenge in bins, waiting for
> the singularity
If I might suggest a little alteration...
0.1 - Think of something you can get to market, with some research, kind
of a milestone between here and the promised land
0.2 - Map out how you can get from where you are now, plus money, to
having that product on the market, accessible by whatever
professionals (or, depending on application, hobbyist or regular
person) can make use of it
0.9 - Present that plan to the VCs as a prerequisite to step 1
1.1 - Also ask the VCs for management, marketing, and sales help: you
can do the technical stuff, but there's more to a corp than the
CTO
1.2 - Try to structure things so that you, and others who share your
viewpoint as to the end goal of the corporation, control a
majority (or as close to it as possible) of the corporation;
most of this control can be slient partners/"sleepers" until 4.1
2.1 - Keep at least the majority of your research focussed on the
product, or perhaps line of products by now, that you came up with
in 0.1
2.2 - As you near production capability, get the help that the VCs
pointed you at to start prepping some test clients, maybe an
entire market
3.0 - Deploy product well before selling out of money: at this point,
your sales are just slowing the outflow of cash, not stopping it
completely or even reversing it
3.1 - With experience gained from all steps to date, *especially* step
2.0, come up with more products that you can either deploy now, or
can be deployed with a bit more research
3.2 - Keep doing radical research - still with a focus, at least until
you get profitable
4.0 - Eventually go IPO or get bought out, kissing off the VCs for good
either way, and go profitable shortly thereafter; remember to
keep control of the company
4.1 - With money worries gone (and the VCs who remind you to focus on
the bottom line out of your hair), research can be even freer;
some products should still come out of it, if only as proof that
the research is relevant to reality, as opposed to hypotheticals
on some metaphysics that are of no practical use (and, having not
been reviewed by others, might turn out to be based on a false
foundation, thus being totally useless in the end)
5.0 - Reputation established, and with a growing financial resource
base, help build the Singularity in the way you think it should be
done
(Of course, for "product" you can substitute any source of financial
profit. For instance, if you can think of a service that only you can
provide - you having mastered the field through your research - then
that would be an early-stage-useful target for your research.)
The key here is not to do everything at once. Go for something you know
you can do, then build on that, and you just might have a chance.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:38:10 MDT