Mark November, My Observations Working With Inventors

Mark November

By Mark November, Founder of PEACE Licensing International

I adore creative people. But sometimes, inventors can be too smart for their own good.

Approximately 98% of patents make zero income. The track record of inventors in business is not very impressive. I have come to conclude that no matter how valuable inventors think their inventions are worth, until they are making money, they have little value. It all comes down to one thing - EXECUTION.

From experience, I have learned that when we invested money in the wrong teams, no matter how good the invention was, the teams failed. Contrast that to recent successes and it's plain to see the differences. The teams with smart strategies that can execute, succeed. The teams that

can't execute, fail, even if they have smart strategies. Execution is everything.

To all my inventor friends, please do not take this as an insult - You probably were never meant to run a company. Companies that are structured around the inventor or models that the inventor has the final say, seem to fail the most. Companies succeed that are structured around a seasoned team of professional business people who know how to execute, with great intellectual property (IP) imbedded, and are timed right for the market.

Inventors need to think differently if they want to create income for their patents and be in the rare 1% -2% of patent owners that actually make money. They need to put their business into the hands of professional business people who know how to execute. Or they need to license their invention to companies that can execute.

Inventors ask me all the time, can I raise them money. Here is the truth...other than family and friends, big investors only hand their money to people who have previously demonstrated the skills and track records of successfully running a business and managing other people's money. They do not care that your invention makes golden eggs and will make them 100x richer. They want to hand their money to people who have proven track records. Unless your team has all the right people with the right track records, you are wasting your time looking for funds. You need to spend your time finding the right people to join your team.

It's all about team. And I am not referring only to the chemistry. You may think your team is fantastic because you like and feel comfortable with them all, but if the team is not making progress in 3-6 months, you have the wrong team.

It's never about the money. If you have the right team, right plan and the market pathway is clear, money is not a problem. There is lots of money looking for the right companies to fund. There is a lack of good teams surrounding great IP. There are more bad teams surrounding great IP than good teams. The investors see a lot of deals. They can spot the good teams from the bad. The first pages investors read in a Business Plan after the technology summary is the Team profiles.

I recently started PEACE (www.peacelicensing.com) with amazingly talented people that have super successful track records in their fields. PEACE is putting the right teams into business models with great IP, developing the right plans, and then executing. Execution is everything!

I have a lot of inventor experiences to share. This article might be the first of many.