productI’d like to create a product-oriented company, but I don’t know a thing about the industry I’m looking to start in. I’ve always heard that as an entrepreneur you need to be able to rally great people, but I’m not even sure where to find them.
For example (purely fictional): I’m fascinated with longboarding… I just love it. Something about the thrilling, yet all the while relaxing, feeling of speeding down a hill, or cruising to the coffee-shop enthralls me. But I’m even more captivated by the idea of merging electricity with beautiful tools, like the longboard… imagine a fuel efficient, electric longboard, priced fairly for consumers - enabling a new, light, standard for college campus transportation. That’s where I’d like to take my (theoretical) company.
For the sake of the example, I know nothing about electric fuel cells, nothing about material, and nothing about manufacturing. In short, I’m not an engineer.
Should I worry about the people first, or the product first?
If the people come first, how should I go about finding/employing them when I don’t know them, nor have any real tangible product to show them?
If the product comes first, should I learn engineering, then worry about people later so that I have something to show them?
Neither. The first thing should be the customers. Outline the characteristics of your product and then find out
A lot of beginners make the mistake of making a product simply because they can or because they love the concept themselves. Both are bad reasons to start with. Some people luck out as their concept turns out to popular but it is better to have some estimates before you spend a lot of effort and money making it. The more you unique your product is, the easier it would be to get partners interested in as well.
After you have gauged the market, do a skill assessment and find out how far your skills can take you. Can you draw a sketch? Can you make a prototype by yourself? Can you fund it yourself? Can you convince a distributor to carry your product? Where you find a skill lacking, get somebody to help. When you get somebody else, keep these in mind.
People rarely do things for free. You would have to give them something to get something from them.
If you give them shares, you end up loosing ownership in your companies, have to divide profits and have less decisive authority in your own company. Advantage is you maybe able to get some work done without any or with smaller upfront payments.
If you give them wages, you don’t loose ownership but you have to pay them.
If they owe you a favor, you can call it in.
Order like this - favors first, wages second and last, give up equity in your company.
You don’t need to learn engineering to make a product these days. If you know what you want and can communicate it, you can find freelancers who are cheap or outsourcing agencies (like http://www.focuspdm.com/) who can do it all for you from a conceptual sketch to production design. Of course this comes at a cost.
To sum up, first define your concept as much as possible, do a market study and figure out if is feasible, if it is then make a draft product design then find out how you can go about making a prototype. Find enthusiasts or people with skills and resources you lack to help you.
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