As a technology focused founder, you understand the technical challenges you are trying to overcome and the great potential your product has to positively change outcomes for your customers. You can’t wait to get started.

You’ve most likely not yet experienced all of the challenges of running a business, from controlling cash flow to managing people and that can be a scary prospect to many.

And it is mostly about CASH and PEOPLE!

Getting any business off the ground is challenging enough without adding in the extra dimension of solving a problem and creating a product that generates its own momentum with high volumes of sales. When you have a business that is fed by referrals from an army of early adopters who become raging fans you bring in high levels of recurring revenue. This is the ideal model that becomes a “no-brainer” to invest in.

Often inventors and founders are so focused on the product, they do not focus enough time to learn about the rest of the business proposition or appreciate how demanding it can be. Many founders (regardless of industry – this is not just a technology sector problem) are not well equipped to be a CEO and quickly find themselves floundering as the business grows.

Over my 30-plus-years career, I’ve worked in just about every sector and my favourites are technology, engineering and product businesses. I get a great deal of satisfaction working with inventors and creators. They bring the vision; I get it implemented. It’s a perfect partnership. The challenge is when a business owner is so tied to his / her idea that they are blind to some of the factors that will sink the ship faster than an iceberg strike.

Some my previous technology clients got into dire straits by becoming caught up in inventing new things without testing whether there was an adequate market for them. That means having enough customers will and able to pay the right price for the business to thrive. I often saw products with great market opportunity that needed further development were set aside for the newest, latest technology advances. Luckily my clients got focused on developing a range of fully commercialised products and well as selling what they had available now AND asking their customers what they really wanted.

The inventors, creators and entrepreneurs of the world are exciting to work with, build significant economic wealth and make some of the biggest dents in the universe. Sadly many ideas simply don’t have the fundamentals thought through and suck up millions, if not billions, of investor funds before sinking into ignominy.