Innovators… invest to be investable

Winning £35,000 to develop an idea sounds like a fairly comfortable place to start.

At the time, it certainly felt that way.

BiKLOX had gone from an idea prompted by circumstance to an award-winning prototype with enough funding behind it to become real.

Winning the national Hands Off My Bike competition set me on a path that saw me launch at a national exhibition just four months later.

Over the next few years, though, the question changed. It was no longer whether I could launch. I had. It was whether I was prepared to invest fully to compete with some very substantial companies.

Ultimately, I chose not to.

Looking back, that changed how I think about investment in an idea.

If you have an idea you genuinely believe in, you are probably already invested in it.

You’ve spent time thinking about it.

You may have sketched it, made something, researched it, talked about it, changed it, spent money on it or simply carried it around in your head for far longer than anyone else knows.

That matters.

Because before anyone else invests in an idea, the innovator normally has to.

But being invested in an idea is not the same as the idea being investable.

That comes later.

And getting from one to the other requires more investment.

The important question is what you invest in next.

It is very easy to spend untold hours honing the design because that feels like progress.

It is easy to improve the prototype because the changes are real and tangible.

It is easy to spend money protecting something because having a patent feels valuable.

But none of those things necessarily make the idea more investable.

Sometimes the better investment is answering a question.

Does anybody really value this?

Can we make it repeatedly and reliably?

Is there enough commercial and intellectual-property space to build something worthwhile?

That is where I think the role of an innovation consultant becomes quite simple.

If someone asks me to help commercialise their idea, I shouldn’t simply help them spend more time and money on it.

I should help them invest wisely.

And that means I have to think like an investor too.

Not necessarily:

“Would I invest in this today?”

Very few early ideas could answer that.

But:

“Can I see a credible path by which this could become investable?”

If I can, then my job is to help expose that path and work out what needs to be learned next.

And sometimes that might mean doing very little to the product itself.

That lack of product development activity can feel uncomfortable.

Physical, tangible outcomes feel like progress.

Thinking often doesn’t.

BiKLOX taught me how quickly momentum can build when you’re making, launching and pushing forward. It also taught me that momentum alone isn’t a reason to keep investing.

The question of whether to invest isn’t exclusive to a third party.

As the innovator, you’re already the first investor. And if you’re the only one, you still need to think like someone deciding whether the next investment is worth making.

Sometimes you need to pause for pace, not to stop, but to make sure the next investment earns something useful.

The person who leaves the starting blocks first doesn't automatically win the race. What matters more is a clear mind and a clear next action that leads to a strong finish.

When distilled...

You must be invested to be investable and that requires investment before an investor has enough clarity to commit.

Believe enough to start.

Invest enough to learn.

Learn enough to invest wisely.

Clarify enough to make the idea investable.

If you need help deciding what to invest in next, connect with me.