Advice for Veterinary Device Entrepreneurs

10 Things You Need To Know

   Being intentionally vague here I can say a couple emailed and has staked their future on modifications to an existing device that could play out to be quite profitable.
Theirs is a good idea backed by what appears to be good engineering and involves a device not under government regulation. They wanted to send samples for evaluation.
 
Now such inquiries require an upfront conversation about where we stand as a university:

1. Happy to accept free samples with no obligation of any kind.
2. Happy to accept free samples of the device with no other perks of any kind.
3. We cannot endorse or advertise your product.
4. Employees here may voluntarily to choose to use the device; or not.
5. Employees who do use it may or may not offer an opinion and cannot be compelled to do so.
6. Any opinions rendered are the individual’s alone and do not represent the college, university, or the state of Washington.
7. We offer no attempt or guarantee to secure the device from theft or possible competition.
8. And, anything you do with us is for all intents and purposes discoverable through Washington’s very liberal public disclosure laws.

The response back was enthusiastic and grateful with full acceptance of our policies. But the state educational institutions are also here to help people, too. Remember the land grant mission, 4H, and Agricultural Extension’s work? So here’s some basic unsolicited advice issued back to the inventors:

1. Make sure you have enough working capital. Undercapitalization remains the single greatest cause for small business failures.
2. Make sure the product works perfectly; not just well. A juggler’s audition is over if they drop one ball.
3. Think of all the ways it could be misused, break, be swallowed, used as a suppository, or cause pain or distress in the selected animal. If such a thing can happen; it will.
4. Train yourself to use the device expertly. Study the how-tos for proper animal handling on veterinary websites (like ours), visit with your veterinarian for some tips. Make an appointment to do so and pay them for their time. If asked to demo on TV, you want to be the best there is and make it look simple.
5. Completing #4 also gives you a story outside of obviously wanting to make money. “We studied how veterinarians recommended doing this and we were aware of the existing problem. We then went back and worked with x, y, and z to make sure our device was the best on the market not just for veterinarians and owners, but for the animals themselves… blah, blah, blah.” People love stories that identify and fix problems first before they love devices. Also, as you get better at it, you can demo confidently and train novices to do so.
6. Protect your device with patent ownership. Easily, someone with more capital and marketing connections can take an idea and leave you hanging. Also, even with a patent, plan for someone to grab the idea, modify it just enough to avoid infringement, and have it knocked off by low cost overseas production. See #8 below.
7. Eventually seek out the television marketers as their sales numbers are truly staggering for certain products. But ask for past client recommendations before saying yes.
8. Plan and prepare to build Wonder Widget 2.0. This is a great way to stay ahead of low cost “knock offs” if your idea can be easily modified.
9. Although uncommon, have a plan for the best news possible; Cabela’s or Wal-Mart wants 60 boxcar loads of Wonder Widgets 1.0 by Christmas. I’ve counseled two small business people (good old passive hippie friends) who didn’t and when the rainbow was offered, they folded because they hadn’t thought through how to make it happen. “I only got into this because I liked to fill-in-the-blank (whitewater kayak, throw clay pots, etc.),” is the typical response.
10. Have fun. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best; the entrepreneurial world is tough… and unforgiving.

What would you add?