I'm in a somewhat similar situation (patented wireless technology startup), so I have to ask: were you actually able to get the big companies to license your technology? Did you need to get market penetration to get them to listen to you, or did they never listen at all? I'd love to be able to license our technology to a larger company instead of doing things the hard way. Putting together a startup is not the easy way, although it seems to be easier than trying to navigate the inside of a large company to find the right person to be an internal champion for your product.
Basically, I'm asking, "what does a successful wireless licensing path look like?".
My experience with trying to find the right decision-maker at large companies has been daunting. I mean, I play soccer with about 10 engineers & managers from a large military radio company (rhymes with Paris) and not one of them could even point me to the right division to talk to, much less the correct decision-maker. With companies where I don't know anyone, I don't even know where to start.
So, our startup is aiming to hit niche markets, like amateur radio, just to get a product out there and start some buzz. How did you do it?
"So my first reaction to undergrads with high energy accelerators is: what could possibly go wrong?"
I have some experience in that matter, so I can tell you what might go wrong. Back in the mid nineties, I was an undergrad and working on my first startup. Part of the project was building a 200 keV accelerator (much lower energy than than the ones in the article, but still high enough to get into trouble with).
The first big problem was the high voltage. Getting shocked by the 30,000 volt ion source supply was damn painful: it felt like hitting your finger with a sledgehammer. I only got a shock from the main supply once; for about 15 minutes I kept asking the other guys, "Am I dead? Are you sure I'm not dead?". It wasn't actually as painful as the 30kV supply. It was never hard to be safe with HV when everything was working properly - it was when things broke or two guys were trying to fix something at the same time that accidents happened.
As you might guess, we didn't have a lot of 'adult supervision'. We learned as we went along. Once we had a bit of a fright when we got the accelerator up and running. Spence, the part-timer old-timer engineer who would help us out on many things, showed up with a Geiger counter and showed us how much radiation was coming off the device. We learned a lot about radiation safety and shielding that week. I wonder how much exposure we would have received if Spence had not interceded.
And then you can get into free neutrons, and activation, and all sorts of other things. It's a real education. If you ever talk to one of those kids who make Farnsworth fusors, they end up going through the same learning curve. Luckily they have a bit of a community around that now, so they can share knowledge and not kill themselves too easily.
Basically, I'm asking, "what does a successful wireless licensing path look like?".
My experience with trying to find the right decision-maker at large companies has been daunting. I mean, I play soccer with about 10 engineers & managers from a large military radio company (rhymes with Paris) and not one of them could even point me to the right division to talk to, much less the correct decision-maker. With companies where I don't know anyone, I don't even know where to start.
So, our startup is aiming to hit niche markets, like amateur radio, just to get a product out there and start some buzz. How did you do it?