Invent. Build. Sell

Klappentext

Most startups fail long before their product ever reaches a customer. The Boost Method shows you how to avoid their mistakes.

It doesn't matter how brilliant your idea is. To turn it into a shelf-ready product, you need to think clearly about where your business is going. An entrepreneur with a physical product must overcome design and manufacturing challenges, navigate regulatory hurdles and secure investment. Ultimately, you need to build a product that works and is profitable. Get any one of these wrong, and your idea may never achieve commercial success.

In Invent. Build. Sell., Michael Potas shares the Boost Method: a five-stage framework developed from 30 years of experience in building successful products and helping others do the same. Tested across hundreds of real-world projects, the Boost Method combines engineering insight with targeted commercial strategy and risk reduction, helping you move fast while minimising your product development costs.

Inside this book, you'll discover how to develop a physical product from idea through to market launch.

• Pressure-test your idea before spending serious money, using targeted research to expose the risks
• Validate technical feasibility, market demand and commercial viability at every stage, so you're never building blind
• Use Minimum Valuable Milestones to decide when to pause, pivot or persist
• Protect your idea with patents and other intellectual property strategies
• Attract investors, secure funding and avoid costly missteps in design, prototyping, manufacturing and launch
  Invent. Build. Sell. is a practical guide full of real founder stories and hard-won lessons. Whether you're starting with an idea or scaling your next product line, this book shows you how to build with less risk and a clearer path to profit.

Inhalt

About the author vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction xi

1 The zero-risk startup 1
2 The Boost Method 11

Part I Investigation 19

Stage 1 Exploration 21

3 Idea assessment: Who decides whether it's a good idea? 23
4 Market attractiveness: What makes a product idea commercially appealing? 33
5 Minimum Valuable Milestones (MVMs): What are the smartest next steps that minimise risk? 41
6 'Just Good Enough': What can I cut without compromising the outcome? 59
7 Technical feasibility: Can this product be built and will it work? 71
8 Commercial feasibility: Can this product be sold and will it make a profit? 83
9 Intellectual property and patents: How can I protect my invention? 93
10 Team: Who do I need onboard to make this product? 113
11 Project costing: How much will my project cost? 123
12 Raising money: How can I fund my new invention? 137
13 Persist, pivot or pause: When should I push forward and when should I stop? 145

Part II Implementation 163

Stage 2 Concept 165

14 Concept: How can I prove it will work and sell? 167
15 Concept commercialisation: Would anyone actually buy this? 195

Stage 3 Prototype 211

16 Prototype: Can it be built? 213

Stage 4 Design for Manufacture (DFM) 231

17 Design for Manufacture (DFM): How am I going to manufacture it? 233

Stage 5 Market Launch 251

18 Market Launch: How do I get sales and build a sustainable business? 253

In closing... 267
Final thoughts... 269