I had lunch with a friend the other day. We were sharing stories and catching up, mostly about the goings on in Indy’s medical device scene. My friend asked if I had heard from “Tom” lately. Tom previously met with each of us separately to discuss his revolutionary medical device idea. When I met with Tom, I laid out several things for him to focus on and to address in order for him to get to the next step. Tom approached my friend, who is more involved with the funding side of medical device product development. My friend asked Tom several questions, including:
- Are you willing to give up equity in exchange for funds? Tom’s response: No.
- Are you willing to give up control and let someone with a proven track record run the business? Tom’s response: No.
- Do you know how much tooling and development will cost? Tom’s response: No.
Does Tom have a good idea? Maybe. But until he realizes he has to trust others, we may never know. Not to diminish Tom’s expertise, but the idea is easy. Taking the idea to the next step into product development will be challenging. Frankly, Tom does not have the skill set or experience to do this. Tom has to realize he has to trust others to make it happen. Tom has to realize that to get funding, he will have to give up equity and likely control of his business. If he doesn’t, Tom will only have an idea.
