Who Will Buy Your Product?

Yesterday I had a long conversation with inventors who had spent $45,000 on their idea and were about to spend another $8,000 on pursuing a patent. The idea itself was laudable. But their odds of making money from it are less than 0.1% (that might be generous). I asked, “have you considered who the customer is, who will actually pay for this invention?” They had not. Never mind that meaningful patent protection is a pipe dream.

If you haven’t considered who will actually PAY for your product, then you might as well burn $100 bills in the fireplace.

- Mike