Our Model

Bringing Products to Market

Brand new products get introduced to the world in various ways, but the most common is through a process whereby a startup company develops the product and proves there is a market for it, at which point a bigger company acquires the product and accelerates its success. We believe that the primary purpose of a startup is to remove risk and prove viability, and that big companies do not want to assume the risk, preferring to pay more for a product with some demonstrated success.

At Inventor Labs, we fulfill the role of the startup company in bringing a product to a point where a larger company will acquire it. We act as a virtual startup to many products, like an incubator.

Our Process

We develop products through a speculative process: we look at many ideas, assess the opportunities and risks, and develop several product ideas in parallel, knowing that some will perform better than others. Not all ideas will be accepted in the marketplace, so it's important to push only on the ones that are showing strong signs of market acceptance. We do this by doing market testing at all stages of development so we know as early as possible which ones will be winners.

Turning Ideas into Products

We consider an idea to be a problem statement and/or a solution, and a technology to be any kind of method, material, or intellectual property that could lead to one or more products.

In our University Program we look for promising ideas from faculty, students, and staff, who may have an inspiration for a product. We also seek out compelling research, intellectual property, and technologies that may not have found a practical application. We have criteria for selection which include market categories, manufacturing processes, defensible ideas (intellectual property), competition, and many other factors. We choose a select few of the ideas that come to us, and we put a lot of work into the ones we choose.

An idea or technology does not need to be protected with a patent in order to work with us. We will help the Inventor get a patent at the right time if the opportunity merits. We will keep all ideas and technologies in confidence and will always act as inclusively as possible in acknowledging the origins of all ideas and intellectual property.

A product is something that you can buy. It is manufactured, distributed, and otherwise made available for sale, and a successful product is the desired end result from Inventor Labs. We are shaping ideas and technologies into products, and finding the right partners to accelerate the success of those products.

Business Agreement

The way we work with Inventors is a bit like the way movie studios work with people who have written a screenplay. A screenplay is the intellectual property of its writer, but the process of making it into a movie requires investment, time, and expertise. If we select an idea, we will ask the Inventor to enter into an agreement with us to develop, market, and ultimately sell off the idea to a big manufacturer (or launch a startup company if the opportunity is large enough) and the Inventor shares in the outcome. The Inventor does not pay us anything. The Inventor, in conjunction with the Office of Technology Transfer for the University, assigns the intellectual property (idea) to us for a period of time not to exceed 24 months, during which Inventor Labs develops the idea and sells it off to an acquirer. If we can't sell the product successfully, we assign the intellectual property—and all assets that we have developed on your behalf—back to you.

It's important to note that we do not work on a royalty basis, but on a percentage of profit basis. The successful product exit (sale to acquirer) returns proceeds to the Inventor and to the University according to a fixed percentage of profits: