I bring over 30 years of experience in the business to the table –experience in laboratory instruments, portable and handheld analyzers, start-up and mature companies.
Working Together
Portable instruments change the way customers do business, making them much more efficient, by providing answers at the point of need - at the sample.
This means that as much effort has to be placed in data workup and result generation as in hardware development. Result generation can require algorithms that produce a result with a confidence factor, which in turn often requires the development of specialized spectral libraries and calibrations. The effort involved in this application development should not be underestimated!
Why I Can Help
I have been in the analytical instrument business for 35 years, in a wide variety of leadership roles, from R&D to business development and marketing, strategy and strategy deployment, acquisitions and integration:
Success developing new technology products and taking them to market
15 years developing and marketing miniature, portable and handheld instruments
Work experience in both technology start-ups, and major analytical instrument companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific, PerkinElmer
Large number of contacts in the field from this long experience, activities in scientific meetings and professional societies --- personnel in technology companies, large analytical companies, end users in key industries, researchers, specialist consultants, etc.
Deep understanding of spectroscopic applications and markets
How I can help
I can help you with:
Developing your product --- The discipline of a gated process
Locating and understanding markets and applications --- including useful versus worthless market reports
Determining customer value propositions --- generating customer pull
Deciding on routes to market --- direct, distribution, or OEM
Understanding acquisitions in this sector
Making key contacts
Getting the message out
This can be via short-term or long-term engagements
Technology First, Market Second?
Having a technology first and then determining a market second is not the best approach --- but it is not uncommon. As well as a product development plan, to be successful you need to focus on the application (that solves a customer need), and the channel.
So we need to answer questions like:
Is the technology really proven?
Is the intellectual property protected?
How is your solution better/faster/cheaper? Is it ready to go to market?
What is the problem that you are solving?
What is the customer value proposition? What are the customer’s current pain points?
How will you generate customer interest and pull?
How will you sell it?
Creating a New Market
With a new technology product, you may be creating a new market, for instance:
A new handheld or portable segment, where laboratory analyses exist
A new process analytical or industrial automation application, where laboratory analyses exist
A low cost solution, enabling much more widespread deployment
A consumer product, putting analytical capabilities into a mass audience
And putting an instrument into a new class of operators and users
We need to understand not only the analysis, but also
The capabilities of the operator
The operating environment
How to go from data to results reliably
How to present the results to the operator
How to manage the product in the field
And how to reach the target audience
Your Product Roadmap
You should already be thinking about the next steps for the product – a product roadmap. This should cover how to expand the reach of the product (applications, geographies, industries, etc.), if additional sampling and sample presentation/introduction techniques and accessories are required, if additional software is required, cost reduction, development of new applications (markets) for the existing product and finally, what the next generation product will be
Routes to Market
Are you looking at developing and marketing a complete product, or are you looking to supply (OEM) an ‘engine’, or critical technology piece, to an established company? How do you engage with established companies, e.g., large analytical companies, industrial automation companies or companies outside the usual analytical chemistry field?
Established companies will have five-year plan, a very firm two-year product development program, and most resources will already be allocated. They may evaluate a new technology, but that may be all.
Their overall plan is to consistent improve their products’ performance over the years, aggressively cost-reduce their products, which means that a new high-cost component is unattractive. They will also place a premium on component reliability, and therefore prefer to watch a new technology for several years, determine if a new market has been developed, and then acquire a company. This is more expensive than initially acquiring the technology, but is much lower risk and much more predictable