- Have you written down your idea(s) in a form that is comprehensible to laymen?
- Have you got as much feedback from relatives, friends and colleagues as you can?
- Have you defined your goals and priorities? (If you want to start up a company, there are a thousand things to do…)
- Have you found the right coach(es)?
- Do you have a committed team around you and have individual tasks and stakes been defined?
- Did you analyze your freedom-to-operate and legal restrictions (if any)?
- Have you decided on an IP strategy?
- Have you carved out the most important USPs of your product/service?
- Have you identified your customers and their needs and have you tried to get quantitative feedback (or even better, LOIs)?
- Have you asked for help from tech transfer offices, public grant institutions, and the like? (helps to identify available options)
- Have you assembled a business plan for your project?
- Have you validated your BP in one or more contests?
Happy starting up. Yours sincerely,
Octavian Schatz
Bild: ©iStockphoto.com / Kalawin Jongpo