Posts Tagged ‘Invest in Startups’
IP Due Diligence Checklist
Due diligence is essential for any business deal, and IP due diligence is shockingly left out of the equation for most angel investors and venture capital investors. Due diligence is hard work. Doing it well will get your hands dirty. Introduction to IP Due Diligence Any due diligence exercise, especially IP due diligence, involves turning…
Read MoreHow to Find a Realistic Patent Value
(Updated 22 July 2023.) The biggest factor to determine a patent’s value: revenue. A realistic patent valuation can be determined using many of the same techniques used to value businesses. However, it all depends on whether someone is actively copying your invention. How to value a patent all depends on whether there is product in…
Read MoreThe S-Curve, Innovation, and Intellectual Property
Every technology grows on an “S-curve.” The S-curve cycle is where an idea is born, then it struggles to get product-market fit through infancy. Once it begins to get traction, there is a period of growth, after which the technology levels out and eventually declines. You can think of the S-curve as the growth cycle…
Read More2020 Has Been The Best Year
Retrospective On 2020 I am sad to see 2020 go. It has been a monumental year in many ways. Lots of things were shaken very hard, and many things broke under the stress, but many things were improved. Life is consistent about one thing: change. You can choose to complain that things are not what…
Read MoreHacking the business plan for startup funding
Want to start your own side-hustle business? Thinking about launching a new product line in your corporation? Both projects have the same steps. Get a basic business plan together Years ago, it was popular to have 30 page business plans that spelled out endless detail. Today’s thinking is to use “Lean Methodology” to start working…
Read MorePre-seed Funding: You Can Do A Lot Of The Work Upfront
Start with marketing – not product design. Thinking about pre-seed funding? Getting your company off the ground is a challenging task, but far too many entrepreneurs want to run before they even crawl. It is easy to imagine a busy staff of great, motivated employees working for you, money rolling in, and interviews and quotes…
Read MoreStartup Funding: Apply for BlueIron Non-Dilutive Funding
BlueIron provides non-dilutive startup funding. BlueIron provides $60K or more non-dilutive startup funding for companies with great inventions. Our model is to invest in the full cost of getting patents for a company, including international (PCT) filing and expediting the patent through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We fund companies *before* angel or…
Read MoreWhy Marketing Is More Important than Patents
Entrepreneurs have been fed this lie that the first thing they need to do is get a patent, then work on the business. This is a bad strategy. As an investor who finances IP for startups, I want some data to support the investment in patents. The best strategy is to do the marketing first,…
Read MoreVenture Capital Investments in Patent-Heavy Companies is Down Substantially
The Alliance of US Startups and Inventors for Jobs (USIJ) issued a report in July 2020 showing how Venture Capital has shied away from patent-intensive startups over most of the last two decades. This corresponds with the undermining of the US patent system through several Supreme Court cases during the period. You can get the…
Read MoreAutomed Gets Investment from BlueIron
Automed, Inc., the world’s leader in medication delivery for livestock based in Ames, Iowa, announces a patent financing arrangement with BlueIron of Loveland, Colorado. “We are able to get better patent protection and grow the company at the same time” says David Edwards, CEO of Automed. “Our patent expenses were getting ridiculously high, and we…
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