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The camera is one of those things that is not only a long-standing historical item (the first one was invented in 1021 AD, if you want to get really technical) but also one that continues to attract innumerable entrepreneurial efforts. You’d think every variation on the camera that could possibly be invented already exists. But, […]

Saving the world is great. In theory. But when it comes to the nitty gritty of making your ideals a business reality, you need to swap those rose-colored glasses for some eyes-wide-open realism.  Yet even in this complicated world we live in where multiple realities vie for attention, you can still do a lot of […]

The Apple aesthetic is easily recalled even by people who aren’t consumer electronics design enthusiasts. What do you think of when you are asked to describe an Apple product? Metal and glass? White? Minimalist? Someone once commented that a prototype I had built looks very “Apple.” It was a rectangular prism with rounded edges, constructed […]

All startups have challenges. Funding. Staffing. Marketing. Sales. Customer service. If they’re hardware startups, they need to add supply chain, prototyping, and manufacturing to the mix. That’s all assuming their product or service is rated G. Lioness, a startup in the hardware manufacturing space, has an extra challenge—they  design and manufacture vibrators for women. This […]

Silicon Valley teems with slick hi-tech gadgets that make life, work, and play fun, but that at the end of the day none of us really, truly need. Then there are those devices that do actually improve lives or make play more interactive. But can a device help us change our habits? That’s the question designer […]

As Thomas Edison once said, “Discontent is the first necessity of progress.” Many entrepreneurs set out to build a product out of personal frustration. In this situation, the first R&D activity is often researching technologies that can be harnessed to solve the problem on hand. Sometimes, R&D activities are carried out to productize and capitalize […]

What’s tougher than creating a new product in a well-established market? Creating a new product in a well-established market that happens to be not sexy, and for some even taboo. We’re referring to the wheelchair. Historically, the wheelchair has been associated with disability, old age, or some kind of infirmity. While multi-billion dollar empires have […]

Some of the products in our world are brand new—they’re the things we “didn’t know we needed,” the innovations that ramp up our experience of life a few notches. You know, like the Internet, the iPhone, and now all those Internet of Things things. Plenty of other products are age-old, traditional, ubiquitous. We also can’t […]

You’ve got a great product idea, but you also have a full-time job you love and no desire to start a company. Do you just shelve it? Nope! Instead, consider licensing your product to earn extra income from the royalties. Here’s how you can make it happen. What Licensing is and How it Works Licensing is […]

We live in a world replete with devices. Tablets, smartphones, desktops, laptops, smart watches, cars, TVs, thermostats, door locks. Probably toasters soon, too. Surely we don’t need another “thing.” Surely, if we want to do something as simple as browse through our photos, we can just pull up our tablets, smartphones, or plug our camera […]