Open Source and the Future of Capitalism

MIT physicist Richard Morley once quipped how innovation happens: “In order to see the solar system as it is, Copernicus had to be standing on the sun.”
That analogy serves as the title of the book Standing on the Sun by Christopher Meyer and Julia Kirby, which gives a big-picture view on how capitalism is changing and how those changes are impacting businesses. Even though the book seems to focus on large markets and corporations (and reading this text can feel like heavy lifting), there are nonetheless some profound points that small business owners can use to prepare for coming changes.
Here are a few key points from the book.
Open Source Doesn’t Equal Free
If your company is in the software or hardware development game, open source may feel like a drag on your profitability. But according to Meyer and Kirby, although open source software and hardware often follows a "freemium" model, that doesn't mean you can’t make money. There are lots of software companies that have an open source product and then build on it with a more advanced version that customers purchase.
Standing on the Sun, espouses this collaborative, interconnected way of the future by citing numerous international examples of technology being used in unexpected ways. For example, it shows how mobile phones “power” a village by giving merchants access to local and national markets. Another example is the U.S.-based small business Adafruit, a DIY electronics kit maker, which encourages its community (with a cash reward) to hack the Microsoft Kinect system with an open source driver. Microsoft objected at first until it realized this sort of collaboration could benefit its systems, too. You can read the full post here.
Faster Product Development via Makerspaces
Another way the open source movement is benefiting small business is in prototyping. The good news is that you don't have to invest $20,000 in a laser cutter or high-end 3D printer for prototyping. You can join a makerspace, hackerspace, or an open access public workshop like TechShop (although there are only five across the country right now). Many start-up small businesses are leveraging these technologies by purchasing, leasing or joining a community space where they get access to tools and machines.
Square, the credit card processing device for mobile phones, was prototyped in the California TechShop in about two weeks. This is also an example of “reshoring,” where large and small companies bring their manufacturing operations back to the United States from China. Prototyping the Square device overseas would have been both cost- and time-prohibitive for the inventors. Thus we are seeing an evolution toward small urban manufacturing that makes it easier to produce locally. (Check out my OPEN Forum post 13 Ways to Create Products in Real Time, for more on devices that help you create prototypes or even working products.)
Using Hashtags in Your Marketing
Tagging content on your site makes it possible for like-minded individuals to connect and makes tracking social media a bit easier. Not to mention that like open source software, it is free to employ. Meyer and Kirby suggest one or two hashtags in each chapter to spur online conversation. Think about your marketing pieces, your blog posts, your events and how you could add simple hashtags for people to use on Twitter and Facebook.
The world economy, like everything in life, is always in motion and always changing. We don’t always notice it until enough change has taken place. Thanks to Standing on the Sun, we can catch a real glimpse of the future of capitalism and small business.

08:49 by Robert dawne · 0

Non-Scientists Use Business Savvy to Launch Med-Tech Product

Rebecca Griffin and Teresa Garland had a great idea for a home-health product but they had no scientific background. That didn't stop them.
In 2005, the two Dallas friends were chatting about a friend who was pregnant. She had two girls already and really wanted a boy. An expectant mom can find out the gender of the fetus with the first sonogram, usually at about 18 weeks. But there's a curiosity gap between the first home pregnancy test and that sonogram.
"We said, 'Gosh, you would think there would be a way to tell by the urine whether it's a girl or a boy,'" Griffin says. "How cool would that be?"
Some Internet research turned up an interesting bit of folklore. In the 17th century, women had a fairly reliable test involving grains of wheat and barley. It piqued their interest enough to look for a lab that would work with them.
They were not scientists, but they did know business. Griffin was a partner in a commercial real estate firm. Garland was a business-development consultant for PwC. They called on friends and contacts for referrals.
The search took them to San Francisco, where they found a company known for its quality skin products. It had the expertise and the vision to help them.
"We were on a fast track to get a product developed," Griffin says. "We felt like speed to market was important. We couldn't believe no one had done this before."
In addition to developing a reliable test, the lab had to figure out which week of pregnancy would produce accurate results. It had to keep track of each sample and match it to the sonogram and the gender of the resulting baby.
The lab went down many dead ends, but the biggest challenge was getting enough of "solution," or the urine of pregnant women. It developed a special cup for the solution samples, plus all the packaging and directions.
The two women tried doctors' offices and approached women in malls and offered them $20 to pee in a cup. Finally, they spread the word through churches and schools. Many women began dropping off samples in the mailbox.
"We did a lot of brainstorming and whiteboarding," Garland says. "How do you find the right jar [for the kit]? How do you design your box? Do we need instructions? A syringe? It gets complicated."
Ironically, it took about nine months to create the IntelliGender test. Independent testing facilities have rated it 85 percent accurate.
Both women were still working full-time, investing their own money in the company when the product launched with Internet sales in 2006.
As the orders for the kit increased, with CVS and Walgreens carrying it, Garland and her husband went to work at IntelliGender in 2009 to manage the volume. Griffin kept her job but participated as a full partner in the LLC. The company expanded to Australia and then to 23 other countries.
The kit now retails for $35. The most expensive part of the kit is the syringe for dropping a sample onto the tester—it was the only imported item. To date, the company has sold more than 500,000 kits worldwide.
IntelliGender also sells IntelliCeuticals, natural remedies to support the health of pregnant women and babies. The company aims to bring more complementary products to market.
Looking back, Garland thinks that the partners' business expertise more than made up for their lack of scientific training.
"We both had marketing [experience]. Rebecca had contract negotiations and I had finance and consulting. My husband was IT, manufacturing and logistics," she says. "A lot of inventors have the opposite scenario.
"But if you spend your whole time in the lab, you have no exposure to business. I think that was key to our success. We had the background of how to make it happen."
Griffin agrees. "You can outsource anything you need," she says. "In fact, it's highly unusual that anyone would have all the skill sets you need to develop a product. Tenacity and ambition are the mothers of invention."
Photo credit: Courtesy subject

12:40 by Robert dawne · 0