Engineering the Tech Start Up, Volume 1

138 Pages·2017·4.381 MB·English

by  Cory R.A. Hallam

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technology companies.
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William Flannery holds a master’s degree in physics and a PhD in
• Downloadable PDFs
management from the University of Houston. He served as vice
• Free MARC records president of a small technology firm serving both government and Cory R.A. Hallam
industry clients, studied the management of innovative technology
For further information,
programs, and taught for 39 years at the University of Texas at San
a free trial, or to order, William Flannery
Antonio where he held the Melvin Lachman Distinguished Professorship
contact: 
in Entrepreneurship.
[email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-60650-554-0
ENGINEERING
THE HIGH TECH
START UP

ENGINEERING
THE HIGH TECH
START UP
F t
undamentals and heory
V I
olume
CORY R.A. HALLAM AND
WILLIAM FLANNERY
MOMENTUM PRESS, LLC, NEW YORK
Engineering the High Tech Start Up: Fundamentals and Theory,
Volume I
Copyright © Momentum Press®, LLC, 2018.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for
brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission
of the publisher.
First published by Momentum Press®, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.momentumpress.net
ISBN-13: 978-1-60650-554-0 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60650-555-7 (e-book)
Momentum Press Engineering Management Collection
Collection ISSN: 2376-4899 (print)
Collection ISSN: 2376-4902 (electronic)
Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd.,
Chennai, India
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
a
bstract
Technological entrepreneurship has been a key driver of economic growth
in developed countries, and will play an increasingly important role in
developing countries. Successful entrepreneurial efforts will be dependent
not so much upon the abilities of the engineer or skilled technical entre-
preneur to solve a technical problem, but upon the startup team’s ability
to traverse the myriad of problems they face in commercialization efforts.
This two-volume set has been written primarily for engineers, tech-
nicians and scientists who are contemplating the unknown but attractive
world of technological entrepreneurship, a key driver of economic growth
in developed countries and critical in stimulating growth in developing
countries. The purpose is to prepare these professionals as members of
teams focusing on commercializing new technology-based products.
The material has also been used to introduce engineering students to the
processes involved in technological entrepreneurship.
Volume I provides a background of fundamentals and theory to pre-
pare the reader for the venture launch. Topics include the entrepreneurial
process, the venture team, developing and marketing high tech products,
and launching the new venture. Volume II goes into detail in critical areas
such as intellectual property protection, legal forms of organization, finan-
cial projections, and business plan preparation and delivery. The primary
emphasis is focused on creating lean and agile organizations capable of
recognizing opportunities, quickly developing introductory products for
small test markets to better define the opportunities, and using the results
of those test markets to arrive at a product with wide acceptance capable
of driving growth.
KEYWORDS
commercialization process, enrepreneurial process, e ntrepreurship, high
tech startups, marketing high tech products, new product development,
starting new ventures

c
ontents
List of figures ix
List of tabLes xi
acknowLedgments xiii
1 introduction 1
1.1 The Entrepreneurial Engineer 1
1.2 Successful Entrepreneurial Ventures 2
1.3 Engineering Entrepreneurship Opportunities 3
1.4 Creativity, Invention, and Innovation 3
1.5 Entrepreneurship and Commercialization 6
1.6 Why Study Entrepreneurship 7
1.7 Outline of the Book 8
2 the entrepreneurship process 11
2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 Traditional Commercialization Process 13
2.3 Entrepreneurship Process 16
2.4 Summary 25
3 the entrepreneuriaL team 27
3.1 Introduction 27
3.2 Stages of Growth 28
3.3 Knowledge Workers 29
3.4 Team Formation 33
3.5 Supporting Network 36
3.6 Leadership 42
3.7 Summary 43
4 marketing high-tech products 45
4.1 Introduction 45
4.2 Industry Analysis 45
4.3 Market Analysis 54
viii • COntEntS
4.4 High-Tech Marketing Strategy 61
4.5 Summary 67
5 deveLoping high-tech products 71
5.1 Introduction 71
5.2 Characteristics of High-Tech Products 72
5.3 Technology Life Cycles (S Curves) 72
5.4 New Product Development Processes 76
5.5 Support for Product Development 83
5.6 Summary 88
6 Launching the venture 89
6.1 Introduction 89
6.2 Funding the Venture 89
6.3 Operating the Company 94
6.4 Exit Strategies 98
6.5 The Path Forward 103
appendix 105
bibLiography 109
about the authors 113
index 115
l F
Ist oF Igures
Figure 1.1. The creative process. 4
Figure 1.2. Invention versus innovation. 4
Figure 1.3. Types of innovation. 6
Figure 2.1. Product development process. 13
Figure 2.2. Creating a successful technology venture. 15
Figure 2.3. The entrepreneurship process. 16
Figure 2.4. Entrepreneurship: An iterative process. 18
Figure 2.5. Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop. 20
Figure 2.6. Customer development process. 22
Figure 3.1. Knowledge and learning with a technology company. 33
Figure 3.2. The entrepreneurial team’s support network. 37
Figure 4.1. The computer industry. 46
Figure 4.2. Industry life cycle. 48
Figure 4.3. Porter’s Five Force Model. 50
Figure 4.4. Diffusion of technologies across the “chasm.” 58
Figure 4.5. Product positioning examples. 63
Figure 5.1. Technology life cycle. 73
Figure 5.2. Product life cycle. 74
Figure 5.3. Comparison of the product life cycle and industry
life cycle. 75
Figure 5.4. Product and process changes required as function
of type of technology and products. 78
Figure 5.5. Example of a traditional product development plan. 79
Figure 5.6. Example of a waterfall development process. 81