Question

Topic: Strategy

Market Credibility

Posted by Anonymous on 5/1/2005 at 5:32 AM ET 250 Points
Hi Group,

I am working with a university team which has developed a prototype for a breakthrough fuel cell product (patents pending). I’ve advised them the way to build instant credibility with B2B prospects and consumer end-users is to have their product test results certified by the Argonne National Laboratory (US Dept. of Energy). This isn't cheap and money is tight.

At this point it's sufficient to get letters of interest from potential partners/customers in the computer hardware sector, if the university lab tests are verified in future, but I'm looking for a "hook" to get in the door with the likes of Hewlett Packard, Dell, etc.

Before we move forward, would appreciate comments on whether thd "gold standard" lab is the way to go and whether this is the most efficient, cost-effective way to get early adopters, particularly in industry, to sit up and listen to our story.



Thanks very much,

Sandy Prisant
Chief Strategy Officer
Prism Inc.

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 5/1/2005 at 9:29 AM Accepted
    I can't see the point of what you're suggesting... yet.

    If the fuel cell is that much of a breakthrough, then simply speaking to prospective early adopters with specfications such as:

    - mAh Capacity
    - Voltage Ranges
    - Peak/steady state current capabilities under whatever loads
    - Package dimensions
    - Temperature/humidity/altitude/depth ranges.

    Should be enough to catch their interest.

    Get interested industrial users to enter into some kind of EOI before getting the specs ratified by a NATA-type body.

    If the market isn't excited by the technology, given money is one thing your client is short of, why waste the money proving the specs are true and correct?

    Get the market drooling first, get them commited second, the lab verification of the University lab tests should be a mere formality.

    If you personally have doubts about the university's self-test veracity, get another Uni lab to simulate the Argonne National Laboratory tests, independent of the development team, to ensure you are getting an impartial result. They should be able to do their academic colleagues a favour, for free, or not?

    Those results should give you the confidence to go to the market to extract an EOI or two, or maybe auction the exclusive rights... Then get the buyers to pay for the tests as part of their early commitment fee.

    Good luck.

    ChrisB



  • Posted by steven.alker on 5/3/2005 at 8:02 AM Member
    Sandy

    Going for National Laboratory testing and accreditation is almost certainly unnecessary before you start to sell, and even then your desire to do so may be tempered by whether it is a legal requirement within the markets you wish to sell into.

    As your group is from academia, can you go for peer review by writing and submitting a paper to an appropriate journal? That will establish your scientific and technical credibility beyond reasonable doubt.

    Large potential end users have their own laboratory test facilities and entering into an in house test will establish the fitness for purpose within their own company, if not their entire industry. Take care in how you agree this sort of test as there may be implications on the confidentiality front – you don’t want them to feed information to another party so that that party is able to modify your product and get round the patent, nor do you want to be restricted in being able to use the test results in subsequent publicity. If the potential customer does carry out their own tests, they will want to acquire as much benefit from this privileged knowledge as possible – so you’ll have to be tough in negotiations whilst understanding of their commercial perspective.

    When it comes to selling the product globally, you will need to check out the legal testing requirements country by country. These will be to demonstrate environmental compliance, safety and fitness to meet already published national standards. In the EC these are well defined and a successful test house result in one country (BSI in the UK or TUV in Germany) is valid for all 22 member states. Unfortunately, the US test house standards are only partially transferable to these shores, although EMC testing and CE marking is usually OK.

    One last point – once your prospects have decided that it’s good enough for their needs and you decide to launch it nationally or globally, be aware that the timescales found in securing test house certification from government facilities can be rather long. If and when you decide to go for it, give yourself lots of time – otherwise you’ll end up not knowing what certificate number to print on your promotional literature. I’ve ended up having to over print literature with a certificate number in the past due to an unexpected 26 week backlog at the British Standards Institute testing laboratory.

    Steve Alker
    Unimax Solutions
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