Innovation can be simplified into three easy steps:
- Identify a problem
- Determine a solution
- Work to make that solution a reality
If only it were that easy.
Craig Arnold, the vice dean for innovation at Princeton University, last week regaled a crowd of a few hundred with insights on entrepreneurship during a fireside chat that led off the Princeton Innovation Conference.
Arnold, who has had successful startups of his own and mentored students to the finish line with theirs, told the group that a successful startup is more than just an idea, it’s a team effort in which every member knows their role (and is willing to admit what they don’t know) and understands that nothing comes quickly.
It’s not like movies, Arnold said. Successful startups can take years to complete.
All successful startups, however, have one thing in common: They solve a problem.
Arnold talked about two successful ventures. First, his own, TAG Optics, the developer of a device that can change the focus of its lens thousands of times faster than anything else.
“This became really important for things like machine vision and robotics and other kinds of imaging applications,” he said.
And, even though it had to do with one of his academic specialties, it wasn’t an easy road. Arnold said it was six years between the patent and the product. In that time span, he learned a key lesson: You have to know everything about your product and the business of entrepreneurship.
“In those six years, I had to really understand the science and the technology,” he said. “Because, as soon as you make a product, someone’s going to ask you a question about it. And if you can’t answer it, you have a problem.”
Learning what you don’t know was showcased even more by another startup Arnold discussed: Invictis Technologies.
This was a product line Arnold knew nothing about. It was a device that would make injections less painful and easier to administer. It came from Miles Cole, a Princeton student who was a hemophiliac, searching for an answer to a personal problem.
Teamwork was the key here, Arnold said.
Arnold said he appreciated that Cole had identified a problem. It was just a matter of figuring out a path forward. Gradually, they developed a knowledge base that led to intellectual property, which led to the company.
“When it comes to small startups, what I’ve found is that the success really is the team,” Arnold said. “It’s the people. It’s not just having a really good idea. You have to have a good idea, but you have to have a good team of people that bring complementary skills to the table. And it has to be an honest team.
“Most people are not truly honest with themselves. We convince ourselves we know everything, that we can do everything. But, in reality, when it comes to these things, you have to say, ‘I don’t know the answer to that problem.’”
When you start from there, you can go anywhere, Arnold said.
“Successful entrepreneurships are when the businessperson can understand and be respectful of the technology person and the technology person can understand and be respectful of the businessperson — because you need both of them,” he said.
On top of everything else, you need a will to succeed.
Arnold, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, told the audience he didn’t come to Princeton two decades ago with a dream of becoming the school’s first vice dean of innovation.
But, once he saw how fulfilling it could be, he was hooked.
Entrepreneurship and startups are aspects of university life that outsiders may not recognize, Arnold said.
“In reality, it is one of the core things that we do as a research university,” he said.
Arnold said he doesn’t want to do research to make discoveries that only he will know about.
“I want to share it,” he said. “I want to put it out into the world. And, when you’re developing technologies, one of those mechanisms is to start a company.”
Sounds easy enough.
