Harvard Business Publishing

Marc and Aaron will be presenting one such innovation at the Harvard Club of New York next week - 1/12/09 @ 7 PM
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Tell me about it!

My partner and I invented a better way to type called AlphaGrip. It's more ergonomic than a keyboard and mouse for desktop computing, and would enable texting on a smartphone at 50+ words per minute while standing, walking, riding or reclining. I described our invention to Doug Englebart at a conference for entrepreneurs about 10 years ago and he said, "Of course! Some day everyone will type that way." I didn't realize at the time that that "some day" might be 100 years down the road.

The major barrier to widespread adoption of our technology is that in order to use it, a user must learn to touch type on it. Despite the fact that it has a modified Qwerty letter layout, it still takes a couple of months of use for about an hour a day to achieve typing speeds of 40-60 wpm. As you can imagine, we were unable to convince an established company to produce one, so we brought one to market ourselves a couple of years ago, the iGrip Ergonomic Keyboard - looks like a game controller acts like a keyboard. We are currently generating a slow but steady stream of sales by word-of-mouth, but only have about 2,000 customers (though many of them really, really love their Grips).

I think the key to widespread adoption of our technology is to convince prospective customers that the benefit is so compelling it far outweighs the effort of climbing the learning curve (or we have to make the learning curve more fun, say, for instance, convincing people to play games or music with their Grip, where a byproduct of playing is learning to type with it).

People who have purchased one are convinced that the benefit of comfortable, lean-back computing is worth the effort. A smartphone with our technology would be even more compelling because not only would it be more ergonomic than texting on a thumb keyboard, it would at least double productivity so you wouldn’t have to get to a desk to get real work done. We’ve designed one that is shaped like an iPhone, but is larger, at 3.5” x 5.5”, and has a slide-out "keyboard."

The same year the typewriter was invented in 1867, a secretary invented touch typing, which doubled typing speeds from 20 wpm to 40 wpm. Today millions of people have gone through the pain of learning to touch type on a keyboard. Our technology enables touch typing on smartphones. We hope that’s compelling enough to gain adoption in our lifetime.

Let's not forget the good ideas bought by corporations never to be seen again. My father told me that in the 1950's, my grandfather designed and built an car engine that would get 60 mpg. Drove it in a demo from Palm Beach County to Dade County on a gallon of leaded gas. One of the now big 3 automakers bought it. This unique design was never seen again. The contract was to be paid mostly in royalties. They knew what they were doing. It was either filed 13'ed or hidden away for a future date and everyone forgot about it. In the '70s, my father called to see if anyone would do anything with it. No one, even in research had a clue.

Always have a clause in a contract that states if the idea is not used in a certain period of time, all rights revert back to you. I wouldn't be struggling to feed my family, if my grandfather had done that.

Keep in mind that if you sign an IP contract with your employer, that agreement becomes an asset of that employer. As an asset, it can be sold or transferred. There have been researchers that signed agreements, and when their company got acquired the parent shutdown the company. That research could not continue their life's work, period. That's the law.

On speeding up innovation, don't. In "Killer App," the author suggested that there should be more investment in discontinuous innovation. This at the beginning of the dot boom. These days, you'll read pragmatists that say wait, don't buy. What you really have to do is understand the system and use it. Typically, innovations are put on the market as if they were tennis shoes. As a consequence, they fail in the marketplace. Discontinuus innovation is a long road. Just pack for the long trip. Road trip! Road trip! Take a camera, and relax. If you keep up the effort, it will happen.