Tech Entrepreneurs Need More Than an Idea

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It has been said inspiration is the mother of invention, and technology and innovation are her offspring. If that's true, entrepreneurship is the home where they are incubated, developed and encouraged to go forth and prosper. Idea take typically form in the mind of someone living day to day with a problem that needs solving. Undoubtedly, the wheel was invented by someone tired of dragging home their kill at the end of a vine. Ideas give rise to technology, and technology to a "product" a stagnant market will see and desire. Great ideas are not always profitable ideas, though. Great ideas do not always translate into products, services or technologies someone will buy at a profitable price. Sometimes it's ideas in the "Are you kidding me?" or a "Who would buy that?" categories that are the successful ones: Pet Rocks, Chia Pets and bottled water -- who would have thought people would pay outrageous prices for water ... in a bottle? Well, someone somewhere had an idea. Even more importantly, they found an audience that had money and wanted what they were selling. I doubt market research told them there was an unfulfilled need for painted rocks, plant pets or water in a plastic bottle (OK, the latter might have been needed in a desert -- but you know what I mean). But Coca Cola KO and Nestle NSRGY are now among those profiting from it. FROM IDEA TO MARKET Today's idea generators (aka inventors) come from many places. They may be corporate employees by day and garage inventors by night (this has its own perils, but more on that in a future article). They may be researchers in corporate, university and government labs seeking knowledge and understanding. There are soccer moms, hockey dads and kids with ideas for Apple AAPL applications. They are rich, poor and every other adjective you can think of. Their discoveries may be tomorrow's innovative products. To read the rest, head over to TheStreet.com