PROTECT YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Protect your IP

It is very important for a start-up to have something novel and something protectable.

So, think through about what's novel about your solution. Look even for obvious angles but things that no one has tried before and then you can go ahead and protect it very inexpensively starting with provisional patents, maybe turning into full patents later. But it's really valuable even as an exercise to think through all the things that could be differentiated and special about what you're doing.

It's going to be useful for recruiting, it's going to be useful for fundraising, and it might be very, very useful for growing your business and protecting yourself later. I'm even thinking about this from the standpoint of never ever having to take anybody to court over your IP but I’m just thinking about making your core offering stronger and the thought process that goes into thinking about that differentiation.

So, building up your IP portfolio whether it's protected with patents or even just keeping its trade secrets but really spending time to think that through and always think that through.

I love having IP brainstorming sessions with my team to assess what have we done recently that's new and novel that no one has tried before and even just collecting among ourselves but then often filing it as provisionals is a very, very valuable exercise.