[Discuss] Startup?

[Steven at simplycircus.com (Steven Santos)]

This has been VERY helpful! Thank you all!

Sounds like the first thing I need to do is separate what it is from
the secret sauce that makes it work.

OK, here it is

How many devices are on the typical home network right now?  I'm not
talking about laptops, desktops and tablets (though these are
important too)?

>From my survey of friends and family, the average middle class home has:
1 Network gateway/Router
1.5 wifi base stations
2 Network Hard Drives / Media servers
1 Network printer/scanner
3 cameras
0.5 VOIP boxes
3 TV's
2 DVD players
2 internet TV devices
2 game terminals (Xbox, ect)

Thats an average of 18 devices, and thats before we add in the
laptops, desktops, tablets and phones we all have, let alone the
coming onslaught of devices.

Each device in your home now offers a great many personalized
features.  In almost all of the homes we surveyed, these devices were
only used in the most basic ways. Virtually all personalized features
were turned off.  As I am sure everyone here already knows, most of
those features are great, but a pain to manage, so they quickly get
shut off so that they will 'work'.

This is a major issue now, and as the IOT develops, its only going to
get worse. My solution to this (without the secret sauce) is twofold:

1. Make the devices basic functionality work simply.  A simplified
setup allowing the basics to be managed in one place.

Lets say that you have installed and configured the network
router/gateway, including adding your users and creating your
installation key.

Now lets say you want to add a network hard drive that supports this
system.  Plug in the install key, plug the device into the network,
and then configure the things that are specific to that NAS.  Basics,
such as user, groups and remote access is supplied to the NAS
automatically via the gateway.

The same holds true for door locks, cameras, printers and any other
device that you might think of - door locks, printers, cameras,
anything.

2. Scripting system designed to allow end-users to easily create very
powerful systems to allow the devices to work together to make the
home a better place.

Your new refrigerator knows when your out of OJ.  Thats great!  Now
what?  How can we use that, the fact that the smart closet knows we
are now out of toilet paper and the washing machine knows we are
running low on pods and the dog feeder knows we need kibble to do
something useful iwth it?

Thats where the scripting comes in.  Very simple (my mom was able to
figure out the mock-up), VERY powerful scripting designed to be cross
device. Lets you leverage all of the features of all of the devices on
the network to do things we have not even thought of yet.

So in large part, what I have is a base infrastructure for the IOT.






---
Steven Santos
Director
Simply Circus, Inc.
86 Los Angeles Street
Newton, MA 02458

P: 617-527-0667
F: 617-934-1870
E: Steven at SimplyCircus.com


On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 4:09 PM, Rich Braun <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:
> I'm with Tom Metro on the NDA and intellectual-property topic.  The idea
> itself isn't what's special.  Your passion to make it into a business is.
>
> Sure, talk to a hopefully-pro-bono lawyer about all this, but building a
> patent firewall around your idea is $100,000 at minimum between legal fees and
> various PR/market-development strategies required to defend against the big
> guys.  In any case, once your idea is proven successful, you need to get big
> fast. Patent law in the USA -- for at least the last 50 years -- is really
> just a game for companies the size of the one I'm at (1500 employees, 300+
> engineers) or bigger, not for small ones.
>
> One person in this thread suggested that in order to cash out, you'll need to
> embrace patents.  That's something for your mezzanine-level (series B or
> later) investors to decide.  Your angels shouldn't be expecting this at all,
> unless their goal is to plaster their bathroom walls with worthless
> patent-award plaques.
>
> Remember, your early investors are investing in YOU, not your IDEA.
>
> -rich
>
>
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