The content of this book is a combination of technical writing, engineering, mixed with a crash course in running a startup company. The purpose of this book is to teach students how to leverage writing as a tool to aid in the inventing process, create a superior product, and launch a successful business off of your invention. It is not meant to serve as your primary source of information about the subjects in this book. For all of those subjects, it is recommended that you read the primary literature referenced in this book. The idea of this book is to teach students to document their ideas correctly in the correct way. Learning how to solve problems is not something that they teach you in primary school. The purpose of this book is to train you to think like an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur from the very start.
The book is written to the audience of people who already have inventions that they have been working on but those who do not have a project please plan on creating one to work or join another team to work through the book. Heavy emphasis is put on writing. Writing is arguably one of the most important tools you have in your toolkit in every professional and scientist’s life. The perspective of this book is coming from an amateur inventor attempting to launch a startup company off of their invention. While I am focusing on the amateur inventor, this book also applies to engineers, scientists, and masters of business. If you have an MBA, the book will function as a quick review of the Lean Startup Method, and also some valuable insight into how engineers and inventors invent, and how you can document your ideas for your next hot new startup company.
Another goal of this book is that I want to teach inventors to be ready to take on a co-founder, or team at any point in time in the development process. My biggest problem when I first started engineering school, when I had access to the resources of top-notch engineering facilities, I was not set up to take on anyone on my team because I did not have the proper project management tools and training.
The sad reality of launching an invention start is that sometimes, no one is going to work on your project. It’s hard for many inventors who are emotionally attached to their inventions to see this, but it is critical that you plan for this if you actually care about the project. Not only will learn how to do this speed up your own product development time and time to market, but it will also increase your chances of luring in a co-founder. Soft Skills
[Insert some quote about how engineering graduates are graduating with more technical knowledge, but not enough soft skills]
Soft skills include communication skills, and the ability to work in groups. This is why I have included the sections on group collaboration tools. Technical writing in the industry is done around the schedule of business and technology and product development. It is important when writing documentation for your invention that you have practice using these tools while you are working on projects. By becoming familiar with the tools and techniques, you will become better at writing more useful documentation for the people who are going to read it.
Copyright 2014-22 © Cale McCollough; most rights reserved, Third-party commercialization prohibited, mandatory improvement donations, licensed under the Kabuki Strong Source-available License that YOU MUST CONSENT TO at https://github.com/CookingWithCale/AStartupCookbook.