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    The Right Vehicle for an Idea: Build It, Partner It, License It, Sell It or Let It Wait

    A behind-the-scenes production setting with a camera operator, illustrating the importance of matching an idea with the right vehicle.

    Entrepreneurial culture tends to assume the natural destination of an idea is a startup.

    I do not think that is true.

    A great idea can be destroyed by putting it into the wrong vehicle.

    Some opportunities require an operating company because the value comes from building the entire system around them. Others might be far more valuable inside an existing company that already has customers, manufacturing, distribution or regulatory infrastructure.

    Some ideas are intellectual property. Some are partnerships. Some are media. Some are products. Some need an entrepreneur other than the person who conceived them.

    Build

    Build when the opportunity is large enough, the strategic advantage is meaningful and the value is likely to compound through owning and operating the business.

    Partner

    Partner when another organization has a critical capability you would otherwise spend years and substantial capital recreating.

    License

    Licensing can make sense when the core value is an invention, technology, brand or other IP and the licensee is better equipped to commercialize it.

    Sell

    Sometimes the cleanest realization of value is selling the idea, IP or project to someone for whom it is strategically more valuable.

    Wait

    This one deserves more respect.

    An idea can be early rather than wrong. The technology, market, regulation or economics may simply not be ready.

    Waiting is different from forgetting. Capture the idea, understand what conditions would make it more interesting, and revisit it as the world changes.

    This portfolio approach is part of how I think about Creativity & Innovation and one of the ideas behind Wokaura. The objective is not to force every possibility through the same machine. It is to find the structure most capable of advancing each one.

    Chad McMillan, creative entrepreneur and strategic advisor
    Chad McMillan

    Chad McMillan is a creative entrepreneur and strategic advisor with over 20 years of experience in and around the capital markets, focused on finding hidden potential in companies, ideas, markets and people, and advancing what they can become.

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