How to Advance Your Solution

From idea generation to launch: how do you bring an idea to life? Bringing your innovation forward involves extensive planning; deep understanding of the target market; validating your idea; making key financial decisions, including funding; legally protecting your business and developing a marketing plan.

We’ve curated resources to help.*

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a framework to generate innovative solutions through creative problem solving. It involves five stages: Empathy, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype and Test. The following tools, resources, and inspiration may help you further refine the innovative solution you have created for a health or healthcare challenge:

-Design Thinking for Health

-Design Thinking Bootleg

-IDEO U
Business Plan

Once you have your idea, you will need a business plan, which maps out a detailed blueprint for how to structure, run and grow your startup. It will help convince people that working with you, or investing in your company, is a smart choice. Lean Canvas is a business plan template that distills your idea down to one page. It is quick, concise and easy to share.

Learn More:

-Lean Stack – Lean Canvas

-Business Model Canvas
Market Research

After defining your business idea, you will need to validate it through market research. Is there really a market for your product or service? Who are the potential customers? What is your competitive advantage, and what, if any, fine-tuning is needed? Not only can you optimize your product, but you can also wow investors!

Learn More:

-Conducting Market Research

-Grow Your Biotech: Marketing Fundamentals, Online Presence & Content
Website Development

After you have crafted a business plan and done market research and before you ask for investor money, it’s time to build a website. When building your website, you will want to define your value proposition, understand the customer journey, assess content needs, develop your branding, and choose a domain name. There are simple tools available to help you through the process.

Learn More:

-Squarespace

-Wix

-Strikingly

Finding Funding

INVESTOR PROPOSAL WRITING

An investment proposal is a Word document about your startup (product or service) whose purpose is to raise funding. In this proposal, it is essential to demonstrate that you understand your audience, know their needs, and can address these needs with your idea. You will need to prepare your argument for why your startup is worth the investment before you begin writing.

Learn More Webinar:

–Insight on Securing SBIR Funding

INVESTOR PITCHES

Even though you have a great idea, a great product, and a great team, you need to be able to communicate this well to secure funding. Make sure you’re ready for this important pitch. Learn the secrets behind the pitches that succeed:

-The Right Way to Craft a Pitch

-Developing a Non-Confidential Pitch for in Person and Virtual Presentations

-An Innovator’s Guide to Crafting the Perfect Pitch

-Johnson & Johnson Innovation

For slide resources check out Prezi, Slide Bean, Sway, Google Slides, and/or PowerPoint.

Setting Up Your Business

FOUNDER'S AGREEMENT

A founder's agreement is a legally binding contract that outlines the roles, rights, and responsibilities of each owner in a business, distribution of equity and vesting and Intellectual Property assignment. If you are working with others, you should implement this immediately upon starting your business journey.

Learn More:

-Founders Agreement

BUSINESS STRUCTURE

The business structure you choose influences everything from day-to-day operations, to taxes, to how much of your personal assets are at risk. You should choose a business structure that gives you the right balance of legal protections and benefits. Choosing your business structure is one of many legal steps you must take before you launch your business.

Learn More:

-Choose a Business Structure

-10 Steps to Start Your Business

Legal Considerations

Protecting your innovation and having a good intellectual property (IP) strategy are key to have in place before talking to investors, potential partners and expanding your business. Understanding how to navigate the complete landscape of patents, licenses, and competitive IP are crucial in determining your success.**

Learn More:

-Raising Capital: A Legal Primer

-Avoid Intellectual Property Errors

-10 Intellectual Property Strategies For Technology Startups

**This is not intended to serve as legal advice, and should not be relied on as such. For assistance with legal questions, readers should consult with a licensed attorney.

Marketing Support

A Marketing Plan is critical to the success of a start-up business. At a most basic level, marketing means attracting attention to what you sell. If customers don’t know what you’re selling, they can’t buy it. How can you make the biggest impact while remaining smart with your resources?

Learn More:

-How To Develop A Successful Marketing Strategy For A Startup

-Building your brand and marketing strategy for the life science startup

More Innovation Resources

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*Links to external resources shown on this website are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to suggest or imply and should not be construed as the endorsement by J & J or that any partnership or other affiliation exists between J & J and any entity associated with the linked tools.