When I left Los Alamos National Laboratory to start a company 11 years ago, I thought my team was ready. We had developed a new class of quantum dotsânanoscale particles of light-emitting semiconductor material that can be used in displays, solar cells, and more. Our technology was safer, more stable, and less expensive than existing quantum-dot materials. The technical advantages were real, but I quickly learned that no amount of scientific merit guarantees market success.
For many tech-startup founders, this is an uncomfortable but necessary realization. You can build an elegant solution, but if it doesnât solve a meaningful problem in the market, it wonât go anywhere commercially. The earlier you embrace that lesson, the better your odds of success.
Your Invention Isnât the Business
My background is in research. I have a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of IllinoisâUrbana-Champaign, and I did a postdoc at Los Alamos, in New Mexico, working on nanomaterials in the chemistry division. My focus was always on advancing scientific knowledge, publishing papers, and in some cases filing patents. Like many researchers, I eventually grew tired of chasing citations and wanted to apply that work to the real world.
Thatâs why I started UbiQD. We had a material that solved the technical shortcomings of conventional quantum dots, which require toxic heavy metals like cadmium or lead and involve expensive manufacturing processes. However, when we first introduced it to the market, the conversations we had were eye-opening. People didnât care about the material for its own sake. They cared about whether it solved their problem, and the severity of the problem defined their urgency.
My advice: If you canât clearly explain how your technology makes someoneâs life easier, safer, more sustainable, or more profitable, youâre not ready to sell it.
âThrowing It Over the Fenceâ Doesnât Work
Our early thinking was overly simplistic: Create better quantum dots, scale production, and let customers apply the technology to the industries that benefit from quantum dotsâ ability to manipulate light. We figured, if we make it, the customers will come.
To speed things up, we offered research-grade samples for testing. A number of early adopters asked for samples, but that âthrow it over the fenceâ approach typically doesnât work with a novel enabling technology. Whether itâs advanced materials, hardware, or software, you canât expect customers to figure out what solution works best; thatâs your job.
So before scaling your tech, spend time with potential customers. Listen more than you talk and identify their true pain points. Ask them what keeps them up at night. Thatâs where the real opportunities lie: in the chances to provide a must-have painkiller, rather than a nice-to-have daily vitamin.
Shelve the Ideas That Donât Fit
One of the hardest lessons tech founders must learn is how to recognize when a beloved idea doesnât align with market needs.
Take solar windows for greenhouses, one of the ideas we thought would be a hit but then had to shelve. Greenhouses spend a lot on electricity, so it seemed logical that theyâd want to generate electricity directly in the facade of the greenhouse. However, growers told us their biggest concern was crop yield, not operational costs. Light-absorbing windows could potentially cause a slight reduction in yield, and any such reductionâeven with energy savingsâwould likely hurt their bottom line.
Thatâs where the real opportunities lie: in the chances to provide a must-have painkiller, rather than a nice-to-have daily vitamin.
So we paused the solar-window idea in 2018 and focused instead on a simpler, higher-impact product: greenhouse films that shift the color of light to help plants grow faster. The growers cared about yield, and thatâs what we addressed using our technology. This agricultural application is now one of UbiQDâs main focus areas.
Donât get emotionally attached to one application or use case. If your company is built on a platform technology, stay flexible. The market will tell you where your technology fitsâand where it doesnât.
Competition Means Youâre on the Right Track
Many founders dread competition. I see it differently. When we entered the agriculture space, we saw other startups and a few large companies exploring similar ideas. That wasnât discouraging. It was validating. If no one else is working on the problem, it might not be a worthwhile opportunity.
Some startups also try to stay under the radar to gain an edge. But if potential partners or early customers donât know youâre working on a problem, they canât contribute to, challenge, or help accelerate your solution. That said, differentiation matters. Our edge comes from robust intellectual property, technical depth, and years of hard-earned data. Weâve had lots of help and input from outside the company, and some of our best customers found us first.
Expect and embrace competition, and donât be shy about it. Just make sure you have a defendable advantageâwhether through technology, partnerships, data, or expertise.
Earn the Right to Expand
As you begin to succeed in one market, youâll be tempted to expand quickly to others. But be cautious about moving too quickly. Weâve turned down plenty of tempting market opportunities over the years because we hadnât earned the right to go after them yet.
For example, applying our materials to cosmetics or paints is exciting, but until we achieved sufficient production scale and cost reduction, it didnât make sense economically. Now that weâve lowered costs and built better infrastructure, those markets are back on the table, but we understood this only after studying potential customers and their needs.
Build scale and generate revenue in your first market, and only then explore adjacent opportunities.
Advice I Wish I Had Heard Earlier
If I could give my younger self just one piece of advice, it would be this: Fall in love with the problem first, then the solution.
As a tech-company founder, I spent years perfecting our technology and publishing papers about how great the science of the solutions is. Building a company, though, also means understanding your customers and the economics of solving their problems.
Science and engineering are critical, but so are customer discovery, product management, and market research. Those skills are essential, and youâll probably need them sooner than you think.
So get out of the lab. Talk to potential customers as early as possible. Be ready to adapt as you listen. And remember, the value of your technology comes from the problem it solves.
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