Red Flags For Investors: Technology
There are accessible ways to assess claims made by inventors and startups
Years ago, I developed a basic framework of red flags I looked for when assessing wind generation technologies. I generalized it for an engineering magazine at one point at their request. A couple of years ago I used it as the basis of seminar I was invited to give at Columbia University. I apply the filter constantly and mostly unconsciously. And in recent weeks, I’ve had a series of conversations that make it clear it’s time to update it a bit.
One conversation was with a Dutch journalist who is writing an article for the government about how to avoid being conned or duped by poor solutions. Another was with an aerospace contact, where I pointed out that airborne wind energy types worked for years without realizing that they had to compete with a solution which required no human involvement in operations. Another was a discussion with a South American client group about potential investments.
The red flags are broken into three categories: technology, business model, and marketing, and this article lays out the technology ones, with the rest to follow. The intent is that anyone who can Google well can apply this filter. Like John Cook’s Cranky Uncle vs Climate Change, which provides very accessible cognitive…
