It is not uncommon for my advanced technology founder clients to express outright fear or perceived inability to “sell” or persuade partners and early adopters to engage. It is understandable that after years pursuing research and hours upon hours in a lab that one might feel leading the commercialization process is out of their abilities.

I’m here to tell you that it absolutely is not. One of my good friends and business partners always says, “founders make the first sale” and it is critical to believe that you can because this is absolutely true. Well before you raise capital to hire anyone to sell for you, you have to be selling yourself, your ideas, and your ability to lead a startup and get the innovation on the market.

There are many books, courses, and coaches that can help with this. I help with this but in reality, it is within your grasp with a mindset change and some simple principles to remember. This Inc. Magazine article is a case in point. Take a short read and take the four points to heart. Build the mindset that you can do this and then when you are funded to leverage a team like Rare Innovation, you’ll make that much more headway towards commercialization.