Luke wrote: Congratulations! That's some solid progress. Is $150K as much money as it sounds like, in this context? I imagine there's not really a 'grassroots' way to go about designing something like this.
They'll need more. Renting lab equipment is expensive. Paying people to do tests is expensive. Buying your own equipment is EXPENSIVEEEEE. I used to work for the man doing research and development like this. I hope you guys pull it off!
Creativity can trump short budgets.
We do multi-million dollar research and lab projects all the time for $.10 on the dollar. Pretty much S.O.P. where I work.
Congrats, Angry! Very cool!!
SVreX wrote: Creativity can trump short budgets. We do multi-million dollar research and lab projects all the time for $.10 on the dollar. Pretty much S.O.P. where I work. Congrats, Angry! Very cool!!
Creativity does not trump the various government agencies. You try to get stuff past the FDA without the proper accreditation and what not. Even "cheap" research is expensive. How much does a DSC cost? A TGA? How much are the standard materials? An Instron? How much is a calibrated load cell? Are they doing the work on the side at their regular jobs? "The Man" made me sign stuff before giving me a job that prevents that.... I guess you could do some preliminary research and sell the idea to "The Man."
If you insist.
I work at a custom chemical research and development company with over 2000 different products, mostly HazMats. We sell to the military, NASA, food grade products (including Kosher), and medical industries. I guess we don't know anything about government agencies. 
Like I said, we do stuff for $.10 on the dollar every single day. We deal with every possible government agency on the map, both nationally and internationally.
I promise pessimism WILL NOT win any awards or opportunities in the marketplace or with government agencies.
It's not pessimism, it's realism. You do stuff for $.10 on the dollar every day? What is $.10 on the dollar for a $10million project? How long would $150k last on your projects, especially if you have to start from scratch? You guys have already paid for your accreditation, infrastructure, and whatnot. You can't forget about that stuff. My point remains that $150k does not last long in a research environment. You work for "The Man." That stuff has already been taken care of. I know, because I used to work for a company that did custom research and development with over 2000 different products. We sold to the military, NASA, food grade products (including Kosher), and medical industries. I guess I don't know anything about government agencies.
"Hey guys, I discovered the properties of this material by melting it in a frying pan. We were able to reproduce the results with all two people working here, so it's all cool."
Yes. Every day.
Every step of the way for the company at every size and level has been the same approach. We do $10,000 projects for the same discounted percentage that we do $10 million projects. Infrastructure was paid for the same way.
Creativity trumped short budgets at every corner.
That's how we got to where we are.
Some people say you can't build a race car for $2000 either. 
we estimate that full FDA 510k approval will cost about $2M. design refinement, prototypes, component testing, animal testing, human clinical trials, plus all the data analysis along the way, etc, will eat up a good bit of money. we are budget-conscious, but are not going to squeeze every penny. probably just every other.
That's awesome! 
Good luck, Angry.
Congratulations, Angry! Oh wait, you'll need to be HappyCorvair once the bucks start rolling in. 
since this is my thread, i'm allowed to bring it back from the dead, yes?
recent developments:
- we've received our latest level of prototypes
- we are in the middle of another round of lab testing with some "surprise and delight" results so far
- we have received notice from the USPTO that several of the claims in our patent applications are being accepted
- we've picked up some more prize money in various business plan competitions
it has been slow going since we've been working only with grant / prize / out-of-pocket funding, but we still own 100% of the company and we all have day jobs, so the progress to date is encouraging.
Congrads! I hope it all works out well for you.
When you're fabulously wealthy and trading up to fancier race cars, you can toss some of your cast offs my way. 
That's awesome Angry! Glad to hear it is going so well
So the question is...
Can you make a cool suit from this that will fit in a car?
Congrats man!! Seems like ya'll are working hard at it.
AngryCorvair wrote: since this is my thread, i'm allowed to bring it back from the dead, yes? recent developments: - we've received our latest level of prototypes - we are in the middle of another round of lab testing with some "surprise and delight" results so far - we have received notice from the USPTO that several of the claims in our patent applications are being accepted - we've picked up some more prize money in various business plan competitions it has been slow going since we've been working only with grant / prize / out-of-pocket funding, but we still own 100% of the company *and* we all have day jobs, so the progress to date is encouraging.
Fantastic news man. I love it when big gamble + hard work = huge success. Here's to hoping you hit that eVil 1% status ASAFP!
+1
Baby, you ain't never gonna have any more trouble with the 3 Ps!
Rock on Angry! Nearly all of the extremely successful people I've met in my life have focused on a good idea and worked their ass off and sacrificed to make it happen. Here's hoping that path leads you to fatcatland!
Good on you!! Just don't forget us when you get to that 7 figure income.
Way to go, Angry!
So, our first patent application contained 29 claims. After some back-and-forth with USPTO, we combined a few of them and the revised app contained 26 claims. The USPTO accepted all 26 claims, and US Patent No. 8,231,664 is officially released as of today, 31 Jul 2012.
In other news, today is the filing deadline for the Phase 2 SBIR Grant through the NSF. Receiving the $150k Phase 1 SBIR grant from NSF put us in the pool of eligible candidates for Phase 2 funding. So yesterday we submitted our Phase 2 proposal, requesting $500k. $500k of non-dilutional funding would allow us to make significant progress toward FDA approval, which would allow us to release our device for sale in the US. Phase 2 timing is two years, so if all goes well we could be selling in the US by 1st quarter 2015.
Woot!
That's awesome!
Couldn't happen to a bigger assh0le. Jokes. Love you man. Very happy for you, you hard-workin, smart mother berkeleyer.
Congratulations! You need a rep for the Southeast? 
Good stuff. FWIW, I'm getting more and more familiar with 510k's, biocompatibility, sterilization routines, etc. based on my day job. Feel free to drop an email if there's any questions I could maybe answer. I'm far from a regulatory guru, but I'm picking up on the lingo and I work with a few.
Curmudgeon wrote: Congratulations! You need a rep for the Southeast?
yeah...Cincinnati has a lot of people. People need science things. I know a lot of people. I want to sell your science things to a lot of Cincinnati people. I can haz job nao?
Seriously tho, I think I speak for a lot of tinkering DIY-ers that it really is great to see someone dream something up, and then go effing get it. Youre hardcore man, congrats!
You'll need to log in to post.
