Arguably, business is just the commercialization of technology.
When a man invents something, or when a man discovers a scientific phenomenon, I’m sure there would be another who would think of how to monetize it.
In most cases, the shift from invention to commercialization happens so smoothly that we seldom pay it any mind. It’s a complicated process anyway. Unless of course, it has a negative impact. (Looking at you, Martin Skhreli).
There are cases, however, when the product presents itself as a simple and practical application of a scientific concept. Such as this one.
The Windcatcher is probably one of the most memorable pitches in 2015 in the show Shark Tank. It’s not often that the “sharks” get into a bidding war on who will get to invest on the product. It’s easy to see why.
The product is a clever application of the Bernoulli principle, a scientific concept that basically says as “as speed of the fluid increases, pressure decreases.” The bag is quickly inflated because the pressure inside the bag decreases and the air from the atmosphere is drawn into the bag from the sides along with the stream of air from your lungs.
Their website details the origin of the product concept. The inventor of the Windcatcher, Ryan Frayne, was at the beach when the idea came to him.
“I was at the beach with my family trying to inflate those awful pool floats. After seeing all the hassle inflating and deflating those pool floats caused my whole family, I started researching the problem.”
He then enlisted his friends Zeke Camusio and Rob Stam to help him launch the product. They used Kickstarter and raised just a few dollars short of $150k from 1,472 financial backers as well as the attention of investors and the media.
With Shark Tank, Ryan and Windcatcher got $200k for a 5% stake plus the funding of their purchase orders through Lori, a better deal than what he came for.
I guess it’s time to dig those old high school science experiments, yeah?
Visit Windcatcher’s website here.
What is your favorite science experiment? Comment below!