Five ways to become an agile IP venture like Nvidia
- publish258
- Jan 24, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: May 22
An asset light as Nvidia? Andrea Schuessler highlights five ways for agile IP ventures to become future ready and realise the potential for high growth
Andrea Schuessler
In deep tech, the rewards go to those who are future ready and who use IP to give themselves the agility to scale. You can’t rely on reputation. Take the example of semiconductors.
According to a survey of future readiness by the IMD Business School in 2022, Intel, formerly best in class, now ranks 16th. It has got stuck making microprocessors for PCs, laptops and servers while its competitors, most notably Nvidia, have capitalised on emerging demands in chipsets for applications in machine learning, autonomous driving, natural language processing and other applications in artificial intelligence.
Intel’s conservatism is understandable: it is the only player in semiconductors that has a network of factories, making it averse to risks. It can’t branch out into new businesses without the worry that its factories might stand still if new products do not become blockbusters. Nvidia has evolved by providing graphic processors, notably in the gaming sector. It relies rely on others manufacturing its products, such as TSMC from Taiwan. Without factories, it has fewer cost restraints. Asset light, it can afford to be agile. However, what is currently an advantage could also turn negative in the event of another lockdown or crisis. Intel would then be able to rely on its own factories without having to ship from Asia or anywhere else in the world.
In deep tech, which usually involves start-ups, Nvidia’s is an attractive model for when manpower is limited and funds are short. In her chapter for the latest edition of Managing Intellectual Property Today, Andrea Schuessler identifies five themes for how such deep tech ventures can follow Nvidia in how they manage their IP to become future ready and realise the potential for growth:
Use licences to bring in technology and knowledge first, then release them to the market.
For intensive product builds, scale fast by creating a platform.
For approvals, become ready for market sooner by lining up partners.
Bring in a co-founder as chief executive to accelerate funding and product development.
Make a regular sweep of competitors to check freedom to operate.
• The full version of ‘Becoming future ready’, an article by Andrea Schuessler, partner at Huber & Schuessler, appears in ‘Winning with IP: Managing intellectual property today’, fourth edition, Novaro Publishing, November 2023. See here for details.
