How the Global Coronavirus Reset is the Chance of a Lifetime for Small Start-ups and Individual Inventors

When I was a kid, around 11 or 12, I think it was, I remember playing a game of Monopoly with my family when my younger brother came by, tripped, jostled the table and accidentally knocked all the pieces off the board.

My dad already owned Boardwalk and Park Place, and it seemed like nothing I could do would really make a difference to the outcome of the game. Once you own those properties, it’s a foregone conclusion that you also own the board. 

Had I owned all of the choice property, I would be pissed off. But I didn’t, and I wasn’t. Instead, I saw opportunity. The prospect of getting a chance to “start over,” rather than the irritating nuisance I’m sure it was for my dad, was amazing to me. This time, maybe I could compete!

This is exactly the opportunity this pandemic is offering to those who think innovatively.

Traditional gyms that were once the prime movers in the industry are scrambling to stay relevant. Yes, they are offering online work-out regimes and personal training. However, today, a really charismatic and knowledgeable personal trainer armed with nothing more than a cellphone and an internet connection can compete HEAD-TO-HEAD against fitness industry Titans like Gold’s Gym, LA Fitness, 24-Hour Fitness and even Peloton. Because when everything from education to personal training are available through the Internet of Things, it really doesn’t matter how much real estate you own. Everyone is on a level footing. 24-Hour Fitness may be a dominant force in physical fitness, but for all their prime real estate, they’re stuck in a position of either having to consider new ways to get in front of their customer base and keep relevance and dominance of the field, or risk losing it all.

Similarly, the established restaurant with white-tablecloth seating and fancy-pancy waiters and staff might not survive by the time this pandemic is over. The business model is too ingrained, too resistant to change, too “married” to candles stuck in Chianti bottles or other such grace notes. At places like that, you pay as much for the atmosphere, nice table linens and ambience as you do for the food itself. At the same time, the scrappy little diner that has the vision and flexibility to alter their business model quickly in the face of new and unexpected forces can start gaining market share.

This is the little guy’s chance to gain a serious competitive edge, and those who are fast and snap up exclusive rights to their ideas are more likely to survive and thrive.

Property comes in many forms. I focus my practice exclusively on intellectual property, e.g. patents, trademarks and copyrights. In today’s new economy, especially in the midst of the COVID crisis, physical land and real property is not as important as owning intellectual property. Entire industries are having to reimagine, rethink and retool their processes literally overnight. Companies that owned their fields’ equivalent of the yellow, green and dark blue properties on the Monopoly board are suddenly finding themselves paying Boardwalk upkeep while having access to Mediterranean Avenue funding as customer bases dry up, vendors and customer businesses shutter and try to preserve and cover their own assets, if you’ll pardon the pun. Because of this, smaller, more streamlined businesses suddenly have a disproportionate advantage in the market, and can assert that advantage effectively in the absence of their more regimented and established peers—IF they capitalize on and protect the innovations which offer them an even playing field.

Part of this sea change is due to the mechanism most larger corporations use to insulate themselves from financial catastrophe. And it is leaving opportunities open for creative individuals and small start-ups with new ideas. I call it the Lizard Survival Technique.

But what does that mean?

Certain lizards, like the gecko, have evolved with a unique evolutionary defense against predators. When they feel threatened, such as when a cat’s claws catch its tail, the gecko breaks off its tail, allowing the gecko to escape, the vital organs to survive and live to grow a new tail.

This is how most organizations view the vast majority of their staff: expendable deadweight to be jettisoned at the first sign of trouble.

 In many companies, the staff commonly considered most “expendable” are the very same R & D staff, the engineers and scientists that typically work on new product launches, followed immediately by customer service personnel. Companies, during times of turmoil, often focus on solidifying their core business and preserving shareholder profitability through the “tried and true” rather than look at new avenues for increasing revenues. The idea is that by consolidating operations, the C-suite, senior management and ground-level workers will be in position to resume “business as usual” once everything blows over. However, this leaves disillusioned, disenfranchised innovators with a lot of unexpected time on their hands—and a game board ripe for the plucking if they move on their innovations in “their own time,” such as when the entire nation is on lockdown, rather than under the aegis of their employers.

This is what I mean when I say the “Monopoly board” is wiped clean right now—and it poses an unprecedented marriage of opportunity and technology which gives individuals a chance to make immense strides against larger competitors at the start of this new game we’re all forced to play.

Individual inventors and small start-ups become creative and find solutions and opportunities because they have no staff to cut. They have no excess fat to trim, no nonessential staff that they need to get rid of, because they are the vital organs of their business. They must be nimble and aware of opportunities which larger companies may deem unworthy of notice or too risky to justify the R&D investment in the quarterly earnings report. More to the point, not only are they looking in nooks and crannies the “big guys” might dismiss—they are also positioned to make lateral moves or even complete pivots which larger companies cannot. It’s much easier to turn a kayak around than an aircraft carrier!

Because of this, I foresee three major paradigm shifts to come in the very near future.

1.     Businesses will become more hybridized.

“Business as usual” will not, CANNOT continue. Businesses will have to become more accommodating and service focused. Brick-and-mortar businesses in particular will have to consider expanding into boutique, personalized, “on-demand,” online and concierge-style curbside or delivery offerings to continue to stay relevant. Many restaurants, from mom-and-pops to McDonald’s, have already adapted this hybrid model. But what about large department stores like Macy’s, or upscale clothiers? Those who can’t pivot to a hybrid model are likely to lose traction in favor of younger, hungrier and more forward-thinking entrepreneurs and designers who marry tech and innovation into a seamless, tailor-made customer experience.

2.     Private patents, trademarks and copyrights will boom.

Because there are so many innovators who are suddenly free to work on their own side projects (because there’s only so much daytime TV anyone can absorb or stand, even in the middle of a quarantine), the pandemic may actually pave the way for innovations with immense disruptive potential. Savvy inventors and entrepreneurs will be keen to safeguard their intellectual property while their larger competitors are mired in recalibration of their business models, which means the balance of power in innovation may well be pushed toward private innovation rather than public or corporate patents, reversing a trend which has lasted for most of a century. As these private patents gain momentum, and corporate patenting lags due to cost-cutting and a decline in employed R&D workers, we can anticipate unexpected shifts toward small firms and sole-proprietor LLCs and S-corps as the new epicenters of innovation and change, some of which will inevitably rise to take over, subsume and supplant their less able predecessors.

3.     The innovation landscape of 20 years from now will be hugely different than the one we know.

At this point, everyone is well aware that the world is changing faster than we can keep up with, no matter how much of the 24-hour news cycle you try to take in. Right now, the individual inventor or the small private firm has a distinct leg up. Safeguarding their intellectual property through the vigorous use and enforcement of aggressive patenting and other legal protections will be the key to redistributing the power and innovation curves away from Big Business to the little guy. It’s safe to say that a lot of brands we think of today as unassailable or “too big to fail” are going to prove all too vulnerable, and it will be the individuals they don’t see as threats today who will be the ones to rise to the top, altering our world and the intellectual landscape to something beyond our ability to conceive. Like a gecko running amok on a Monopoly board, there’s no telling what will happen or how the final board will resolve.

Right now, the world looks very grim, scary and bleak for a lot of people. But as I look around, and as I consider the changes which are percolating in basements and garages and attics across the country and around the world at the hands of private inventors, I feel hopeful. Seeing the board reset, I believe some great things are coming on the other side of this. But it will be for the ones who can perceive opportunity and hope in the direst circumstances to seize the chance they have and create the change this world so desperately needs.

Hopefully, they’ll keep their tails intact while they do.

All images used in this article were sourced from Pixabay.com under a Creative Commons license which permits for use without attribution.

About the Author

John Rizvi is a Registered and Board Certified Patent Attorney, Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Property Law, best-selling author, and featured speaker on topics of interest to inventors and entrepreneurs (including TEDx).

His books include "Escaping the Gray" and "Think and Grow Rich for Inventors" and have won critical acclaim including an endorsement from Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks on the hit TV show - Shark Tank, responsible for the successful launch of over 500 products resulting in more than $5 billion in sales worldwide. You can learn more about Professor Rizvi his patent law practice at www.ThePatentProfessor.com

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I’ve helped hundreds of inventors successfully prosecute their patent applications, from initial filing to final award and look forward to helping you with your new idea.