I was asked recently to assist someone in evaluating a company that he had been involved with. It was a start-up with lots of potential. They had some intellectual property (“IP”) and were moving from the development phase to the manufacturing phase. Just because you have a good idea and have established your rights to it, doesn’t mean you can now head a manufacturing operation. Please realize that they are very different, and involve a completely different set of skills. If you are that far along, it is time to evaluate HOW you are going to make it happen.
You can, for example, hold your IP in that company, and start a whole new company to deal with manufacturing. You would have the freedom to create a new organization, with a different structure and different management roles. Unless you have run a manufacturing organization, I doubt that you would want to learn from scratch and spend all that time and energy (and money, of course!) to learn. It would be a very expensive school!
So how you need to approach this is to find people who have the skills and experience that you do not; and begin a process of developing an organization that both you, and they, can live with. You can still own the IP, and can license it to that new company. One thing to remember, is that the new company would have a very different ownership; and likely you might not be in control (as in, not own more than 50% of the company). It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing as long as you have a clear voice and you have picked the players properly.
As I have always said, this depends on your goals whether or not a creative solution like this will work for you or not. Success is measured differently, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Suffice it to say if you have a good idea and you are never able to put it in the hands of the consumer, that might not fit your definition of success. So remember, you can own 25% of $100 million, or hold on to 100% of $10 – you choose!