Into my big frog, small pond world came blonde Atiana.
Atiana looked, walked and talked like a movie star.
Atiana brought with her a fluid coupling device that was very slick, very difficult to machine and would be a big seller, if I could turn units out at a reasonable price, after I paid the patent holder what they asked. I told the lady, "I'm willing to machine out a couple of examples of your coupling device, on spec. If the couplings work and meet a reasonable spec, I can sell a bunch of them, at a reasonable price."
Atiana asks me, "What's a reasonable price?"
I lecture, "If your design works to spec, it will outperform what's currently on the market. I would expect first year sales in the range of 100,000 units. I could offer you $30, per unit sold. All of this assumes that your company holds the patents for the coupler."
Atiana says, "That's $3 million dollars per year for me."
I say, "Yes, a nice sum that should grow as the units get accepted into general use. Kappa Machine has the reputation really required to sell into the coupler market and you won't find too many operations that can do that."
Atiana says, "I have other designs to sell."
I ask the girl, "Do you hold the patents?"
Atiana sits up straight and says, "The device that I'm showing you isn't patented. You'll have to do that. Treat me fairly and you get the rest of my designs."
(I can't believe what Atiana just told me. However, I want to make a million or so dollars off the coupler device.) I tell Atiana, "I'll program up one of my numerical control machines tonight and turn out a few test coupler devices. If the coupler passes my tests and can hold 250 PSI at least overnight, I'll get a patent filed and we'll each start to make some money, in the near future."
Atiana says, "My coupler device will hold 283 PSI."
I smile and lecture, "You don't sell devices at odd ratings. If your device will hold at 250 PSI, it will be an advance over what's on the market. A rating of 250 PSI will also provide a bit of safety margin."
Atiana says, "You will have a test device, when?"
"I'll machine up the fluid coupler devices tonight. Testing will take a couple of days. If your fluid coupler device passes my testing, I'll front the money for patent application, although the patent cost will come out of your profits. Once I have the patent applications in, I'll call in prospective customers for the fluid couplers. We'll do some customer demos and start to sell the devices as fast as we can make them. You can watch the demos and gauge the customer response yourself."
Atiana is suddenly very upset, "No! I don't want to attend any customer demos."
"Well, it's not necessary, but it would give you a chance to see how the customers react."
Atiana says, "No! You handle all of that."
(This gets stranger and stranger.) "Alright, I can handle everything, how do I contact you?"
Atiana says, "I'll contact you." With that, she's up, out and gone, the mystery girl.
I program one of my numerical control machines and I machine out the necessary parts for the fluid coupler. The coupler connects and releases, as I knew it would, from the design. I then pressurize the fluid coupling to 20 PSI and leave the thing overnight.
In the morning, the coupler still shows 20 PSI. I reduce the pressure to atmospheric and uncouple. The uncouple still works like a champ, after a night under low pressure! I thread up a better connection and manage to pressurize the fluid coupler to 70 PSI. By end of day, the coupler still shows 70 PSI. I reduce the pressure to atmospheric and uncouple. The uncouple still works like a champ! I manage to charge the...