After 5126 failed prototypes over 5 years, any inventor would have given up
But Sir James Dyson stayed put and
- Invented a product which completely transformed the market
- Set up a company with 7 billion $ revenues
- Became the richest man in UK
A thread on Dyson 🧵
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1970s - James Dyson was a UK born industrial designer. He was fed up using the traditional vaccum cleaner with disposable bag which would stop working because of dust clogging
He tried using a cyclone based system which would extract the dust without clogging
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He even constructed a small prototype & connected it with the traditional vaccum cleaner with bag removed. It seemed to work decently
He presented the concept to many. But most of them rejected saying if the idea was so great, big companies would already have thought of it
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1979 - But Dyson didn't give up. He was able to raise an initial investment from another inventor friend and via some loan from the bank
He started developing the cyclonic vaccum system in the shed behind his house.
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Between 1979 and 1984, Dyson developed 5126 prototypes before getting the right one without a bag finalized
He tried licensing this invention to the companies in UK and US who can manufacture and sell the product. And give Dyson some royalties on sales
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