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Softbank founder Son Masayoshi striked gold with a similar method. He created a set of flash cards, drew 3 cards, and tried to conceive an invention from the wi
by coolandsmartrr 9y ago
Softbank founder Son Masayoshi striked gold with a similar method. He created a set of flash cards, drew 3 cards, and tried to conceive an invention from the withdrawn keywords. Having drawn "dictionary," "electric circuit," and "voice" IIRC, he ended up with an idea for an electronic dictionary that reads up the words. He hired his professor at Berkeley who was knowledgable in speech synthesizing for $50/hr. When the idea was realized as an invention, he filed the patent and sold it to Sharp, a Japanese electronic conglomerate. Having raised approx. $3 mil, he used that money to start Softbank. The rest is history.
Source: Recalling from biography I read years ago
- lifeisstillgood 9y agoIn no way was the clever, difficult or value add part of this the CRC cards - persuading Sharp to buy your patent for 3 million is just one of the things I would like to know how to do :-)
- coolandsmartrr 9y agoApparently, his father attending the negotiations helped the yet-inexperienced Son tremendously.
- tw1010 9y agoDo you remember which biography? I have a strange feeling I've heard this story before but I also feel I might have dreamt it up.
- coolandsmartrr 9y agoIt's in Japanese, called 「志高く」.