One thing we writers are good at is taking others' concepts, repackaging them, giving them a new name, and then proclaiming a new discovery.  Geoffrey Moore essentially did that when he popularized the work of the Department of Agriculture in Iowa in the 1930s on the technology adoption-diffusion cycle in his very successful book called Crossing the Chasm.  Blue Ocean Strategy, another best-selling business book, gave a new name to an old entrepreneurial strategy--looking for unserved needs in the market.  So, not to be left out of this game, I developed what I call the Allen Technology Richter Scale, with all due apologies to Mr. Richter who helped us measure the intensity of earthquakes.

I use this scale to describe technology ventures that go from those that are relatively simple technologically and with respect to time-to-market to those that are highly complex with huge regulatory requirements and lengthy product development cycles.

The time from idea to market is called the "valley of death," and its length varies with the type of technology venture.  So, if you're starting a Web 2.0 business, you can move quickly (and you have to) without many restrictions on what you do.  If, on the other hand, you're starting a business in the energy or biotech arena, it's a whole different story.  Count on it taking about 7 years or more.  The valley of death really happens in two parts: one part is the challenges associated with going from an idea on paper to a working prototype; the other is going from a prototype to an actual business.  None of it is easy.  I'm going to deal with some of the things to think about in the valley of death in the next couple blog posts.  Stay tuned.