Insight
Dyson: Innovators should never take advice
“But the thing is never to take advice.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dyson: Vacuum makers rejected bagless cyclone to protect paper bag profits
“And one or two of them said they actually rather like selling paper bags. It's like, you know, Gillette selling a razor blade. They can make a lot of money out of bags. So, essentially, they were curious, but didn't want to license it.”
Insight
Dyson: Innovators should never take outside advice
“Obsessed and mad. But the thing is never to take advice.”
Opinion
James Dyson claims he hates experts and avoids relying on them
“And he hated experts. For a good reason, actually, and I rather hate experts as well.”
Opinion
Dyson: Incumbents Hoover and Electrolux did not innovate because bags were profitable
“These big companies like Hoover and Electrolux weren't bothering to improve the technology. Yeah. They were quite happy selling bags. And no one was taking them on because they're so big. So I thought, well, therein lies the opportunity.”
Disclosure
James Dyson claims he never gave away any equity in Dyson
“I've never made the mistake of giving away equity in the company.”
Opinion
James Dyson strongly distrusts and rather hates conventional engineering experts
“And he hated experts. For a good reason, actually, and I rather hate experts as well.”
Insight
Dyson: Founders must retain IP ownership and majority equity control
“Sometimes one needs to go through these rites of passage. To understand the importance of ownership of intellectual property, the importance of owning, having a majority share in your own company, or even all the shares in your own company, and not charging en…”
Insight
Dyson: Vacuum bags are replaced because they are clogged, not full
“You don't replace the bags because they're full. You replace the bags because they're blocked.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dyson was profitable from its very first month of vacuum sales
“I was in the black from the first month on. I was able to pay my employees and I was making a profit as my distribution started to rise.”
Disclosure
James Dyson never gave away any equity to outside investors
“I've never made the mistake of giving away equity in the company.”
Insight
James Dyson: Founders must feel failure viscerally to grasp equity and IP value
“Sometimes one needs to go through these rites of passage. To understand the importance of ownership of intellectual property, the importance of owning, having a majority share in your own company, or even all the shares in your own company, and not charging en…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before perfecting his cyclonic vacuum
“And I built 5127 prototypes before I got it right.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dyson: VCs and private equity rejected Dyson for being an engineer
“The problem with the venture capitalists and the private equity people is that they all thought that because I was an engineer and designer, I knew nothing about making and selling things, and I couldn't possibly make a commercial success of it. So they all tu…”
Insight
Dyson: Toolmakers make all their money when clients request design changes
“Now, one of the things about tooling is that you, if you make any changes, that's where the toolmaker makes all his money. It's like a builder. You make changes, the builder starts piling on the costs.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dyson was profitable from its very first month of sales
“I was in the black from the first month on. I was able to pay my employees and I was making a profit as my distribution started to rise.”
Insight
Dyson: Early self-reliance makes people determined to prove something
“I had to learn very early on to rely entirely on myself and not anybody else. And I think it makes you very determined, very, very determined to prove something.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
James Dyson built 5,127 vacuum prototypes before perfecting his design
“And I built 5127 prototypes before I got it right.”
Insight
Dyson: Strange-looking technology succeeds if it genuinely works better
“So having, having introduced two very strange-looking, very different new technology, you can make a success of it if it genuinely works better.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dyson: VCs rejected him believing an engineer could not sell products
“The problem with the venture capitalists and the private equity people is that they all thought that because I was an engineer and designer, I knew nothing about making and selling things, and I couldn't possibly make a commercial success of it. So they all tu…”
Insight
Dyson: Design changes during tooling cause manufacturing costs to balloon
“Now one of the things about tooling is that you, if you make any changes, that's where the toolmaker makes all his money. It's like a builder. You make changes, the builder starts piling on the costs.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
James Dyson: Ballbarrow captured 50% market share but was never profitable
“And that was all fine, and we got 50% of the market, but never made any money.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
James Dyson sneaked into a sawmill to measure an industrial cyclone
“So I went and copied one of those that I saw on a local sawmill. I climbed over the wall at night and took some sort of measurements and examined it. And we came back and over two weekends we made one that was about 30 foot high.”
Insight
Dyson: Cyclonic Separation Collects Dust Continuously Without Clogging
“Well, over the two weekends while I'm welding up this thirty-foot-high one, I realized the point of this cyclone, which is that it collects dust all the time without ever blocking or clogging.”
Sir James Dyson