AmiSight 9/8: Dyson's $499 Toothbrush: A Lesson in Innovation Over Planning

James Dyson, the guy who convinced millions of people to spend $400 on a hair dryer, has a new idea: a $499 toothbrush.

And this isn’t just a fancy electric toothbrush. Dyson’s new product uses technology designed to improve how people clean between their teeth.

But the part of this Wall Street Journal story that caught my attention wasn’t the toothbrush. It was how Dyson thinks about innovation.

He spent six years developing this thing, and he admits he doesn’t really know how big the market is or how many they’ll sell. Dyson says his company doesn’t structure these projects around a traditional business plan. They see a problem, become obsessed with solving it, and then find out whether the market agrees.

As entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time trying to predict whether an idea will work before we pursue it. Dyson is a pretty extreme reminder that sometimes innovation works the other way around: become obsessed with solving a problem, build something dramatically better, and then let the market tell you whether you were right.

Of course, having billions of dollars probably makes that philosophy a little easier.

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