B, I did not mean to upset you...
There is a smiley behind that sentence.
It is like a small tease.
If you do not like the word "invented" then you are maybe a bit right.
Maybe we did not figure out the reagent but we did figure out the concept.
We were having shit pills back in '96 and we knew August de Loor was already testing on parties with Marquis.
The whole story is a bit long but once you think it might be good idea to somehow put this in plastic or bottles for other people as well, then the whole thing just starts. Maybe we made a mistake with the small EZ Test; the original EZ Test that was released in 1997. At that time, we thought a tiny tube would be much better than a big bottle. We are still paying for the stuff/materials we had to buy to get the reagent into the tubes....
The idea was to get the testers out !
We have had difficulties (keeping the whole thing going) until about a year ago. At that time DanceSafe picked up the pill testing thing and we changed bottles.
I guess that was the point were we started to have normal (not great) business as well, it was about time....
So, maybe for you it is simply throwing some liquid into a bottle. For us it was a long way and for me the combination of all these things is inventing. Did you think about making such a product back in '96 ?
That includes setting up a website where you can pay online with a creditcard, getting merchant accounts, trying to make things clear on a website (had to learn html & php), answering (a lot) emails, setting up an administration (argh!), learning to work with a webcam and a bit of Adobe, some customer service, setting up a place where you can produce the testers etc etc.
I guess anyone can do it but some people have to actually put it together. Oh, and it was all done with hardly any money.
Most of all, the whole EZ thingy is a fun thing to do ;-) That is what I would call inventing .....
Regards
aj
[This message has been edited by aj (edited 02 October 2000).]