These terms are similar and they are frequently used interchangeably. Yet, there are key differences between them and each one describes a rather different role of the entrepreneurial journey.
An inventor is the person or a team of people who might invent a grand idea for a brand new product or a service. This is the starting point of the entrepreneurial journey. But not all new ideas turn into useful products/services. As a matter of fact most of them do not. While this phase is the most creative phase, it lacks business and market viability aspects and therefore most of the new inventions stay at the idea stage. One of the best known inventors of our times is Nikola Tesla and some others are: Alexander Graham Bell - the telephone, Henry Ford - the assembly line, Steve Wozniak - the first Apple computer, and İhsan Sıtkı Yener from Turkiye - Turkish F keyboard.
An entrepreneur is the person who takes a new invention - not necessarily created by him/her - and start a company to market it as a new product and/or a service. His/her main mission is to create a brand and meet an unmet need of a large segment of consumers. Good examples are Bill Gates of Microsoft and Nevzat Aydın of Yemeksepeti.
Innovator on the other hand is the person who makes improvements on products that already exist. Smart phones are typical examples for innovation. Good examples of successful innovators are Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin. Modifying an existing business to be more efficient and environmentally friendly is also considered innovation.
For budding entrepreneurs, I strongly recommend they digest these three different concepts, and then decide on the role they wish to take on their entrepreneurial journey.
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