Business steps to Dancing Cloud

By Igor Troitski

My steps up the stairs on Dancing Cloud Ave, where my home is located today, are related to the business of manufacturing and selling goods made using new technologies. The important business rule, I learned while climbing these steps, is a simple rule: it doesn't matter who the inventor is - it is important to make money on this invention as quickly and as much as possible. I talk about how this rule works on a real example of the emergence and development of a business based on the production and sale of laser images inside crystals. In particular, the book describes litigation between the owners of the company “Laser Images” (Las Vegas) and between the co-owners of the company Crystal Magic, which had studio stores in Epcot Center (Disneyland, Orlando). The history of the lawsuit of the company that bought the right to own the first patent for the creation of laser images against all other American companies that produce such images is very interesting. Finally, I describe my involvement in a lawsuit involving the theft of an idea and an attempt to patent it. Almost all of my business steps have been wrong, nonetheless, it was thanks to them that I reached my Dancing Cloud.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Accent Graphics Communications
• Release date: Jul 5, 2023

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The company Laser Images

Laser images in crystals and opening of the company Laser Images

In 1994, I ran the Optical Research Laboratory in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The staff of the laboratory were Russian scientists who received grants from the American government's SABIT program. The main research in the laboratory was aimed at the development of methods of color holography, optical tomography, optical information processing and the creation of laser images inside transparent materials. Through research in these areas, we have achieved some success, which we have demonstrated at the exhibitions of the American Optical Society in Orlando and Russian Technologies in Washington.

It seemed to me that we were able to achieve the greatest success in improving the quality of holographic images. As regards the quality of laser images inside crystals, it remained very low. Therefore, it is not surprising that most of the visitors were paying attention to our holograms. But at the exhibition in Washington, there was a visitor who was seriously interesting not in our holograms, but in laser images in crystals.

That visitor was Barbara, the owner of a small company in Las Vegas that bought Russian optical devices and sold them in Las Vegas. As a result of Perestroika [1], this business was very successful. When Barbara was in Russia and carefully got acquainted with the Russian optical business, she did see such images nowhere. She realized that this was a completely new technology, and it was this novelty that interested her.

The next day, Barbara brought her brother Van Falter and his wife Lena to our booth. They lived near Washington and also had a small business. Van and Lena were genuinely interested in this new technology and to get to know it better, they asked for permission to visit our laboratory in New Jersey. I agreed, and a week later I was demonstrating to Van a laser machine that produces images in crystals. To Van's question, Is it possible to improve the quality of the produced images? - I explained that it all depends on the quality of the splits inside the glass, resulting from the focusing of laser radiation, and we are currently preparing materials for filing a patent describing, how it can be reached.

After this visit, Van came along with Lena and began to persuade me to organize a joint business for the production and sale of laser images in crystals. It was such a new and unexpected offer that I turned it down for a long time. Moreover, it seemed to me that if starting a business, it would be much better to focus on holograms, which we could produce excellent quality. However, Van and Lena convinced me that it is very difficult to fit into an existing market, it is much easier and more effective to enter the market with a new product.

After repeated visits by Lena and Van to our lab and long debating, I finally accepted Falter's offer to start a joint venture for the production of laser images in glass. Falter promised to invest one hundred thousand dollars and offered to divide the company equally: 50% - to Falter, and 50% - to me.

The main scholar of the SABIT program, who was involved in the creation of laser images in glass, was a candidate of technical sciences, Alex Marunkov. He was an employee of the Moscow Higher Technical University (MHTU), and before that, he worked at the Optical and Mechanical Plant in the department headed by Shlyak. This department developed optical devices for military purposes, but Shlyak, who was fond of painting and sculpture, gathered a small group of enthusiasts who, in addition to their main work, began to improve methods for creating volumetric images in glass using lasers. The idea of the method was known to everyone who studied the effect of powerful laser radiation on transparent objects, but Shlyak was one of the first who, together with his group, tried to create works of fine art based on this idea.

In the midst of Perestroika [1], Shlyak retired and decided to emigrate. Since he worked all his life at a secret plant, the paperwork did not promise to be fast, and he turned to the MHTU management with a proposal to organize a laboratory at one of its faculties, in which methods of creating laser images would be developed. Such a laboratory was created, and Shlyak headed its work. In early 1995, Shlyak emigrated, and his deputy Altufiev became the head of the laboratory.

Knowing all this background in detail and striving to create a strong company, I decided to allocate 15% to Alex Marunkov and 5% to Shlyak from my 50%. I agreed with Alex that he would leave the MHTU and come to work in the States. Involving Shlyak, one of the authors of the Russian patent for this technology, it seemed to me, would be an honest act. Shlyak was grateful for the 5% stake (without any obligation on his part) in the new company granted to him. I told Falter about my plans. Their first reaction was to stop me from taking such a stupid step.

- How can you, of your own free will, having 50%, reduce them by at least one percent? Lena Falter exclaimed.

But I thought that 30% would be enough for me. Falter quickly appreciating that the reckless step of their companion could in the future be very useful for them, and they did not dissuade me anymore.

There was one more important for me question about the location of the laboratory where laser images inside transparent materials will be produced. Two options were considered. First: the laboratory will be located near Washington, in Alexandria, where Falter lived, and the second: in Las Vegas, where Van's sister Barbara lived, ready to provide all kinds of organizational assistance. I had already traveled the entire eastern coast of the States, but I did not know the west well. Therefore, I argued for the Las Vegas option, and