[zan666]

Thank you @Perry for the quick reply.
Those are some really important points. 

1. I would expect every chemist to get paid for their work. Most  formulations cost an avg of $3-4K. I’m surprised about founders giving them part of the business because its just not good for the company itself in the long run! Fixed cost for formulation makes more sense, IMO. 

2.  The sample products that have the characteristic needed are clear, however, do you think its unrealistic to expect the chemist to improve on one specific aspect i.e. performance without it being an impossible task? This could me increase in concentration? or perhaps asking them to apply a certain tech / process typically used successfully in another industry to this product making the formula possibly patentable? 

3. The claims I find tricky. These days different terms are interchanged to mean different things to people. Lets take biodegradability, when someone says “I want my product to be biodegradable”, that is just too general as ultimately how long it takes for the ingredients to biodegrade, whether it leaves no harmful toxins when it does breakdown etc, matter for a company that claims its product is ‘truly 100% biodegradable & has no harmful toxins when it breaks down”. 

[zan666]

p.p.s  I realize I tagged it to formulation instead of general. Couldn’t reassign it (sorry).