I highly suggest you ask around and get advice from people who understand your concept and technology, and proposed business model. Don't be afraid that they will steal your idea; frankly, great ideas are a dime a dozen but people who can implement them are rare. Perhaps during this search you might find someone who is so enthused that he'll help you with your business, and if not, at least you'll get some potential advisors you can either ask for help or serve on your advisory board.
The key is to make sure that you are addressing a real customer pain (and I mean, serious cash-draining, time-wasting, arm-twisting PAIN) with your solution, not just another cool gadget that will "change the world." As my entrepreneurship professor said, "Don't be a solution in search of a problem." Everything always sounds great and plausible in theory, until we get the real facts from potential customers.
I'm kind of iffy on securing a patent so early, it's quite expensive I thought? $10k or something? Less for a provisional patent, but still... Unless you're 100% (I guess 98% is good enough
) sure that people really want this new technology...
And how do we really know whether they do or not? By asking them and finding out for ourselves
I think you're going to have a lot of field work to do
Perhaps these potential customers will be so excited that they'll be the first beta testers and provide you the money to build the prototype for them -- that would be ideal, wouldn't it? So go get around to talking to them
It's better to fail often and early in the process, than to put in lots of effort and money only to find out that it wasn't what we imagined it to be. I know it sucks to be this cautious, but I think it's the smart and practical thing to do