Nick Allen is an industrial design at Mako Design. Nick has been designing products for 15 years, working with over 100 products and earning multiple design awards including the coveted Red Dot award. Today Nick is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how to start working on a project with your hardware product development partner so that you can maximize the value of the relationship, thus leading to creating a top notch product and even more important, a successful hardware startup business Today you will hear us talk about: Focus on your vision. Know what you know, don’t worry about what you don’t know. Leverage your experience. What the product needs to do and what it needs to do. Write it down. Have a basic sketch of your idea Bullet point notes on your customer Must have, must not have. Design intent Accept pushback from the design engineers. Must have vs want to have features / MVP Work with your design team to reign in the feature creep. Team effort in original features You can always release version 2.0 EPISODE LINKS: Nick Allen Links: LinkedIn | Mako Design The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toph Day is the CEO of Elevate Ventures, a Venture Capital firm that has many hardware companies in its portfolio of over $220 million of investments under management. He has founded 8 companies with over $600 million in transactions over the past 30 years. Today Toph is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what venture capital funding is, if VC funding is right for you, and some advice on how to plan for and pitch your hardware startup to VC firms. Today you will hear us talk about: Venture capital is later stage, more sophisticated, and usually beyond  Make your pitch and plan to be very tight. It is important understand what your venture capital firm invests. Make sure the venture capital firm invests in hardware technology. Relationship build with your investors about a year in advance. Keep your pitch to the pitch, don’t embellish Structure of Venture Capital funding When you start your company, start with a very clean legal structure. Use a convertible note for your investors When raising capital, check out all the programs and grants available Don’t include grants as revenue Hardware startups can grow to be successful slowly You can also grow hardware companies much quicker  Surround yourself with partners, rely more on partners than hiring. Prototypes require multiple iterations Narrow and deep plays into hard tech, keep the product’s first version simple EPISODE LINKS: Toph Day Links: LinkedIn | Elevate Ventures | Rally Conference The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justin Chen is the Co-Founder of PickFu, a platform that helps businesses survey real people about their key visual decisions.  They have administered over 5 million queries over the last 12 years.  Today Justin is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on why hardware product packaging is so important, how to design great packaging, and how to use real feedback to iteratively improve and perfect your package design. Today you will hear us talk about: Friends and family feedback is okay, but  Look at the competition to understand what the standards are for packaging Packaging as an afterthought is a mistake, as packaging is a big part of your  Eye catching.  Make sure you stand out from the competition Put badges on the packaging to attract customer Informative packaging is about what the important selling points are of a product Have people rank selling points. What are the questions that a buyer may have? Hardware packaging is essentially a digital billboard. Include your physical packaging in your digital marketing materials The more attention to detail you put on your product packaging, the more confident you are on the product. Make a few variations of your packaging design, then start with big picture creative options, then show them to people for them to pick their favorite. Then keep iterating and narrowing down the packaging over and over. Then test that package design on competitors. This method de-risks packaging. A big question to ask customers is to say, what does your new hardware product do? Hardware startups should factor in high quality packaging and more informative packaging. EPISODE LINKS: Justin Chen Links: LinkedIn | PickFu The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Fata has done over $500M in physical product sales, launching over 25 products to over 16,000 retail stores, which thus lead to three different 9-figure exits. He is also the author of the book Grow:12 Unconventional Lessons for Becoming an Unstoppable Entrepreneur. Today Mike is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the importance of showcasing your passion in your invention idea to be able to best maximize success. Today you will hear us talk about: How important the founder product market fit is. People want to know why the founder behind a hardware product made this hardware product You can compete  Other people like you is one of the easiest ways to sell product Be authentic, that is the foundation, everything grows from there. Tell the story of the challenges you faced along the development path Trade shows are a great way to get in front of like-minded people in a community. Non-profit organizations are a place to build communities around the problems. Don’t forget to give back. Reach out to other hardware founders on LinkedIn Be loud and proud of your story. EPISODE LINKS: Mike Fata Links: LinkedIn | Book: Grow The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Larry Richenstein has been in the hardware sales, development, and investment world for over 40 years. He is an angel investor in the New York Angels network and is currently the CEO of WePower Technologies, his latest hardware venture. Today Larry is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what angel investing is, what stages of development you need to get your product to in order to pitch to a professional angel investor, and how to do a good pitch once you are in the door. Today you will hear us talk about: An angel investor is usually an independent investor or a group of investors that invest in startup businesses. Angel investing are considers  Angel investment is the first round, then venture capital. When it comes to products, there is a lot more that goes into them from a product development standpoint. Measure twice, cut once. You have to have all the development People that have ideas, get no funding. People that come up with a rough prototype or a rough prototype, it’s interesting but generally still too early. What investors really want to see, is a working prototype. De-risking the investment occurs the further you push the product down the road. First, find angels that invest in hardware. Angel investors for hardware are out there. Come in with a pitch that proves that you have a strong likelihood of success Hardware and software are starting to come together. Crowdfunding is a powerful way to prove market validity. You no longer have to build for the masses, you can build for niche industries. Avoid feature creep, especially for your first version. Crowdfunding is a way to avoid outside investors. EPISODE LINKS: Larry Richenstein Links: LinkedIn | WePower Technologies The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon Hirschtick is the co-founder of both Solidworks and OnShape. In his 42 years of building these platforms, his software has been used to design more physical consumer products than anything else on earth. OnShape alone has over 3 million designers on the CAD software platform. Today Jon is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on why agile product development is so important for hardware startups, what additive manufacturing can do to facilitate agile development, and how modern tools are making it easier than ever to get to market faster, at higher quality, and iteratively. Today you will hear us talk about: The Story of Solidworks and Onshape Learned at an early age on how to treat customers right Agile design Build hardware the way you build software a little bit, using an agile process for produce development. Work in a series of design sprints, with the end of each sprint developing a product. Daily stand up meetings. Agile Manifesto online. Jon is publishing a whitepaper on Agile development May 15-18 is the liveworks conference. Why agile now, 4 reasons. Software is joining with hardware. The upcoming workforce is naturally agile thinkers. The world is changing constantly. The tools are now here for agile. The great products are now being made by startups, or big companies want to work like startups. Real time collaboration. Additive manufacturing is changing rapidly every year 3d Printing conventions are powerful for seeing what is possible. Software now is innovative, fast, reliable. The issue of version history and files. Cloud native is the key to modern CAD design tools. Collaboration can now happen in real time, with edit history, on any device, anywhere. Software can now have clear traceable rigor and feature logging which is very important when you are going from prototyping, to short run manufacturing, to full scale manufacturing. EPISODE LINKS: Jon Hirschtick Links: LinkedIn | LiveWorx 2023 | Onshape The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Bohun is the founder of Action Ship VR and Weedar, companies which are integrating the digital and physical world via augmented reality. Today Jonathan is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what augmented reality is, what opportunities are coming in the near future for augmented reality hardware, and different ways hardware startups can think of augmented reality integration with their physical products. Today you will hear us talk about: Virtual reality is when you are fully immersed in a digital world Augmented reality is when you are partially immersed in the digital world, and partially in the real world. Wearable devices like augmented reality devices are going to be the first version of AR. We see mass adoption of 5G and satellite internet, so now there are reliable connections to the web that are fast enough to integrate your startup hardware products in a connected way. Processing power is very heavy for AR devices, and now computing is getting strong enough either on the device or on the cloud to be able to handle complex AR calculations. Power capacity of the device, aka battery power, is now getting strong enough to handle the complex computing power Right now the average AR device is 2 hours of experience Biggest companies in the world are working hard on this AR technology AR is starting to move beyond just glasses. AR to enhance user experience with products People want to use products together with other people, AR may be able to start bringing that together in the future. You can make packaging come to life, interact with the product, learn more information about the product on display Customization to different users in selling products on physical display. Companies today can start with learning about AR technology integration to their packaging Encourage everyone to look into the augmented reality and virtual reality space to see what it can do for your hardware EPISODE LINKS: Jonathan Bohun Links: LinkedIn The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Colgan has worked for Mako Design for almost 10 years, working with well over 100 physical product startups on developing an invention idea into a real consumer product. He went to school for both mechanical design and industrial design, along with building many custom cars and motorcycles as a hobby. Today Rob is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand the key initial steps to developing a new invention idea, the product guidelines that start it all off right through to concept sketches, Computer Aided Design work, and visual renderings. Today you will hear us talk about: Features that function well Sketch products out Break down the components There are multiple different ways of sketching Quick doodles to get some ideas onto paper The problem with sketching is you lose the 3D element Start a new product on the skeletal level Figure out how that system of components works Skinning the product Ergonomics and user interaction Form follows function Don’t stress the aesthetics too much early on Think about use case. The initial view sparks a lot of questions Collaboration is core Fine-tune the initial components Transition from concept sketches into  Modern design is clean and timeless Better not to follow trends, and think about cleanliness It’s not just you to appreciate the design, it’s the entire market. After concept ideation, get into serious CAD software EPISODE LINKS: Rob Colgan Links: Website The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tony Ulwick is the CEO of Strategyn, a company that has been in business since 1991 doing strategy consulting for high-growth innovative hardware companies. He is the author of two books, and has had his articles published twice in the Harvard Business Review. He started out in the early days of his career as a design for manufacturing engineer at IBM. Today Tony is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how to create hardware products that people want, why people buy your consumer product, and how to validate your invention idea through additive manufacturing in the market. Today you will hear us talk about: How do you create products that people want. Figure out what your customer wants. What is the reason that someone is buying your hardware product. Define the market as a group of people that have a job that needs done via a hardware product. Define the needs of the customer to figure out what they need to complete the job. Desired outcome statements that your hardware product. Dimensions to design something better are faster, more predictably, or great result. You should learn this about your customer. You want to address the most unmet need. An outcome of a job that is highly underserved. This is the most efficient path to growth. What are the fewest number of features that we could have to hit the largest segment of customers. Features come in all over the place as a hardware startup, so you need to be very clear on what features you need. Start with the feature that you want, then figure it out with the customer. How important is the feature to the customer, and how satisfied are you with the current solutions. If you validate the opportunity, ensure that you design a great product offering to match that. Short-run manufacturing is very helpful to validate the idea, at a low cost, and learn from your customers on what will fit the market in scale. He talks about only one feature. If you can have someone improve by 15% or more, you will have an amazing product. What is that one need that is underserved in the market. EPISODE LINKS: Tony Ulwick Links: LinkedIn | Website The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Sagar is the Vice President of Product Management for the CREO software line at PTC. Paul started as a design engineer, then spent the last 25 years building CAD software for PTC to best match the needs of hardware design teams. Today Paul is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the latest trends in new product development for hardware startups, including best practices in composite materials, the electrification of products, and additive manufacturing for first manufacturing runs. Today you will hear us talk about: Composite design. Composite materials in the design. This is stuff from aerospace and racing. More consumer product brands are starting to incorporate high-cost and high-quality composite materials into a relatively simple product Composites can allow you more design flexibility while ensuring strength and quality with lightweight properties. Composites can lead to more sustainability in hardware product design. Composites have been historically very expensive to buy and manufacture; however, it is becoming more accessible. Low-volume production capital cost is low, so you can focus on quality at low volume for a new product startup brand. Electrification of everything is already happening. Fundamentally design is needing to incorporate more electronics and more electrification. Electronics need to collaborate more with mechanical engineering than ever before. Collaboration more than linear design. Production design, especially in additive manufacturing, is evolving extremely quickly. Additive manufacturing used to just be for rapid prototyping, but now additive manufacturing is being used for final part design, especially for first manufacturing runs. Short-run additive manufacturing is far cheaper in regards to up-front capital costs (tooling costs). There are some advantages to what you can actually design with additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing gets you to production faster. Speed, quality, up front cost reduction, and increased design options. EPISODE LINKS: Paul Sagar Links: LinkedIn | Creo | PTC | OnShape The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Margolin is the CEO of Professional Hair Labs, a cosmetic company with dozens of products with tens of millions of dollars in sales all over the world. He has spent 25 years in the consumer product sales and marketing industry, and is also a TEDx speaker. Today Ryan is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what the foundation of smart consumer product testing is, what the different types of product testing are and at which stages in the development process, and how to leverage a pilot manufacturing run to ensure a strong brand alignment with your customers. Today you will hear us talk about: Marketing Brief is the scope of the product. Most products aren’t going to speak to everybody on the market, so figure out exactly what your solution is and to what specific types of people. What types of testing are required for your product. Compliance tests. These are tests the ensure your product meets the regulatory requirements. Compliance testing is generally a base line Reliability of those tests You never get a second chance to make a first impression Reliability is what the client will expect, which will be compared to best in class, which is a lot higher quality than compliant or regulatory testing. Global sales is easier than ever to achieve, so if you put yourself to a high global calibre, you can sell worldwide. The global marketplace is more accessible now than it has ever been. Pilot production, which is customer testing Get the product to be as reliable as can be, then do a pilot production run to test the customers. This is a critical phase of ensuring that a few potential customers are tested. Get paying customers to pay for the product if you can, even just a few, so that you can learn as much as possible. This is the key separator between the companies that go big and the companies that constantly struggle is those that put the effort up front to test and validate their products as opposed to going to big production runs out of the gate. The more testing you do earlier, the exponentially less expenses and headaches you have down the road. EPISODE LINKS: Paul Rowan Links: LinkedIn | Company The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Rowan is the Co-Founder of Umbra, a household product company that designs, manufactures, and sells hundreds of consumer products all over the world. You likely have at least one of their products in your home right now. Paul ran Umbra for for 37 years, starting the entire company with just one product. Today Paul is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can use both strategic purpose and higher purpose to create a great first product and your first product business. From there, how do you leverage those principles to scale into a global product brand as he did with Umbra. Today you will hear us talk about: Sales can drive hardware ideas, what a great way to sell when you already know what your big buyers want. The culture of work in hardware product design in the future. Hardware designers are going to have a lot of options for developing work-from-home products, mental health issues, more collaborative office space environments and products, and many other emerging opportunities for the changing landscape of design. Artificial Intelligence (AI) AI cannot compete with human intelligence. AI is not a threat, it is the next tool. If you embrace the tools, this will exponentially improve the caliber of your hardware startup. Humanistic direction or robotic direction Purposeful, sustainable, human. This leads to long term. Short term vs long-term value How can you differentiate yourself by adding humanistic values to your company. If you don’t set the bar on good design, you won’t even get to market. Bad design cannot even be put on the shelves. To increase beyond great design, add humanistic values You can compete with big corporate easily on humanistic values as a startup. Sustainability, carbon footprint, sourcing, labor practices. Put your name on a product Don’t be afraid to put your name behind your brand. When you’re in the decision tree of short-term problem solve or long-term value, go for the long term value as that has become more important than ever for modern businesses. Long-term thinking will encourage significantly more success Test and test until you get it right in prototyping, use design thinking. The human behind the design EPISODE LINKS: Paul Rowan Links: LinkedIn | Umbra | PaulRowan.ca The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jackson Wightman is the co-author of The Tech PR Playbook, a book that synthesizes 20 years of PR knowledge into a single resource. He is also the co-founder of Proper Propaganda, a public relations firm that primarily works with hardware startups and scale-ups. He is also an instructor at McGill University with an MBA, Masters in Poli Sci, and a BA. Today Jackson is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what earned media is, specifically for hardware companies, why earned media and press is so valuable, and what are the best practices for getting free coverage from major hardware journalists and publications. Today you will hear us talk about: Hardware startups generally don’t understand what earned media is, and especially how to best utilize it for your product Defining what is earned media is for a hardware startup Editorial media coverage. Why earned media can be so valuable to a hardware startup You are not paying for it, and thus it is heavily trusted by readers. Earned media is far more trusted than advertisements. Earned media can be repurposed to help sell your product or increase the visibility to your various stakeholders, not just customers and investors, but also partners, and prospective employees. There is a huge amount of power in brand equity. Articles that are earned are evergreen, meaning that they last forever. Things to stand out and differentiate to get great earned media To get in, first understand that it is competitive to get into a journalist and media outlet Then think then about how you can differentiate your product and product story from what is already out there. The second thing is to target the correct media. Pitch the correct journalist, reporters, and the correct media outlet for your specific type of hardware. Have good assets, make sure the prototype works and make sure the instructions work. Try and get someone who is new to the product to test out your samples. Feature-creeped products are the hardest to get earned media. The Tech PR Playbook EPISODE LINKS: Jackson Wightman Links: LinkedIn | Book | Agency The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Multer is the author of Nothing Gets Sold Until The Story Gets Told which can be found on Amazon and all major book retailers.  He has done over 20,000 presentations and worked with major hardware brands such as Cisco, Panasonic, Siemens, HP, Philips, Xerox, and over 100 more, all on crafting product and brand messaging. Today Steve is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand what corporate storytelling is, what the main components of a well-crafted sales or brand story has, and best practices around both launching a new hardware product but also maintaining the brand connection for long-term customer loyalty. Today you will hear us talk about: What is corporate storytelling Metrics of a product (what investors want to hear) vs corporate storytelling (what the public wants). Don’t tell the customer what you want to tell them, tell them what they want to hear. This requires knowing your audience. The platform / pillars of a great story: Value, passion, and connection. How do you change people’s lives, for the better, with their product. Make sure to maintain your personal passion in advertising. How connect with people by telling them a story that they recognize and that they become a part of. You can be the best advocate to your own hardware product, you are the story. Investors invest in you as a human being. Combine your product with your story. Trust yourself to sell your own story, and bring the human passion in. Stakeholders, buyers, investors will be more lenient when they believe in the story and the passion behind that story. Build a community first. How do you sell How do you keep customers What is going to sustain and grow your hardware product and thus product brand for 10 years or more. EPISODE LINKS: Steve Multer Links: LinkedIn | Book The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kyle Dumont spent many years as a hardware developer for iRobot, then got a Masters of Science and an MBA dual degree at Harvard, then spun out AllSpice which is a software platform for managing electronic engineering feedback and revision tracking amongst other things. Today Kyle is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what iterative hardware product development is between manufacturing runs, who the feedback loop stakeholders are, and how to collect, organize, prioritize, and execute on that iterative feedback information to ensure the best improvements to your physical consumer product design. Today you will hear us talk about: What iterative design in hardware is between manufacturing runs Legacy design is based on a waterfall model of design Software has done a great job of iterating very quickly. Get designs in the hands of engineers, or even better, users. Iterative design can sometimes be forced on you if you need to make changes, so better to have the processes Who are the stakeholders: Customers, the most important stakeholders (both current and potential customers) Cost reduction Engineering design, multiple different disciplines (hardware, software, firmware, PCB, visual, industrial design, etc.) Procurement, product managers, Manufacturers Get hardware product engineers in front of customers What tools can be used to collect, organize, prioritize, and implement Version control is a great way to organize version control / revision control.  This is the foundation. Start to consider comparing versions. Do you have the channels and tools to be able to have the various product stakeholders to provide input on the product. Integrating tools together so that the most information Avoid silos of different departments, ideally, you have all information together. Use priority flagging to tag the importance of issues or opportunities. EPISODE LINKS: Kyle Dumont Links: LinkedIn | AllSpice The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tim Uys has spent 25 years as a senior design, leader, and lecturer in the industrial design and mechanical design engineering world. He has worked for Nike Golf, Dell, Qualcomm, Ironman and many others while the director of design for IDOne, which was one of the top Austin design firms back in the early days before it was acquired. For the past 8 years, Tim has been the head of design for our very own Mako Design out of our Austin, Texas office. Today Tim is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand what each of the key 3 types of prototypes are, the order of those prototypes, and the importance of each of those phases of new product prototyping in order to manufacture a great and successful hardware product. Today you will hear us talk about: Mock Prototype / Rough Prototype Costs are relatively low to iterate and for parts Focus on big picture items, not the details, is key in a first prototype You can even have a series of rough prototypes or prototype parts to test a number of different things Mechanical / Functional Prototype You can do pieces of a prototype either in tandem, or linear,  Mechanical test prototypes use more complex parts, so it requires more advanced prototyping parts so that you can much closer mimic the final production mechanics parts. Even if costly, in the end, you are solving the problem. You cannot go to production without going into proper prototyping. There is a tremendous amount of value in building mechanical features that closely represent the manufactured product, so that you can perfect those mechanical design elements. Refined / Presentation Prototype A final prototype is usually used by hardware startups for selling, but also for manufacturing. Manufacturers need to have the product fully vetted out in order to get a reliable manufacturer to take on the project. Iteration in produce development is very important EPISODE LINKS: Tim Uys Links: LinkedIn | MAKO Design The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Thompson is head of CREO CAD software for PTC.  He spent the first 16 years of his career doing CAD design engineering for hundreds of products, many of which are still in production today, then the last 14 years building CAD software solutions to allow designers to make better hardware products.  Today Brian is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what the 3 main product development trends are in 2023 which include using design simulations, designing earlier for manufacturing, and using additive manufacturing for a first short or medium term production run. Today you will hear us talk about: Using simulation more in the design process Advances in technology to make digital simulation in CAD Design You no longer need to be an expert to do some tests in simulations The earlier you use CAD simulations, the quicker you discover problems. You can explore more design alternatives if you can apply simulation to your designs More investment in manufacturing in the design process CAD software can be used to evaluate design and prototyping, but now there are more tools to actually evaluate in CAD. Three key design steps are idea design, prototype and functional design, and design for manufacturing, in that order. Software is now making it easier to move to the next steps and improve the quality  More additive manufacturing, especially in short run Feedback from those first parts is a huge opportunity. Focus on equity. As a startup, plan on leveraging additive manufacturing to do a first production run to reduce risk. Design for additive, but with a plan to migrate those additive designs into full scale manufacturing when you scale. EPISODE LINKS: Brian Thompson Links: LinkedIn | LiveWorx 2023 | Try OnShape for Free | Creo | PTC The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will Ford is the Co-Founder of LaunchBoom, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform. He also runs the Crowdfunded Summit, a virtual crowdfunding event which I am also a keynote at again, and that’s coming up in May 2023, and as a quick heads up, Will is offering free tickets for limited time to listeners of this podcast. Today, Will is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can use small trial marketing and sales techniques to gauge how successful a crowdfunding campaign will be, other tips and tricks along the way to a successful launch, and the story of how crowdfunding has changed over the years. Today you will hear us talk about: Get the project funded on crowdfunding on the first day Sell the world from a prototype, and then validate that idea with real users, then use that money to fund the manufacturing Prelaunch is the single most important thing to think about when launching any product on crowdfunding. Offer a better deal to your early backers, before you even launch on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. People who put a deposit down, even just a dollar, have a 30 times higher probability of converting to a paying customer on Day 1 of your crowdfunding campaign. Set a reasonable campaign goal that is much smaller, so that you hit the campaign goal quickly. Doing crowdfunding yourself, it’s far less expensive than hiring agencies for crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is just the launch, most people want to then scale the product business after that. Crowdfunding is stronger than ever. Learn from your crowdfunding sales to  The LaunchBoom community. Messaging, positioning, pricing for planning a crowdfunding campaign Build lead funnels and reservation funnels A/B split testing for advertising messaging and lead offers Using data to analyze your offer options Figure out what is converting best on crowdfunding You can’t fool consumers these days, there is too much information online, so make sure you have a great product. Give the backers a discount on crowdfunding vs what your retail price will be. EPISODE LINKS: Will Ford Links: LinkedIn | Website | CrowdFunded Summit The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noah is a Vice President at Graff Pinkert, an 80-year-old manufacturing machinery dealer that buys and sells used equipment all over the world, with a central warehouse in the USA. Noah is also the host of the Swarfcast Podcast, a show all about manufacturing machinery and tool machining. Today, Noah will share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can consider starting your own product facility locally to produce your product, and what to think about when buying used equipment for your production facility. Today you will hear us talk about: Manufacturing equipment for products More hardware startups have called about buying machinery than ever before. You can use machinery to manufacture other products to help reduce the cost of buying the machinery yourself, so you can use it partly for your own product, but also for  Use the machine to learn how to improve both your manufacturing and the quality of your product. It’s important to know the caliber of machine that you need based on the part that you need. Look for the best support on the machinery you are buying, that is the priority when it comes to machinery suppliers Re-shoring is happening, product startups are trying to bring more products at home than ever before You have a lot of control of your product when you manufacture it yourself. EPISODE LINKS: Noah Graff Links: LinkedIn | Website | Swarfcast Podcast The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Bischoff to the show. Daniel Bischoff is the former Head of Growth at Purple  Mattresses. He took Purple from startup to over two hundred million dollars in sales in just its first two years on the market.  He then spun out as co-founder of his own direct-to-consumer marketing agency called StoicYeti which works with both hardware startups and Fortune500 product brands.  Today Daniel is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what direct-to-consumer advertising is, what you can learn from the Purple Mattress story about scaling a hardware brand, and how to create inexpensive yet powerful video ads to sell your new invention to the market. Today you will hear us talk about: Direct-to-consumer selling for a new hardware product in paid advertising Telling a story is key in digital marketing The Purple Story, inventors that wanted to create a mattress Copied another company’s model, just with a better product Sometimes all you need to sell a product is to be different, let alone better. Demonstrate, in video form, the value of your product, so that you can sell it online. Kickstarter was used to validate sales of Purple, and the way they wanted to sell it. You want to hook people in the first 3 seconds of the video. Try a number of hooks to see which one attracted the most people. Then make people problem-aware and then solution-aware. After someone saw their ad, they also reinforced those ads by having good reviews on Google. Get as many users as possible, in the beginning, talk to all of your customers to find out who are raving fans, and get those fans to review your product. Ask customers to send in reviews from their own cell phones using the product. List down all of the objections to buying your product, and have those responses on your website. Problem, solution, reasons to believe in the product, reduction of objections You can get videos done for cheap, but use those to test your messaging.  Sometimes those videos go further. User-generated content is the most powerful advertising right now. It is cheaper today to advertise a new product, and that is contradictory to what a lot of people think. EPISODE LINKS: Daniel Bischoff Links: LinkedIn | Website The Product Startup Podcast Links: https://www.ProductStartup.com/ Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube PTC Links: https://www.ptc.com/ OnShape | Creo Mako Design Links: https://www.makodesign.com/ YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter Kevin Mako Links: Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality. Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices