Product Startup

Hosted by Kevin Mako

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233

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Jul 2024

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About the show

The Product Startup Podcast is the hardware product development industry's #1 podcast. From invention idea to getting onto store shelves, and everything in between. Hear how inventors, product startups, & small manufacturers created their inventions and launched their physical product businesses. Learn from the industry's top industrial designers, mechanical engineers, PCB designers, consumer product managers, manufacturers, patent attorneys, hardware investors, product sellers, wholesalers, retailers and more. Learn about industrial design / product design, prototyping, 3d printing, additive manufacturing, product manufacturing, marketing, selling, patenting, logistics, and product business scaling. Hosted by Kevin Mako, the leading strategy and fundraising consultant for hardware startups at www.productstartup.com. Sponsored by TriMech Group, offering a comprehensive range of design, engineering, and manufacturing solutions backed by expertise that is unrivalled in the industry.

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July 25, 202418 min

233: Raising Money For Scaling Via a Crowdfunding Campaign

Will Ford is one of the world's top crowdfunding experts. As President and Co-Founder of LaunchBoom, the leading crowdfunding agency for hardware startups, he has helped thousands of inventors and entrepreneurs leverage platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo to establish and scale their product empires. Today, he explains in great detail why a successful crowdfunding campaign can lead to significantly higher post-campaign investments and increased sales across multiple channels to enlighten inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. Will also details best practices for raising funds and optimizing crowdfunding efforts, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning, storytelling, and social proof.Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/233-raising-money-for-scaling-via-a-crowdfunding-campaign/Key Takeaways in This Episode:Don’t give away too much equity too early in your entrepreneurial journey!Although it's great to have more money at the start, if you give away equity early, you will erode much of your future potential earnings.Convertible debt is a great pathway for raising money for your future valuation.You can take a prototype and pre-sell it to thousands of people worldwide through a crowdfunding platform.Raise growth capital after you complete your crowdfunding campaign.You will raise far more money if you bootstrap for as long as possible before crowdfunding, and you will give out far less equity.Buyers always want the coolest new products in the market as early as possible. This is why crowdfunding platforms are so powerful for inventors.You can turn backers who support your campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo into investors once the campaign is over.Dr. Squatch is an example of a hundred-thousand-dollar crowdfunding campaign.Prelaunch, test, and then validate the return on ad spend.Producer: Product Startup Consulting: https://www.productstartup.comKevin Mako is the leading one‑on‑one advisor for inventors, hardware startups, and product brands who want to go from first prototype to $50M+ in revenue without burning years or budgets. He helps with 6 key pillars:Product Launch, Sales, & ScaleFunding Strategy & Investor ReadinessDesign & Product Management AdvisoryPatent & IP StrategyM&A Due Diligence and OperationsManufacturing & Supply Chain ManagementBook an intro call: https://productstartup.com/contact/Kevin Mako's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmakopodscan_oityT1JQ7Rrx1n9LmQGFpdIIH2J4mCBB

July 7, 202420 min

232: Video Product Renderings for Your Invention

David Brown, one of our talented industrial designers at MAKO Design, is a true expert in hardware product video renderings. With a rich background in industrial design and design engineering, David has honed his product design skills to an exceptionally refined degree. Today, he's excited to share his expertise with inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. Imagine being able to visualize your product idea in stunning detail before it even exists – like a trailer for a new captivating horror movie. That's the magic of 3D CAD video renderings, and David is here to demystify the process. He'll take you through the creation process of video renderings and how they can be a game-changer at every stage of your product's journey. From the initial spark of inventing to the thrill of making your first sale, David will reveal how these renderings can bring your vision to life for investors or potential consumers and set you on the path to success. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/232-video-product-renderings-for-your-invention/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:Using video renderings is like bringing Hollywood to your product design! Video rendering is essentially taking 3D CAD designs and making a video with that series of images and data. It is like setting up a virtual camera that provides a full-scope view of the product in the setting where you would naturally find it. You must also take into account the environment and lighting! You can create things with video renderings that cannot be done in real life; this is one of its primary advantages. Exploded view renderings show how the product comes apart and all of its pieces. You can use these tools to explain a lot about a product and inform potential consumers. Product demos and tutorials are other uses for video renderings. How can you direct your designers to build a great hardware product rendering video for what you need? The core requirement for making the video is creating a storyboard and ordering the elements to effectively tell the story. Video renderings are standard these days for a great product, but you also need to develop a prototype! There is post-processing of the video as well to refine the story being told and how it is presented. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

June 20, 202423 min

231: Selling Your Invention on Your Own Website Starting from Zero

Hamdy Albana is the founder of Push Analytics, a sustainable growth-centred marketing agency focused on leveraging data to propel brands from inception to millions in sales. Additionally, bolstered by a robust education in electrical engineering at NYU, he possesses a wealth of knowledge salient to hardware startup business owners. Today, Hamdy will share the benefits and nuances of selling products directly on one's own website as opposed to through online marketplaces like Amazon with today's inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will also highlight the two most critical aspects of launching a new social media marketing campaign to attract potential customers to your site and divulge best practices for optimizing return on ad spend, enabling you to swiftly and successfully scale your new product business. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/231-selling-your-invention-on-your-own-website-starting-from-zero/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:How to scale your brand from securing your first few sales to millions of dollars in revenue using your own website to sell directly to end customers. Squarespace, Shopify, and other popular website building and hosting platforms are great options for building your D2C site. The biggest advantage of selling through your own website is that you own all of the customer contact and relationship info. Social media ads are great for getting new prospective customers to your custom website. Interest is the key part to identify when pinpointing your target audience. The second most important part of your campaign is your content. It provides different types of messaging that explain your product’s value proposition. Look for clear signs by analyzing the metrics on each type of ad to know if you’re moving in the right direction. Use your ad dollars in the early stages to learn what is working and not working to ensure you are continually improving. 50 orders is a notable learning point! You can feed the customer info into Meta's system, and the algorithm will help you find new customers. Scale, troubleshoot, repeat! This strategy will allow for continuous growth. Start with $50 per day in ad spend and increase the amount after your first few orders come in. Focus on a large geography rather than a small region to let the algorithm find where the most efficient and aligned sales are for you. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

June 14, 202417 min

230: Product Packaging Advice for Your New Hardware Invention

Elizabeth Corbett has served as a reliable expert in the packaging industry for a remarkable 30 years. She is currently the President of Enterprise Sales at AE Global, a company known worldwide for its inventive packaging design and manufacturing. With three decades of experience developing creative product packaging and supply chain solutions, she has collaborated with numerous major brands, including Tiffany, Starbucks, and Estée Lauder. Today, Elizabeth will share the wealth of knowledge she has gained throughout her career with inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. Her advice will cover the significance of innovative product packaging design, essential strategies for creating outstanding packaging, and ways to use packaging effectively to enhance the growth of your new hardware product brand. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/230-product-packaging-advice-for-your-new-hardware-invention/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:The primary role of packaging is to protect the product. Excellent packaging can provide an entire experience to the consumer. Another important consideration for packaging is that it needs to aptly represent the brand. Packaging needs to be budget-conscious! Consider if the cost of the packaging itself makes sense for the product you are selling. You need to take into account how the product will be sold. Different packaging presents different opportunities. Sustainability is a big part of packaging, particularly in today's society! The size of the packaging is an important ESG consideration. Influencer kits and investor kits are very similar – you are essentially creating something special to make the experience of opening the product interesting. Don't make your packaging too enticing! This could result in stolen packages. The outside of the box should be fairly utilitarian and basic, but when you open it up, it should be visually stunning and provide an experience. Product packaging is free real estate to connect with your customers, especially as a founder. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

June 7, 202423 min

229: Overview of Patenting for Hardware Startups

Are you looking to secure a patent or curious about what kind of intellectual property protection will best protect your brilliant ideas? Tom Dunlap has all the answers you're looking for and more. For 22 years, Tom has been the driving force behind Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig. He also imparts his expertise in patent law at Lafayette College and has developed numerous books on the frameworks of IP protection. Today, Tom is set to share his insight into this important topic with inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will detail the distinctions between provisional patents, utility patents, design patents, copyrights, and trademarks, as well as best practices for ensuring optimal IP protection for your new physical product invention.Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/229-overview-of-patenting-for-hardware-startups/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:Securing patent protection for your invention product is absolutely critical! A utility patent protects the product's function, essentially how it works. A design patent protects the physical design of a product, essentially how it looks. Trademarks are another form of intellectual property protection that protects your brand, for example, McDonald's and its gold arches. Copyright protection protects a range of supportive items, such as code, instruction manuals, and text pertinent to the product. Trade Secrets refer to pieces of information you want to keep private about your product or brand. A provisional patent is not really a patent. It is more like a temporary bookmark you have to file within a year of developing your novel product. One patent application can be submitted for protection in several countries through certain platforms. What is the difference between independent claims and dependent claims? All you own by securing a patent is what you have claimed. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

May 30, 202415 min

228: How to Build a Digital Community Before Launching Your Invention

Jon Davids, acclaimed for his book "Marketing Superpowers: Build a Brand So Good That Your Marketing Feels Like Magic," is the driving force behind Influicity. Having stood at the helm as Founder and CEO for over a decade, he has expertly guided hundreds of brands in fostering vibrant digital communities. Today, Jon will generously afford insight into the key pillars of developing a digital community for your new product venture to inform modern inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will share when is the best time to begin community-building efforts and effective strategies for generating momentum even before your product's official launch. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/228-how-to-build-a-digital-community-before-launching-your-invention/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:What aspect of your product do you believe in? Is it the solution it offers or the way it improves your life? You need to establish Faith in this with your customers. Action is the next step after Faith. Use what you believe and the experts who support this belief to establish trust when promoting your product. You don't need to become a content creator. Create content in the form that you are best suited for. Authenticity is the most important thing, and it’s very easy to do as an inventor. Consistency in your messaging is important! Keep repeating the message over and over. Show customers where the payoff is from following your single belief. If you don’t have anything to sell just yet, then encourage consumers to follow along your journey through a blog, newsletter or social media channel. Become an undeniable authority in your specific space. Celebrities don’t just sell products because they are famous, they are successful with their hardware products because they build loyal communities. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

May 24, 202422 min

227: How to Sell Your Invention Direct to Companies as a Promotional Product

Jeff Lerner is the CEO of Misnomer, a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Brand Development Agency. He boasts an impressive career, having collectively raised $400 million through venture capitalists and formerly served as a marketing lead at Google for several years. Today, Jeff will draw on his extensive experience to afford insight to inventors, startups, and small manufacturers looking to sell their inventions directly to larger corporations for promotional use. He will detail effective strategies for identifying how your product can impactfully enhance a corporation's value or improve operations, as well as the various types of promotional products that new product startups and inventors often overlook and their varied applications. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/227-how-to-sell-your-invention-direct-to-companies-as-a-promotional-product/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:How does selling your product to companies as a promotional product differ from D2C sales? There are multiple avenues you can take to get your promotional product sold to larger companies.  Find the one person in your target organization that encounters the problem your product solves. Make this person look like a hero by bringing that solution to their team. Reach out to various members within the company to gain an understanding of the overarching organizational situation and evaluate how your product or service can solve large issues. How does your product improve the value of the organization? How does your product add value to their sales process? Every company wants more business and greater revenue. There are a number of creative ways to determine how your product fits into the promotional products landscape of a corporation. If your product is new, you have an advantage in that it is unique and has never been seen before. However, the disadvantage is that you will need to educate the customer as to why they need it. If your product is an improved version of an existing product, it will likely be easier to educate potential customers and thus sell. Start by selling locally through networking groups or local trade shows; you will be surprised at how many you find. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

May 16, 202417 min

226: Maximizing Your Invention’s Perceived Value Through Marketing

Valentin Radu, CEO and Founder of Omniconvert, wrote the book on Customer Lifetime Value – literally. He has collaborated with an extensive range of direct-to-consumer eCommerce brands to elevate their marketing strategies, which informed his development of "The CLV Revolution," a guidebook dedicated to revolutionizing customer value optimization for eCommerce businesses. Today, Valentin will divulge the core frameworks of his guidebook salient to today's inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will detail how to differentiate between profit and perceived value – emphasizing the importance of centring your marketing efforts on the solution your product offers – and share strategies for boosting the price customers are prepared to pay for your latest invention. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/226-maximizing-your-inventions-perceived-value-through-marketing/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:Nail down the unit economics before you begin developing marketing approaches. The core formula to use is customer lifetime value divided by customer acquisition cost. Customer research is a vital step to take before spending money on marketing. Try to maximize the sales up front! This requires great brand and product messaging. People don’t buy products for the features; they buy them for the solutions they provide. It is better to focus on the pain point, as people are more inclined to shell out money to solve these issues. Based on your marketing approach, you can increase the price people are willing to pay for your product without changing any features. Harvard Business Review states that most buying decisions are based on emotional decisions, not logic. Use features and technology to validate your claims regarding how you are improving your customer's life. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

May 9, 202415 min

225: Communication Silos for Product Design Stakeholders

John Conafay entered the manufacturing sector in 2014 after contributing to the United States Air Force for years as a communications and systems specialist. Following a wide array of collaborations with hardware startups and aerospace companies, he noticed a lack of refined communication tools, which culminated in the creation of Integrate – a unique software designed to streamline communication in the hardware development realm. Today, John will share how he made this discovery and how critical segregating communication channels is for modern inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers. John will identify the primary stakeholders in product development and elucidate the advantages of a meticulously constructed information framework for hardware product businesses. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/225-communication-silos-for-product-design-stakeholders/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:Hardware development requires extensive communication between internal designers, internal engineers, customers, manufacturers, and investors. All of them need the right information at the right time. It’s important to have a system that controls how information is disseminated to ensure the right information is available for the right stakeholders. Firewalls are incredibly important for information security in consumer product development. Make sure you maintain your source of truth! Ensure that changes that occur in documents are tracked in real time so that all team members are on the same page. Intellectual property should be protected to a high degree! You heavily reduce the need for meetings, overhead, and unnecessary administrative work when integrating communication silos. Risk is reduced if you have teams spread across a variety of places and even a variety of countries. MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

May 2, 202416 min

224: Expanding Your Product Into New Verticals

Danny Angers, one of the pioneering Co-Founders of VOSKER cameras, uncovered something fascinating regarding how users were employing their products and used it to his advantage to expand his brand substantially. In just 5 years, VOSKER has grown to achieve an astounding $150 million in annual sales across 45 countries and boasts the distribution of over 2 million devices worldwide. Today, Danny graciously affords budding inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers insight into his experience scaling VOSKER. He will delve into the efficacy of listening to your customers to inform the product iteration phase in order to boost the satisfaction of existing clients and identify verticals that you may not have explored without external insight. Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/224-expanding-your-product-into-new-verticals/ Key Takeaways in This Episode:Listen to your existing and prospective customers! Oftentimes, your clients will tell you what they need from your product. Innovation starts coming in from the client. The way you help your customers help you is by asking them how they are using your product. As a new hardware startup, you have the liberty to aggressively reach out to your initial customers. When your customer base increases, you can start sampling a portion of it to get a better idea of who the customers are. Send customers who send you positive feedback the next version of your product that is designed to help a specific customer persona. Around half of your customers will respond to outreach, which is more than enough. Ensure that you listen to customers when customizing the product for each new vertical that you have identified as an opportunity. You don’t necessarily need to create a product for every vertical. Focus on an MVP at every stage, and ensure each level is successful so that you can piggyback off that success. Failure is a key part of the process to success as well! MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako 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. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.

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Listen to episodes

233: Raising Money For Scaling Via a Crowdfunding Campaign

232: Video Product Renderings for Your Invention

231: Selling Your Invention on Your Own Website Starting from Zero

230: Product Packaging Advice for Your New Hardware Invention

229: Overview of Patenting for Hardware Startups

228: How to Build a Digital Community Before Launching Your Invention

227: How to Sell Your Invention Direct to Companies as a Promotional Product

226: Maximizing Your Invention’s Perceived Value Through Marketing

225: Communication Silos for Product Design Stakeholders

224: Expanding Your Product Into New Verticals

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