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Secrets Of Crowdfunding Success

December 11 2012 | Cliff | All Posts, Crowdfunding, Manufacturing, Manufacturing Tips, Prototyping, Supplier Management | Comment

Secrets of Crowdfunding Success

Crowdfunding hasn’t been around long, but it changed the face of product development by allowing people to vote with their money and that is a powerful thing when it comes to preparing product for market. At Leardon we have had the privilege to work with crowdfunded entrepreneurs. In doing so, we’ve compiled some advice based on our experiences.

A quick list of our recommendations for crowdfunding success:

1) For better or worse, Your product is in the public eye.

Our advice: Attempt to lock in quotes and estimates prior to raising any funding. Once your campaign is successful, vendors and service providers will not have to look too hard to find out how deep your pockets are. Be strategic to avoid being taken advantage of.

2) The 80 / 20 Rule

Our advice: A fancy prototype can get you pretty far, but successfully crowdfunded entrepreneurs have told us how surprised they were to have to do an extreme amount of marketing. If your campaign is successful, it may be because you spent 80% of your time marketing it and 20% doing everything else. Don’t hesitate to reach out to every single person you know to ask them to spread the word. Make it easy for them to share the information and remember to include a call to action in everything. Social media, local TV, blogs and experts will work to your advantage, make relationships prior to the campaign launch.

3) Design for manufacturability

Finding out your prototype isn’t manufacturable sucks, but it really really sucks after you’ve taken 50k in orders.
Our advice: Prototype as far you can until you absolutely need funding. Regardless if your idea is software or hardware, always consider designing for scalability. If you are unfamiliar with this process, reach out to product development teams that specialize in end-to-end product development and that can design for manufacturability.

4) Walk the Walk – Talk the Talk :

Let’s face it, until manufacturing comes back the US, chances are that you will be building your products overseas to compete with global competition. You may find yourself in a sticky situation if you do not know much about your partners overseas.
Our advice : Consider finding service providers that have reps, project managers, engineers, ect.. in the areas where you will be manufacturing. Their ability to perform a factory audit, speak with factory managers and correct issues before you start shipping product to customers will save face and your business.

5) Watch every cent, do what you know how to do well and get help when you are far out of your comfort zone.

For questions related to product development, please reach feel free to contact us.

Tagged Crowdfunding Tips, factory audit, Manufacturing, Prototype

Wasdio – A San Diego Prototyping Success Story

December 6 2012 | Cliff | All Posts, Business Tips, Crowdfunding, News, Product Design, Prototyping, San Diego | Comment

After two years and two different prototypes, San Diego product entrepreneur Cary Evans has now launched his innovative PC controller, The Wasdio on Kickstarter in an effort to raise $175,000 in pledges to help build a production version.

Since Evans is a Leardon client and San Diego resident, we thought we would take a moment and ask him about his product development experience and some best tips for prototyping.

Q: Cary, what gave you the inspiration to build a new PC controller?

Cary: After getting my butt kicked too many times in online games, I realized that I was not a good touch-typer in high stress situations. I knew how I wanted to move, but between the 20+ keys my hand was responsible for, I could not move and switch weapons intuitively. I knew there had to be a better way than the keyboard.

Q: What has been the most challenging part of the journey?

Cary: Just like video games, each stage of the journey gets more challenging than the last. Right now our project is on Kickstarter and it has been difficult to get press to talk about our project and to help bring awareness to our project.

Q: What has been your biggest lesson with product development?

A: Our product fits in your hand and ergonomics is a huge factor. With our first prototype, we did not do any 3D print-outs so we could test proportions, button sizes, and how it feels overall in your hand. That being said, we learned to print everything out prior to flushing out a high-fidelity prototype.

Q: How important is it to find the right team that knows the product development life cycle inside and out?

Cary: Finding the right team that have the skills and personalities that you enjoy working with is always important. Also, working with people that have an understanding of the entire process makes for a better product and easier planning. We have not made it from one end to the other, but so far we have been happy working with an end-to-end provider.

Q: Did you design the prototype to optimize manufacturing efficiency? If so, what were some key areas that needed revising for design for manufacturability?

Cary: Yes, but ask Murray more about this one

( Murray Learmonth is VP of engineering at Leardon Solutions )

Murray: The parts were designed to minimize the tooling complexity and therefore minimize the tooling investment by the client. Wherever possible standard open/closed part design was adhered to and only using sliding cores where essential. This process is called Design for Manufacturing (DFM)

Q: What changes will you make (if any) to the production version?

Cary: The purpose of any prototype is to enable you to test it, find improvements and iterate on it. We have a handful of refinements and tweaks that we’ll make before a production version. As an example, our product is essentially a joystick and right now we are refining the amount of tension or force needed to push the stick. These kind of changes are impossible to make without actually feeling it in your hand.

Q: How important do you feel it is to have a real and working prototype to help raise money especially on sites like Kickstarter?

Cary: I cannot speak to other sites but on Kickstarter, if you have a hardware project, you are required to have a working prototype. You can no longer show just computer renderings.

Everyone has ideas, but there is a huge difference between having an idea and holding one. Holding an idea demonstrates that it can be done, your commitment to the idea, and allows people to see and use if for themselves.

Q: What is the best tip(s) you could give someone thinking about spending the capital required to prototype a product?

Cary: Each stage of the process is about refinement. Before prototyping a product, do a proof of concept of your own. It does not matter how crude it is or what materials are used; paper, cardboard or wood are all a great start. The process of making something with your hands and testing it with friends and family will enable you to refine your idea and put you in a great spot for building a prototype.

If you have questions about your prototyping process – please feel free to Contact Us for more information.

Tagged Consumer Device, Joe Donughe, Prototype, San Diego

Why Build A Demonstrable Proof Of Concept Prototype

October 30 2012 | Cliff | All Posts, Business Tips, Crowdfunding, Product Development, Prototyping | Comment

Whether you are a Fortune 100 company or a first time inventor / entrepreneur / startup, the proof of concept prototype is integral to successful product development which includes the costly design, build, and test/qualify phase with multiple prototypes. Creating a large number of expensive prototypes prior to proving “it works” is unfortunately a common pitfall and results in significant cost and schedule overruns or project cancellation. More than 70% of the cost along with highest burn rate ($/time) of project dollars will be in the design and prototyping cycle. You cannot be inventing and/or requiring breakthroughs during this phase. This should be an execution phase not an investigation phase!

Raising Capital Requires A Wow Factor

Along with a solid marketing and sales plan, a solid product demo is a must for most projects going forward. This is particularly true for those incorporating crowdfunding strategies like those offered by Kickstarter or Indiegogo. A proof of concept that has all the critical form and function is significant to inspiring your investors. Your typical investor likes to be wowed and a demonstrable proof of concept has a huge impact on their opinion of your abilities with their money. Be careful to avoid trying to create the final product with all the features, industrial design, etc. The objective here is to create a quality demo leveraging the proof of concept. Folks that know what they’re doing aren’t looking for a finished product at this stage. It is acceptable to have electronics outside the product, using a laptop to help with performance and stereolith/caste mechanical parts at this stage.

Along with the major feasibility proofing and the “dog-and-pony” opportunities the POC provides additional validation to all aspects of the value proposition and cost structure. Marketing, sales, manufacturing, finance, and R&D are able to validate and improve upon the plans and activities going forward based on the learnings achieved with the POC.

Have questions about your proof of concept? Contact Us, we would be happy to help.

Tagged Crowdfunding Tips, Mike Hoggatt, Proof-of-concept, Prototype

Southern California Crowdfunding Success Stories Video Replay

August 14 2012 | Cliff | All Posts, Business Tips, Crowdfunding, Patents and Prototypes, San Diego | Comment

Southern California isn’t just the sun shine, beautiful beaches, endless summers and traffic. There is some serious product innovation going on here in both the San Diego area and Los Angeles area.

Joe Donoghue from the Leardon team co-hosts the monthly live show ” Patents & Prototypes “. Last week the show featured two Southern California designers that had put prototypes together and launched crowdfunding campaigns.

The combined campaigns raised almost 100k and set new innovations in motion for the Southern California.

Catch the recap of the show here that features The Torch Bicycle Helmet and The Folding E-bike For Commuters.

For more information on product development and prototyping in Southern California, please contact us here.

Tagged crowdfunding, Joe Donoghue, Southern California

Successfully Crowdfunded on Kickstarter

July 31 2012 | Cliff | All Posts, Business Tips, Crowdfunding, Patents and Prototypes, Prototyping | Comment

Successfully Crowdfunded Live from San Diego

On August 1 at 9:00am/pst, Joe Donoghue along with Eric Hanscom will be broadcasting live from San Diego to discuss patents and prototypes with two crowdfunded success stories that recently raised capital through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

Tune in here to hear from our special guests:

• Nathan Wills with his Torch Bicycle Helmet

• Gabriel Wartofsky with his Folding Electric Bike For Commuters

Topics will include:

Starting a Kickstarter Campaign
Tricks and tips
Valuable troduct development tips
Valuable crowdfunding tips
Prototyping tips
Patent issues
What to expect if you get crowdfunded
After you’ve been crowdfunded, what’s next?

For more information visit Patents & Prototypes.

Tagged crowdfunding, Eric Hanscom, Joe Donoghue, Kickstarter, patents & prototypes, Prototypes

5 Secrets Of A Crowdfunding Campaign

June 12 2012 | Cliff | All Posts, Crowdfunding, Product Development, Prototyping | Comment

With crowdfunding all the rage right now, we wanted to hop on the blog and let you in 5 tips that we’ve learned from product folks that have successfully raised funds through crowdfunding.

1) Know Your Audience - Picking the right platform for your crowdfunding campaign is the most important decision in the campaign. There are many platforms such as Kickstarter, Profounder, and IndieGoGo. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the specifics. Here is a recent post with a break down.

2) Plan For 3x – Veteran startup junkies will tell you that part of success is planning accordingly. When venturing into the unknown such as product development for the first time, it would be wise to use the rule of 3. Plan for 3x the money you think you will need and for the product to take 3x longer than you thought it would to get a final manufacturable product.

3) Under Promise and Over Deliver – Don’t sell yourself short by staying in your comfort zone and not innovating, but at the same time, don’t over promise on something you may not be able to deliver. Be ambitious, but be realistic.

4) Marketing 101 – Of the people we have talked to that have run a successful crowdfunding campaign, 100% of them said they spent much more time marketing their campaign than they had expected to. Prepare to fire up your social network, blog daily and take every opportunity available to get the word out.

5) Be A Story Teller – Like the participants on the ABC show “Shark Tank”, People love a good story. Give them a good beginning, middle and end.

Good luck on your campaign and please contact us with any questions.

Tagged crowdfunding, Investment, prototyping