
Tal and Stephanie started their product design after years of sharing living spaces with siblings and roommates. The Shlocker is a Shower Locker designed for anyone sharing a bathroom (college students, roommates, families). It allows the user to keep their personal care products separate, preventing product mooching and razor mixups.
In this episode, we learn about

	* The 2017 Annual Product Startup Survey and Giveaway  
	* Solving that unmet need 
	* Validating their idea and creating the first prototype 
	* Creating a refined prototype 
	* Sourcing manufacturers in the US and abroad and placing their first order 
	* Pre-selling on Kickstarter 
	* Doing what you can yourself - from photography to graphic design 
	* Going into retail stores 
	* Making improvements on the product 
	* Attending trade shows to make contact with buyers and get publicity 


Links and resources mentioned in this episode

	* Website:

	* shlocker.com


	* Social Media

	* Twitter: @TheShlocker
	* Facebook: facebook.com/shlocker
	* Instagram: instagram.com/theshlocker
	* YouTube: youtube.com/channel


	* Tools

	* Canva - Easy to use graphic design
	* Survey Monkey - Audience surveys




046 - Bootstrapping Product Development, Stephanie Cummings & Tal Berke of Shlocker - The Product Startup: Product development for small business

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, North America’s leading expert on product development for physical product startups, founder of Mako Design + Invent, keynote speaker, and Masters of Engineering lecturer.  Produced by MAKO Design + Invent, the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors.

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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, <a href="https://www.makodesign.com/services/patent-referrals/"...

224: Expanding Your Product Into New Verticals

For nearly a decade, Tim Uys has spearheaded a diverse myriad of design initiatives as the Director of Design at MAKO Design + Invent. During his 25 years in the industrial design and mechanical engineering domains, he has made impactful contributions in senior design leadership and education roles, as well as to renowned companies such as Dell, Nike Golf, Qualcomm, and Ironman. Today, Tim draws from his abundant experience to enlighten modern inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the disparities between mechanical and pre-production prototypes for plastic components. He will divulge the essential design for manufacturing prerequisites and offer insight into optimizing the plastic product design, engineering, and prototyping journey for maximum efficiency.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/223-mechanical-prototype-parts-vs-pre-production-parts-for-plastic-inventions/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:What are the key differences between a mechanical prototype and a pre-production prototype?
 Most hardware inventions are either entirely or mainly made of plastic or have some plastic components.
 The mechanical prototype helps validate the primary mechanism of the design and the overall invention idea.
 The pre-production prototype is the phase in which you put the product design into its intended final format, suitable for mass production, and work on shaping the components to optimize for that format.
 There is a wide variety of different types of plastic, and they all have different uses.
 Once you finalize the materials selection, the next step is to choose which processes you will use, such as injection moulding.
 A lot of hardware startups skip this entire step and choose to proceed to manufacturing with concept CAD. They are missing 3 key prototyping stages: the Rough Prototype, the Mechanical Prototype, and the Pre-Production Prototype.
 Skipping these stages could cost you money and time down the line if something is missed.
 The fewer features you have for your starter product as a startup, the easier it is to go through all these steps and the more refined each feature will be. 
 Keep your feature creep to a minimum. You can add additional features later on!
   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, <a href="https://www.makodesign.com/services/mechanical-engineering/" rel="noopener

223: Mechanical Prototype Parts vs. Pre-Production Parts for Plastic Inventions

In addition to amassing 25 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, Micki Vandeloo has dedicated nearly 15 years to assisting manufacturers with securing government grants to propel the growth of their product ventures. Impressively, as the President of Lakeview Consulting, she has collectively secured over $250 million for clients. Today, Micki will offer invaluable guidance for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers by systematically breaking down the requisite steps and nuances of applying for and successfully securing government grants in the USA. She will delineate the various levels as well as categories of grants available for hardware startups and impart essential advice on preparing for and composing the application to maximize your chances of success.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/222-securing-grants-for-scaling-up-a-hardware-startup/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:What are government grants? 
 You have to plan very far ahead before applying for a government grant.
 What is the difference between state grants and federal grants?
 Scaling-stage funding is when you are able to prove that you can scale. Most government grants require clear market proof to receive the funding.
 There are a wide variety of different grant purposes.
 Project design is key to successfully applying for a government grant.
 There are 3 core elements to a grant: What are the activities you have to do to make the product business grow? What do you need in order to make the scaling project work? How much money is your product going to cost?
 Identify the grant you think you can get, develop a compelling project plan in your application, and then ensure you follow the grant requirements after receiving funding.
 There are a variety of grant requirements you must meet after you get the funding, so be conservative with your estimates.
   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, <a...

222: Securing Grants for Scaling Up a Hardware Startup

With more than two decades of experience in manufacturing, Keenan Wyrobek stands as a highly knowledgeable figure in the industry. He is the Co-Founder and CTO of Zipline, an autonomous drone delivery enterprise boasting a workforce of 1,100 individuals that has secured funding in the hundreds of millions. Today, Keenan will divulge his extensive expertise salient to inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers. He will share how to best navigate the intricacies of the design for manufacturing phase, strategies for optimizing the product development and prototyping stages for seamless integration with manufacturing processes, and how to smoothly transition from finalizing your pre-production prototype to your first manufacturing run, thereby laying the groundwork for a triumphant launch.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/221-how-to-go-from-prototype-to-first-manufacturing-run/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:Ensure your product is well-designed and has been prototyped numerous times before going into the production stage.
 Design for manufacturing is all about hitting optimizations and maximizing manufacturability for each individual component.
 Don’t change aspects of the product design once you have begun DFM, the design is done at that point!
 Create at least more than 3 prototypes to make sure you have industriously iterated on everything that matters.
 You are not done prototyping until you are perfectly happy with your design, and it perfectly aligns with your vision for your product.
 Manufacturing design is the stage where you start working closely with your manufacturing vendors.
 Make sure you have a strong manufacturing design package to provide your vendors with.
 Product reliability is critical, so make sure you have a strong relationship with your manufacturing vendors!
 Include the customer in the DFM process, as they will identify reliability issues you may have never identified.
   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...

221: How to Go from Prototype to First Manufacturing Run

Akeem Shannon is the mastermind behind Flipstik, a consumer product startup that started with a crowdfunding campaign and has achieved resounding success leveraging the immense power of authentic storytelling. In addition to achieving over a million units sold and robust partnerships with over 3,000 resellers, Flipstik has garnered substantial attention from millions of consumers across various social media platforms, including the legendary Snoop Dogg. Today, Akeem will take listeners through his journey in the hardware startup space and impart valuable anecdotes for inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers. He will delve into the significance of storytelling in consumer product promotion, emphasizing its dual utility: leveraging personal narrative as a founder and harnessing customer experiences. Moreover, Akeem will elaborate on how to strategically implement these storytelling techniques to propel the growth of your product business.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/220-how-storytelling-drives-consumer-product-sales/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:It always helps to have a genuine love for sales as you are always selling something as a hardware founder.
 You can recover from failure if you don’t give up!
 Self-belief will take you further than anything!
 Most people don’t have big imaginations, so your biggest obstacle is convincing them to buy something they were previously content with living without.
 Show consumers how your customer's lives were changed by using your product.
 Sometimes, you are not the right messenger for a specific audience, so utilize the stories of others to get your message across.
 Find people who love your product and work with them to amplify your message!
 Authenticity is the most important thing when telling your own story.
 Your story will get you into rooms and meetings that you may think you are too small for.
   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, <a...

046 - Bootstrapping Product Development, Stephanie Cummings & Tal Berke of Shlocker - The Product Startup: Product development for small business

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