Patrick Daly is the author of the book Just Start Up. He has built over 20 products from invention idea to market over the past 25 years. Today Patrick is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can get their first products sold by selling directly to other businesses such as wholesalers, retailers, distributors, or other brands, and then how to accelerate your ongoing product development and sales through those channels.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Patrick Daly / Just Start Up Book Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Scott Evans is the Director of Inventionworks at the University of Texas, just a few blocks away from our Mako Design Austin office. Inventionworks is a 23,000 square foot product design and development facility with lots of fun machines and a team of 40 experts to help get student inventions off the ground. In addition, Scott has spent 25 years in the prototyping and product manufacturing industry. Today Scott is going to share some valuable knowledge on how student inventors and startups can start their invention idea journey, and how to maximize the value of what colleges and universities have to offer. And today isn’t just about students, but also how anyone in the industry can get involved with their local schools both to help and to learn from them.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Scott Evans / Inventionworks Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Nic Beique is the Founder and CEO of Helcim, a North American payment processing company that has over 10,000 small business clients, and processes over four billion dollars of transactions per year. In fact, Mako Design is one of his clients. Today Nic is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers should understand the importance of payment processing, and how to best use it to improve the experience for both your end customers and your business-to-business wholesale transactions.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Nic Beique / Helcim Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Donna Griffit helps write pitches for hardware startups and small manufacturing companies to raise millions of dollars in funding. Before working with small product businesses, she used to do corporate pitch investment decks for Samsung, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Visa, and more. She has raised over $300 million for hardware companies alone. Today Donna is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers should think about how to write a perfect investor pitch through storytelling, and what specific story model to use to land the big bucks.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Donna Griffit Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Steven is the Founder and CEO of FundThrough, a North American accounts receivable firm that has provided billions of dollars in bridge financing to help small businesses scale.  His firm is also a fellow recipient of the Best Places to Work Award.  Today Steven is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand how big buyers like wholesalers, distributors, and retailers use credit terms when purchasing your products, and what you can do to bridge the gap between delivering your product and getting paid, something which is quite important for a small and scaling consumer product business.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Steven Uster / FundThrough Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Amy is the Founder of Mozzafiato, a large e-commerce health and beauty product store.  She has over 1,000 products on her platform, and it only launched a year ago.  Before this, she spent 20 years as a university executive and an attorney.  Today Amy is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can join with other emerging consumer products to create bundles of products to sell online, thus giving your product much broader market access and bigger potential sales.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Amy Parsons / Mozzafiato Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Will Russell is the Founder of Russell Marketing, a New York marketing agency that specializes in launching new consumer product inventions. He is also a fellow writer with me for Forbes. Today Will is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers learn to identify the main consumer buyer objections when purchasing your product, then how to overcome those objections when you launch your product to the market for the first time.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Will Russell / Russell Marketing Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Jim Cermak is the Founder of Trade Show University, an organization that educates and consults small businesses on winning at trade shows. He has been both in the trade show industry for 30 years, but also in the consumer product development and marketing business for many years. He also is the host of the Trade Show University Podcast. Today Jim is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can first choose a great show to exhibit at, then how to do a great job at landing big sales at the show itself.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Jim Cermak / Trade Show University Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Dan Soviero is the Founder of Signature Athletics, a highly successful sports gear company selling products all over the world. Dan is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, and like me, started his business while back in school. Today Dan is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can use the power of truly understanding a customer’s pain point, and using that understanding to create and sell highly successful products.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Dan Soviero / Signature Athletics Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Yohan Jacob is the Founder and President of RetailBound, an agency that helps emerging hardware brands get into major retail stores and sales channels. RetailBound has been around for 14 years and has worked with over 4,000 product companies. Yohan himself has spent 30 years in the industry, including being a major buyer for Sears and Office Max. Today Yohan is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers get into the big retailers, including the 3 major tips on what retailers are looking for these days, and furthermore, how to succeed and scale once you are on the shelves with your invention.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Yohan Jacob / Retail Bound Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links: