Product Startup

Lesley Hensell, renowned for her 14 years of experience in Amazon sales, is the mastermind behind the revolutionary book The Amazon Incubator. Lesley also serves as Co-Founder at Riverbend Consulting, where she has directly assisted numerous Amazon sellers that achieve annual revenue ranging from $500,000 to $500 million by solving pressing issues, optimizing workflows, and maximizing business growth. In today's episode, Lesley shares her extensive insight into the intricacies of Amazon's sales platform and how to improve your chances of sales success as an inventor, startup, or small manufacturer. She delves into the benefits of leveraging Amazon as a product startup, provides strategies for conducting effective keyword and competitor research, and outlines best practices for overseeing a product launch to ensure enduring success as an Amazon seller.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/213-researching-how-your-product-fits-on-amazon/

Key Takeaways in This Episode:

• Two-thirds of the products sold on Amazon are sold by 3rd party resellers.
• There are 150 million Prime members just in the US alone.
• Amazon has surpassed Google for product research!
• The first questions to consider as a hardware startup are; Is your product suited for Amazon, and is there a niche for your product on Amazon?
• Find your product description keywords! Build out long-tail keywords by writing out the direct definition and primary descriptors of your product.
• The keywords that you use to research your product should dictate how you build your actual listing page, as well as your pay-per-click advertising.
• Brand registry on Amazon is important for brand protection!
• Have a comprehensive plan prepared prior to your product's launch, including your advertising strategies and materials.

Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako

Jason Friedman serves as CEO at CXFormula, a firm that assists entrepreneurs with elevating the customer experience. With almost 3 decades of experience, he has collaborated with a wide range of budding and established companies, achieving multiple successful business exits along the way. In today's discussion, Jason will share his insight into how modern inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can enhance their offerings and marketing approaches to drive organic growth. He will delve into the significance of understanding the customer journey and share strategies for ensuring customers engage with, purchase, and become passionate advocates for your innovative product.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/212-the-customer-experience-for-new-hardware-products/

Key Takeaways in This Episode:

• Customer experience is key to scaling a new hardware product.
• The customer experience refers to the journey they go on with your physical consumer product.
• Refine the touch points your customers have with your product and brand to improve their journey.
• Pretend to be a customer! Think about method acting as an informative research process to better understand your prospective customer.
• Search Amazon for reviews of similar products to collect feedback on what features, or lack thereof, are frustrating people.
• Talk to potential customers to identify the exact words they use to describe their wants, needs, and frustrations.
• Craft the perfect customer testimonial using impactful words and a lot of detail. Then, reverse engineer the customer journey so their feedback mirrors the testimonial you wrote.

Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako

Nikhil Joshi is the founder of SNic Solutions, a company he has run for 17 years helping scale product manufacturing operations. He has worked with almost 150 factories across 12 countries. Today Nikhil will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how manufacturing has changed, the opportunities that exist, and how to ensure you properly plan for complex manufacturing as a hardware startup.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/211-establishing-product-manufacturing-operations/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• The manufacturing process is drastically different now than it was even 30 years ago.
• Modern consumers seek custom-tailored products that are designed very specifically for them.
• The goal is to try to produce a smaller variety of items in the manufacturing process, but it is integral to be more efficient in order to accomplish this.
• Try not to customize and scale at the same time unless you can adopt a business model that can support that level of customization.
• Talk directly to your end customers, even if you are selling through middle players!
• Be agile and flexible, and give the end customer what they want, but at a good price.
• Agility, speed, and efficiency are key! Smaller companies will often push these demands to contract manufacturing.
• Go from working in silos to developing your own web of information and technology - from ideation through to industrial product design - then begin manufacturing, and then place your focus back on the customer.
• You can reduce the time it takes to get to the manufacturing stage when you start considering manufacturing at the design level.
• Spearheading comprehensive design, then engineering, then manufacturing is the most logical progression!

Nikhil Joshi Links:

LinkedIn | SNic Solutions

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Taylor Frame is the Co-Founder of Focus Funnels, a direct-to-consumer marketing agency that has been around for over 8 years and successfully collaborated with hundreds of businesses. Prior to this venture, he drove direct-to-consumer product sales for prominent brands, including The Gap, J.Crew, and Adobe. Today, Taylor will share the extensive knowledge he has amassed throughout his time in the product sales space integral to inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. In particular, he will detail the four core pillars of a direct-to-consumer funnel, how to ensure a sales funnel is built correctly, and the best practices physical product startups seeking to launch their first consumer product online should employ to maximize their success.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/210-using-ad-funnels-for-d2c-product-sales/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• What are the frameworks for bringing new hardware to market?
• Positioning is how your product is differentiated in the market.
• Placement is key! Put time into researching where your audience is spending their time online.
• Have a good understanding of what your audience cares about.
• A focused acquisition funnel is always best!
• Strive to achieve a customer journey that persuades someone to buy something.
• What are the three critical aspects of delivery for ads?
• Content is about your core pillars; build content that aligns with them to effectively sell the value of your product.
• Once you have content developed, get it out there fast!
• Paid ads versus organic ads.
• The barrier to entry on sales has been lower than ever recently, making it easy to get in front of eyeballs.
• A key step is to ensure that when someone clicks on your content, you have a product landing page that promotes the product's value.
• Keep your advertising simple, as if you’re talking to a friend about their problem and your solution.
• Keep your ads simple at the beginning, and then begin to test more complex pieces of content.
• Test 3 or 4 different types of ads every week or two.
• It is better to have more information on your website to ensure your page tells a whole story.
• Startups have a sizeable competitive advantage over big box retailers, as they have authenticity behind their product!

Taylor Frame Links:

LinkedIn | Focus Funnels

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Ori Yudilevich is the CTO of Materials Zone, a materials information platform for hardware product development. He has a Ph.D. in Mathematics in the field of differential geometry and served as a Lecturer in the realm of higher education for over 15 years before transitioning into the industry. Today, Ori will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on why materials research is so important to the hardware product design process, burgeoning trends in materials science, and how to ensure you select the right materials to streamline manufacturing and maximize the efficacy of product marketing.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/209-materials-research-for-consumer-product-design/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• Materials are in everything!
• The product development process for all products requires a lot of research into materials.
• Materials research is core to achieving progress with your invention idea.
• Materials selection is an integral component of hardware development and is often overlooked by non-designers.
• Materials selection is much like selecting ingredients when cooking. You can cut corners to minimize cost, but it will ultimately be noticeable to the consumers!
• How to choose materials that best align with your product's purpose and the process of making those materials.
• Materials are evolving, so it is important to remain up-to-date on the best materials available today.
• Sustainable materials selection is a big trend right now!
• Your customers are looking at what your product is made of, so carefully thought-out materials selection will boost its success beyond the manufacturing process.
• The supply chain is a critical consideration, so it is best to choose materials that have supply flexibility.
• Researching materials regulations according to your location is key, as certain rules need to be adhered to depending on the country you are selling in.
• Think of materials selection from a manufacturing perspective and a product sales (customer) perspective.

Ori Yudilevich Links:

LinkedIn | Materials Zone

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Kelley Thornton is the CEO of Tiege Hanley, a direct-to-consumer skincare product brand for men that has sold more than 16 million products in over 100 countries. Today, Kelley will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the importance of materials selection for your new hardware product, how to ensure the use of the best quality materials when working with manufacturers, and why materials are important to both your customers and your product business.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/208-choosing-quality-materials-for-your-consumer-product/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• What are hardware product materials, and why are they important?
• Make a decision about the level of quality you want to achieve with your product up front, as that will guide your materials decision-making.
• Intuitive materials decision-making is salient to having great products.
• Understanding the chemistry of ingredients is important to delivering product results.
• Calling out the ingredients at the manufacturing level will critically ensure quality.
• All manufacturers have strengths and weaknesses, so make sure everyone is on board with the way the product is formed.
• Be clear about intellectual property, especially if the manufacturer makes changes that you agree with!
• Another key reason you should push for high-quality materials is that you can use the quality as a reason your customers should choose your product brand over others.
• You can also use the quality of your ingredients in your marketing efforts!
• Always start with higher quality materials and, over time, figure out how to value engineer that into cost savings through scale, innovation, etc., to bring your costs down.
• Ensure that your margins are high enough to afford quality, and that should be the case when you’ve got a new proprietary product.

Kelley Thornton Links:

LinkedIn | Tiege Hanley, Inc.

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Steven Weigler is a seasoned attorney and successful entrepreneur who has worked for a number of large corporations in the intellectual property arena. Presently a Founding Attorney at EmergeCounsel, Steven is poised to share immensely valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. Today, he will delve into the four types of intellectual property protection, how to use these protections to increase the value of your hardware product business, and how these protections work collaboratively.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/207-4-parts-of-intellectual-property-for-a-hardware-startup/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• What are the 4 key elements of intellectual property for a physical product startup?
• Growing for an exit or growing to build a market has many similarities.
• Intellectual property means intangible assets created by the mind.
• Intellectual property carries on the balance sheet as an asset.
• Intellectual property can be hard to quantify.
• Patents can be either a design patent on the unique design of a product and/or the utility, meaning the functionality of the product.
• Patent exclusivity is for the country you file for.
• You must have a year in the market before you can patent the product.
• Design patents are easier to get than utility patents.
• You can improve on your own product and get a patent later.
• Sometimes, a patent doesn’t add value to a particular product.
• Trademarks protect the brand image, and these types of intellectual property protections can be a very valuable yet understated form of value for a hardware startup.
• Brand is identity, and brand is trust!
• Your brand is going to grow, even though it starts at zero.
• Trademark protection is quite inexpensive.
• Copyright protects all works of art; code, product packaging, and many other things can have certain protections under copyright.
• The Berlin Convention ensures that many countries honour the copyrights of other countries.
• Trade Secrets are not thought of as IP; however, those secrets can be a large part of the intellectual property of a product business.
• All of these strategies employed together help prevent other entities from copying your product.
• If you enact all of these intellectual property tactics, it will also grow the value of your product business significantly!

Steven Weigler Links:

LinkedIn | EmergeCounsel

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Dan Shea is the Managing Director of Objective, Investment Banking and Valuation. He has been spearheading mergers and acquisition deals as an investment banker in the manufacturing sector for over 30 years. Today, Dan will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the salience of thinking about the value of your product and product business well before the sale, focusing on a quality product and customer needs, and adding innovation to increase the valuation of your product for an eventual exit sale.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/206-how-to-sell-your-hardware-product-business/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• Value to the customer is value for the customer.
• Start with the end in mind.
• Big companies are spending less money on R&D and more money on acquisition.
• There are a lot of advantages to creating a hardware startup, and corporate teams are looking for startups that are finding those opportunities that they missed.
• Most innovation is happening at small companies despite large companies getting most of the press.
• Innovating every year based on changing customer needs is critical!
• Use quality product design and a family of products as a core foundation.
• Businesses typically start with one product.
• Innovation doesn’t stop when your first product is built.
• Create your first product properly, and you create massive institutional value.
• Think about what the company has done throughout its history and what that likely means it can do in the future.
• Build a culture of innovation from the moment you conceive your hardware startup to maximize the valuation of a future sale.
• Charge more for your product as you are innovating, this ensures profitability, and margin is critical to product business buyers.
• Overnight successes are usually backed by 10 years in the making.
• Reflect on what buyers of hardware product businesses get excited about.
• Focus on building great, high-quality products, that is the most important part of a hardware business.
• Find ways to get the word out about your product using modest methods to drive early sales.
• With a global marketplace, there are lots of ways to sell to multiple pools of people, even with a very niche hardware product.

Dan Shea Links:

LinkedIn | Objective, Investment Banking & Valuation

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Tomide Adesanmi is the Founder of Circuit Mind, an electronics engineering platform that supports heavily improved EE design and development. Today Tomide will share his wealth of knowledge salient to today's inventors, startups, and small manufacturers regarding how electronics product startups are leading the charge, best practices in the realm of electronics engineering regarding consumer product development, and tools for improving the electronics design process.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/205-advances-in-electronic-product-engineering-methods/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• Electronics products are becoming more ubiquitous, electronics are in everything.
• Hardware innovation is happening from startups more than large corporations.
• Big corporations are slow, it is harder for them to compete with hardware startups on electronics products.
• Smart makers and inventors in their garages are iterating ideas quickly and effectively.
• If inventors are not in the hardware industry, they are surprised at how archaic a lot of the hardware technology is compared to software.
• Supply chain, agility, quality product.
• The high-level design process requires 1 to 6 weeks of iterations, prototypes, testing, and 3 to 10 prototype iterations to get to a manufactured product.
• Start with top-level requirements, then major components, then breadboard, then circuit design, then PCB design, then firmware, then many testing rounds to get the product ready for manufacturing.
• You have different levels of fidelity, and you need to do them in order.
• Extremely experienced engineers have been working for decades to make the process robust and done right.
• Tools are constantly being released to improve speed, improve the optimization of your hardware, and also to reduce the number of iterations in the design process.

Tomide Adesanmi Links:

LinkedIn | Circuit Mind | Enterprise Hub

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Collin Mitchell has been in the sales space for over 15 years, and his expertise is evidenced by his success in selling over 5,000 SKUs of product through the first of the many companies he has founded. He is currently a Managing Partner at Leadium, a full-service selling agency that helps companies scale up their sales efforts. Today, Collin will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how to figure out what types of wholesale buyers there are, which ones are ideal for your particular product, and how to build and manage a list of these buyers so that you can grow your wholesale selling efforts quickly.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/204-build-a-list-of-wholesale-buyers-for-your-new-invention/

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• How to successfully sell directly to wholesale buyers by forming the ideal customer profile.
• Find the buyers who are best suited to your specific product.
• Rank your potential buyers from most important to least important.
• First, identify companies within your industry, then identify the specific contacts.
• There will be vast competition when trying to get the attention of these buyers.
• Go one step further by comprehensively researching your buyer so that you can position yourself above everyone else reaching out to these high-value buyers.
• The more information you find about your buyers, the better!
• Use multiple sets of databases to find this information.
• Your phone is one of the most powerful tools that you have to reach out.
• Before you pick up the phone to reach someone, be prepared.
• Don’t limit yourself to one channel in approaching product buyers.
• Reach out many times, be persistent!
• It typically takes 15 to 20 touchpoints before a buyer commits.
• Don’t take anything personally when forming a list of wholesale buyers for your new invention.
• A no should be looked at as a positive thing, as you are refining your list to put more effort into the best people that could potentially carry your product.
• As you start to get traction with some buyers, you can use that success to persuade others.

Collin Mitchell Links:

LinkedIn | Leadium

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | https://www.youtube.com/@productstartup

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter