Product Startup

Andre Tiemann holds the position of Director of Production at Hot Pop Factory, a renowned company specializing in 3D printing, laser cutting, etching, and small-scale consumer product manufacturing. In this episode, Andre will impart invaluable insights aimed at inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will cover topics such as the fundamentals of 3D printing, its various types, the diverse materials used in 3D printing, and its significance at three critical stages in the product development journy of hardware startups.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/193-3d-printing-overview-for-new-inventions/

Here are the key takeaways from this episode:

• 3D printing is a layering additive method.
• The majority of 3D printing involves plastic printing, with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) being a common technique.
• Stereolithography (SLA) is a resin-based 3D printing process.
• Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) uses lasers to sinter powder, creating 3D printed parts.
• Multi-material printing allows for versatility in materials.
• Initially, ABS was the primary material, but now there are numerous material options available.
• Three key phases in utilizing 3D printing for new hardware product development: 1) Rough ideation of design, 2) Engineering prototyping and, 3) Short-run low-volume hardware manufacturing for new inventions.
• Short-run manufacturing provides an opportunity to alleviate uncertainty and ensure project success through customer feedback.

Andre Tiemann Links:

LinkedIn | Hot Pop Factory

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

Lloyed Lobo is the co-founder of Boast.ai & Traction, boasting an impressive $100 million in funding, and the esteemed author of "From Grassroots To Greatness: 13 Rules to Forge Iconic Brands through Community-Led Growth". He is here to impart invaluable insights to inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers. In this episode, Lloyed unveils the crucial stages of audience engagement, their profound impact on hardware product sales, and actionable tools to initiate immediate community-building efforts.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/192-building-communities-to-sell-hardware-products/

Here are the key takeaways from this episode:

• Every obscure concept that evolves into a global sensation traverses four distinct phases.
• Understand the progression from an audience to a cohesive community and eventually into a dedicated cult brand following.
• Discover how to transform an obscure idea into a devoted cult brand by focusing on communication, creation, and unwavering consistency.
• Embrace inbound marketing strategies to educate and engage your audience effectively.
• Recognize that your audience evolves into a community when they come together around a shared purpose that transcends your product.
• Foster an unyielding belief in your mission, as yesterday's innovation can quickly become today's commonplace, as seen by Nike, Harley, and Apple.
• Cultivate a feedback loop that transforms customers into brand evangelists, driving organic growth.
• Build a thriving community by adhering to six core values that unleash happy "CAMPERs" – Connection, Autonomy, Management, Purpose, Energy, and Recognition.
• Identify your ideal customer profile to effectively target your community-building efforts.
• Map out your circle of influence to discover the platforms where your potential community members congregate.
• Choose the type of community you wish to create, be it a community of practice, product enthusiasts, or playful engagement.
• Focus initially on building your audience, subsequently nurturing them into a thriving community.
• Concentrate on acquiring email addresses as a key step in your journey to interact and engage with your audience effectively.

Lloyed Lobo Links:

LinkedIn | Boast.AI | Book

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

Mark Pecota is the Co-Founder of LaunchBoom, the original and largest crowdfunding agency globally. He's also the author of the top-selling Amazon book "Crowdfunded," a guide covering the end-to-end crowdfunding process, which has held its top spot for over 3 years. Additionally, Mark co-hosts the Crowdfunded Summit, an event I've had the honor of keynoting several times and will be speaking at again from September 12th to 14th.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/191-how-to-grow-your-crowdfunding-sales/

Mark shares some invaluable insights tailored for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He delves into the mechanics of sales growth before and during a crowdfunding campaign for new hardware products. Mark also sheds light on the online advertising tools instrumental in driving sales, while highlighting the best practices to optimize your return on advertising investment when selling your novel invention through platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

Here are some key points from the discussion:

• Crowdfunding serves as a potent avenue to bring hardware products to fruition.
• The beauty of crowdfunding lies in generating pre-orders, with the funds earmarked for manufacturing.
• A crucial misconception is assuming that products on crowdfunding platforms will naturally gain immense traction.
• Establishing a robust pre-launch strategy is pivotal to leverage crowdfunding algorithms.
• Harness advertising to cultivate email subscriber lists.
• Facebook stands out as the primary platform for launching new products, both in pre-launch and during crowdfunding.
• The cornerstone is consistent, scalable, and high-quality traffic.
• In the pre-launch phase, the focus is on constructing a meticulously curated email list.
• During the live campaign, the goal shifts to driving actual sales.
• Accurate targeting is vital, with Facebook audiences revolving around user interests.
• Utilize Facebook's suggestions to build a comprehensive list of user interests.
• The visual content of ads holds paramount importance, with the creative element (photo or video) being particularly critical.
• Crafting scroll-stopping ads is a key strategy.
• When choosing Facebook objectives, prioritize those yielding tangible ad results over awareness campaigns.

Mark Pecota Links:

LinkedIn | Boast.AI | Book

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

Thomas Ask is a Professor of Industrial Design at Penn College, which stands as a sibling institution to Penn State. With extensive experience spanning over three decades in the realm of hardware product development, he has also played pivotal roles in nurturing two hardware startups. Thomas's academic journey culminated in the acquisition of a PhD in Industrial Design, further enhancing his expertise. Today, Thomas is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what ethnocentric design is, why it is valuable for a hardware startup, and the process to ensure you do a great job at getting inside the mind of your customer so that you can best achieve both design and sales success for your invention product.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/190-ethnocentric-design-for-your-invention/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• Defining what ethnocentric design
• Different cultures
• Different demographics
• Subject matter expert
• Inventing something and inventing something for someone
• A lot of design and invention has ego, but you should take out the ego. Instead, look at data.
• Identify the problem.
• Develop empathy for the user. What is going on in their life.
• Interview your customer, or prospective customer types.
• Formal ethnographic techniques.
• Processes, understand the user, ideation, feedback.
• Ideation is where you create ideas to match and infuse them to what you have learned from your customer.
• Cultural consensus questionnaire
• First, ensure your end customers are the correct people.
• A structured questionnaire.
• Human observation.
• Many people don’t want radical change from traditional methods, even if it is better.
• If it doesn’t work well and it is not intuitive, people will not use it.
• A dynamic feedback loop ensures success.

Thomas Ask Links:

LinkedIn | Penn College

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

Paul McEnroe is the creator, developer, and leader behind UPC barcodes for IBM. The work he did is still the standard over 50 years later on almost all products worldwide. Since then he has been the head of engineering and eventually President for hardware companies, and sits on a number of boards and educational institutions. Today Paul is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on the type of team you need to build for your hardware product, how to manage that team, and how to ensure smooth communication so that your team can make sure your new hardware product is a big success.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/189-the-power-of-your-team-in-building-hardware-innovations/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• When you see someone that has a huge part of the market, and they aren’t doing it well, you know there is lots of opportunity for new innovation.
• Innovation and execution does not happen overnight, it can take years to get it built, then to market, then to scale.
• The power of team in building a new hardware product
• Ensure you have a great technical team in building a hardware product, especially as a hardware.
• Have experience in fields that you do not have yourself.
• What do you want to do with your product, and how does that bring about a team?
• Each team member can not be focusing just on themselves, they need to recognize the power of the whole.
• What do you want others to do?
• Communicate openly, in both directions
• Individual Skills, Whole goal, and communication.
• You have your people, the designers and engineers in the shop,
• Explain it in simple terms to people that have the money, or are buying the product.
• To improve your business communication among your team, learn some of the skills of a college debate team.
• Put your mind in the place of the person you are communicating with, not just your own perspective.
• Ensure that everyone on your team is in full understanding.
• Help out the quieter people in the room, as their insight is potentially just as important.
• Make yourself, as the leader, as available as can be.
• If someone comes up with an issue, do not let it bubble up, especially interpersonal issues.

Paul McEnroe Links:

LinkedIn | Book

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

Suresh Sethi is a Professor in Industrial Design at the University of Illinois. Prior to that, he ran a product design studio for 15 years, and before that, was a VP and Design Director at Whirlpool, among other high-level design roles at various companies. Today Suresh is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on why customer storytelling is so important in the early development phases of designing a new physical consumer product invention, and how to best maximize the success of your product through the findings from his Ph.D. thesis on this very subject.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/188-use-inventor-narrative-to-design-great-hardware-products/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• Creating products is about connecting to the business world.
• Feasible in terms of cost and the ability to sell in the market.
• Optimized material for the least waste in designing the product.
• Remove ego from design.
• Understand the client’s story and the meaning of the product.
• No product designers work in isolation, so you create an ecosystem that works together.
• Ability to understand and communicate.
• What leads a designer to love the form of their design?
• By focusing on the story and making a better product to fulfill that story, you will inadvertently create a more profitable and marketable product.
• It is the connection between people and the opportunity of the product.
• Evoke emotions
• Building a connection with your product
• People remember stories, not products
• People remember experiences, not products
• Creating a product that people want.
• Communicating clearly
• If your product doesn’t make a profit, your story doesn’t work either.
• Products come out of your own life experiences.
• Use narratives to design and build a product to
• Think about the business, not just the product.
• Connect emotionally with your customers.
• Create a name that is memorable.
• Design simple and timeless forms.

Suresh Sethi Links:

LinkedIn

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

Lamees Butt is the Senior Vice President of Zoovu, a 250-person e-commerce data platform company that works with hardware startups all the way through to some of the leading hardware brands in the world. She has spent over 15 years in the world of e-commerce tools, working with brands such as Mercedes Benz, 3M, Microsoft, and more. Today Lamees is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what product discovery is for e-commerce products, how to get potential customers to find your product, and how to maximize the success of return on ad spend for scaling up e-commerce sales for your new hardware product invention.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/187-e-commerce-strategies-for-new-hardware-products/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• Bridging the gap between retail stores and e-commerce
• How to understand Product discovery (potential buyers finding your product)
• The human factor behind product discovery for a new hardware product online
• The power of having a connected customer experience online via e-commerce
• Different demographics of potential customers use different mediums and techniques to discover new products that can solve their pain points or help them with their opportunities.
• Websites are just indexes, you need to branch past that
• Enhancing the e-commerce experience to increase conversions
• Understand your product data
• Product information management platform
• There are many formats for humanizing the technical specifications
• Developing trust with your customers
• Time is precious, so if you can save time to help your potential customers find your product, so you increase the retention rate of those customers
• Understanding your customer, even post-purchase is quite important to figure out how to sell to your future customers.
• Use AI to identify common threads with your paying customers. What is applied AI to find the answer.
• Customer-first methodology.
• Over time segment your customers so that you really understand your different groups of people, so that you can best advertise to those groups of people.
• Once you capture the views of potential customers, how do you capture them into paying customers.

Lamees Butt Links:

LinkedIn | Zoovu

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

David Brown is a design engineer at Mako Design. He has both a product engineering and an industrial design background. Today David is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what photo-realistic product renderings are, how they are designed and produced for hardware products, and why they are so valuable for hardware startups whether you are using them to raise money or using them to capture new hardware product sales.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/186-product-renderings-for-a-new-invention/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• There are many different types of hardware invention renderings
• Low fidelity renders
• CAD renders
• Great renders first require the foundation of great computer-aided design.
• Rendering is a whole art, and is no simple.
• Renders determine the materials, finishes, lighting, reflections, background, etc.
• Video can be quite exciting, especially for investors.
• Hero shots, zooming in and out, fading, exploded view.
• Exploded view is very powerful.

David Brown Links:

LinkedIn | Mako Design

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

Rich Walsh is the CEO of CorVent Medical, which is the eighth company Rich has helped build. Prior to CorVent, Rich was a part of many different companies building them from early phases right to exiting through either acquisition or going public. He has been in the space for over 25 years. Today Rich is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how rewarding building a hardware startup is, how to move fast to accomplish big goals much faster than big companies, and how to be a repeat serial hardware startup entrepreneur.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/185-building-a-successful-hardware-startup-multiple-times/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• Hardware startups are leading the pack for innovation in 2023
• The hardware world is extremely rewarding when done right.
• Startups are very nimble, they can develop far faster than a big company, even though big companies have so much more money.
• Company vision is key to bringing on many different stakeholders.
• Build a quality product and sales and financing will come.
• The culture of your startup and the stakeholders you work with will be important.
• The sooner you start, the better. Even young people can have multiple exits before they even hit mid-career.

Rich Walsh Links:

LinkedIn | CorVent Medical

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

Ethan Escowitz is the founder of Arris Composites, a company that makes advanced manufacturing processes and materials. He also sits on a number of boards in the hardware space, given his 20-year history in the industry working with many Fortune 500 companies and hardware startups. Today Ethan is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what short-run manufacturing is, why iterative manufacturing is so important to hardware startups, and how to scale through feedback on low-volume production runs of your new hardware product invention.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://productstartup.com/podcast/184-the-value-of-low-volume-invention-manufacturing/

Today you will hear us talk about:

• New manufacturing capabilities that unlocks opportunities for product developers
• How do you produce product as quickly as possible.
• Low volume parts that don’t require the up front tooling cost
• How do you use technology to enable low volume production
• Consumer-facing products vs non-consumer-facing products.
• Consumers want beautiful parts that look very close to high-quality manufactured products
• Technology that enables beautiful parts, with unique surfaces, that are different from conventional molding methods.
• The manufacturing world traditionally does not accommodate
• Use a first production run to learn how the customers will buy more units, and how the engineering will be improved.
• Product engineering is hard enough as it is. So as soon as you start to introduce new capabilities and technologies, it becomes more difficult, but also that’s where the rewards are too as you can figure out amazing technology.
• Both an innovation, and a new technology, lead to extremely high equity valuations for your product invention and the technology behind that invention.
• Hardware startups have a huge advantage of being more agile and innovative.
• Don’t feature creep on your first version, used your customers.
• Steve Jobs pushed the idea of knowing that there is an unmet need, so also consider your own path and communicate your idea on a product which is new and never been really seen in this way before.

Ethan Escowitz Links:

LinkedIn | Arris Composites

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