Hey folks,
i just recently introduced myself in the beginner section, so if you're interested, here's the link: Introduction - Ein freundliches Hallo in die Runde !
My plan for this thread is to document my process and sharing insights to my successes and failures. Most likely, you will see me failing over and over.
So to start off, let me explain you what i'm working on, what my goal is and where i'm currently stuck and need some help.
Me and my female business partner (which is also my girlfriend) are currently working on a design for a baby-carriage bag/car seat with a focus on protecting the back of the baby aswell as the carrier. I hope this explanation is understandable to some extent.
Let me tell you the current problem: a TON of mothers complain (fathers also struggle but, you know, no man would ever acutally admit something's too heavy... it's just too 'bulky') about the heavy weight of their baby seat. They can't carry it around with the baby in it for more than a few meters without having to have a break. Also, while these seats are safe, they have literally no comfort in 'carrying' them at all (uhh my english sucks i guess.). They are too heavy and always bump against the leg or hip. After a while, it starts to hurt.
Meanwhile, as i already said, these car seats are safe, but they hurt a baby's back when lying in there for too long (maximum is 2 hours) and they have little space to move. I'm definetly not claiming that every baby will have back pain later on because of it, because this is just wrong. I just want to make clear that there is a LOT of room for improvement in designing these things.
Our goal is to create a great product which solves all of the existing problems. It has to be light, safe, easy to carry while not damaging the back of the baby or the person who carries it. This is our vision.
In the last 2-3 months, we designed a prototype in a 3D-software (i studied media design and made animmations in there, which is why we chose to start with in a 3d-software). The next logical step would be to build this prototype and start testing it in real circumstances. As me and my partner (is 'partner' also the female version?) have absolutly no skill in craftmanship, we have to develop a real prototype with an industrial design office (i hope this is the right term). So, to do this, we need to have money.
At the start we defined a clear process path from start to finally launching our product. Our biggest obstacle to overcome in the next weeks is to find an investor, which is also where we need some help from you guys, if possible. If we don't find an investor who believes in our product and vision, it's basically the end for our project.
First, we thought about how we are able to convince somebody to invest in us. We believe that not only we have to convince the potential investor of our product, but also other people, which is why we contacted a child-orthopaedic-specialist (is this a word) as well as our design office which we want to work with and show them our concept and design. We will hold a presentation probably in the next week, which we are extremely excited about as this is the first time some external people will give us some sort of feedback on it. Fortunately, they both seemed to be very interested in our idea as well as working with us. As i said, i will keep you informed about our process.
Before i will end this post, let me just ask you about our current problem with an investor:
In UNSCRIPTED as well as TMF MJ talks about not giving away any control of your business, which i absolutly agree with. The problem which racks my brain is: Why would anybody invest in our project without getting some equity from it ? What can we give them in return without handing them over control ?
I spend some time reading about working with investors and currently we are thinking about contacting some 'angel investors'. These are people which already built a successful business and invest in project which are just at the beginning of their journey. Also, these people will help the business with a lot of things like distribution, marketing, networking so on and so forth. While this sounds pretty good for us, we still believe that we might lose our control over the business. Is this true? Right now, we think we HAVE to work with an investor, but at the same time, we dont want to give them the control. Maybe some of you were in a same situation and can help us with our problem. I already searched through some of the threads but i haven't found an answer so far.
Okay, that's it for today. I hit the gym now, have to do stuff for studies and afterwards i'll continue to work on the presentation for next week. It has to look awesome
Sorry for my english btw, i think it's hard to read at some points for native speakers
i just recently introduced myself in the beginner section, so if you're interested, here's the link: Introduction - Ein freundliches Hallo in die Runde !
My plan for this thread is to document my process and sharing insights to my successes and failures. Most likely, you will see me failing over and over.
So to start off, let me explain you what i'm working on, what my goal is and where i'm currently stuck and need some help.
Me and my female business partner (which is also my girlfriend) are currently working on a design for a baby-carriage bag/car seat with a focus on protecting the back of the baby aswell as the carrier. I hope this explanation is understandable to some extent.
Let me tell you the current problem: a TON of mothers complain (fathers also struggle but, you know, no man would ever acutally admit something's too heavy... it's just too 'bulky') about the heavy weight of their baby seat. They can't carry it around with the baby in it for more than a few meters without having to have a break. Also, while these seats are safe, they have literally no comfort in 'carrying' them at all (uhh my english sucks i guess.). They are too heavy and always bump against the leg or hip. After a while, it starts to hurt.
Meanwhile, as i already said, these car seats are safe, but they hurt a baby's back when lying in there for too long (maximum is 2 hours) and they have little space to move. I'm definetly not claiming that every baby will have back pain later on because of it, because this is just wrong. I just want to make clear that there is a LOT of room for improvement in designing these things.
Our goal is to create a great product which solves all of the existing problems. It has to be light, safe, easy to carry while not damaging the back of the baby or the person who carries it. This is our vision.
In the last 2-3 months, we designed a prototype in a 3D-software (i studied media design and made animmations in there, which is why we chose to start with in a 3d-software). The next logical step would be to build this prototype and start testing it in real circumstances. As me and my partner (is 'partner' also the female version?) have absolutly no skill in craftmanship, we have to develop a real prototype with an industrial design office (i hope this is the right term). So, to do this, we need to have money.
At the start we defined a clear process path from start to finally launching our product. Our biggest obstacle to overcome in the next weeks is to find an investor, which is also where we need some help from you guys, if possible. If we don't find an investor who believes in our product and vision, it's basically the end for our project.
First, we thought about how we are able to convince somebody to invest in us. We believe that not only we have to convince the potential investor of our product, but also other people, which is why we contacted a child-orthopaedic-specialist (is this a word) as well as our design office which we want to work with and show them our concept and design. We will hold a presentation probably in the next week, which we are extremely excited about as this is the first time some external people will give us some sort of feedback on it. Fortunately, they both seemed to be very interested in our idea as well as working with us. As i said, i will keep you informed about our process.
Before i will end this post, let me just ask you about our current problem with an investor:
In UNSCRIPTED as well as TMF MJ talks about not giving away any control of your business, which i absolutly agree with. The problem which racks my brain is: Why would anybody invest in our project without getting some equity from it ? What can we give them in return without handing them over control ?
I spend some time reading about working with investors and currently we are thinking about contacting some 'angel investors'. These are people which already built a successful business and invest in project which are just at the beginning of their journey. Also, these people will help the business with a lot of things like distribution, marketing, networking so on and so forth. While this sounds pretty good for us, we still believe that we might lose our control over the business. Is this true? Right now, we think we HAVE to work with an investor, but at the same time, we dont want to give them the control. Maybe some of you were in a same situation and can help us with our problem. I already searched through some of the threads but i haven't found an answer so far.
Okay, that's it for today. I hit the gym now, have to do stuff for studies and afterwards i'll continue to work on the presentation for next week. It has to look awesome
Sorry for my english btw, i think it's hard to read at some points for native speakers
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