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My invention journey

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Pink Sheep

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Figured I should post here and give back to the community that has given me so much.
I am in the middle of the process, and confident as ever. Greatful for MJ, and the countless of people that have tried to give their 2 cents to me.

I joined 2 and a half years ago now, had some initial ideas that were out of my scope, started building some things, before I realized its not something I could finish.

Now I'm intending to finish. There is nothing stopping me.
If I need skill I'll hire it, if I need money I'll get it, somehow. The rest I can deal with.

I am a few months into the process of prototyping and manufacturing an invention. It's hardly original, but keep in mind, if the room is full you just need the shiniest sign. And my sign will be shiny.

Once my prototype is in the mail, I will make content to showcase my invention, and sell it everywhere I can on a preorder/crowd fund basis. That's the the unbalanced life starts. That's when my girlfriend will want to leave.

After that is a great success, my fulfilled campaign will tell every shop that there is a market. All I have to do is call them up, and place a comfy order of 50pc (or5) , next shop repeat. Once I'm great at selling ill hit the big guns. Retail chains, online shops, manufacturers.

Excited for the future. Felt optimistic, might delete later
 
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Toyotomi

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Figured I should post here and give back to the community that has given me so much.
I am in the middle of the process, and confident as ever. Greatful for MJ, and the countless of people that have tried to give their 2 cents to me.

I joined 2 and a half years ago now, had some initial ideas that were out of my scope, started building some things, before I realized its not something I could finish.

Now I'm intending to finish. There is nothing stopping me.
If I need skill I'll hire it, if I need money I'll get it, somehow. The rest I can deal with.

I am a few months into the process of prototyping and manufacturing an invention. It's hardly original, but keep in mind, if the room is full you just need the shiniest sign. And my sign will be shiny.

Once my prototype is in the mail, I will make content to showcase my invention, and sell it everywhere I can on a preorder/crowd fund basis. That's the the unbalanced life starts. That's when my girlfriend will want to leave.

After that is a great success, my fulfilled campaign will tell every shop that there is a market. All I have to do is call them up, and place a comfy order of 50pc (or5) , next shop repeat. Once I'm great at selling ill hit the big guns. Retail chains, online shops, manufacturers.

Excited for the future. Felt optimistic, might delete later
Don't let your optimism die, I wish you the best.
 

botaybry

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Nov 18, 2021
14
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Figured I should post here and give back to the community that has given me so much.
I am in the middle of the process, and confident as ever. Greatful for MJ, and the countless of people that have tried to give their 2 cents to me.

I joined 2 and a half years ago now, had some initial ideas that were out of my scope, started building some things, before I realized its not something I could finish.

Now I'm intending to finish. There is nothing stopping me.
If I need skill I'll hire it, if I need money I'll get it, somehow. The rest I can deal with.

I am a few months into the process of prototyping and manufacturing an invention. It's hardly original, but keep in mind, if the room is full you just need the shiniest sign. And my sign will be shiny.

Once my prototype is in the mail, I will make content to showcase my invention, and sell it everywhere I can on a preorder/crowd fund basis. That's the the unbalanced life starts. That's when my girlfriend will want to leave.

After that is a great success, my fulfilled campaign will tell every shop that there is a market. All I have to do is call them up, and place a comfy order of 50pc (or5) , next shop repeat. Once I'm great at selling ill hit the big guns. Retail chains, online shops, manufacturers.

Excited for the future. Felt optimistic, might delete later
Please don't delete! You should feel excited. I hope you continue to post your progress, and more importantly, I hope you finish what you started.
 

Pink Sheep

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Apr 29, 2019
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Don't let your optimism die, I wish you the best.
Still strong hopefully close to final prototype right now.

Please don't delete! You should feel excited. I hope you continue to post your progress, and more importantly, I hope you finish what you started.
Nono, not deleting. Was just a play on the "felt cute" meme.
 
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Pink Sheep

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Apr 29, 2019
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Prototypes are in the mail! Once they arrive, I'll do a bit of testing, and hopefully I can start making marketing material.
 

Pink Sheep

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Little update.

since last time, i've got my hands on the prototypes, dealt with getting minimum order quanitites (2000 MOQ) and the mold pricing estimate (~$4000 per model)

Next up is crowdfunding, because there is no way i can afford to launch it out of pocket. I realize i could just have put up a campaign of a 3d sketch and crossed my fingers, but apperently the best way to get launched hard is to take a risk and invest a bit in marketing the campaign before it goes live, to push the momentum of the product.
I hired a marketing company that specializes in crowdfunding, got a better deal than their initial pricing, because i asked for a better deal. YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING IF YOU DONT ASK FOR IT :D

Got product photos done, branding done. Next step is testing for ad audiences, and a landing page.

Very excited for the next few weeks, where I will see if the product has a future or not. I feel like i'm in a poker game, i just called the flop with my savings, and now i'm waiting to see if i have a nice flush or nothing at all.
 

botaybry

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Nov 18, 2021
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Little update.

since last time, i've got my hands on the prototypes, dealt with getting minimum order quanitites (2000 MOQ) and the mold pricing estimate (~$4000 per model)

Next up is crowdfunding, because there is no way i can afford to launch it out of pocket. I realize i could just have put up a campaign of a 3d sketch and crossed my fingers, but apperently the best way to get launched hard is to take a risk and invest a bit in marketing the campaign before it goes live, to push the momentum of the product.
I hired a marketing company that specializes in crowdfunding, got a better deal than their initial pricing, because i asked for a better deal. YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING IF YOU DONT ASK FOR IT :D

Got product photos done, branding done. Next step is testing for ad audiences, and a landing page.

Very excited for the next few weeks, where I will see if the product has a future or not. I feel like i'm in a poker game, i just called the flop with my savings, and now i'm waiting to see if i have a nice flush or nothing at all.
This is super exciting! Hoping for the best for you!

What's your current marketing strategy if you dont me asking? I am currently at the stage of marketing myself (just to generate a little initial interest) - though I will up the ante when I get closer to my own launch day.
 
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Pink Sheep

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Apr 29, 2019
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This is super exciting! Hoping for the best for you!

What's your current marketing strategy if you dont me asking? I am currently at the stage of marketing myself (just to generate a little initial interest) - though I will up the ante when I get closer to my own launch day.
The strategy is social media ads, and i believe the company i hired has a database of repeat backers who they email to. If you dont know, email marketing is super powerful, because its basicly free once you have the list, and you probably got their email cause they had an interest in your product or a similar product. This forum for example will remind you to visit on occation, and thats the goal with email marketing. Get people coming back for more :)
The goal of the social media ads is to get emails and commitments from new people. Once we got a good number of interested people, all we have to do is launch, and we'll be fully funded.. Well thats the plan anyways :D
 

woken

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The strategy is social media ads, and i believe the company i hired has a database of repeat backers who they email to. If you dont know, email marketing is super powerful, because its basicly free once you have the list, and you probably got their email cause they had an interest in your product or a similar product. This forum for example will remind you to visit on occation, and thats the goal with email marketing. Get people coming back for more :)
The goal of the social media ads is to get emails and commitments from new people. Once we got a good number of interested people, all we have to do is launch, and we'll be fully funded.. Well thats the plan anyways :D
Interested to see how this works out for you.

all the best
 

Cauchy

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Jan 18, 2022
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The strategy is social media ads, and i believe the company i hired has a database of repeat backers who they email to. If you dont know, email marketing is super powerful, because its basicly free once you have the list, and you probably got their email cause they had an interest in your product or a similar product. This forum for example will remind you to visit on occation, and thats the goal with email marketing. Get people coming back for more :)
The goal of the social media ads is to get emails and commitments from new people. Once we got a good number of interested people, all we have to do is launch, and we'll be fully funded.. Well thats the plan anyways :D
This strategy is great! Social media is not just email, you can also try other software for promotion. Hope your project is going well.
 
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Pink Sheep

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Apr 29, 2019
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This strategy is great! Social media is not just email, you can also try other software for promotion. Hope your project is going well.
Can you elaborate on 'other software'? Would love to hear some ideas if you have any :)
 

Cauchy

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Can you elaborate on 'other software'? Would love to hear some ideas if you have any :)
In China, most of our advertisements are seen through software, and we rarely pay attention to email advertisements. Not only are there advertisements on social software, but also some functional software, such as software for watching videos (like youtube). You can choose a more precise placement location according to the characteristics of your product. For example, if I want to sell a car-related product, I may study the rules of the car forum or the software where the person discussing the car is located.

My English is not good, hope I made my point clearly. I want to be friends with you. thanks.
 

bbar97

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Depending on your niche, influencer marketing, paid search, and/or paid social could be good options for you. Those obviously cost money on an ongoing basis though.
 
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EcomEngine

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Little update.

since last time, i've got my hands on the prototypes, dealt with getting minimum order quanitites (2000 MOQ) and the mold pricing estimate (~$4000 per model)

Next up is crowdfunding, because there is no way i can afford to launch it out of pocket. I realize i could just have put up a campaign of a 3d sketch and crossed my fingers, but apperently the best way to get launched hard is to take a risk and invest a bit in marketing the campaign before it goes live, to push the momentum of the product.
I hired a marketing company that specializes in crowdfunding, got a better deal than their initial pricing, because i asked for a better deal. YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING IF YOU DONT ASK FOR IT :D

Got product photos done, branding done. Next step is testing for ad audiences, and a landing page.

Very excited for the next few weeks, where I will see if the product has a future or not. I feel like i'm in a poker game, i just called the flop with my savings, and now i'm waiting to see if i have a nice flush or nothing at all.
Which agency did you end up going with? I’m in a similar spot with an invention and looking to raise capital through crowdfunding.
 

Pink Sheep

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Apr 29, 2019
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Going live on Kickstarter in 1 week.
We have successfully made a pre-marketing campaign, and have a few thousand people on a mailing list, which will be enough to drive a bit of momentum on my product, and we will switch to Kickstarter ads in stead of landing page.

Spending the last week doing some content creation.
Took my first consumer loan to cover some of these startup costs. Unfortunetly that's neccesary in a competitive or saturated market, so let's hope it pays off.
If I'm able to net 0 or a small loss, I can keep pushing forward and exponentially grow from there. Exciting times ahead!

Tagging @woken since you wanted to follow from another thread.
 

woken

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We have successfully made a pre-marketing campaign, and have a few thousand people on a mailing list, which will be enough to drive a bit of momentum on my product, and we will switch to Kickstarter ads in stead of landing page.

Spending the last week doing some content creation.
Took my first consumer loan to cover some of these startup costs. Unfortunetly that's neccesary in a competitive or saturated market, so let's hope it pays off.
If I'm able to net 0 or a small loss, I can keep pushing forward and exponentially grow from there. Exciting times ahead!

Tagging @woken since you wanted to follow from another thread.
Really looking forward to this! I wish you all the best with your campaign.

Break those stretch goals !
 
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Pink Sheep

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Apr 29, 2019
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Time for an update.

So many lessons learned, but in the end, the kickstarter failed.

The further I got into the process, the more I realized I didn't set this up right.
I invented a phone cover that would allow you to support your phone upright and laying down. There are similar products, but I thought this was better.

Got the prototype made, everything was going great.
Now.. How many phone models are there? Probably thousands. And I have to make a mold for ALL of them? Well no, but that's what I wanted to do.

So already my barrier to entry is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. An attachment? Few thousand, done.

My first customers would be the Kickstarter crew. I wanted to sell as many as I could, refund the rare models, and get started. This is where I relied on a specialty ad agency. They made the copy, funnels, email marketing etc, and would deal with ad spend, for part of the revenue in return. Sounded great. No risk for me, and "free" ad spend.

Well, we had a great pre-launch campaign, collected a few thousand emails.
Time for launch!

Great first day! I'm pumped, this is happening! Almost covered the cost of one mold already? .. and... That's it?
The coming days not much happened. I didn't intend to help the campaign with my personal ad spend, because I had realized my manufacturing trap.

They didn't make sure the campaign got funded, and I didn't do anything to make it work either, and the timer slowly ran out untill the mission failed.

Just to clarify, I am not upset at all, I have learned the exact process of inventing to first sale. Next time I come up with an invention I know what traps to look for, I know I need my own hands on the ad budget, and know my customers.

II'll be back.
 

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