Product development finished. Now stuck at mold cost.

[oskarilmundo]

So long story short i came up with a very good product idea.
I started to check out the market to do some research on some competition.
Unfortunately, there's a US top selling product of which i cant disclose that's already selling a similar product with a patent on it.
I had to come up with my own design to work my way around the patent. A product developer got the job done but now I'm stuck.
I've reached out to some suppliers and also let a sourcing agent from china find a fitting manufacturer but I have one problem:
To start production, the mold fee will be around $27000 and i currently don't have that kind of money plus it still is a big risk to take.
I wonder, should I just quit? Find something new to start? Make a detailed business plan to take out a loan to proceed?
I would please like to know what your opinion is on this and how should i proceed.
If you have private questions you can always DM me.
Thanks in advance!
Greetings
Oskar

 

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[machinistguy]

To start production, the mold fee will be around $27000 and i currently don't have that kind of money plus it still is a big risk to take.

What's the product from a manufacturing perspective? There are plenty of low volume options depending on what the product is. Worse per unit costs, but less upfront. Either way, how sure are you that people want your product? How sure are you that you know how to market it. It'll suck for you to blow a bunch of money only to not a sell any units.

Make a detailed business plan to take out a loan to proceed?

No.

 

[oskarilmundo]

What's the product from a manufacturing perspective? There are plenty of low volume options depending on what the product is. Worse per unit costs, but less upfront. Either way, how sure are you that people want your product? How sure are you that you know how to market it. It'll suck for you to blow a bunch of money only to not a sell any units.


No.

I did a lot of market research before going with this so yes, I'm pretty sure people want it. I have not seen any low volume options with this type of product so it's a hard decision to make.

 

[machinistguy]

I have not seen any low volume options with this type of product so it's a hard decision to make.

Then you just haven't looked in the right places.

Since you didn't say what kind of product it is, the only advice I can give is to go on Xometry.com, upload a step file of your product, and go through the different manufacturing process and quantities they have until you find something that's cheaper than a mold and is good enough.

If it's something that can be made with a mold then I'm sure there's a dozen commercial 3D printing options you've never heard of that can fit your needs. Might have to get creative and use other types of plastics or rubber or whatever, or break it up into pieces and assemble it. Getting creative is cheaper than a 27000 dollar mold.

 

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[Kirby73]

Before spending any money on creating the product, there are plenty of tools you can use to create A CGI to demonstrate what it will look like, then you need to create a landing page with the mock up, with an sign up page for people to register their interest or even pay a 10% deposit, you have to prove people will commit before you spend huge sums of money

 

[Devilery]

Create a digital 3d mockup, and a landing page, and try to sell it. Of course, don't actually collect any money, offer people to sign up for the release instead (but make the checkout somewhat realistic, so your validation is accurate).

If you haven't done this, put the molding on hold for a bit. If you do this, and get sales inquiries, you will figure out how to make a real product.