[Awkward Engineer]

Crowdfunding Lessons Learned, "Unlocking Value," plus Kristin Bell, Zach Braff, and the Spider-Man Analogy

2013-05-16T23:58:00.000-04:00

Is Kickstarter a place "to help bring creative projects to life," or is it nothing more than a convenient payment processing gateway?

In the weeks since my Kickstarter ended short of it's funding goal, I've had some time to reflect on the experience, think about the lessons learned, and mentally process the whole thing.

In the end, the breakdown of funds raised was about 20-30% from friends and family, most of the rest was from traffic that our marketing campaign drove to the site, and the remainder was from pure Kickstarter product design discoveries.

So what do I make of all that? Well that leads me to...

Lesson 1: Kickstarter is a Payment Processor

In short, the lesson is "Don't Kickstart anything you couldn't launch on your own." You have to drive your own traffic to Kickstarter, whether it's from friends, family, regular online marketing, or your personal network. Kickstarter just does the work of securely handling credit card payments, hosting a website that can handle the traffic, and providing an aesthetically pleasing, well designed page.

So don't count on Kickstarter to drive traffic to your project, which isn't to say that it won't happen, just don't plan on it. The crowdedness of Kickstarter leads in some ways to a "tent poling" effect, where there are a fewer percentage of projects that make it on to the front page, but the ones that do score big. (Remember, only the really successful projects are the ones you hear about in the news.) But I digress...

Anyway, by providing those e-commerce services and also provided the "all or nothing" funding model (which is a whole other topic of discussion, but I actually think is rather important), I actually think Kickstarter becomes a little more...

Lesson 2: Kickstarter is a tool for unlocking value in social networks.

Business types love the words "unlocking value." As in splitting up a company into smaller pieces to make the sum of the pieces worth more than the whole. It suggests that there's extra money locked away somewhere, and by taking some action, you can just free it! It sounds so good! But is it true?

My friends and family saw how hard I worked on the Cookie Cup campaign leading up to it and they supported me, and I'm sure that a lot of that support had to do more with caring about me than the product itself. Whatever I'd decided to work on, they probably would have chipped in. Now, if I had just said, "hey guys, give me some money", they probably would have been annoyed, but having a project to work on with a clear cut financial goal, I was able to financially tap into the goodwill of my friends.

So now I know that the value of my social network to me is worth at least a few thousand dollars, which is kinda cool. But if I had a larger social network, say... if it was the social network of all the patrons of a coffee shop, or a museum, or a band, that could be quite substantial.

If you're, say... Kristin Bell or Zach Braff, and you have a million followers on Twitter, then the size of your social network is very large, and is very valuable. Kickstarter gave them a way to tap into the value of their social networks directly and capitalize on their "personal brands."

From an economic point of view, that's pretty awesome. I mean, if someone is willing to give you money in exchange for something you haven't developed yet, essentially paying in advance, well, that's a phenomenal way to defray risk.

But it also reminds me that Kickstarter is a for-profit company, here to take it's 5% cut as the payment processor. Is Kickstarter really trying to fund creative projects that wouldn't happen otherwise, or is it just acting as a middleman, providing a service (albeit a useful one), and making a market? When you see A-list celebrities on Kickstarter, you have to wonder. This is the part where Spider-Man comes in.

The Spider-Man Analogy

There been a lot of backlash against well connected celebrities who have gone on Kickstarter and raised funds directly through their fans, rather then from more traditional financial sources.

On one hand, I think this is kind of cool. Once a star has made it, and has name recognition, they don't need the studios in the same way that they did before they were discovered. But I'm reminded of the line:

"With great power comes great responsibility."

Now, take Louis C.K. as an example. He had the financial power, put his own money down, took a risk and bet on himself, produced a show that he sold directly to his fans on his terms, and won. He didn't ask for any handouts, he just made something people wanted and sold it.

Zack Braff on the other hand, used the money, fame, and connections that come from starring on a heavily syndicated, long running hit TV show, to..... help an undiscovered creative talent make it in Hollywood? No. He used that power to ask his fans to indulge him by funding a personal project. It's hard to say it's wrong for him to make money selling tickets to his fans for special showings, but what does he tell the kid just out of film school? You can ask people for no strings attached money, too, just become an A-list start first?

What next?

So, what next? Well... that's a bit tougher. A lot of people say that Kickstarter is a way to validate ideas, which is partly true. I'm certainly glad I didn't spend $25,000 of my own money on tooling and production, only to come up well short of what I needed to break even. I've gained a lot of valuable across the board experience, from factory sourcing to distribution to marketing and so on.

But I'm also out more than half a years worth of time. I usually have about half a dozen ideas cooking at any one point in time, and although the experience I've gained I'm sure will make the process go faster, I don't particularly relish the though of spending another 4, 5, or 6 months on a project to have it fall short of it's funding goal.

So I'm thinking of ways to do even smaller tests, probably thought the new storefront on www.awkwardengineer.com. This leads to the 3rd, and final lesson.

Lesson 3: Fail Fast

I've heard the expression before, "Fail as fast as you can," but now I've lived it. I'm naturally disappointed that the campaign didn't reach it's funding goal, but I realllllly wish I'd gotten through it maybe a few months earlier. The lesson is to learn if something works as quickly as possible, and move to the next stage or the next project.

So maybe you'll hear from me a little sooner than 9 months about what I'll be doing next. :-).

I'll let you know soon.

-Sam

aka The Awkward Engineer.

Nothing Like Setting Stuff On Fire While the Wife is Out of Town

2013-05-10T10:16:00.001-04:00

What It Feels Like Running A Kickstarter Campaign

2013-04-09T15:27:00.000-04:00

If you want to know what it feels like to launch a Kickstarter campaign, I think the full on Kermit arm flail gif sums it up, pretty well.

In all seriousness, it's been a rush. I mean, how else can you describing taking months of work and then asking the world if anyone likes it.

For the first few days, I was basically glued to my computer screen, watching for notifications from Kickstarter that people donated to the campaign. I was one big nervous ball of energy. And sleeping a full 8 hours a night? Ha!

People outside my immediate social circle started donating to the campaign and I started getting some media coverage and I thought, "Maybe I'm not completely crazy after all." I got coverage in Wired, ABC, The Boston Globe, The Awesomer, BostInno, GeoBeats, Trendhunter, Foodbeast, Nerdalicious, and a radio interview on 740 The Game.

Getting emails and phones calls from media made kinda feels like being a mini-celebrity for a moment. The Boston Globe even sent over a photographer to get pictures for their article!

The connection with Kickstarter backers has probably been one of the highlights of the experience so far. Robert Haleluk, cookie dunking aficionado and the inventor who ran the successful Kickstarter for The Dipr even reached out to us as well. Here's cheering for us, which I think is pretty cool. If he hadn't seen the campaign on Kickstarter, I'm not sure we ever would have met.

I'm sure when things wind down, I'll have more to post and will try to organize my thoughts into a more coherent fashion than what I've written here, but in the mean time... KERMIT ARM FLAIL!

Best Cookie Dunk Kickstarter campaign backer story EVER

2013-04-09T14:46:00.004-04:00

I was in RadioShack, browsing some of the electronic kits, because that's how I roll on a Thursday night when my wife is out of town, and an 8th grade girl was there with her mom. I overheard them say something about an LED, my curiosity took over, and I asked what they were working on.

Apparently, they were working on a science project to measure the power generated by different water wheels. They had an old analog volt meter they thought was broken. They thought that if it was working, they could attach a hobby motor to the water wheel drive shaft and measure the voltage generated.

I fixed the voltmeter (one probe was plugged into the positive side of the low voltage range port and the other was plugged into the positive side of the high voltage range port, easy fix) and showed them how it had different scales for different range settings. I offered a few ideas for mechanically measuring the horsepower of the water wheels, rather than electrically, and then gave them my business card with my website and email if they had any questions.

That evening, they sent me an email saying thank you for the help. And a little while after that, I got a notification from Kickstarter. They had donated to the campaign.

"Hey, I have this great idea..."

2013-04-03T09:50:00.000-04:00

this was written by Awkward Engineer's Chief of Marketing, Chris Sim

"Hey, I have this great idea..."

Many adventures in a boy's life start with this phrase and it's usually followed by a high risk activity. As a kid, it meant jumping bikes off a sketchy ramp. You get a bit older, and it's sneaking out past curfew. When you get old enough, it means starting a company.

We've known each other for years, but I hadn't spoken with Sam since I moved from Massachusetts. When Sam initially called me to gauge my interest in Awkward Engineer, I was actually kind of surprised. But the same "hey I have a great idea" feeling came back and hearing his enthusiasm made working on Awkward Engineer an easy sell.

To be honest, I had no idea at the amount of work that Sam had already put into the Panic Button Light Switch Kit or even the development of the Cookie Dunking Cup. I am continually impressed with the level of commitment and the passion behind Awkward Engineer and most of all, the follow through has been amazing.

I've been learning a lot about the product development and Kickstarter process, like everyone else over the last few months. What I really love being a part of, is that it's really about as grassroots as you can get. Take our blog post about starting a company with $500, it's amazing to me that technology has allowed the “two guys and in a garage” business model and further reduced it into “two guys and an internet connection”. The internet age has allowed us to collaborate and share our ideas and also to distribute them to the people who are most interested.

The internet, in the form of social media and blogging, provides a way for us to spread our story and share our experiences and ideas with all of you. It also provides a new opportunity in crowd sourcing. To me crowd sourcing or crowd funding is just the adult version of telling a friend “Hey, I've got this great idea...”

Are you in?

A Big THANK YOU

2013-03-28T14:17:00.002-04:00

We just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU to all of you who supported us on our first day. We were able to achieve 10% of our goal on the first day and we obviously could not have done it without you guys.

The Kickstarter project has been a challenge and seeing the amazing support is truly humbling.

A few things from our first day:

A surprising number of kickstarter members that we don’t know personally donated to our project.
People seems to agree that this cup solves the first worldest of first world problems.
A writer for the Boston Globe found our project and interviewed Sam.
Our favorite donation amount was for $23.02... just so he could throw in his extra 2 cents.

We're LIVE on Kickstarter! http://kck.st/ZtQjJw

2013-03-27T12:01:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Today, my Kickstarter went live. For me, this has been the culmination of many months of work, trying to take something from a little dream and a doodle to a place where I'm ready to raise funds for a production run.

I've worked with local Massachusetts companies I believe in and trust, I've put in my own time and money to develop prototypes, I've recruited friends and neighbors to help when my own skill set wasn't enough, and I've eaten more cookies than I can count in testing.

Up until this point, I've been able to keep this project moving forward using mostly passion, determination, and hard work, but now I'm in the final stretches and need your help to raise the money to bring this to manufacture.

It would be an absolute honor to have the support of you all as a I Kickstart this project, and try to turn this dream into a reality.

Thank you, I love you all.

EDIT: eeek! here's the link http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1080427607/the-ultimate-in-cookie-dunking-techonlogy

Our Valued Partner: New England Village

2013-03-21T12:47:00.000-04:00

I stopped by the other day at New England Village, our assembly facility, to check on some stuff for the Panic Button Light Switch Kits, and it prompted me to finally write this blog post, which I had been meaning to publish for a while.

For the who didn't know, New England Village is a campus based community, and part of their mission is to "enable adults with intellectual disabilities to experience dignified, enriching lives...". At the assembly facility, that experience translates into providing their residents with real jobs that pay a real wage.

We feel good about the fact that we're creating paid work for those with intellectual disabilities, but in practical terms, New England Village is a valuable partner, allowing us to scale our operation. Many people don't realize how much manufacturing is still manual, and indeed, the final assembly on the Panic Buttons and placement inside the retail packaging is done completely by hand. When our last pre-Christmas order of Panic Button Light Switch Kits came in, we realized we had grown to be more than a kitchen table business and needed serious help.

Visiting NEV is a blast. Their work area is set up almost like a school cafeteria, air conditioned, with light assembly work going on at each of the tables throughout the room. I've even jumped in at an assembly table before and joined the chit chat while everyone worked. And the first time I went to visit, when they introduced me, everyone clapped. It was great.

They weren't working on my stuff on this last visit, but I snapped a quick pic of work in progress. It's definitely a cool feeling to see pallets of things you designed getting ready to ship, and it's a reminder that we wouldn't have been able to handle this sort of quantity without the residents at New England Village.

On Store Shelves @NewburyComics in Burlington, MA

2013-03-11T16:48:00.003-04:00

Hey, it's not every day you see your own product on store shelves. :-) We took this today at the Newbury Comics location in Burlington, MA.

Want to play Where's Waldo with the Panic Button Light Switch Kit?

Scroll down for the answer......

Take a Peek Behind the Curtain of What Makes Internet Commerce Run

2013-03-04T12:02:00.001-05:00

In short, order fulfillment is the little bit of magic that connects a glowing screen and a credit card to physical goods at your door. The 3rd party order fulfillment house is basically what makes the internet economy run... (and keeps my wife happy because I don't have a pile of boxes on the kitchen table.)

Here's a little peek behind that curtain from our visit with Dan Cence of Sprocket Express. We particularly like this order house (instead of say, Amazon), because they're within an hour's drive of our assembly house, the manufacturer we plan on working with to make Cookie Cups, and also because when we email Dan, he usually responds within 5 minutes.

Oder fulfillment really is a key piece of infrastructure, tying together warehousing, inventory control, picking + packing + shipping, and any sort of email notification and tracking.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Sometimes the strategic plan is called TRY HARDER: On grit, determination, and mentorship.

2013-02-28T15:09:00.000-05:00

Awkward Engineer Creations has come a long way since from it's humble beginnings. We've built up supply chains, worked on web dev, made sales calls, studied the retail industry, created graphic designs, and more. Sometimes people ask us how we learned all this, coming from a Mech. Eng. background, and the answer boils down to one thing -

We tried.

Of course, it took some persistence and follow through, but in the grand scheme of things, it's been done before. People have launched new products. People have started companies. We're just trying to study what other people are already doing (sales, basic manufacturing, marketing, etc) take what already works, and then do that ourselves.

You want to know what's actually hard? Cold fusion. That's hard. It's something that hasn't been been done before, that might not be physically possible. And even if it is physically possible, it might not be technically feasible. And if it is technically feasible, it might not be commercially viable.

But we're not working on cold fusion. Or drug development. Or rocket science. (We used to design components for things that were launched by rockets, actually, so we've kinda sorta done rocket science in the past, but we digress...) We're just making and selling fun things that we want to see in the world.

So when we get stuck, one of the the best things our mentors can do for us is give us a metaphorical kick in the behind and make us realize that all we have to do is try harder. We were starting to sense a scalability problem, as we hadn't picked up any new major distributors in a while.

Our new strategy was to piggy back on sales reps in the toy and gift industry, and use them to achieve growth by reaching out to mom and pop stores, but our mentors had a few questions first.

"Well, do you think you've saturated the market for major channels?"

"No, but..."

"So how many more do you think you need to hit your goals for the year?"

"Maybe a dozen or so, but"

"And do you think that's possible?"

"Yes, but..."

And that was it. Sometimes you just need to hear the words come out of your own mouth. It's not impossible, you just need to try harder. So we went back to Google, did some research, and found a half dozen new companies to reach out to.

I'm often reminded of a saying I read once, about hiring practices... that people run out of hard work long before they run out of smarts.

So if you're starting up and new and wondering how to make it, just keep working. Sometimes the strategic plan is called TRY HARDER.

Getting to Dream. Draw. Print. Do.

2013-02-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

This post if from fellow Mechanical Engineer and friend of the Awkward Engineer, Greg Fischvogt

If you’re anything like me, finding solutions to problems doesn't stop when you’re off the clock. My name is Greg and I’m an inventor in corporate America by day and a dreamer by night. As a full time employee at a large global company I have nearly endless resources at my disposal. 25+ full time model makers, SLA rapid prototyping, photopolymer printing, vacuum casting, lathes, mills, wire machines, laser welding, access to the latest version of CREO, and most importantly of all, someone else’s check book! One would think that I would be well positioned to dip my toe into the pond of prototyping and one-off design outside of work, but for some reason it just doesn't seem all that easy.

The modern innovation process as I see it is:
Dream
Draw
Print
Do
(There are more things that could be added to the list, but getting started is half the battle!)

Currently I find myself stuck in the dream stage. Many of my ideas tend to get trapped in the world of poorly cobbled together prototypes and Home Depot hardware aisle creations that sometimes get the point across, but often don’t always cut it. They fall short in some way and this is where many of my ideas die. I am well aware that there are tools out there that could easily bring my ideas to the next level, but I've found that something as simple as CAD software can be a significant barrier to making well thought out functional models.

As I see it, CAD is a gateway to discount prototyping (something that every inventor is looking for). Long before you ever make your first physical model, a simple 3D part or assembly can sort out most design issues. This allows you to iterate and continue on without ever spending time or money learning the lesson the hard way. When you finally do feel comfortable with your idea, automated manufacturing techniques are instantly at your fingertips. With a few clicks of a button you could submit your ideas to additive rapid prototyping houses, CNC machining services, your own 3D printer, or share something as simple as a screen grab in an email to your friend.

Sounds great. Where do I sign?

Naturally I find myself in the position where I’d want something that’s “good”, but the fact of the matter is most of my ideas don’t come with a business plan to justify the expense. Most mainstream commercial CAD software is far too expensive for the average Joe to justify having some fun with. The majority of packages have an entry level price of approximately $4000 USD with annual maintenance costs of approximately $1250 USD per year.

It seems like the product design process has seen some serious change over the past 5+ years. Where simply making a model was the most cost prohibitive barrier to implementation…now it seems that CAD software may be the new front runner in a world of ultra-cheap prototyping.

My advice? Don’t let the price of CAD software stop you from getting out there and trying your ideas. Something is better than nothing. Reject the notion that owning professional quality software is the only way you’ll be able to create models on your own. Lower your expectations on what the software is capable of doing. There is a whole world of free to discount CAD programs out there that will likely meet the basic needs that you have to get started. With a little money invested, if you decide you really love doing this you can always consider upgrading in the future. Getting started is half the battle, make good use of these discount tools!

Resources for free to discount CAD access:

See Makerbot’s “choosing your hammer”
http://www.makerbot.com/support/guides/design/

Join a local hacker space like TechShop
http://www.techshop.ws/

Alibre Personal Edition

http://www.alibre.com/products/hobby/

Author’s note: Since writing this article I have decided to take my own advice and have purchased a license of Alibre Personal Edition. This software is not free, but seems to be similarly featured to software I use on a daily basis and heavily discounted for what it is capable of. Time to start clicking some buttons!

Can't Get More Local Than This

2013-02-03T15:41:00.002-05:00

It's hard to get more local than this. We sell Panic Button Light Switch Kits at Davis Squared, just a short walk from where we used to live when we first created, assembled, and shipped the product.

The Unicorn? He's Here for Quality Control

2013-02-01T13:33:00.000-05:00

It's basically impossible for us to walk past a street sign like the one pictured below without getting excited, especially when it's about a block from where we live. When we first noticed it a few weeks ago, we made it a point to check it out.

We called ahead yesterday and set a meeting up with Richard, who owns and runs Cantabrigian Mechanics. He'd been doing mechanical design and model making for a product development company, and when an opportunity came for him to strike out on his own, he took it.

Apparently, he's been in business for close to 5 years, but the sign only went up recently. Go figure. Either way, we're pretty pumped to know that this capability exists within walking distance. We're already cooking up ideas for what we can do next.

The shop specializes in low volume prototypes, doing mostly welding and machining. A lot of custom bike frames go through their shop, but they're ready to take on a wide variety of jobs. Meet their quality control unicorn.

Born Again

2013-01-30T22:33:00.000-05:00

To Protomold, Or Not To Protomold, That is The Question

2013-01-30T12:06:00.001-05:00

Joseph Flaherty had an article in WIRED today about affordable injection molding and how it's making the cost of tooling for mass production a smaller financial hindrance. Protomold was featured in the article and we've worked with them and Quickparts on other projects, but for the Cookie Dunking Cup, we decided that quick turn services weren't for us.

First of all, we think that Protomold and Quickparts are awesome. (We've worked with both of them in the past, too!) It can easily cost over $100K to design and build a multi-cavity steel mold that's expected to produce millions of parts, but if you only want to make a few thousand, it's not the way to go. Protomold and Quickparts excel at making cheap, quick turn, single cavity aluminum molds, that lean, bootstrapped, entrepreneurial hardware makers need.

So why didn't we use them? It turns out, we were starting to bump into the technical limitations of what Protomold could offer. Our Cookie Cup has some serious undercuts, or features that would cause a normal two part mold to rip through the part when the mold opens. The undercuts are handled with a more complicated mold piece called a "side action" and the depth of draw was outside what Protomold could offer without compromising our design.

We spent a lot of time finding a local manufacturer because they could handle the technical requirements and if we get lucky enough to want to invest in the steel, multi-cavity mold, they'd be ready for us. We think Protomold is an awesome service, it just wasn't right for this project.

Going on Wife Support

2013-01-27T19:56:00.000-05:00

I love the projects I'm working on right now, but developing and launching a product can be... stressful.

I mean, it's very rewarding pursuing my own interests and work on things I love, but it essentially means putting months of work and a small piece of myself on display for the world to see and to judge. And when it is judged, it will be judged by the very real metric of profit and loss.

Throughout this pursuit, someone very special has been by my side. She's been there to listen to me talk through my self doubts and fear, she cheered for me when I took the first plunge and committed money to my projects, and she was the first person I called when I made my first big sale.

A mentor once used the phrase "wife support" to describe the help his wife gave him. I've been getting wife support, but the title wasn't officially hers until now. Sometimes I don't know why she puts up with me, but I count myself as very, very lucky that she does. We got married last weekend and now she is the official Mrs. Awkward Engineer and I love her.

And we do an OK photo booth together :-)

How to Start A Company with $500

2013-01-10T19:56:00.001-05:00

Awkward Engineer Creations had it's humble beginnings a few years ago as a humor blog that made approximately zero dollars. With the dawning realization that the adsense revenue off a few hundred page views a day was not going to cut it, I made the decision to Do Something Different.

After playing around with the idea of teaching cooking classes to the culinary clueless and also making software to manage the process of building space satellites, (Seriously, opposite ends of the spectrum, I know, but I was in a weird place.) I was given the very good advice to do what I would want to do anyway, if I already had a million bajillion dollars.

It turns out, I had a strange obsession with pressing red buttons. Like the red alert, stop the presses, launch the missiles, sort of thing, i.e. usually the kind you're not supposed to press. I was dead set on getting an e-stop button for my bed room light switch and despite searching high and low, I just couldn't find one that was suitable for a home electrical wall box.

The obsession was so deep that I ended getting my hands on an industrial switch and modifying a face plate so the thing would fit. It wasn't grounded properly, the switch didn't quite fit in the wallbox and would sortof flicker as the contacts were forced open, and the hastily modified, improperly mounted plastic faceplate eventually shattered when I invited a friend to press it and they hit it too hard.

But holy cow, the "clunk" sound it made when you hit the thing! It was FUN to press, and I knew that if I wanted one that badly, someone else would too.

So this is the part in the story where wanting to start a business and having few resources becomes about HARD WORK.

Essentially what I decided to do was make a Panic Button Light Switch Kit that I could sell. I would use push-on/push-off dimmer switches, which make such a satisfying thunk when you press them and I would put them in a kit with a cool looking, stainless steel faceplate, and then find a company to make a red button that would fit the switch. Most importantly, the parts in the kit would be consumer grade, and would fit a home wallbox.

This might sound simple in practice, but it took weeks, if not months to get everything in place. Companies wouldn't do a minimum order I could afford... other companies wouldn't sell to me at wholesale prices... some companies just wouldn't call me back.

I spent about $500 on my initial parts order. I couldn't even afford to pay the button company to make the buttons the right size for me, so I designed a jig to use on my drill press, had a friend 3d print it for me, and drilled out the first 100 pieces myself.

I had blurry photography I did with my cell phone camera, I had no idea what to put into a promotional flyer, I had poor packaging, and I generally had no idea what I was doing.

I went to neighborhood stores. They said they'd maybe carry it on consignment. I tried calling bigger chains. No one returned voice mails. I scoured Linkedin to find better contacts. They didn't like the idea, either.

And then I got lucky. I found a buyer at Thinkgeek.com, who thought my idea was pretty cool and wanted to order a bunch. They had a photographer, so it was ok my pictures weren't great. They were online, so it didn't matter if the packaging wasn't customized. They were willing to give me a shot, and it turns out, I did well.

In fact, I did very well.

I had my kitchen table covered in Panic Button Kits, literally filling the order myself (with some help from my future fiance), but it was rewarding and worth it to have the income coming in.

That's when I began bootstrapping, in the truest sense of the phrase, using the income from that initial $500 investment to grow the company. I was able to start buying materials in larger quantities and getting better prices.

I had grown to the point where I thought it was time to invest in proper retail packaging. Then I was floored when I found out it might cost a few thousand dollars for a graphic designer to design the box for me.

So I gritted my teeth, bought a book on graphic design, got a copy of the free vector drawing software, Inkscape, and went to work. I went through iteration after iteration after iteration. It probably took me ten times as much work as an experienced design professional, but when you're resource strapped, that's what you do.

After a lot of work and a great job by our printer, I finally had real packaging.

From there, it was time to sell, sell, sell. I broke into test runs at Urban Outfitters and Newbury Comics. I even got my first inbound sales call from people looking to buy from me, instead of me having to call them.

Small places, like the MIT Museum Gift shop and the mom and pop shops I talked to were willing to carry me. (And the Kit sold!)

We're still small, but we're getting a sales track record now and we're growing. We even have enough of a workload that it's worth it to pay an assembly house to fill the orders (which technically makes us job creators!).

We've learned more than we ever planned to about web design, content marketing, social media strategy, cold calling, photography, negotiation, legal structures, and more, but the entire time we were having a blast.

We're now using our hard fought knowledge and income to invest in our next project, the Cookie Dunking Cup. We're still in a fragile stage and we certainly haven't made it big yet, but that's how you start a company for $500.

Making it in America - Literally, or How to Find a Factory

2013-01-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

The tagline on the front page of the Maker's Row website is "Factory Sourcing Made Easy: America's Best Factories in One Place." Their mission is to make it easier for designers to connect with the manufacturers that will actually make their products. With their company roots in the fashion industry, their database is understandably heavy on clothing manufacturers (hey, we're cheering for them to expand!), and we had to find our injection molder without them.

We want to explain why in this age of Google, it's still tough to find manufacturing, but certainly not impossible, and how to go about it.

If you've been around machine shops or factories in the New England area like we have, you'll notice a graying workforce. Quite simply, as more and more manufacturing was moved overseas, getting a job at a factory, (either as a manufacturing engineer or as a line worker) was less and less attractive. The most junior workers were laid off or left or were never replaced, and now it's not unusual to find shops where 90% of the workforce is over 45.

The end result, at least among injection molders in the New England area, is that they are now essentially small businesses with aging populations that don't have the resources or tech savvy to promote themselves well online or to put good SEO practices in place. In short, your favorite search engine probably won't find them.

A week or two of Googling only turned up a few factories in the area for us and the prospects weren't great. We tried using mfg.com to get quotes as well and we were immediately swamped with wildly ranging bids from overseas companies varying from $2K to $50K. We didn't think we could sort the quality factories from the bad ones without flying to China or hiring an agent, and frankly didn't have the time or resources to do so.

Fortunately, Scott Miller, CEO of Dragon Innovation, tipped us off to the Design 2 Part trade show. In just our first sixty minutes on the trade show floor, we selected from the dozens of companies present to yield a short list that was already better qualified than what we found in weeks of online research.

To be clear, finding a manufacture isn't, and shouldn't, be a trivial process. You're committing resources and time when you pick a factory and you're building a relationship to ensure that they can build the quality parts that you design. We certainly want Maker's Row to succeed in what they're doing, but until they're as ubiquitous in manufacturing as Yelp is for restaurants (fingers crossed!), the best way to find manufacturers will be trade shows, recommendations, a little legwork, and Google, in that order.

The 3d Printer Revolution Is Already Here, Just Not How You Might Think

2013-01-04T14:45:00.000-05:00

As hardware developers, we intensely follow every bit of news coming out of hardware startup incubator Build at Bolt, and we wanted to respond to their blog post about the hype surrounding 3d printing technology. We agree that a lot of the hype, such as instant, on demand, tooling free manufacturing, and Star Trek like "replicators," is a little far fetched. Then they go on to say the following:

"3D printers are amazing, just not for the reasons people usually point to. It’s not about materials or manufacturing or speed. These things are helpful, but not revolutionary. It’s all about inspiration. More than any other accessible tool I’m aware of, 3D printers 'wow' young and old minds alike. They spark creativity. They convince kids to tinker and explore. They let imaginations run wild. They are right now inspiring a new generation of engineers and designers and will create fields that don’t yet exist."

We think they missed the point. We believe that cheap printers are revolutionary because they enable the "two guys and a garage" business model.

Additive manufacturing technology really has come a long way from the $1M+ systems of 20 years ago to the sub $2,000 hobby systems of today. With the fall in price came a lot of hype that 3d printing would make conventional manufacturing processes obsolete and banks of 3d printers would replace rows of presses and milling machines and the like. For a number of reasons, such as scalability, material choices, part strength, and quality of surface finish, this just isn't going to happen, much like regular 2d desktop printers didn't end the sale of paperback books. (Although, we'd be remiss if we didn't say there was a niche for 3d printers making low volume, high end designer, or hard to find parts).

What the revolution is all about is what it brings to the design process. Just as software developers adhere to a philosophy of rapid iterations and testing, hardware developers like to do the same. Even with the power of modern 3d CAD modeling, there's still no substitute for actually fit checking parts, testing their ergonomics, and holding them in your hand, it's just that it used to be prohibitively expensive for small hardware developers to do so.

With traditional prototyping processes, raw material isn't cheap, the cost of labor for a highly skilled sculptor or machinist can be daunting, and the iteration time is measured in days, if not weeks. With sub $2,000 printer systems, raw material costs around $20/lb, and no need for a skilled operator, completely changes the game. We're embracing this development process to the fullest.

When crowdfunding is added to the mix, cheap 3d printing can realize it's full potential as a disruptive technology. Small companies can now afford to go through multiple iterations of a concept to develop a product before turning to crowdfunding to raise the capital required to invest in production tooling. What was once was only within the reach of only well funded firms is now available to anyone with 3d CAD modeling skills and vision.

At Awkward Engineer Creations, with one engineer and a marketing guy, we are taking full advantage of the technology available to us. With a $600 Solidoodle printer in the back room of the apartment (we don't even have a garage), we can go from concept sketch, to CAD model, to part in hand, in less than 24 hours. We've already been through multiple iterations of our Cookie Dunking Cup, and we plan on Kickstarting it soon.

Dress Up Monday

2013-01-03T22:44:00.000-05:00

Tradesies are the Best! w/ @LuxuryLaneSoap

2013-01-01T15:06:00.002-05:00

A few weeks we found @KyleeLane, of Luxury Lane Soap. She has her own small business, started from the ground up when she wanted to make soap that wouldn't irritate her son's sensitive skin. She's worked hard, and built up her company, and expanded with an awesome product line. (We love stories about entrepreneurs like her.)

I traded her a few Panic Buttons for some soaps. My favorite? A certain soap that'll make it .5 past light speed. :-)

How to Use @RitDye to Make an SLA Prototype Any Color You Want

2012-12-27T17:01:00.001-05:00

Stereolithography, sometimes known as the "SLA" rapid prototyping process, is one of the oldest RP processes, with phenomenal resolution and part quality. We certainly love using our in house FDM machine to make prototypes, but it when it comes time to get ready for photo shoots, we decided to go with an outside vendor.

Unfortunately, SLA's aren't available in the color we wanted. The solution? An old trick we used to decorate lacrosse sticks as a kid - use Rit clothing dye to tint the part. After a failed experiment last week with an off brand dye, we're back with a successful result and and took notes for a how-to:

Making Transparent SLA Parts in Any Color You Want

First, the necessary equipment: you'll need a pot you don't mind ruining with a mesh basket, Rit Dye (we haven't had success with other brands of dye), and the SLA prototype.

Place the SLA in the pot.

Fill the pot with enough water to cover the SLA prototype.

Pull the prototype out so you can mix the dye well. The package directions suggest half a bottle per 3 gallons of water for each lb. of cloth, but we're dying plastic. I used the whole bottle in about 6 quarts of water. Than again, I get antsy and impatient.

Put the prototype back in and bring to a low simmer. You can pull it out every few minutes and rinse it off to see how it's absorbing the dye. My total time was about 30 minutes.

Give the prototype a good rinse when you're done.

Take pictures!

The cup is designed for dunking cookies! You can sign up to learn more at www.awkwardengineer.com/cookie-dunker-prelaunch.html

Do People Still Make Things in America? YES!

2012-12-26T15:51:00.000-05:00

I met with Craig Bovaird and Andy Samoiloff today, owner and vice president, respectively, of Reliance Engineering, to go over drawings and quotes for the Cookie Cup. As a design engineer, I know enough to make parts that are moldable, but their knowledge of the actual mold design and the molding process itself is impressive. (If you want to talk to them about sprues, ejector pins, runners systems, side actions, cores, locks, etc, I'm sure they can enlighten you.)

One of the big reasons I try to work with local companies is that the face to face meeting time to hash out technical details is invaluable. Here are some photos from the visit.

This is what engineering looks like.

Technical notes from our meeting.

This is a press that makes plastic parts.

Their on-site machine shop.

Making Stuff: Prototypes and #EngineerProblems

2012-12-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, engineering is hard. Things don't go as planned. After the successful dye test on the samples last week, we went back to the store to get a new bottle. The RIT dye wasn't available in the color we wanted, but another brand called "Tulip" was available.

The dye packaging had the same instructions (and even claimed to meet the same ASTM spec!) but the results were not the same. There was no visible change in the color of the cup. Had we done some internet search beforehand, we would have learned that the Tulip brand dye did not match the performance of RIT.

The natural course of action, logically, is to wait to get the RIT dye in the color we want, and try, try again. On the bright side, we did get a nice new Nikon D3200, so we're excited to take pictures with the new camera.