The Plan

It all starts with an idea!  You start doing research on your idea.  You read (our) blogs about invention and product development and get to work.  You validate your idea, talk to potential customers, and start to formulate a plan.  Now you begin to realize that this is going to take a lot of money.  The term ‘tooling’ keeps coming up and it is very expensive.  Then there is engineering, software, testing, development, and we’ve not even started to sell the product.  You are not a rich person, but you believe that if the world knew about this product idea, you’d be able to sell millions of them.

Now the fun invention project has turned into a business.  You are going to need significant outside money and resources to get this thing going. This is when you can’t help but turn to the exciting world of crowd funding.

The Myth

It looks so simple.  Make a video, post it on Kickstarter, and the money comes pouring in.  All you have to do is build it, ship it and you’re rich.  No.  According to Sally Outlaw of Peerbackers:

“70% of Kickstarter hardware projects are already funded before they go onto the platform…which means they usually already have angel or VC money behind them before launch”

Ouch!  Ask yourself, “Why would I launch my product on Kickstarter if I had angel or VC money?”  Because you need it when it comes to hardware.  Kickstarter and others are simply pre-sales platforms.  Yes, there are some success stories, many of them are from a few years ago before some of the rules changed.  I use Kickstarter as an example, but others have similar rules. 

There was a huge upset from the Pebble Watch Kickstarter.  In 2012, Pebble became the most funded project in Kickstarter history however Pebble could not commit to fulfilling their promises.  This caused Kickstarter to change the rules for hardware projects by requiring companies to be very honest about how far along they were in the development process.  Renderings are so impressive these days that products look real when they may only exist in a computer. The challenges of actually designing and manufacturing a working product had not yet been conquered and this caused a number of products to fail or deliver late.

The facts are that nowadays many of the most successful products launched through Kickstarter and other crowdfunding websites are mostly complete by the time you see them.  A common phrase to hear in campaign videos is ‘we just need to fund our tooling’ or ‘we need to gear up for mass manufacture’.  That basically means they are ready to go and want to make sure they can pre-sell enough to warrant the expenditure of hard-tooling and manufacturing setup.

Another important fact about the most successful crowd funded campaigns is that the real campaign starts before the Kickstarter one.  Crowdsource-ers network with the media and collect fans, followers and an audience before they launch their public campaign.  Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd, and these campaigns ensure they have a crowd waiting to review, talk, and fund before they launch. 

The Legends

Pebble

Pebble is a wearable electronics manufacturer launched in 2012.  I used Pebble as a failure example, but they ultimately made good on their promises and have managed to launch several more campaigns, albeit far more successfully and with less fuss.  In 2015, Pebble raised $20M for their Pebble Time product and is now shipping.

Coolest Cooler

This product takes your typical ice chest to the HNL.  It incorporates a blender, Bluetooth speakers, cutting board, and it holds ice too.  Originally, when the product launched in 2013, it was a failure.

“As most people who are first launching a project on Kickstarter do, you do some research, you put the product out there, and you hope for and secretly expect that because this idea is great, magically it will get funded,” Grepper said of his failed first campaign. “It was very disappointing.”

He tried again later, with better preparation and it became (at the time) the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever.  They still had problems delivering.

SkyBell

The world apparently needed a Wi-Fi doorbell.  This product raised $600K in 2013 on Indiegogo.  A big advantage with Indiegogo is that even if you don’t hit your funding goal, you can still get the money that was pledged.  Kickstarter is all or nothing.

Tips for a Successful Crowd Funding Campaign 

1. Find funding to get your product through the prototype phase. It needs to work and you need to have a clear path to manufacturing. 

2. Build your audience before you launch your campaign. Create lead generation pages and social media accounts. And don’t forget networking at off-line events as well to build your audience. 

3. Create relationships with the media.  Figure out who has an interest in the product and who is willing to write about it. Review other similar campaigns on Kickstarter and see which media outlets wrote about them.  Then add these journalists to your own outreach list. Media needs content , and if you have a good story, that helps too. 

4. Get a professional video. Unless you are an awesome videographer and editor, pay someone to make it shine. If you MUST shoot it yourself, make sure viewers can see you, hear you and that you are in an environment that makes sense (ie., film yourself in your work space while talking about the product, not sitting at your kitchen table). 

5. Hire a professional crowdfunding strategist. Many people have done this before.  Pay for their experience as it can be the difference between a wildly successful campaign and one that does not get off the ground.  One resource for this service is Peerbackers. 

6. Set a realistic goal – one that is the minimum you would require to take your product to the next level. Then outline stretch goals in your campaign narrative so backers will be motivated to continue to donate once you reach your initial target. It’s better to be successful with a smaller goal than to be unfunded with a larger one (this varies by platform). 

Good luck out there!

Printed wiring board (PWB) is an older term used for PCBs.  It was exactly what it sounds like, it was a way to print wiring.  This term could still be used for very simple PCBs where the function is more for mechanical wiring than active circuitry.

A look inside a modern cell phone is a PCB that reflects the ‘work of art’ side.  It’s a finely crafted network of wiring and components, flexible and rigid PCBs which all work together perfectly to provide the functionality we’ve come to take for granted in modern technology.

No matter what your needs are, it’s important to realize that all PCBs are a combination of at least 2, if not more engineering disciplines.  Understanding what these disciplines are and how to specify your requirements are important aspects of getting your PCB done right the first time.  The disciplines are:

Electrical engineering – this is the obvious one. The goal is to wire electronic circuits together.  Of course we’ll need some electrical engineering.

Mechanical engineering – while perhaps not so obvious, we live in the physical world. We are wiring in the physical world so there are mechanical requirements to consider.  Some PCBs have very few mechanical requirements like put 4 holes in the corners.  Others move towards the work of art level, but most are in between.

Software engineering – Almost all PCBs these days have some level of software in them. If there is a microcontroller, then there is software.

Thermal engineering – Many times grand assumptions are made about the environment something will operate in. The environment something will operate in can change the design drastically. Specialties – If there are lights, then perhaps there is an optical engineer involved.

Other specialties can be involved just depending on what needs to be done.

Below is a How-to guide to help you communicate details of the PCB to your engineer for design of your circuit board

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High Level Functionality – The first step is to write down what you want it to do.  You can start out with very broad definitions of your inputs and outputs and what it does.  Provide whatever level of detail you can.  Helpful aspects to think about are parameters like: 

Think about these types of questions and have an understanding about how it all goes together. Of course your engineer will be happy to fill in the gaps, but the more effectively you can communicate, the better chance of getting what you want and saving costs due to miscommunication. 

For more details on how to write a specification, please check out this article. 

Mechanical and Thermal Requirements – We know we need to understand the kind of space you want to put your PCB into.  Sometimes it’s as simple as ‘put it in this box’.  However, even that can lead to issues.  What about these questions:

Software Requirements – While many boards have very basic functionality like ‘turn this on when this happens’, other PCBs can have very complicated logic built into them.  In some cases, software can drive 75% of a PCBs design cost, and sometimes more.  Software is a double edge sword in modern day PCB design.  On the one hand, it offers extreme flexibility and capability to create complex functionality and control.  On the downside, all of the flexibility and control can lead to software never being finished.  If there is a new idea to implement, it’s likely you’ll be able to add it in to the software.  This is great if it means you can sell more of your product with a software change.  It’s not so great if changes are made haphazardly because software changes are ‘easy’.  A specification is very important for this phase.  Make sure you can answer these questions:

What does the software have to do in all cases? Not just in the main case, but in everything you want it to do.

Other Specialties – If other specialty engineering disciplines are required, specification and design can get more complicated.  Some companies, like ours, are familiar with LEDs where we can cover most of the requirements for a LED lighting project without an optical engineer.  However, there are other cases where complicated instrumentation may need to be researched or subcontracted for very specific design aspects.  Below are some examples of some non-standard engineering requirements.

In many of these cases, modules have been developed by 3rd parties that can help reduce the engineering requirements of the specialty work to the level of skilled engineer.  In some cases, it is the scientist who needs the PCB built and they can provide the first-hand expertise on how the other engineers need to interface to their specialty systems.

One more very important engineer that was not mentioned is the manufacturing engineer.  This isn’t necessarily a specific engineering discipline, but to consider how your PCB assembly will be produced.  Placing a surface mount component is cheaper than placing a through hole component.  (Machines do the surface mount work.)  There are scores of items to review to ensure high yield PCB development.  Many are standard practices, but the skill lies in the hands of the engineers building the board.
Printed circuit board development is a complex and highly skilled craft.  With all of the various skills involved, it is best completed by a team of engineers.  Sure, there are many design challenges that are small enough to be completed effectively by a single engineer in a reasonable amount of time.  However, as the saying goes, two heads are better than one.  Having an engineering team develop your PCB where there are design processes and reviews in place help ensure a high quality design for your product.

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So just as the name states, the goal here is to prove the concept of the product you want to ultimately produce.  The goal is fairly clear, however, the way you define that goal gets a bit trickier.  The three things you want to accomplish at this stage are:

1. Lean startup mentality – fail fast, fail cheap.  You have the idea, now does anyone want it?  Having a POC that is cost effective to create is important here.  Assessing validation of the idea and product at every stage of prototyping is paramount.  You must avoid phrases like, “I just know this will be big.” 
2. Determine your next incremental step.  If you have X resources, what do you expect to accomplish after expending X resources?  For instance, if you are willing to put in 100 hours of time and $200, there should be a goal at the end of that stage.  It can be as simple as answering the question, does anyone like my product to determine if it is worth investing more time.  It could be more complex such as, I need to be able to raise $20,000 for my next step of development with this POC. 
3. Does it work?  This may seem obvious, and so many times ideas seem so clear in your head, but once you start working on it, you find details that just do not pan out. 

Building hardware isn’t cheap, but it is getting better all the time.  Here is where places like Spark Fun and products like the Raspberry Pi and Arduino come in.  You can mock up some hardware, display, some buttons, and show how your product can work.  Of course this is great if you are technical, but if you are not, then you have a few more challenges ahead of you, but you can still validate.  Perhaps you can make up some renderings and tell the story of your product visually.  Or, you can partner with someone technical.  In either case, technical or not, you should always build a team.  Techs need non-techs and vice versa, but this is another blog. 

Your POC needs to tell the story, show the story, and validate the product.  The definition of a POC is the goal.  It is defined by the early stages of accomplishing these goals.  Keep in mind that a POC is also typically limited in looks and function.  It is not a minimal viable product (MVP).  It’s just the first stages on your way to a functional prototype, and pilot run, and MVP.

But there often is a long, and lengthy, process from taking an idea from concept to reality, to something tangible that you can hold in your hand.

This is where Anidea Engineering comes in. We take ideas, mere thoughts, and bring them to reality, making them into something real.

We make something from nothing, whether it is helping with product development, engineering consulting, hardware design and engineering, software design and development, industrial design and mechanical engineering, printed circuit board design and development or manufacturing and prototypes, we do it all!

On the top of our web site, right below the URL, is an amazing document to help any inventor prepare for the process, one which we excel at guiding companies through.

When you’re ready, it is time to make a prototype. So what exactly is a prototype? Merriam-Webster defines a prototype as “an original or first model of something from which other forms are copied or developed; someone or something that has the typical qualities of a particular group, kind, etc.; and a first or early example that is used as a model for what comes later.”

Thomas Edison went through many different variations of his prototype of the light bulb before he found one that worked. It took him more than 10,000 tries, but eventually he got there. This can be a long process, but in the end, it is worth the time and dedication. After all, your idea is on the path to becoming a reality.

So you start with a prototype to create a tangible version of your idea. There are many types of prototypes, but the three Anidea Engineering typically deals with are:

• Proof of Concept – This would be an early level prototype that includes many of the final features, but usually has a low level of customization. Typically, Anidea Engineering can take a few off-the-shelf-devices, modify them, program them, etc., and prove the concept the inventor has in mind is practical. They can then be used for raising early stage funds and validating your idea to focus groups.
• Functional Prototype – This is a mid-stage prototype, which usually has a high level of customization. Most components are custom or designed for volume purchasing at this point.  Most of the features are in place. There may be some compromises on functionality due to cost or time constraints.
• Pilot Run – This is a late stage prototype which you have before you start production without the engineers. At this stage the device should represent what you intend to sell. If you find issues here, you iterate, make minor changes and try again.

Prototypes can range in how sophisticated their design and packing are, whether they are made in the garage with a glue gun, or professionally made and ready to show to the market. However, in the early stages, it doesn’t have to be pretty – it just needs to work. Even if it doesn’t, and you keep having to return to the drawing board for your design, don’t feel badly. It isn’t a failure; you are learning what doesn’t work. If it worked for Edison (Even Thomas Edison went through more than 10,000 prototypes until the lightbulb was just right), it will work for you, right?

At Anidea Engineering, we guide you through the process, going from a garage and glue gun inventor to a professional, sellable, specific product.

Yes, prototypes are expensive. For instance, a watch might cost $100 in a department store, but to get that watch from concept to prototype, with manufacturing and testing, may cost more than $100,000.

It takes time, effort, organization and work to take an idea from concept to reality, and we’re here to help.

To learn more, visit www.anidea-engineering.com or call us at (561) 383-7311. Check us out and see how we can help you. Have an idea? Get Anidea! We’re located at 8020 Belvedere Road, Suite 1 in West Palm Beach Florida. Not local? Call and we can set up a Skype conversation at gabriel.goldstein.anidea.