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Learn to Make a Product

Expert Consulting for Product Entrepreneurs

‘Alexa, Turn On My Jacket’

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

Boston-based startup Ministry of Supply is obsessed with merging technology and style. Their signature performance-professional apparel line uses highly-engineered fabrics to deliver comfort, breathability, and the promise of never having to iron your work clothes again. Now, they’ve taken their scientific approach to design a step further with their newest release the Mercury Intelligent Heated Jacket.

Touted as the world’s first truly “smart” coat, the Mercury pre-heats with an Alexa-directed voice command. Or, if you don’t have an Echo, or happen to be too far from one, you can switch on the coat via an app or an interior power button. While saying “Alexa, turn on my jacket” is certainly novel, it’s not the only thing that makes the jacket stand out from other heated options on the market.

A microcontroller system begins learning the wearer’s preferences and behaviors as soon as the jacket is worn, gauging both outer and inner temperatures and monitoring speed and motion. (You can also turn the heat up or down via the app.) Over time, the built-in thermostat becomes adept at optimizing your body temperature for whatever conditions are present, such as jogging or walking indoors after being out in the cold. A replaceable battery delivers the necessary power for these tasks, and the jacket conveniently charges via a standard USB cord for up to a week’s worth of use.

Despite somewhat complex features, the Mercury looks much like a regular coat. It is not visibly bulky and the interior heaters are described by the company as “weightless” and “thinner than a dime.” The entire garment is machine washable.

According to their recent Kickstarter campaign, the public seems excited about Ministry’s concept. The jacket was launched on the platform last month and quickly raised nearly $650,000. Co-founders Kit Harrington, Gihan Amarasiriwarden, and Aman Advani believe the swift support is due to the company’s stated focus on market pull – answering a real market problem or opportunity versus technology push – which is simply invention for the sake of invention. “We saw a clear demand for a sleek, warm, and everything-proof jacket, that gets better with time by using technology. Kickstarter is great because it sniffs out market pull systematically and effectively.”

The next test for The Mercury will come in November of this year, when buyers will receive the first shipment of coats. Even when they work well, first generation products are often quick to evolve. Ministry will likely be monitoring feedback closely and updating future iterations of the product based on usage patterns and customer requests.

The wearable space is indeed heating up, but there is still lots of open space and opportunity. Entrepreneurs wanting to replicate Ministry’s success would be wise to look to market segments that have been historically under-served, such as women’s wellness, maternal health, and tools for the specially-abled. Prioritizing women-led design may also give companies a competitive edge, as it brings a valuable set of perspectives to the table and can fight bias in the artificial intelligence that fuels the wearable marketplace.

One thing, however, is certain – garments and accessories that integrate the latest technology are piquing public interest, and we’re likely to see a lot more of them in years to come.

How 3D Printing Can Benefit Your Business

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

3D printing, which started as a niche service, is now predicted to one day revolutionize the world of production. So it’s no surprise that one of the most common questions I get as a manufacturing consultant is: “Can I use 3D printing to make my product?” For many categories, from shoes to sweaters to eyewear, the answer is yes!

To understand how brands can incorporate this technology into their business models, I interviewed Christian Hartung and Hristiyana Vucheva, cofounders of the Berlin-based 3D printing house VOJD Studios. VOJD specializes in high-end jewelry, accessories, and hardware, with luxury label clients such as Prabal Gurung, Alexander McQueen, and Carolina Herrera.

According to Hartung and Vucheva, there are several clear benefits of choosing 3D printing over traditional manufacturing.

Save Time and Avoid Expensive StartUp Costs

The typical process of developing a custom product, such as a watch band or sole of a shoe, requires that molds be made in order to cast or shape the desired design. Molds often cost thousands of dollars (with most projects requiring multiple molds!), making it an expensive undertaking for any business. And, since they need to be created prior to any product or market testing, they are sunk costs. Even if the product turns out to be a dud, there’s no way to recoup what you’ve already spent.

3D printing eliminates this step, as materials are printed directly onto a surface to create a product. When VOJD teamed up with Alexander McQueen to make a limited-edition umbrella handle, what would have normally cost upwards of $10,000 in mold fees was reduced to several hundred dollars in setup fees.

Easily Customize Your Offerings

Another exciting aspect of 3D printing is that brands can more easily customize their offerings, as well as offer limited-edition collections. 3D is ideal for creating one-off pieces and small batch runs because of the reduced upfront costs and minimal reliance on physical labor, factors that drive up order volumes at a traditional factory.

Thanks to 3D printing, VOJD client AKRIS was able to produce a special collection of architectural rings (printed in silver and polyamide) for their runway shows. Another client, Ferrari Concept, 3D printed a short run of colorful eyewear for Paris Fashion Week last year. In a conventional setting, both of these projects would have required substantially longer development and production times!

Some companies are using 3D to opt for a “made to measure” approach, creating custom garments or products using a customer’s sizing information. As the technology behind this approach becomes more readily available for both brands and factories, it could dramatically change the way we shop. Instead of having to fit into pre-determined sizes that may or may not work for a particular body type, the buyer is able to dictate exactly how they want a garment to fit. The approach also benefits stores, who can reduce waste by carrying less inventory and more speedily eliminate styles that don’t sell.

Experiment With New Materials

Another benefit of 3D manufacturing is that the costs and potential for low order volumes make it ideal for testing new materials. When Spanish luxury brand Loewe wanted a unique bracelet for a menswear campaign, VOJD was able to experiment with a newly developed ceramic compound. The result was a bold yet lightweight interlocking chain, printed as a single piece which required no assembly.

Even if 3D printing is not the long-term strategy for a specific product or collection, it’s flexibility allows companies to test new concepts prior to investing in large production runs.

More freedom to experiment results in more innovation, less waste (as testing on a specific material can be done prior to mass production), and ultimately greater customer satisfaction. This makes 3D a win-win for both buyers and suppliers!

What I Learned After Losing $20K In A Day

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

When you’re learning as you go, as many first-time entrepreneurs are, each lesson comes with a price tag. Whether it’s a lost client, a quality problem, or an unforeseen delay, it almost always involves a cost you didn’t intend to pay. While in the short-term this can be painful, the key is to mine these losses so that future experiences aren’t quite so “expensive”!

In 2010 my company–a two-year old reusable bag brand–was starting to gain traction, producing orders for some of the world’s top retailers. We had just partnered with a large non-profit to create bags for a new fundraising campaign, and because of the tight deadline, brought on a new factory to produce the goods.

Everything was moving along as planned until the client reviewed a sample created by the new factory. Though happy with the bag’s quality, they requested a color change to one of the printed graphics because it didn’t match their existing swag and collateral. Naturally, we communicated the adjustment to our production manager, assuming the simple switch would be made without a hitch! However, our request was met with the following reply: “Sorry, that isn’t possible. The full order has already been made and is ready to ship. Please advise.”

From there, things quickly went south. Even though the color change was minor, the client was unwilling to accept the product as is. And because we couldn’t produce a new batch of bags before their deadline, the only option was to cancel the order completely. To make matters worse, the factory wouldn’t accept any responsibility for the snafu, claiming that they had started production in order to meet our ship date, and that the sample sent was strictly “for reference,” and not a form of approval. While their practices were questionable–since approval by way of a pre-production sample is standard–we had other time-sensitive orders in-process that would have been jeopardized by a refusal to pay, and had to go along with their demands. So, in addition to refunding the client and losing a significant sale, we still had to foot the entire bill.

Here’s what I learned from losing a big chunk of money in a short amount of time.

Have A Process For Everything

A fiasco like this could easily have been avoided. How? By creating and following a simple process to officially greenlight production. I advise all brands I work with to communicate to their supplier–in writing and prior to submitting a purchase order–that all samples will have to be approved using a specific form, and that manufacturing will not begin until the form has been received by the factory. We then identify the key personnel involved in the review process and ensure that everyone understands their role.

A system like this is not difficult or expensive to implement, yet it’s normal for new entrepreneurs to feel that formality is an overkill if an organization is still small. In fact, the opposite is true for small, budding businesses. Such systems are not only helpful for staying organized in the present, but also function as the building blocks of what your entity can become. Establishing clear guidelines and procedures is a must-have if you want to scale and experience healthy growth.

Just like the human body ingests and digests nutrients in precise ways in order to grow, a business must have consistent systems in order to retain and leverage its resources (i.e. customers and money). On the other hand, disorder and disorganization cause resources to leak out, as I so painfully learned.

Know When To Say No

His loss could also have been avoided had we simply declined/refused the order. Tight timelines are never ideal, but for new entrepreneurs they can be especially detrimental. That’s because the learning curve is steeper, and inexperience makes it harder to anticipate exactly what could go wrong. Throw in a wild card like a new supply partner or a product you’re producing for the first time and it’s definitely risky business!

Further, if you try to beat the clock and end up failing (i.e missing a deadline or delivering a poor quality product), it’s likely you’ll lose the customer involved for good. But if you politely decline and continue to nurture the relationship, you still have the opportunity to secure repeat business down the road.

It’s always painful to turn down work, but discernment and patience are key to long-term success. Trust that there will be other opportunities!

Always Build In A Buffer

When you do say yes, be realistic. Building in a buffer might mean not “wowing” the client with a super-fast turnaround, but it performs the dual role of managing customer expectations and giving you a window of opportunity to correct course if things go awry.

In this particular scenario, a built-in buffer would have allowed us to re-make the bags and deliver the order as planned. Discarding a batch of inventory is still a waste of time, money, and resources; however, the result is certainly less painful, as the customer’s total payment is likely to cover the cost of a second run. In our case we would have broken even, a much preferred outcome!

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Why Products Designed By Women Are The Next Big Thing

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

An Interview with Danielle Kayembe
Danielle Kayembe is a futurist and the founder of GreyFire Advisory.

Have you heard the term coded patriarchy? According to Danielle Kayembe, founder of GreyFire Advisory and author of the white paper ‘The Silent Rise of the Female-Driven Economy’, it’s a phenomenon that impacts nearly every aspect of a woman’s waking life. Since the majority of our everyday products and systems are designed by and for men — to the exclusion of women’s unique needs, biology, and wants –our reality is in fact male-centric, says Kayembe.

Instances of patriarchal coding can be found in buildings, technology, and consumer products. For example, building doors are typically engineered for the tensile strength of men, making it difficult for some women to open them. None of the most popular health tracking apps (Apple, Fitbit, Nike)  included a way for women to track their monthly cycles at release, despite the fact that most users of these devices are women and periods are a fundamental component of women’s health. Other consequences are more sobering. When airbags were first introduced, hundreds of women and children were injured and killed because the companies who launched them had only thought to test them on the male body.

While such observations may seem negative, Kayembe posits there is a huge, untapped potential in the market for women-centered innovation (WCI): products and services that are not just marketed to women, but created by them too. Women designers and entrepreneurs have an innate ability to understand the pain points and aspirations of female consumers and thus drive new types of innovation, disruption, and brand loyalty. Or as Kayembe puts it, “Every woman, by virtue of her lived experience, is now a walking hub of multi-million dollar business ideas.”

Globally it’s estimated that women make 85% of consumer spending decisions, and when united as a market, represent the world’s second largest GDP. In the US they control roughly 50% of personal wealth ($14 trillion in assets!) and are the primary breadwinners in over 40% of households. Yet despite possessing substantial decision-making and buying power, only 2% of venture funding is given to women-led companies. According to Kayembe, this disconnect represents “the largest arbitrage opportunity in the market today.”

The tendency of today’s investors to overlook and underfund female entrepreneurs may well be changing. Kayembe predicts that as the most successful female-founded companies reach liquidity (IPO’s or acquisitions), “a new ecosystem will form.” Namely, female investors will launch their own funds, invest in companies that sell products and services they are familiar with, and actively seek out women-led companies to support. Instead of having to depend entirely on the current venture capital network, they will create their own, comprised of WCI-friendly investors and companies.

If this shift does in fact play out, other factors are likely to ignite the success of WCI. One is that women are known for sharing products they love with other women, a behavior enhanced greatly by the use of social media (which women engage in 62% more than men). The second is that millenials are buying more from smaller companies and choosing value-based brands over traditional heritage brands. The Boston Consulting Group estimates that large companies have lost $18 billion in sales to small businesses in the 5-year period ending in 2014. Both of these social trends lend themselves to the rise of female-driven products and services.

It’s easy to see the world as static, and to view people as too entrenched in their ways to create seismic change. Especially since coded patriarchy is potentially thousands of years in the making! But Kayembe sums it up best: “The darlings of the business world shifted from middle-aged men in Brooks Brothers suits, to college dropouts in hoodies — it’s about to shift again.”

Why I’m Grateful For The Hard Parts Of Entrepreneurship

This article originally appeared on our Forbes blog

Entrepreneurship has a bad rap for being risky, stressful, and isolating. And rightly so! I work intimately with founders and small businesspeople, and I’m constantly reminded that behind every creative and innovative venture are humans grappling with frustration, fear of failure, unrealistic expectations, and self-criticism. While bypassing these difficult feelings is unlikely, it is possible to draw wisdom and strength from the challenges of entrepreneurship. After all, from great struggle comes even greater growth.

Here are three reasons I’m grateful for the hard parts of being an entrepreneur.

If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Do It

This is a reminder I find helpful when going through a tough time, or when I need the motivation to push through a labor-intensive project. Why? Because creating and delivering a product or service is challenging enough on its own; if it were easy there would be more competitors vying for your potential customers!

I recently had to create 100 pages of written content for a visual guidebook about manufacturing. (It was as fun as it sounds.) Every time the “finished” product was ready for review, our team would find an important addition or revision, usually requiring the entire design layout be adjusted. This went on for months! But the process made me acutely aware of the creative and financial investment required to develop a truly useful resource, and thus clearer on our competitive advantage and value proposition.

If what you offer takes little risk or effort to imitate, you’ll quickly be surrounded by other players in your space. It requires significant effort and stamina to build something brick by brick, but the upside is that there’s less of a crowd!

Losing Money Is A Great Teacher

You can ace b-school, read lots of business books, and hire the best consultants, but as with most things, there’s no better teacher than real life. Until money is on the line, everything you’ve learned remains theoretical. The sting of actual, tangible loss is what produces your most profound lessons, and if you’re willing to examine these failures, you can gain lasting wisdom.

During my early years as an entrepreneur, I developed a habit of keeping a “money mistakes” journal. Every time our company made an expensive misstep–such as a production run filled with defects, or a marketing investment with no ROI–I recorded three things: a description of the event, how much money we lost, and what, in hindsight, could have been done to prevent it.

Evaluating each mistake helped me uncover unhealthy patterns (such as dismissing my gut instinct about a person or project) and ultimately make wiser, more savvy investments as time went along. While tallying up losses doesn’t exactly feel amazing, the lessons learned are here to stay.

Being Discouraged Can Build You Up

In my bleakest, most vulnerable moments, I’ve had to confront how I choose to view myself when I’m not measuring up to outside metrics of success. Making the decision to believe in your own worth after a failure or disappointment is challenging; however, the result is true, unshakeable confidence that remains with you through all of life’s challenges.

You might lose money or customers or a sense of status during your adventures, but the sense of self you develop is yours to keep. This is the real entrepreneurial gold! And for me it’s what makes the journey worth taking, even when things are hard.

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