Fastest and Fullest yet so far!
What on earth are you on about, Rando?
This launch!
Of 4CELNK.com?
Yes!
Well, unlike most other products that take a year or more, this one has come together with surprising speed. It’s as if the pieces of this puzzle were there all along, just waiting to fall together in thought. When I say fast, I mean idea to in-Market in under two months. Yes, MONTHS. This one is 2018-027, the 27th design-start so far this year. Yeah, it’s been a busy year for new designs. This one, though, is special. I can tell.
From the inspired design (I’ll post a walk-around of the different parts…you’ll love the “bend vault”) to the industrial and manufacturing design and validation, through the building of the product line, the inventory and now the Marketing, this one’s on me. No external people dependencies on the execution. No “Angel Investors” who are neither, and no engineering partners who won’t. This one I intentionally kept the decision-making to myself.
And wow! This has progressed faster than I’d imagined possible. The idea started rattling around in my brain around my birthday in mid-June (2018). Within days there were several generations of prototypes. Days after that there was a fully-manufacturable product line. Another few days, and it’s three (now FOUR) product lines, with design and color options in each. In short, over 30 individual product SKUs (stock-keeping units). The pilot production proved, in around 10 kG of filament, that the design was solid, that the builds were reliable, that the parts worked as expected, and that the amount of consumed supplies was as predicted. That could then drive the pricing model that takes into account relative and market valuations of the product. Once the product definitions and pricing were in place, it was off to the technical-photography studio here, where product shots were taken to start building out the web site, using all those freshly-made parts.
Then began the hardest part, honestly…getting WordPress to build out what I wanted. Hopefully it’s not **too much** the mess ;-).
That’s not to say there were no setbacks. A couple weeks back, the 3D printer blew a heater…which I replaced. Phew! And today, excessive heat confused one of the Z-axis drivers and made a big, BIG mess. Maybe even damaged the print-bed. I’ll deal with that tomorrow; I’m sure it’s solvable, just like all the other little decisions.
So, yeah, a whirlwind: a full product launch to web through pilot production run including 30+ product-SKU items that started about 7 weeks ago (June 14 to August 6th). Wowser!
Cheers for now.
Rando