What it Took (Part 2) – My Journey Launching a New Business and Becoming a New Father
This post is part of the series “What it Took – My Journey Launching a New Business and Becoming a New Father.”
We’ll look back over the last 2 roller-coaster years and use my experiences with bringing the SurfShelf to market as a case study of the do’s and don’ts of starting a new business.
And this week we are at the beginning of my story… the crazy idea and the first prototype.
The First SurfShelf!
Obviously it all starts with the idea. I’ve had a few others in my day ranging from a rubber sole that covers the spikes of your golf shoes to interactive online movies (I actually have U.S. patents on both of these and had an interactive movie in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, but those are different stories). And now a “treadmill laptop holder”.
When the idea hits you, the first thing you need to do is build a rudimentary prototype. There are a few of reasons for this:
1. To see if your product idea can be designed to work the way you envision it
2. To have a model to test in order to see if it’s really that great of an idea
3. To show the concept to other people to see if they think you are crazy (and if they do, you might be really onto something)
4. To see how it might be manufactured
5. And to have some creative fun! It’s good for you.
The first prototype does not need to be pretty, just functional. Also, if the product involves parts that you cannot fabricate out of supplies from the isles of Home Depot or your neighborhood hardware store (like electronics with a particular function), then you may have a difficult time building your prototype yourself. If this is the situation I recommend first working on a “proof of concept” instead. Start by making drawings of your product showing what it is, how it works and how it will be constructed and/or manufactured. You also need to show that it can be developed using technology that already exists or that could exist given the right research and development.
I was lucky… all I had to do was go to Home Depot to buy a piece of plywood, a 2×4, some screws and some metal brackets, the neighborhood hardware store to buy a nylon packing strap with a plastic pull-tight loop, and REI to buy a nylon camping strap with a plastic snap-in buckle.
Ideas typically sprout from a need that needs to be filled… “If I only had a [insert crazy idea name here], then I would be set! Wow, I should make a [crazy idea] and I’ll be a millionaire!”
On December 21st, 2006 I was alone in my home office (i.e. the garage) running on my treadmill. And I was bored out of my mind. My garage is dimly lit and there is no TV. I had listened to the songs on my iPod a million times and the print in the magazine I was reading this particular night was so small that there was no way I could read it while jogging.
Then I looked over at my desk to where my laptop sat with its broadband Internet connection. And the light bulb went off in my head. Get the laptop onto my treadmill console so I could watch online TV, news and sports highlights.
The next day I spent a few hours building my first prototype. Luckily I have a small workshop in my garage (i.e. my home office) where I have all the tools I needed.
That same day I used my new prototype and watched a full episode of NCIS. After that I was hooked – I couldn’t wait for my next workout to watch all the shows that I didn’t have time to watch at night. Now I can watch TV on my laptop on my treadmill and not feel bad about it!
As it turns out, hour-long shows last about 45 minutes online (the commercials are very short and far and few in between) so they are absolutely perfect. And there are a ton of online shows available, all on-demand and best of all… free. And if I don’t finish a show during one workout, it’s like “to be continued” and I can’t wait to pick it up the next day when I jump back on.
However, the prototype I made only fit my treadmill, so it was time to make a design that would fit ANY machine. That was the tricky part.
The Second SurfShelf! Notice the blue strap, that was new with the second design.
I scoured the Internet for pictures of every treadmill I could find. What did they have in common that I could utilize in my design? I also visited every sports and fitness store within 100 miles of my house to take pictures of the different treadmills and to attach my prototypes to them to test.
Without fail, the store managers would always approach me to ask “may I help you sir?” which really meant “what the heck are you doing attaching a wooden tray to our showroom treadmills and taking pictures?” But after the 3rd or 4th visit to their stores with new and improved prototypes, they would just wave at me and smile (which meant “there’s that guy again, but don’t worry, he’s harmless”). I’ve even become friends with a couple of them which is pretty funny.
One thing that I have learned during this process is that while 90% of the time it’s important to ask other people their opinions about your idea (because you will learn from new and different perspectives), the other 10% comes from your gut.
So if you really believe in your product, you should at least run with it for a few steps whether others think you’re crazy or not (because there will always be those people who do). And building the first rudimentary prototype can be a lot of fun, is usually quite inexpensive and will give you a lot of satisfaction. What have you got to lose?
Then it will be time to evaluate the idea before you go too far. So I’ll talk about the product evaluation process in a future post, don’t worry.
“If I had asked people what they wanted they would have told me “faster horses”.”
- Henry Ford
See you next time,
Randy
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