Startup Consultation & Product Strategy
Clarify the customer, core use case, risks, business path, and the cheapest next test worth running.
Salt Lake City prototyping. Global founder support.
Prototype faster. Build smarter. Keep risk low.
Hands-on startup consultation, product design, and prototyping for Salt Lake City founders, Utah inventors, and global teams who need a practical path from idea to working version.
- 25
- years of hands-on prototyping
- Launch-ready
- from idea through manufacturing
- Flexible
- rates and work hours
Easy to talk to. Useful from day one.
A builder for the messy early stage.
The beginning of a startup or invention is rarely tidy. It might be a sketch, a prototype that almost works, a customer hunch, or a product idea that needs sharper edges. That is where I like to help.
I combine years of physical prototyping, mechanical design, metal working, 3D printing, software experiments, and AI-assisted development to help you move faster without locking yourself into a big agency scope.
I am based in Salt Lake City and available for local founder and inventor work across the Wasatch Front, with remote support for teams anywhere.
Charles McNall
Startup experience from ideation through product launch and manufacturing.
I help teams turn early ideas into real products: defining the opportunity, building and testing prototypes, refining the design, preparing for manufacturing, and supporting the path to launch. My experience spans medical devices and consumer products, with hands-on work across physical builds, electronics, software, and product development.
Contact
Tell me what you are trying to bring to life.
Share the short version of the idea, where you are stuck, and what kind of help would be useful. I am based in Salt Lake City, work globally, and keep initial conversations easy to start. Local sessions are available across the Salt Lake Valley and Wasatch Front.
Services
Salt Lake City product-development support, from idea to launch.
3D CAD Design
Turn sketches, measurements, or rough concepts into practical models, assemblies, drawings, and prototype-ready files.
3D Printing Services
Rapidly produce fit checks, proof-of-concepts, enclosures, fixtures, and functional parts so you can learn before committing to tooling.
Mechanical Prototyping
Build and improve physical mechanisms through shop work, machining, welding, fixtures, and practical testing.
Electrical & Hardware Design
Develop electronics, sensors, controls, power systems, test setups, and the physical integration that makes hardware work reliably.
Design for Manufacturability
Simplify designs for repeatable production, practical materials, realistic tolerances, assembly, and cost-aware manufacturing.
Outsourcing & Supplier Support
Prepare clear specifications, compare options, and work with fabricators, contract manufacturers, and specialist vendors.
IP Strategy
Document the invention, identify questions for an IP attorney, and plan prototypes that help explain what makes the product distinct. Legal services are referred to qualified counsel.
Crowdfunding Readiness
Shape a credible prototype story, product demonstration, cost assumptions, and launch materials before presenting an idea to backers.
Reverse Engineering
Analyze existing products, components, and mechanisms to understand fit, function, improvement paths, and replacement-part requirements.
Web & Mobile Apps
Prototype the software side of a product with practical web tools, mobile app concepts, interfaces, and AI-assisted development.
Product Profitability Analysis
Pressure-test material, labor, manufacturing, packaging, and channel assumptions so the product can support a healthy business.
Why hourly
Hourly support keeps early ideas low risk.
Big fixed scopes sound clean, but early invention work changes as soon as the first prototype teaches you something. Hourly work lets the plan adapt without forcing you into a bulky package too soon.
My goal is not to stretch the job. It is to give you high-quality thinking, honest tradeoffs, and useful progress at a flexible pace that fits your budget and schedule.
Low risk
Start with a short call, a small design review, or a narrow prototype task before committing more.
Easy entry
Useful for founders and inventors who are not ready for an agency, full-time hire, or large retainer.
No cutting corners
Right-sized scope still deserves careful engineering, clean communication, and quality work.
Flexible timing
Work can flex around customer schedules, global time zones, urgent pushes, or slower idea development.
Selected work
Medical and consumer products, built for the real world.
Medical products
Medical device imaging mechanisms
Technical product work where precision, usability, constraints, and manufacturability all matter.
Consumer prototypes
Compact tool prototypes
Fast iteration across form, fit, function, ergonomics, and the details that make an idea usable.
Consumer products
High-output flashlight conversion
Physical integration of housing, electronics, thermal management, and user experience.