How Should a Founder Prototype a New Physical Product?

[0:00] hey and welcome to the latest episode of

[0:03] startup Chuck today we're going to talk

[0:05] about

[0:07] prototyping basically how do you make

[0:10] the idea or product in your head if it

[0:12] isn't already something that you could

[0:14] just buy off the shelf that is so uh

[0:18] with that in mind let's first talk about

[0:20] our sponsor our sponsor today is Chuck

[0:24] rack manufacturers of the Chuck bucket

[0:28] and uh it's great cuz we're actually

[0:31] going to talk a little bit about

[0:32] prototyping of this as well it's a hitch

[0:35] Mount ski rack that fits on the back of

[0:37] your car also takes

[0:39] bikes but that in mind let's initially

[0:43] start with

[0:46] um what what do you do when you want to

[0:49] make a prototype of course everybody

[0:51] wants it to look like the final product

[0:52] at some point right

[0:55] but that's unlikely at the beginning so

[0:59] the right mindset set is to think about

[1:03] at least I like to think about my

[1:05] favorite subreddit or one of them which

[1:07] is uh shitty robots and so shitty robots

[1:12] is a subreddit where people go and

[1:17] make basically prototypes of different

[1:21] projects and it is just things duct tape

[1:24] to things to make them

[1:26] work uh here's a pencil sharpening robot

[1:30] right nothing super

[1:32] fancy um but everything you see right

[1:36] duct tape hot glue nothing special to

[1:40] make something work and

[1:43] uh you don't Legos great

[1:47] example so you don't need a lot in order

[1:50] for you

[1:52] to like make your prototype work you

[1:54] don't have to have a machine shop

[1:57] necessarily and you can get away with

[1:59] with a lot so for example for the Chuck

[2:02] bucket I had five six prototypes prior

[2:07] to getting it to the market and so the

[2:11] first one was a 5 gallon Home Depot

[2:14] bucket strapped to a bike rack on the

[2:16] back of the car and then the next

[2:19] prototype was this plastic bucket put on

[2:23] the back of a car with if you could see

[2:26] it's got a section where you can slide

[2:28] the bucket into and it was meant to be

[2:31] easily

[2:32] replaceable uh because plastic wasn't

[2:34] going to last in the winter right

[2:37] so of course that wasn't the final

[2:40] version I had So eventually I went to

[2:43] what I like uh my

[2:46] favorite website for uh laser cutting

[2:50] well first I designed it up in CAD

[2:53] where's laser cutting site there we go

[2:55] Ash cut ash cut is a laser cutting and

[2:59] sheet metal bending house and

[3:03] so I went into solid works and this

[3:06] isn't the bucket this is going to be

[3:10] my uh banana boober that I had worked on

[3:13] but you know essentially you design up

[3:17] your

[3:17] part and then from there you make a

[3:21] drawing and then you send it to a shop

[3:23] if you need to a 3D print house for

[3:26] example uh you could do that if you

[3:28] don't have your own 3D print house um

[3:32] material I like would be uh typically

[3:35] laser centered nylon is usually really

[3:38] cheap and strong and there's a whole

[3:40] bunch of online quick turn 3D printing

[3:43] shops but it's actually really cheap to

[3:46] get your own 3D printers for

[3:49] example you go into

[3:52] Amazon and all these printers are

[3:55] between $400 $1 and $400

[4:00] uh even if you want to get into resin

[4:01] ones which have much higher resolution

[4:03] but aren't as durable of a part you're

[4:06] looking at

[4:07] $500 um to get into that and these will

[4:10] all make small parts and even if you

[4:13] want to do circuit boards you can get

[4:16] custom circuit boards designed cheap if

[4:19] what you're trying to do is software um

[4:22] software is essentially you know fairly

[4:25] inexpensive because it's mainly your

[4:27] time I

[4:30] for example programmed an app uh for

[4:33] Android and it was terrible I mean it

[4:36] was just spaghetti code but that's kind

[4:38] of it if you care enough about what

[4:41] you're trying to make then you will find

[4:44] a way to make it assuming that the

[4:46] technical challenge you know isn't too

[4:48] hard again you're not going to make a

[4:51] time machine

[4:52] because technical challenges are

[4:54] extremely difficult there right but you

[4:58] could probably make a toaster that burns

[5:02] images into the toast with a laser or

[5:04] something like that that wouldn't be

[5:06] incredibly outside of the range of

[5:08] somebody having to learn the skills

[5:11] necessary to do that or find someone

[5:12] with the skills so the first thing I'd

[5:16] say is you have to be committed to

[5:19] putting in the effort to try and do it

[5:21] yourself or finding people who can help

[5:23] you do it so let's say you have an idea

[5:27] but you're not an engineer

[5:30] well you could probably find an engineer

[5:33] or find somebody else who is very

[5:35] interested in that idea shares the same

[5:38] interest as you thinks it will be

[5:40] successful and will put the time in and

[5:44] then you guys can split equity in some

[5:46] way or

[5:47] another if you can't convince anybody

[5:50] that uh has the skills you need to work

[5:53] on your project then chances are maybe

[5:55] the product isn't going to be great um

[6:01] it's a good way to weed out whether or

[6:03] not what you're trying to produce and

[6:05] sell is going to become a good product a

[6:09] lot of people get caught up with wanting

[6:12] all the equity not wanting to share it

[6:15] and I'll just say you

[6:18] can you can own a little bit of a big

[6:21] company or you can own a lot of a

[6:23] failure of a company by not ever having

[6:25] anything actually made so sharing Equity

[6:28] is not a bad thing especially if it gets

[6:31] your prototype made uh especially if it

[6:35] gets your product sold so sharing it

[6:38] with salespeople instead but we'll get

[6:40] into all that sort of other stuff in a

[6:42] different episode in terms of building a

[6:44] team but in terms of just getting your

[6:47] prototype made you also have other

[6:49] options out there so um if you're doing

[6:51] coding AI is great chat upt is actually

[6:55] really good um here's an example of you

[6:58] could write some bad code and it

[7:02] basically will talk you through the

[7:05] different parts of it um you can have it

[7:08] rough out code for you say I want some

[7:13] code that is in uh Java that will do a

[7:20] loop where it indexes between one and 10

[7:24] and then it'll spit all those things out

[7:25] and then you can basically keep using

[7:27] that and learn from it really save you a

[7:30] ton of time um another big thing you

[7:34] could do is college students and college

[7:37] students are a great resource I actually

[7:39] have two college students that do my

[7:41] marketing and uh roughing out oh not

[7:46] even roughing out they made the website

[7:48] great they did photo shoots and you

[7:50] might say was that prototyping well it

[7:53] is if you're trying to develop anything

[7:56] right

[7:57] so any aspect of your company that needs

[8:00] to get done if you're trying to get it

[8:02] done and it's not a final version then

[8:04] it's basically a prototype so college

[8:07] students are great they're cheap they're

[8:08] trying to build portfolios for working

[8:11] at a better company Long Term and

[8:14] chances are you can probably interest

[8:15] one of those to help you out uh in

[8:18] between their classes and whatnot if you

[8:21] don't know how to find college students

[8:23] and don't want to just be a weird person

[8:25] on a campus you can go talk to

[8:27] professors and they might be able to

[8:29] help you as well in terms of pointing

[8:31] out which students they think are good

[8:33] in their studies and might be able to

[8:34] help you with that but usually a friends

[8:36] and family network is is helpful as well

[8:40] uh another Last Resort for trying to get

[8:43] prototypes done especially in fields

[8:45] that you aren't necessarily good at is a

[8:48] website called Fiverr and Fiverr is

[8:51] great because let's say you need

[8:53] somebody to help you with PCB layout for

[8:55] a circuit board you can go on there and

[8:57] find somebody who probably get you a

[9:00] basic design of what you're looking at

[9:03] for less than

[9:05] $300 now now you look at this and you

[9:07] say okay these

[9:09] say $30 right or $90 well as you go

[9:14] through Fiverr you're going to realize

[9:16] like oh it's kind of a tiered system so

[9:18] they might draw a basic schematic up for

[9:22] $30 or if you need them to do

[9:24] prototyping it's going to cost a bit

[9:26] more right like oh I need someone to do

[9:29] this or that but in general they're

[9:30] usually willing to work cheap they

[9:33] usually have a fair amount of people who

[9:36] have rated them so you know whether or

[9:38] not they're going to do the job or not

[9:39] you can see previous work they've done

[9:43] and it's a great way to at least get

[9:45] started with

[9:47] it um let's see here so sewing textiles

[9:53] things like that if you want to get into

[9:56] textiles and you don't know how to sew

[9:58] you can hot glue Fabrics together tape

[10:00] them together super glue it doesn't have

[10:04] to be perfect yet and then once you get

[10:06] something that you kind of like using

[10:08] glue and the fabric and scissors and

[10:10] whatnot then you can go to uh fabric

[10:14] Cutters and and seamstresses and things

[10:17] like that and have them prototype up the

[10:20] uh Fabric and um clothing for you or a

[10:23] backpack or whatever you're working on

[10:26] so that's I mean kind of it for

[10:28] Prototype typing there is CAD out there

[10:31] you can learn for 3D modeling there's

[10:34] freead there is paid software like solid

[10:38] works uh solid

[10:40] Edge uh but there is also

[10:44] um another site the Name Escapes me

[10:47] right now which has free online CAD

[10:55] software it's called on shape and

[10:58] basically on shape is great because it's

[11:03] free uh as long as you don't mind it

[11:06] being

[11:06] public and so again chances are nobody's

[11:10] probably trying to steal your stuff but

[11:11] at least you can learn in on

[11:13] shape

[11:15] and figure out how to make things and

[11:17] then decide if doing a paid tier is

[11:20] worth it but for a lot of prototypes

[11:22] that you may be doing if you name them

[11:24] something arbitrary chances are nobody

[11:26] will ever actually find what you're

[11:27] working on and so then it doesn't really

[11:29] matter too much so on shape's a great

[11:32] one and then I had mentioned uh solid

[11:34] Edge if you join EAA which is the

[11:39] Experimental Aircraft Association of

[11:42] America you can get a student version of

[11:45] solid Edge for free which is also really

[11:49] good but uh freead and SketchUp and all

[11:53] those other things are other options for

[11:55] making 3D models but I'm not super

[11:57] familiar with those you'd have to go

[11:59] figure them out on your own so that's

[12:01] all I've got for learning how to

[12:04] prototype there's not a lot really other

[12:07] than just get your hands dirty and start

[12:09] making things or try and find some

[12:12] people who are willing to join your

[12:13] adventure so if you thought this episode

[12:17] was good please like And subscribe and

[12:19] if not then I will see you all

[12:22] later