On Product Develpoment & Prototyping...

If you want to invent a product and start selling, the speed at which you are able to bring it to market is directly related to the amount of money you have available and are willing to spend.

On the topic of business ownership and entrepreneurship, just about every article, book, or blog you read and every social media influencer, interview, or podcast you hear will tell you that starting a business is not for the faint of heart. And this is true. They’ll tell you’ve got to have grit, endurance, stamina, determination, vision, fortitude, and a willingness to succeed at all costs while at the same time understanding that failure is always just around the corner. And this is also true.

Our Flip Pick system is a unique, interesting, and novel gadget that fills a large but largely untapped niche in the guitar accessory market. And it sits in a category and at a price point where product makers collaborate rather than compete. When you look at the larger guitar gear market, at just $19.99 for our starter pack, the Flip Pick system - along with other guitar picks and similarly situated gadgets - are at least worth a try.

And on its face, the Flip Pick system it seems simple enough that it would be pretty easy to produce, right? Well, as our legendary fellow Florida State University alumnus, coach, and college football commentator Lee Corso famously said, "Not so fast, my friend!"

What no one seems to talk about, though, is before you can even get to any of that, if you want to start your own business, and ESPECIALLY if you want to become an inventor and develop your own product, you’ve got to have MONEY. Because without money, you can’t procure the means, tools, or services to design and build your product, much less mass produce it.

For us, although we knew we were on to something with our concept, we also had full-time jobs, kids, and a mortgage. So risking it all on our idea really wasn’t an option. And that’s why it took years of development to bring this version of the Flip Pick system to market.

If you have the desire to do the work and the willingness to learn, you CAN prototype your own inventions and develop your own product, and you can do so at relatively little cost.

Rather than paying for product development, we iterated on our own with time and tools. A d you can do the same. We made our first prototypes with a $150 FDM 3D printer and free open-source software. When we (thought) we were ready for market, we upgraded to a $200 resin 3D printer so we could produce more product faster. And when THAT product flopped, we went back to the drawing board with the new and improved Flip Pick system that you know today!

And to get there, we started with a $150 laser cutter so we could make our custom RAVEN picks, and then a $300 bench top hobby CNC machine to experiment with mold design for our finger strap.

It took a LOT of trial an error, and shear determination. But if you can stomach it, you can do almost all of your development and prototyping yourself so that when you’re ACTUALLY ready to go to market, you’ll have saved a fortune on engineering and design costs and can focus on mass production and fulfillment.

Want tips or advice on inventing, prototyping, or anything else related to starting your own product business? We’re happy to share! Email us at info@PFVInnovations.com!