I think the challenge that teachers have is that being “interested “ in something is a skill in itself. I never played a clarinet when I was a kid, maybe I would have like it, but never did that. If we assume that being interested is a function of household income/structure/ happiness than things get even worse.
I cannot wait for the day when tech companies become players in the construction industry because it looks like it is the only way forward to make a change.
To think that everything has been digitalized a long time ago, yet contract law cannot properly deal with delineating responsibilities between GC and Architects, who are still sending 2D drawings to each other.
Imagine, all this information about quantities and door types (and everything else) is already available and produced by the architect's team, BUT they cannot share it! Because if they do, they are responsible for the numbers in case something is wrong.
So now there is this circus of:
Arch technologist making the base drawing with doors.
GC receives documents, counts doors for verification, and sends them to the sub.
Subcontractor looks at these drawings, counts them again, and sends data to the supplier.
Guess what, the supplier also looks, counts, confirms, and back we go.
Though I think robotics will change all of that. And when we have some sort of bot assistance, big tech players will have a bigger leverage in this, which will lead to the proper change management architecture.
Anyway, cool product. Anything to help with estimation. Really hope it gets traction.
It is way easier to fix a specific problem than to find one and sell solution for it.
For example, Hi I’m John and my accounting software can increase your profits by 10% by reducing time spent doing billing.
Vs
Hi I’m John, we do custom software and we can do an app for you in accounting for example, but also a crypto wallet or a booking website.
If you are in the second route, there is no mass outreach strategy because you are not offering anything specific your customer is anyone and your solution is anything. The outreach works for the first category, because spam or not, if someone is offering to fix a problem I have I’m ready to listen. Hence the relationship advice, if you provide services, people around you need to know that you “do apps and stuff”, and if you do products you can throw 1,000 emails fixing one thing with some level of certainty that someone within the ICP will give you a chance.
Just to share a counterpoint: I think it’s impossible to get a product market fit without active outbound verification. If it’s a brand new project, balancing development commitment and GTM hours is crucial. If I understand your comment correctly, the brand marketing approach you are talking about works for products that verified their need, but if this is a brand new idea/demos committing to GTM instead of active outbound/ emails/ calls/ in person sales may be too costly.
Did you have a chance working on small / startup projects; how you balance development commitment?
I was tired of coming home after networking events and shift through pile of business cards, so I made an app to just scan cards and export them to csv. Pretty much just for fun app for myself, friends, and friends of friends, but other people started using it too.
About a month ago, I bought a toaster for Christmas, and, while walking in the alley and checking prices offline and online, I was mesmerized by the price strategies. With quantities that toasters operate in, their production cost is around a few dollars, and I bought one for $50 without any digital features.
If you are planning to build one in the USA, you will probably need to tell yourself what "build in the USA" means. Is it PCB printing, PCB assembly, plastic production, mold production, cool design features, coil design, final assembly, or some combination of the above? You will be surprised to find some of the requirements to put "made in the X country."
I do product development professionally, so take the comment as my bias, but it is a light project to start with as there are minimum components, you can build the entire thing in the garage, and it is something that everyone around you can give feedback on. Almost like an art project.
Anyway, I would love to share any info you may find useful to start. Email in the profile, if you are interested.
You are right, it is faster,cheaper and absolutely possible to take the existing enclosure and modify it. OEM enclosure suppliers will gladly add or remove a few openings on their design for a few thousand. They will modify or build a new mould just for your new product, and it works just fine as long as PCB can be designed around their enclosure.
Not the topic poster, but speaking from the similar experience, the cost can be as low as $4,000 in China for the size of these parts. In USA/Canada it would start with a $60k minimum, and with a 6 month timeline instead of 1.
And 9 times out of ten, the local fab is making their moulds in China anyway.