Long story short:
My cousin has spent thousands of hours on one hobby over the past 20 years. So a week ago when she complained to me about a pain that most of the other hobbyists share, you bet I took her damn seriously.
Follow along in this thread as I explore this opportunity together with my cousin. All feedback is welcome!
The problem:
Project Overview:
This is the journey to our first sale, as I see it. Please come with suggestions for how to improve it!
1. Market Research - Soft proof. [X] - DONE!
I choose to keep the idea secret because I deeply respect the drive of some people on here... I know ideas are worthless without execution, but y'all are hustlers like me, so please - let's not hustle against each other.
My cousin has spent thousands of hours on one hobby over the past 20 years. So a week ago when she complained to me about a pain that most of the other hobbyists share, you bet I took her damn seriously.
Follow along in this thread as I explore this opportunity together with my cousin. All feedback is welcome!
The problem:
- Has existed for as long as the hobby has.
- Is more easily solved in other industries/hobbies. So none has targeted this niche yet. Solutions can be adapted, but with some difficulty (+entry!
) - A few solutions exist - but all of them try to prevent the problem for ever happening and offer little support when it already has happened. Also, the prevention-measures are mediocre at best.
- A solution is worth around 50-200$ (+some emotional value) for almost every single individual in this hobby...And the global market for this hobby is huge.
- Is a slightly technical, physical product and the hobbyist needs expert help get started (I've talked to the expert, and he'd charge ~40$ for this service per hobbyist).
- Would cost me around 20$+1$ per month (rough estimate as I have had 0 discussions with suppliers/manufacturers). So I'd hope to sell it for around 50-60$.
- The solution involves several technical parts that could be sourced from several manufacturers - but needs to be put together.
- Sell the product through the expert who needs to help the hobbyists get started.
- Sell them wholesale to related manufacturers, as an extra USP for their customers. Going this route saves the 40$ the expert would charge. (-loss of control?)
- Sell them directly to hobbyists and let them contact the expert themselves.
Project Overview:
This is the journey to our first sale, as I see it. Please come with suggestions for how to improve it!
1. Market Research - Soft proof. [X] - DONE!
- I 3D printed a prototype of the solution using TinkerCAD and a Prusa Mk2 3d printer.
- Then my cousin and I went to an event related to the hobby. Talked to hobbyists - they like the solution and see the need. Price-point of 60$ seems good.
- Met an expert in this field. He liked the prototype, and awaits another version of it to give further feedback. Got the +40$ setup cost estimate from this guy. Might have a future partner/investor here.
- Get feedback on the new prototype from the expert + hobbyists.
- Get detailed costs from a few real suppliers.
- Validate the pricepoint (How? Survey, pre-sells, email gathering?)
- Show it to hobbyists, get more feedback. Develop more if needed.
- Then Crowdfund / Meet with the manufacturers of the related products to see if they want to bundle them up.
- Fulfill the orders from step 3! <--- Not before this step do I count the first sale as being complete.
- Celebrate!
I choose to keep the idea secret because I deeply respect the drive of some people on here... I know ideas are worthless without execution, but y'all are hustlers like me, so please - let's not hustle against each other.
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