Posts Tagged → product development

How To Make $7 Million: Ignore Your Critics

The $7,000,000 watch

If you follow any sort of tech news, I’m sure you’ve heard about Pebble – the runaway Kickstarter success story that has sold over $7 million worth of watches virtually overnight.

The project was launched by a 25 year old guy and a couple friends. As with many success stories, they turned to Kickstarter as a last resort after being turned down by a number of (regretful) venture capitalists.

I was reading a New York Times article today and it quoted one of their critics, Robert Fabricant – the VP of some big-time development firm – “casting doubt” on their success:

“Mr. Fabricant, like others in his field, cast some doubt on the notion that it was possible to sidestep the traditional routes to building a business, particularly through a service like Kickstarter. They say young, inexperienced business people need advisers, mentors and a network of support to help them deal with the problems that can emerge.”

Continue reading →

How I Make Money, Part II: 5 Steps to Creating a Product

In my first post of this series, I wrote about some common myths that stop would-be entrepreneurs. This post outlines how to make a list of potential product ideas, determine which one is best, and get the ball rolling on finding a supplier.

Since you’re reading a blog post about starting your own business, we’ve already established that you aren’t satisfied with hate your job because:

  • your boss is an idiot
  • you don’t get paid enough
  • you work too many hours
  • you’re underappreciated
  • you’re bored
  • all of the above

Low risk, high profit. A good place to be.

I’m going to give you a crash course in idea generation and product development. It’s not the risky, dark art that “they” want you to think it is – once you know the key steps and some good tools, it’s as easy as…dealing with China. Continue reading →