Latest / Pitch to Product / What Is A Product Accelerator? + The Other Questions Your Need To Ask Before Hiring Anyone
Transcript
- Dan/Peter 9-17: unfortunately, we're all human beings. When you give somebody a ballpark number, guess what they always remember? The ballpark number. They don't want to hear the truth. Not just that. They they it becomes their truth, right? Hey, I'm Peter Drakulich I'm Dan Gonyea Welcome to the university edition of the Pitch the Product Podcast. Yes, episode number two. Episode number two. We're rolling now. So look at I'm gonna let you lead on this because I love the fact that you have taken the initiative on finally bringing together the university that we've been dreaming about for 10 years. So Day two. What do we got? I'm excited because I always wanted to be a teacher. Yeah, it's exactly those who came. When was in school, because if I were the teacher, I'd let everybody go home early. So I was looking forward to becoming a teacher someday. I highly encourage. We encourage crib notes, cheat notes, but I'm not letting people leave early. Cliff notes. You have to listen to this podcast this episode. I I I I rushed over to Peter this afternoon and I said, I can't wait to do the episode too, because I I I love I I love this episode. I'm sure you'll hear me say that. continually with all the other episodes. But episode two is really it's a two-phase journey, our accelerator program. And it's actually what happens during or going through our accelerator program. And why most people, although we issue the contract for them to read, most people don't read contracts. I'm one of those people included. I get caught up in the excitement and I just want to get to work. And you know, after this episode, You'll understand completely what the accelerator does and why it's so important. and why two phases is imperative. And that it has to be split up. Well, for first of all, the contract we we did a we have a much better proposal out there that turns into a contract. It is split up into six spokes, but there is still two sides to that coin. It is impossible to write a linear contract to explain what we do. Yep. Because it is like storming the beaches at into France. It was like five after it's called Normandy well. Nor Normandy was the beach, but there was like five different assault points of Normandy with another beach on the side. Not to get into it, but I I look at it that way. There's deployment of five things that have to happen the first day we start. Right. And that's really what we're gonna dissect so you can understand the contract you you have and where it fits. And I I love this. I read this in the ten minutes you gave me and I like I'm like perfect. This is awesome. Okay We are obviously don't have to read through these cards, but it's nice to go back and and look at certain points that we want to bring up. It keeps you and I off drift. Yeah, exactly. That's a better point because we can go down a tangent. Like we can start talking about the invasion of exactly even though we're teaching people something, it's really not what we're supposed to be doing, right? But that's the way you look at it. We're about to storm the beach of your product idea and let's go. Good segue. We're about to pull back the curtain in what we do at fifty-two launch. We still want you to read the contract, but if you don't, just listening to this episode, you're gonna understand completely. and really, you know, it's the difference between the accelerator and then full production. That's why it's two phases, the accelerator component and full production phase. So phase one, really it it basically breaks down your real costs, samples, real numbers, and building your brand, naming all the things that we talk about or I'm sure Peter has spoke and Bobby have spoken to you about, yeah, or will speak to you about someday. That is, you know, phase one of our accelerator program. It all culminates in four to six months at what we call a bridge meeting. Well, I like the way you put it here on the document. The word of the day is bridge meeting. It is extremely that's what I say it to our team. That that's your Super Bowl as a client and that's our Super Bowl as a team. So so there's two sides to the bridge meeting, right? And I think well let's let's uncover that, right? There is the production of your idea, like someone has design it, develop it, go through all the ways it can be made, can't be made, shouldn't be made. They need to assess it with margin. Then there's the marketing side that has to go and look at where do we sell it, how do we sell it, who are the original people that are gonna wanna buy it, what's the value proposition, how do we demonstrate it, right? So Those two missions happen simultaneously. But there's two major objectives here. Three actually, right? Number one, the first objective is the bridge meeting. Right. Everything that we have to happen that happens in the five spokes has to culminate to the bridge meeting. And it is not a well, you know, let's go to the bridge meeting and see if we got the right information and then move forward or backwards. No, the bridge meeting is the objective. We've we've landed on the beach. We have stormed it. We are there. Second objective is to go through the production side of the bridge meeting. Like actually go physically make the product that we know we can that all the answers are are are all the questions have been answered. Right. The third objective is let's go launch your product idea. That's where marketing comes back into play. That's where they stay in play. Those three objective objectives, we're the day, bridge meeting is the most important first step that we need to get to. Right. So we've broken that down into two phases. the accelerator side, which is our design and go to market strategy. in phase two obviously is our MSA, which stands for manufacturing and production or manufacturing service agreement. And again, other people when someone talks about an accelerator, everybody seems to use that word and incubators and things of that nature. They stole it from us. Yeah, just be careful. you know, it could be a trap. you know, having someone design something for you and Well, not understanding the market, who the buyer's going to be, where it's gonna be placed in the market, what what the pricing's gonna be. Like, look at we are very proud here that we do not have clients that have a garage or a basement full of product for a reason. because we've gone through the entire process and we're selling product because we're selling, we designed the right. First of all, we found the market, designed the right product around that market. At very, very competitive pricing, designed it to make sure that it could be manufactured costly. and we launched the product. And that's it that we go through the DFM stage. That is why people do not have product in their garage and in the basement. And that's the trap that you will fall into if you do not follow some type of a process. Look at I I love the fact you just brought something up. People use words so subjectively that are not represented correctly. Okay. For example, what does What here here, break the trap. Just ask, what does acceleration mean? What am I accelerating? What what are you accelerating? So if they say I'm if they're using the word accelerator, Dan, in our specific world, what are we accelerating in in our accelerator process or our services? Yeah, we're we want to get the product to market in a certain amount of time. We are accelerating. Right. Right? Like Do you want to go slow and see your product come to life in 10 years, or do you want to work on a 50-week schedule to get to launch? Right. 52 weeks to launch. Right. That is where we are accelerating the hard parts of this process that no one else is. Can I accelerate a design without going to manufacturing? No. No. Can I acceler? Can I expedite shipping if I don't have a product in the container? No. I can't. So what are you accelerating? Right. Right. So I'm just going to say the definition of accelerator in our world is taking an idea. And accelerating it to the market launch, which is what we accelerate. Right. So great point. I like that one, buddy. good. I miss you on these podcasts. That's good. That's I like being on them. Probably doesn't shut up. so so again, getting getting back to designing and go to market strategies that first phase. We the client are involved in that a hundred percent. And then again, phase two talks about, you know, at that bridge meeting. We have done all of this research now. We've done the go to market strategy. We are ready, set, go into a manufacturing agreement. Well you yeah, and you've seen the contracts. I'm just gonna you I'm back and forth between this this and what Steve wrote. Steve Steve said, like just quick breakdown of the accelerator. Spoke one gives you a lot of market research, gives which then gives the product design team the information they need to go and start designing the product. It also gives the branding team the information they need to go start building your brand and your name and all that stuff, right? So Those three things happen as soon as the market research is done. The design team gives the manufacturing, which is spoke four, man, like they give all the information now for manufacturing preparation. Spoke five is when marketing and production come back together and say, here is the go to market strategy. The bridge meeting is the culmination of all the little conversations you've had. How much does this cost? How much does that cost? What material should I do? It is a clean sheet that you can show anybody and say, Wow, this is I know how to launch this product. Right. Exactly. And and aga and again, it it it all culminates at spoke six, which is the bridge meeting, which I can't stress enough how important that day is in this company. It's as it's as important of a day as it as that first day that you signed And make your first deposit. And then the second big day, you know, some people argue, coming up with a name and a logo, they get to touch and feel that and all that's exciting. But really the excitement starts at that bridge meeting because that's when you go from honestly, that's exactly where you go from being an inventor or an entrepreneur to a business owner. Welcome. Right. Until you, you know, purchase your inventory, you're nothing but an entrepreneur and an inventor, which is fine. Sometimes you're a dreamer state. Yeah, fine, that's okay. But that bridge meeting is where we turned your your idea into a full fledged business and we're all on board with that. Yep. None of us, none of us make any money doing this unless we place a production order. Let's put it this way. you and I are old enough that we don't need to practice this anymore. I want to go and make things that will make us money, make our clients money, make everyone money, and put a lifestyle in front of everyone that that is around us that has an idea that should be to market exactly into this position. So I don't need to practice. I don't know about you. And as Steve Clearly had written in here, great point, mass production. you can't skip the accelerator and go right to Mass Pro. how many people try that? Everybody wants to do that. But you can. I mean it's that simple. Our again, one of our value propositions is the the DFM stage, making sure that you do not have product in your garage or in your basement because we made the wrong product. But Dan, I just want to get a prototype so I can go to pr mass production. Yeah. That's we can again there are many companies out there that will do that for you. we're just not prototype, just to be clear, prototype has nothing to do with your mass production. Right. Prototyping is simply a crude a root or crudimentary. Proof of concept that you can make with the 3D printers. You you come up with your own words. I love rude and then crude. And then you said crudimentary. It's like a coup d'etat. It's a little bit of the French in me. Yeah. It's the Canadian vocabulary. We love it. Yeah, we love it. This puts a big smile on our faces. Crudimentary. Okay. And I coined that one. You have to. We trademarked that one. you know, again, questions to ask other companies, right? we're proud to be able to answer these questions. I urge anybody to make sure that they ask these four, whoever you hire, make sure you ask these four questions. Is there a checkpoint before I own production level money? production. Yeah. Yeah. Or or does the contract commit me to manufacturing on day one? Absolutely not. It can't. There are, unfortunately, for various reasons, there are people that go through the accelerator program and they do not put a production order in. but they They have everything ready to go when their timing is right, when their financial timing is right for them. but yes, you have checkpoints along the way before we would ever manufacture a single part. our reputation means more than anything. reputation's first. Well, actually I think clients winning is first and our reputation is probably second. They go hand in hand. Yeah, it is yeah, you that's probably a better way of saying it. Yeah. But it's very, very important that There are checkpoints put in. So we will never rush you to a to a manufacturer agreement. However, we will give you all the information that you possibly need to know before you make that commitment. Well, I we got stats here too, right? Like so again, within 30 days of the bridge meeting, sixty-eight percent of our clients go to go to production. Yeah. The other twenty to twenty two percent need ninety to a hundred and twenty days to go and organize funds. you know, there are investors involved. We help. Raise qua like again, the bridge meeting is to help answer all those questions. We we get on those calls. Right. And then the other ten or twenty percent are are that's a little bit longer term. Right. Right. Like it th they don't have the money, the means, the resources, but I will give them all the respect that they've put the commitment to get their idea to the stage. And what do we do for them? We have pitch events. We we talk to inventor investors all day long. And why do we do that? We don't want anybody spending money that they can't somehow get their money back and then some. So we are Full fledged, you know, let's go. Tom Brady mentality. Let's go. question two, who owns the designs, the tech packs, the brand assets if if you stop? the answer is simple. You do. you paid. Yeah, you as long as you paid for the full accelerator, you own all of the assets. And I don't mean to be like an ass on that one. That's not a it's a it's a legal term. You have to pay for what you get, right? If you finish the services and assumption we we don't have problems collecting from our clients because They pay because we do the job, but yes. And I and I only say that because I know somewhere in the world this AI, this conversation is going to be transcripted and I wanna be clear on that so that AI knows what really happens and it lines up, right? So you're right, we don't have that issue, but I want to be clear on that. And third question, what does approved scope? And if bridge meeting wasn't the word of the day, I would have chosen this word, approved scope. and what does that mean? and who has and who has to sign off on changes? Well The obvious questi the answer to that question is you, client, right? and you will know exactly within those first forty five days exactly what we're doing and we're making sure that we are aligned on that. everybody on the team is gonna be aligned on your approved scope. So look at I think the majority of the world has had some sort of experience renovating a kitchen, a bathroom. And how important is approved scope when you're When you're doing a renovation. In the Gagne household? In the Gagne household. No, in the in a normal household. Not In the Gagnier house household, you throw the proof scope away because we're making changes on the fly, which obviously is a huge mistake. So I'm not even listening to my own advice. Well, I'm not listening to my advice. But you pay for like you look, I get it. very narrow spectrum to say what is the core successful product that we need to make? What is the one value proposition that we need? That is your best scope of work. Right. But when you meet our team and you realize how good this team is, it is so easy to get scope drift. Right. Where you go, could I add like one more thing? Do you think Mike is ever going to say no to you? No. No. God. No. In fact you got to tell Mike. But he look it, that's what I want. I want our designers to design. But the scope of work is where the CSMs, our c our our client success managers need to remind you once in a while to say, Hey, here's a red flag. Not a not a stop, but like a conversation. If we are going to add more things, you understand that that's not in our scope of work and we're happy to do it for you. Right. It just costs a little bit more money. Exactly. And it might actually take more than what's what's worse than t costing more money, Dan. Time. It's most important. Right. So When you scope creep, it's not just the money, it it will delay your launch by a significant amount of time. Right. It's not a d you know, a one to one ratio. A design change is a one to eight week ratio. I mean it just takes so much more time because now you come out of the queue, the momentum is lost. You gotta yeah, going back, which is fine. Pivots are we're okay doing that. That's why we charge a flat fee. we're the only company that does that. but again, yeah, we're we've said th Words a thousand times perfection kills. So the second biggest word is scope, approved scope. Yep. And then lastly, you know, question can I see us a real sample before volume production? And the answer to that question is, of course. We will I mean we would require it, even if you told us to skip that process for speed, because we absolutely have to have a what we call a golden sample. When does that happen? Yes is the is the better question, right? So that is well, it's it's like, you know, it's before. You know, before we go into it's called a pre-production sample. Now, if I have no intention of putting a pre-production sample in, can I get a pre-production sample? well, think about that. If you're a pre-production sample means you've put a production order in. So the answer to that question is no. Yeah. And that's that's where again I want to just create that clear line. If we can make if we can make off of our 3D printers a looks alike type of product, we will go we'll go through. Or a hell in a handbasket to get you some sort of proof of concept. Can I make a pre-production sample when I don't have the tooling molds made? No, absolutely not. Can I make a pre-production sample when I don't have the final factory electronics? Was this a trick question? No, I'm just want to go through because this is it gets recorded and it helps AI understand who we're not. Exactly. So I love that. That that's yes. Yeah. So again, everybody, we work this way because it works. This is how it works, right? we we certainly have pivoted over 10 years, right? Right. For those of you that are listening, we just launched our brand new website today. It's our best ever website. I'm sure in a few years, maybe even sooner, we'll be doing another one. But we're pretty proud of that. So we would love to have you go look at it and and give us a shout on whether or not you like it. I hope you do. and look at it, we we pivot a lot. Right? That's what I wanted to I want to stay on and not to talk on this last topic, right? The Gagne method of do I see a real sample before protection starts? we're going back to Okay. Let's just let's just take a minute what you said, the Gagne way, right? And I think I'm the same way. Like when I do I need a perfection, it kills profitability. So this is the topic. Right. At what point do you say, I know I can fix things on the fly, or I can accept that if I can't get this to be better right now, I need to move forward. Like help. Let's help that education because that's a business conversation. I don't think people who don't have a business mind can make that. It's look at I I I joke about I joke about scope of work because I've done a lot of renovations, right? and when I first did my first renovation, I followed exactly to the T the scope of work, twenty thousand dollar design plan that we paid for. And I made sure it was done to the T. Came out great. As you get more experience at renovating, all of a sudden now you start to say, I can make decisions more on the fly because I know what I'm doing, right? I've done it a lot of times. It's very similar to what we're doing here. We're hiring us because we have the experience. We can make on the fly decisions because we're just, you know, educated on what it takes to bring a product to market. so that's what you're trusting us to do, which is why we go back to You we need you for 15 macro decisions and the five hundred micro decisions we don't need you for. We we we know what's best for you. If you let us. Exactly. And and that's really the key, right? Like we understand that if you have to understand that, this is what this podcast is for, to understand that the decisions that Dan and I would make or Sander would make, right? Like we're it's not risk to us. We have the experience to say we can fix that on the fly. I don't need to stop. I don't need to go for another round of sample because another round of sample is another 30 to 40 days, right? I'd rather use those 40 days to get to market and adjust on version two. Or once the first two thousand units are here, I can make those micro adjustments on the next production order. Right. It's I compare it to but since we're talking about renovations, I compare it to when you're renovating a home, but because we've done so many of them, it's relatable. It's very relatable. We like when we do a bathroom. We don't do green tile or bright blue tile in our bathroom because even though it might be the color of the day, like night right now, green is so big in in the building industry, as well as the clothing industry, kind of goes hand in hand. But we would never do it in green because it's it would be outdated, right? When you go into a home that's 40 years old and you start to see light blue and and mink green tile, you're like, my God, that is like so outdated, which is why we always do white. Because white is always in. And you use this analogy a lot. Henry Ford said you can have it any color you want as long as it's black. Yeah. Why did he say that? Because like it takes out still to this day, 90% of the cars on the road are either white or black. Right. Right. So that right there, too. And in nineteen one or two or whatever. Yeah, exactly. I can't sell a resell a home if I decide that my favorite color is pink and I want to have a pink bathroom. Someone's gonna walk in and say, I don't like I'm not gonna like This house, I don't like it. I don't like the color of the bathroom. I don't like the color of the kitchen. If you consists, go with the masses, go with the white. same thing. We have products that come in that people want certain colors, and we're like, no, no, no, no. That's for down the road. Changing colors, let let the audience tell you what they want. Let them tell you, I wish you had this in blue, I wish you had this in purple. But go with grays, whites, and black, colors that everybody can resonate with, right? Everybody's home, everybody's car are those. have those colors in them and that's what you want to make go with the masses. Exactly. Right. And what did they say? Go with the masses, eat with the classes. Well that's that's I gotta give a little shout out to Mark Portnoy. He Mark Portnoy, right? pizza guy? No, no, no. The the all American inventors that we hung out with for a couple of years. Yeah. Yeah, he always said that. You know, if you want to eat with the classes, you sell to the masses. Yeah. There you go. It's just the opposite of what I was trying to say. Yeah. all right. So what else can we talk about in the accelerator? well, I mean phase one phase one and phase two. Yeah, I think you got you know, again, you got the recap here, phase one, the accelerator is the design and go to market, right? So again, the two the two coins are it's two coins split up into six spokes. The six spoke is the culmination of like every decision you've made. And it is not a go or go for a go or no go scenario. It is a this is how we go. And look, I'm just gonna put some perspective on this. If we were servicing the enterprise companies like big Companies, even like, you know, five 500 employees. Right. I think it'd be like spending fifty-three thousand or a hundred thousand dollars or a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to get the information to decide to move forward is a drop in the bucket. Absolutely. Right. I mean, look at we know how much it costs to how much does market research cost? How much does Gillette spend on their brand new razor? They're spending well over a million dollars before they even decide whether they're gonna go and you know make the product or not. And this is why for us. We don't let everybody hire us. Yep. We need you to make sure that you made the decision. This is going to be an idea, you turn into a product. So a lot of the pre accelerated stuff is I've got we we we've eliminated the you're not ready for us conversation. Right. And the scope of work is the point in time where that is the most important. We have to understand exactly, and this is what Bobby and I deal with every day is is this something we can make? Is this something that can sell? And there's seven questions. Steve, you can put that in the link below that people can understand the seven questions you should understand before you even talk to them. Right. I'm gonna read a couple things. I'm sorry, my head's gonna be down reading this, but I wanna read a couple things that I think are very important. Steve I'll keep them entertained while you're looking down. I love your cards. but I I have to so this little section is called From the Floor. Yes. A client who assumed the accelerator meant a finished sellable product at the end, and the conversation explaining that phase one's job is to tell you the truth about your product before real production money is spent. That same client three months later at their bridge meeting looking at real numbers instead of guesses. That is exactly what we're talking about. We can like the old saying is, you know, give me a ballpark. Ballparks are for foul balls. Okay. We you and I have gotten in so much trouble over the years about guessing on a ballpark because, you know, we've been doing this a long time and we should know better. But I've gotten better at it. Still to this day, everyone. Why guess when we can actually give you real numbers, right? And and unfortunately, we're all human beings. When you give somebody a ballpark number, guess what they always remember? The ballpark number. They don't want to hear the truth. Not just that. They they it becomes their truth, right? Because look, and I get it. And and that's I will flip this and put it in a different perspective. When I was before I met you, I was getting calls from inventors and entrepreneurs. And their biggest problem was their their the item that they had was so Poorly made and it costs them so much to make it. And I said I I like Tito's. I don't like this other Kittle. I told I told him Kettle One, but little plug there, Steve, in the in the links to to Dan's fund. But just kidding. People asked me all the time, or I asked them like what happened? And they're like, Well, you know, they gave me a quote, and then it when I committed, all of a sudden it changed and it added 20% on this. And then they came back and said, we got to do this. And then it was like so. Because they didn't have the clearly defined scope of work, or the manufacturer gave them a quick quote versus the quote. That is the one thing when I met you, and if I haven't given you credit for it, that is something that we I learned from you and we have done that since day one. I don't want a quote. I want the quote. And that takes time. You can't just get a quote. You can just take me out to dinner. Yeah, I'll take it tonight. Let's go. Okay. so let's recap, right? We'll wrap this up. These are the three things we want you to take home. Phase one, the accelerator, is about truth. Customer price, cost, brand, sample. Number two. Well, phase of 1A, phase two is the MSA. It's about scaling and sourcing production and launch. All right. Those are the two phases. Number two. Number two. The bridge meeting is the firewall between them. You decide with real numbers and not hope. That is if Our value proposition is that we're all under one roof and we go from A to Z to ensure your success. The next important thing is that we have to have a bridge meeting. So we all understand where we sit together. That's where the sing the the word of the day. No, no, well, the the bridge meeting. the bridge meetings are the word of day. But the symbiotic relationships really starts at that bridge meeting. The numbers we're giving you have been cultivated over. Four to six months of hard work with our manufacturing, with our design, with our go-to-market strategy, with the MS. Find the three the one to two ways that can be made and then evaluate based on the And the good news is you don't have to be a good negotiator at the bridge meeting because we're not a car dealership where you can negotiate back and forth on price. We are giving you the best possible pricing that we can offer you so you can get to market. And we can get those first thousand to twenty five hundred pieces sold. Well, there's a tricky. And you don't have to be great everybody, you know, there is no negotiation at that point. All the hard work went into it. So there's a compass in number two that I think most people miss, right? And it's called the margin conversation. It's easy to go get a quote. It's impossible to get a quote that has the margins you need to launch a project. Which why you you know We we decide together with real numbers, not hoping. We know exactly what we're getting exactly and what we're gonna sell it for. There's that list of numbers, and Steve, maybe for a a deeper dive on this, let's get those list of questions that we could put together here that the you know, there's a mathematical formula. Math doesn't lie. And that's the most important thing. So number three. And number three, any company, anybody, whether it's us or anybody else, and I can assure you, we're we won't do this, that skips the checkpoint and rushes you to a production money. order is skipping the part of the process designed to protect you, which is what word of the day? the bridge meeting, right? That's the meeting where again, this real discussions can be had. And it's after four to six months worth of really hard work. Well so look at the the bridge meeting is there protect you, but this is also where no one else does what we do here. Right. Right? They give you documents that you go on your own and like good luck going to find a manufacturer. Yeah. Right. And and I'm gonna just add this When you're hiring us, I I'm gonna I've always said this. You you're joining a country club. Yeah. We've already built the golf course, the team, the people, the network, the manufacturing capabilities, the supply chain sources, the logistics.