Latest / Pitch to Product / This Entrepreneur Is Sitting On Gold But Will Fail Because They Won't Pivot
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- Pitch 2 Product: know, here's here's the hard truth. Every idea that you have, if you're not willing to pivot, you're going to take longer to get to market. If you don't pivot, it's gonna cost you more money. If you're trying to do everything at one time, you aren't gonna ever be able to afford to get there. So on that side, you know, the prospect this prospect's sitting on gold, but has too much ego to admit that they've already gone down the down the wrong path. Welcome back to 52 Launch Pitch to Podcast. Pitch to Product Podcast. Yeah. Product podcast. Yeah. It is a mouthful. I guess I should know what I'm what I think is pitch to product podcast. Yeah. There you go. Try to say that five times faster. It's it gets me once in a while too. So anyway, I do know where we were at 52 launch. Yeah. That's important, right? You know, it's on the back of your collar too, in case you get lost. There we go. so today's discussion, it's a good one. anytime we get to rant. It's a good one, right? Yeah, this falls into the Peter's rank category, but you're joining me for it. Yeah, I walked into Peter's office I guess late last week. Yeah. And as you know, we well, maybe you don't, we have a lot of golf products. They do extremely well. and because people are always trying to better their golf game, and it's a great gift. And it you know, golf products are awesome, just like products are great. But anyway, we I see the product and and Pete shows it to and I'm like, holy shit. I said, This is really cool. I mean, not only do I think it's cool, I'd buy one, number one, and I'd also I would love to be part of that product. It's really, really unique and cool. And so I asked Pete, I said, Is this guy hiring us? And I don't want to say the person's name or the product name, but Pete said, No, no, he's he he he thinks he has it all figured out and he's got a different approach that he's trying to take. And I'm like, man, I said, Yeah, you know, this is exactly the time when We should be talking to him so he just doesn't go down that rabbit hole of just blowing his brains up well that is and never seeing this product come to fruition. So that is gonna be the rant of the day. Cause when you're sitting on gold, my God. I didn't call this person. I reached out because we're trying to create content, right? We went to Savannah Banana and we are on we believe that you gotta get attention in order to build audience, right? So with golf products, this would have been a fun way to like do things and get attention. Yeah. It's it I went down that rabbit hole. I sent you the link. You went down the rabbit hole. You're like, wow, there's there's something Well, I was excited. I mean, you sent it to I'm like, did they hire this guy hire us? And I'm like, 'Cause I I will love this product. Right. And where I was disappointed, I just wanted to buy one. Yeah. I couldn't buy one. Right. So that instantly said, Why do I like something so excited about it? But I can't buy it. So I reached out. And a few days later he reached back out to me and was excited to set up a call. He sent me some an outline of what the way they wanted to bring it to market, which was completely, I could see they were going, they were digging a hole just past the, you know, they missed the gold. If they had just taken a little bit of a left turn or a 15 degree course to the left, they'd be striking gold. And you know, when people are excited to buy your product, you you you just need to go make it. Right. Yeah, you're even saying that if he had just course corrected 15 degrees, what I took away from your meeting with that person was. And the and by the way, the email that he he sent us both, I was copied, was that, how 52 Launch could help me, meaning the the inventor, you know, could you fund this? And I'm thinking to myself, God, this is just another product that's never going to see the light of day. It's going to get knocked off by somebody. Someone else is going to see this somehow and and decide to bring it to market. And it'll be an absolute gut punch for this guy. But yeah, this product is amazing. But when your first question is, yeah, I need funding for it. I have no money, then unfortunately that's just gonna go to the graveyard. Well, so look at I'll I'll I think I even said it in the email. That is the number one thing that most people talk about, right? Like it is it takes money to get to the investment. But you also start spending money on all the wrong things. If you had done the right things, you could have actually got to market already. Right. Right. Tooling is always a big conversation, but it is we have ways to make we we use. Class A and Class B tools and we have ways to get those reduced down to a very affordable starting point because it we know it's a barrier to entry. Like I wanna make products. So if I'm gonna let a tool stand stand the way, I'm not doing my job. It's my job to figure out how to not make that part of the the hard, you know, the the big step up. And if I remember right, this this product also has gonna have many tools, right? 'Cause there's a lot of moving parts in this. There was a lot of different moving parts to it. But again, it you know, I I We didn't need to have all those moving parts for a product. We could have we could have gone and and No, but even with the moving parts, you know, if he's trying to do it alone, he's what's he gonna run into? He's gonna run into somebody that's gonna take advantage of him. Yep. Well, I think that happened because again, there was a conversation and again, you know, here's here's the hard truth. Every idea that you have, if you're not willing to pivot, you're going to take longer to get to market. If you don't pivot, it's gonna cost you more money. If you're trying to do everything at one time, you aren't gonna ever be able to afford to get there. So on that side, you know, the prospect this prospect's sitting on gold, but has too much ego to admit that they've already gone down the down the wrong path. And if it's not the person, then it's the person that is a junk to you, like that's that that attached to your project that has done something that you're loyal to. And I understand that. There's a loyalty that someone helps you get to This is guy that's gonna designer. Yeah. man. Yeah, he wants to do it his way. Yeah, look at that's why that that's why our whole process at fifty two is an interview process for us to interview you, for you to in interview us, to make sure that we're a good fit. Because this particular person's probably not a good fit because I think they're gonna they're too far down and they're not weird. Hiring an individual to help you get through the process versus hiring a team to get you through the process that are experts at every facet of product development, product marketing. it that's the difference between an individual and a team. Now that you fully jogged your memory, I'm gonna go down a bunch of rabbit holes here that are Steve, I should have probably cut this down to only about four because this is gonna be a long one. So here we go. this is pretty much what we were talking about today. How many times do we talk about? Have we ever said the the use the words freeze design or design freeze that would stall out a project? Make sure you have hot water. Right. Because you gotta unfreeze that. There's no such thing as like I understand there's too much design. You want to go forward, but sometimes when you have too much design. I didn't I just read that for the first time after you said it. Yeah, that is crazy. There's no such thing as a design freeze. Like Right. I've I've been doing this for 15 years. You've been doing it longer. Like I've never heard of that term before. No. What that means to me, if I had to translate to layman's terms, it means I've overdesigned the product to do be unable to actually get it manufactured effectively. Right. Or I've got too many flaws and defects. And what I need to do is not freeze the design. I need to go back and un and just you know undo the problems and and unclog the the drain so to speak to move forward. Okay. do we have like again the conver the next Comment was our manufacturing and sourcing sourcing paths are largely established. do we have largely established paths in sourcing or do we actually have them established and ready to go? Yeah. I mean, we don't even this this comes we don't even need to talk about this. Yeah, that's what we have built 30 years. We we have Right. But I'm saying that this is this is like that little five core five degrees of course correction that need to happen because if you're using that word, if like there's no source and pathing are largely established. That means you have. maybe identified a manufacturer. You know how many manufacturers you've talked to to make a product? Yeah. Right. So you either do. This is like Yoda, man. This is like you either do or you do not. You don't you're there isn't a try. There isn't a a you have them largely established. we're also building towards an early Kickstarter launch. When's the last time Kickstarter was relevant, Dan? Everybody thinks the Kickstarter is get a GL free card. I don't know why people continue to think that you're going to put it up on a platform that That's ten years antiquated. No, but but that someone's gotta actually find you. They don't Kickstarter doesn't promote this particular product. They're gonna they want you to start advertising on their platform to drive an audience to them. So you're better off like literally saving all your money and not even wasting a penny on Kickstarter. Take all that money and try to go out and find your client. Spend that money on building your audience. It well, and that is the one that is what this is what the This is what this product had. It had a tremendous audience already. Did it? It had great engagement. yeah. On on multiple platforms. So you already had, you don't need to build a Kickstarter. You already have the audience. You need to deliver product now. So that's what your focus needs to be on. and then the other way was we're evaluating capitalization options to accelerate initial production. So you're looking for money. Yeah, just call it the way it is. Right. I understand that everybody is. So how do you go get the money? Should be the not not. waiting to capitalize, you should be having a plan to get money, pre sales, all that stuff. It you know, all right. Well we're developing a broader make the assumption that you go on Kickstarter, somehow you miraculously raise seven, eight thousand dollars. I don't even know what the average Kickstarter success is, but I know it's under ten thousand dollars, right? And so say you raise six or seven thousand dollars. What the hell are you gonna do with six or seven thousand dollars? That's not gonna get you inventory. It's certainly not going to get you tooling. So I'm trying to figure out if you go to a Kickstarter campaign and you raise a little bit above average or average, you're still not gonna have enough money to to to manufacture the product. Right. So look at this next one's gonna be fun because you're gonna answer it. All right. So we're developing a broader strategic vision for turning the product from a successful launch into a scalable business. Yeah. I would focus on placing an order to sell your first thousand before you start talking about scaling it. Bre break that down to a layman's terms. Okay. What what What do you need to strategically do to sell a thousand units, Dan? How many board directors? How many board of directors meetings do I need to have a development board of and broader strategic vision? No. You don't. You gotta go sell. And this like what I'm this is all just posturing is what this is. This is actually I'm gonna go one kicking the can down the road. I don't have to worry about this today type of thing. The hardest part of kicking this can is You already just gotta sell one. I wanted to buy one. Yeah. Two. Right. That's two right. And we probably would have bought a few more and and we probably probably could have cross promoted. So you're well beyond the point of like sale. You know how hard it is to get your first sale? Right. Right. And and and we already have established like people want to buy this. Like you should be delivering to the market. And what's the first question that the people at Shark Tank always ask? What are your sales? Yeah. And if you have audience, how easy is it to get your sales? Yeah. Much easier. So you Absolutely already at a position where you could you could go and raise money just by saying, Hey, look, it can I I got I I put this ad out here. I got seven thousand pre orders, I got three hundred pre-orders, I got five thousand pre-orders. That would be enough to don't take their money or take their money and give it back, but that's enough to get an investor to say, Okay, I'll capitalize you. There's no strategic plan required for that. so the next one, you know, from what I've learned, this is the prospect speaking, I guess. From what I've learned about 52 lunch, I think the most interesting potential fit maybe downstream of product development. Well, I would argue that we are the most important part of it is is us developing a product because we're going to develop it at a cost that's going to allow you to be very profitable with good margins. So I mean that is exactly what we do. I I met you because this statement's completely backwards. I don't want to pro I don't wanna develop products downstream that are already bad, wrong, don't have margin analysis, didn't weren't effectively made. I met you because I told you, Dan, I got people that I've already seen have incredible product ideas that s that just did not execute well. Their costs were too high. It was all wrong. I want to like if I can't help you upstream, I really don't want to meet you downstream. That's a good point. Yeah. So like And we're not looking to unnecessarily replace pieces that are working. Of course not. No. But rather I'd like to identify where 52 launch could fill gaps, reduce execution risk, and help us scale faster. If this particular customer is watching us, yeah, hire us. We would you'd be in market with this product with great margins. and there's ways that we could help you with with funding, but not until you know you've made that commitment first. no one's gonna invest in your idea if you're not gonna invest in it yourself. So Yeah, and and look at I I go back to my last statement is that you know, again, when you go upstream, I don't want to identify where I can fill the gaps. There are gaps that we fill to reduce cost, prevent to to talk about pivots quickly and early before the investment happens. If you don't measure twice and cut once, you go nowhere. Right. What's your favorite term? proper planning? Prevents piss poor performance. IPs. Sounds like when you haven't launched a great product idea that I wanted to buy, you might be in that category. So pay attention, man. You got something here, you got golds. Don't sit on it, go and be active. I hope you're watching us. Too. I mean, I I hope you are. I think you'll know who we are at this point. But yeah, we I again Pete and I both love this product. Our whole team loves the product. We're we're fans. This isn't this isn't to be critical. I loved it. When I shared it with the team, I was like, Wow, this is the coolest little thing I've seen. I want like it it's an amazing product idea. I can't share it simply because you can't buy it. Good point. And anyway. Until tomorrow. Share, like, follow us. And if you're watching, reach out to me. I don't care if you're mad at me or not. My intention here is to help you out because you got something amazing. I know what gold looks like. That's what we built an entire business on.