A new service offered in 2017 is direct consulting to all new inventors wishing to take new products to market, specialising in the development of consumer electronic gadgets.

For over three years I have worked directly with many new inventors to bring their product to market as a rapid prototyper. Through this experience I have worked with marketers and analysed many successful and unsuccessful projects to understand the sort of approach new companies need. The crowd funding market is becoming increasingly competitive to the point that fewer companies are reaching their goal as they all compete for backers which is resulting in companies lowering their goals or pouring more funds into marketing, funds that must be allocated elsewhere if the company is to survive.

My goal is to help people starting their venture into crowdfunding to be fully aware of all the risks involved, how to beat the competition and not matching competitors shady tactics in order to get a marketing edge. There are multiple paths to success in any crowdfunding campaign whether it is a highly calculated launching window, aggressive pricing, lining up investors before launching and treating the crowfunding campaign as a pure exercise. Certain tactics work well on certain products while those same tactics used on other products can sink a campaign before, or after it has been funded even in cases of extreme over-funding.

I offer my services to provide clients with my 100% honest, no bias to anything opinions on which campaign strategy is more suited to their product and appropriate precautions they should take. If these opinions are truthfully that I believe the product has too many risks involved to be viable, I believe it is ethical to inform the client of this and perhaps reinvest their time, money and effort into a modified or new product entirely. Do not fall into the sunk cost fallacy!

As part of this service, I would conduct market research into competitors and explain which of their tactics were successful and which held them back. In too many cases, competitors will put up a public image of a problem free, successful company and being able to see through the charade is critical to learn to not make the mistakes they have, mistakes they may keep well out of public view. This skill set is something I believe will benefit many new start ups and you may not get from typical marketing consultants.

I am confident in my knowledge and experience and will offer free initial 30 minute consultations on new product consultations. If you wish to keep working with me, the rate is $40/hour beyond that. As normal, I am always available to help develop actual prototypes and begin the process of designing for mass manufacture, this new service is simply for customers earlier in the planning phase of their project.