Hi All,
I am new to this forum. It is nice to meet you all!
I have a concept for a product that has not been done yet. The product falls into the "Digital Clock" category, however, I am nervous about disclosing all of the details on an open forum. I believe it would be very successful and popular if done right. However, it requires some electrical engineering and design work (which I don't know how to do). I'm basically an "idea man". I have reached out to T2 Designs in Santa Monica, as well as Mako Design + Invent. Both companies agree that it is a great idea, but that it would require a large financial investment to engineer/design and have a prototype made (that large financial $ investment I don't have). Mako quoted me $15K just for CAD work on my design, with no physical prototype (I don't have $15K to shell out for that). So, I next started reaching out to Chinese & Taiwanese manufacturing companies via Alibaba to see if they could bring my idea to fruition. So far, they have all declined. I am starting to get discouraged, as I am not sure how to get the idea out of my head into the real physical world, without breaking the bank. My next thought was to potentially put the idea up on Quirky and see what happens, but at that point, I would surrender the ownership of the idea and product, which I am not thrilled about.
So, based on what I have shared, do any of you have any advice or insight? Have you had any success in working with Chinese manufacturing companies? If so, where did you find the contact info on these companies. So far I have only been able to find contact info on Alibaba. Without a CAD design or physical prototype, all the Chinese companies I have reached out to have said no. I basically presented them the written pitch of the concept and some basic illustration renderings of how I see it looking, but that got me no where with them. So please do share if you have any advice on working with Chinese Manufacturers.
Have any of you used the Quirky.com platform? Are you a fan of it? What was our experience like?
I look forward to your responses on here! Many thanks :)
