125: Pitching Your Invention to Big Product Businesses
Product Startup
The Relationship Between Toys and Inventions
There's somewhere in the region of 300 to 500 professional toy and game inventors. And we are organized much like a design studio, creating ideas. We send out briefs that we call wish lists, and we work with them on specific projects. Sol once we get past that first stage of contact, we will go into kind of an product pict session.
Dougal Grimes is the Vice President of Innovation and Inventors Relations for SpinMaster Toys. He leads a team of people who review product pitches from inventors just like you. Before this, he worked for over 10 years as a leader in many different roles at Hasbro. Today Dougal is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can best pitch to large product brands like SpinMaster, and what you can do to best prepare for, deliver, and expand your product’s success with this type of partnership.
Today you will hear us talk about:
- Developing the toy idea out
- A great idea can come from anywhere
- Big ideas come from the mass market, not in-house design teams
- The process of meeting inventors is quite freeform
- Pitching the idea well is important, and applies to all type of industries
- Have a quick pitch, then a proof of concept physically, then prove feasibility of manufacturability, that it is safe, that it is viable, and possibly that it has intellectual property protection.
- Look for toy fairs, conferences, reach out via LinkedIn, find the invention submission areas of the company.
- Remember, a product pitch is a promotion.
- Don’t lead with the technical aspects, lead with the features.
- Remember, you are bringing a solution to a company when you pitch.
- The inventors vision and passion can help push a product through to greater success even after a licencing deal is struck
- Timelines for toy inventors getting to market
EPISODE LINKS
Dougal Grimes / SpinMaster Links:
- Website: https://www.spinmaster.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougalgrimes/
The Product Startup Podcast Links:
- Website: https://www.ProductStartup.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ProductStartup/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ProductStartup/
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ProductStartup/
- Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProductStartup/
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ProductStartup/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProductStartup
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent
Mako Design Links:
- Website: https://www.makodesign.com/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MakoInvent/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MakoDesign/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakoInvent/
- Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MakoInvent/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MakoInvent/
Kevin Mako Links:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Entrepreneurs/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/KevMako/
- Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kevin-Mako
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevMakoPage/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevMako/
About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry’s leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about Mako Design + Invent!
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