Anyone here bring a product to market?

Feifer · Joined: May 16, 2012 Posts: 54 Location: San Diego

Hey all,
So I've been doing DIY synth for some years now, and after developing at least what I think are some clever designs in eurorack format, I've been toying with the idea of doing a limited run and selling them. And I have absolutely no idea how to do this. Laughing

Has anyone here done this? What was your experience like? Profitable? Fun?

Cfish · Joined: Feb 24, 2016 Posts: 477 Location: Indiana

I gave a little run at selling DIY guitar FX pedal kits a few years ago. I never could get my sales volume high enough to make the steps to get my production costs down. However there are a lot more people driving the cost down in that market. Synth modules are a pretty nich market. I read somewhere that there are probably less than 10,000 modular synths in the entire world. Not sure if it was accurate. But the few people who are in to it are use to paying a preamium to get what they want.

Good luck if you decide to try it. I wouldn't mortgage your house to do it.

AlanP · Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 1:04 pm Post subject:

I've sold PCBs, on a run of 20 basis, before.

It's good for spare capacitor money.

PHOBoS

I have some experience with it.

is it profitable? well that depends on a couple of things:
1. how unique is your design. If you make another VCF or VCO or something else that is already widely available it is going to be harder to sell.
2. pricing. You can add your own profit margin but of course, expensive modules will probably not sell so well.
Allthough I have seen people spending a lot of money on modules.
3. most importantly, marketing. If you market it really well you could literally sell shit.
There is a reason a lot of money is spend on advertising and research.

personally I am not doing it for the money and I'm not really making any profit. Especially not if you count the time invested.
And sofar I have not really advertised it except on this forum and a bit in the chatroom. But somebody has posted my wavewiper
on modular grid 2 weeks ago and I suddenly got 10 orders at once. So if you market it well and you have a unique product for a
reasonable price you could sell a bunch. However don't expect a lot of money unless you have a wide range of modules to sell.
The market isn't very large and already a bit saturated.

is it fun? well that depends on your definition of fun. I enjoy doing it and is great to see other people make use of my designs Very Happy

Feifer · Joined: May 16, 2012 Posts: 54 Location: San Diego

Thanks Phobos, you always seem to be a wealth of information.

I think that if I did this, a limited run of 20 is what I'd try. What it is, is unique I think. It's a 2 channel quantizer with many scale options that can work independent or in conjunction with each other. As well as time quantizer which syncs a clock input with the output triggers. I'm not sure how many people would be interested though.

abelovesfun · Joined: Dec 17, 2012 Posts: 40 Location: Portland, OR

Has anyone here done this?

I started AISynthesis.com this year.

What was your experience like?

So far pretty good. It is very stressful though. The electronics work is the fun part, the hard part is the ordering, legal stuff, kit packing, fulfillment, and customer service. In my real life I am a digital project manager who has helped big brands make things work on the internet and real life, so I had a good amount of experience going in. You have to be very professional. I think a lot of DIY guys go in thinking it will be a "it's cool" situation - nope, it's a business and just because you are small doesn't mean you don't have to have the same acumen as doepfer.

Profitable?

Kind of? My first two modules are now profitable, but I just sent off a $3k order for aluminum panels for the next three modules. Will they be profitable? I hope so. If all goes well they should be.... On paper I am profitable, but I don't log my own time as a cost.

Fun?

Not so much fun as it is rewarding. It's cool seeing your modules in someone's rack. It's nice to get a nice email. It's rewarding to have your modules sell on synthcube and get positive feedback. It's NO FUN to: worry about someone flaming your product for no reason on a forum (hasn't happened yet, but it's a matter of time), spend one night a week packing kits instead of making music or designing circuits, triple counting resistors to ensure that the kit bags have the right amount, etc...)

My advice: If this is something you want to spend A LOT of time on, spend most of your time doing customer service/fulfillment, and do so for the next 20 years? Go for it.