End-To-End Physical Product Development for Startups & Small Businesses

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. Scroll down to learn more about Mako Design + Invent!

WATCH

The MAKO Design Process

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WATCH

The MAKO Design Process

3:38

SELECT PROJECTS

Custom Premium Cooler That Became a Celebrated Automotive Accessory for Tesla Cars

CNCT COOLER for GRAEME WHITEHEAD – MAKO Design + Invent’s team researched, designed, engineered, prototyped, and set up manufacturing for…

Product Re-Design of the UberLight for a 60-Year-Old Consumer Product Manufacturer

UBERLIGHT for RELIABLE CORP – MAKO completely re-designed, re-engineered, and updated the electronics for a complete revitalization of the Reliable…

This Oakville Schoolteacher’s Custom Fashion Accessory Invention is Now Mass-Produced and Sold Globally

RINGKEEPER for DAWN RONFELD – The RingKeeper is a simple and elegant fashion design solution that solves a big problem:…

Sports Invention Earned World’s Top Design Award and Red Dot Design Museum Entry

ROVER PACKHOPPER for ERIC COFFMAN – Winner of the number one design award on the planet, the Red Dot Award,…

Household Product Inventor Walks Into a Big Box Retailer and Sells His First Batch

TRI-PLUNGER for BOB GINTHER – After MAKO designed, prototyped, and manufactured Bob Ginther’s invention, he employed a unique selling method…

Industrial Design of a Simple Physical Consumer Product Invention: The Comfycup

COMFYCUP for REEY YADIN – The World’s First Portable Public Transportation Cupholder for trains and buses! MAKO did the concept…

Home Safety Invention Idea that Earned $100,000 Investment on CBC’s Dragon’s Den

CARGENERATOR for JONATHAN SCHLOO – Check out how MAKO’s product design client Jon Schloo secured two investors on CBC’s Dragon’s…

New Curved Battery Technology for Extending Smart Watch Battery Life

KHARABAND for HARP GAHUNIA – Harp Gahunia came to MAKO Design + Invent with a complex challenge: to create a…

2 Brothers That Went From Camera Invention Idea to Global Sales to Acquisition

GOFISH CAM for RYAN & BRANDON AUSTIN – The GoFish Cam is a complex consumer electronic project idea invented by…

From an Idea to Booming Success for a First-Time Inventor and Mother’s Jewelry Device Concept

CLASP MAGIC for ALISON BRETT – MAKO spearheaded the product design, engineering, prototyping, and production of this game-changing device that…

3D Product CAD Design Rendering Video for Eyewear Manufacturing Company

AUTOLOC™ for VOCA EYEWEAR – Patented AutoLoc lens retention system allows fast and secure lens changes, easier than you ever…

Product Design & Mechanical Engineering of Waterproof Children’s Cellphone

What an idea – a cellphone for children! What would you need to consider to design this beauty? Well, it has…

VIEW MORE PROJECTS

WHY CHOOSE MAKO?

The pioneer firm of this industry

Mako was the first firm in North America to provide world-class product development tailored specifically to the small folks – Inventors, Product Startups, & Small Manufacturers. We have been the leader in the high growth space since founding it in 1999. This required majorly improving & modernizing everything about the design business.

Super-friendly designers who are great people

Since Mako is by far the most applied-to product design firm in each city that we have an office, we get the pick-of-the-litter hires. Not only do hires need to be top technical designers, but they also need to past the “weekend test” – Is this hire someone you and your family would love to invite to your home for the weekend?

Heavily modernized and improved design process

Pioneering an industry also required completely overhauling the archaic product design process of the past. Using state of the art software, top designers, cloud management, and a development library of almost 1,500 products we designed, Mako now makes product development streamlined, logical, efficient, and to a very high calibre, all at startup level costs.

Winners of dozens of the biggest awards

Not only has Mako won over 30 awards, but many of the really prestigious and difficult to win ones such as Red Dot, Inc5000, Growth500, Entrepreneur360, Best Design Firm in North America, and so on. This is even more impressive when you consider that we won all these general industrial design industry awards despite focusing exclusively on small business clients.

Complete end-to-end product development

From a sketch on a napkin to mass manufacturing, and everything in between – Mako is a one stop shop for getting a product off the ground and scaling it to the big leagues, all under one company. Including important peripheral stuff such as business strategy, patent referrals, distributor/wholesaler connections, crowdfunding partners, etc.

Actual top calibre design talent

Half of Mako’s team is mid to senior designers from Fortune 500 product companies including Dell, Nike, Bose, Boeing, and others. Not just great designers, but specifically the best builder designers – Those who were doing CAD design all day every day for their whole career. A minimum of 5-years full time CAD experience is required just to apply to Mako.

The Result: Low Cost, High Quality, Trusted, & Efficient

As a result of all of the above categories, our clients receive a high quality product, built to modern standards, in a much quicker development time, at a far lower cost, and with strong trust between all stakeholders. This has kept us at the top of an industry, ensuring that we deliver exceptional value to create winning product after winning product for the inventors, startups, and small businesses that choose Mako.

SELECT CLIENTS

Alison Brett

Inventor

“I have worked with MAKO from product conception to manufacturing and I know that I would not be where I am today if I had not made the decision to work with them. It has and will always be one of my best decisions ever!”

View Project

Alison Brett

Inventor

View Project

FEATURED MAKO POSTS

mumbak: Designed and Engineered by Mako Design

About 80% of Americans will experience back pain in their lives. It all comes down to the spine, more specifically,... Read More

The Blazing Beard Tool: Designed and Engineered by Mako Design

With all this extra time alone, we’ve been able to experiment. I guess you could say that’s one of the... Read More

A Day in the Life of an Industrial Designer: Featuring MAKO Design + Invent’s Evan Hughes

Another “May the 4th” has come and gone. Every year, Star Wars fans look forward to this day to relive... Read More

Our Client’s Product, the ROVER Packhopper, on Display at the Red Dot Museum Winners Exhibit

About the Red Dot Museum Winners Exhibit! The Red Dot Awards celebrate their design awards in more ways than just... Read More

MAKO Design Featured in Creativepool’s Editorial

A big value that we stand for at our Austin product development studio, MAKO Design + Invent, is collaboration! Collaboration... Read More

Catch Our Director of Design, Tim Uys, on the Latest Season of Make48

This past year, our Austin product development agency, MAKO Design + Invent, was excited to hear about another season of... Read More

Introducing the Head Array Designed by our Director of Design, Tim Uys, for ASL

At MAKO’s Austin-based invention help studio, we love to look for and create new innovative designs to help out with... Read More

MAKO Design Wins Gold in Muse Awards for the ROVER Packhopper!

About the Muse Awards Picking the Best Product Development Studio, MAKO Design The definition of a muse is given to... Read More

Mako Design Wins Bronze in the Indigo Design Awards for the Go Fish Cam!

One big way that Mako Design likes to stay in touch with the design community is by participating in prestigious... Read More

VIEW ALL POSTS

meet the mako team

Kevin Mako

President And Founder

Tim Uys

Director Of Design

Magnus Skold

Senior Industrial Designer

Ryan Davidson

Senior Product Strategist

Robert Colgan

Design Strategy Manager

Simran Kaur

Electrical Designer

Paul Davis

Industrial Designer

Lena Sitnikova

Project Manager

Nav Singh

Electrical Designer

Wade Harmidy

Operations + Project Manager

Jennifer Herbert

Project Manager

Michael Panganiban

Senior Mechanical Engineer

Miradi Afiouni

Project Manager

David Brown

Industrial Designer

Nick Allen

Industrial Designer

Salman Mahmood

Electrical Designer

Naumana Ayub

Electrical Designer

Daniela Rojas

Office Coordinator

Bruce Lee

Senior Industrial Designer

Evan Hughes

Senior Industrial Designer

Industrial Design for over 25 years. Instructor at Gemini School. Former Senior Designer at Bose and Peterbilt. BSID in Design from Auburn, Automotive Design from the College for Creative Studies, & A.S. in Commercial Art from Tampa Tech.

Evan Hughes

Industrial Designer

Focus on industrial design and design engineering for consumer products. A merger of visual design and strong functionality. N.Dip in 3D Design and B.Tech in Engineering & Design.

Demsey Kirkwood

Senior Mechanical Engineer

With a decade of experience in mechanical design and product engineering, Demsey has made significant contributions to the consumer, aerospace, and toy industries. Having held senior positions at Boeing and Moose Toys, Demsey's prowess is unmatched. P.Eng and B.Eng, Mechanical Engineering.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Swipe left and right to see more FAQ’s

Can you help someone go from just an Idea all the way to Store Shelves?

Absolutely! That’s literally been our motto for over 15 years. Everything that we do here is intended to streamline the product development process so that literally anyone, from any walk of life, can turn their product idea into a successful business. We do all of the heavy lifting in the back end, so that you can focus, through our advice and guidance, on getting your product to market. Give us a call to learn more, it’s really quite amazing what we have developed over the years all to help inventors and startups.

I'm interested and I would like to learn more. What is the first step?!

Contact us for a free consultation, like right away! If you’re sitting on something, the worst thing you can do is procrastinate – No matter what you decide to do with your idea, at least do something with it! We are always more than willing to talk through what you are looking to do, and advise you the best and most practical way of doing it. Even if you don’t want to use our services or even if we don’t think it is likely to work, we’re still happy to help where we can as we love anyone who is helping to bring inventions to the world.

I'm on a limited budget, what does all of this cost?

This is the beauty of our business model – By bringing all development services in-house including research, design, prototyping, patenting, and sales/distribution, we have exponentially streamlined the development process. Simply put, our startups get to utilize world-class design on a shoestring budget. We also have spent years developing an unreal design philosophy called ‘Brilliantly Simple Design’. This design process ensures that we only develop what you need to succeed, without any unnecessary frills – And it also means that our designs look super clean, sexy, and modern (check them out on the ‘Our Work’ page), AND are simple and reliable to manufacture.

If we want to go to production, where do you manufacture?

We manufacture in North America, Europe and Asia, and many times a blend of two or more of those countries. We will work out a detailed strategy to determine, based on each product’s unique requirements, which is the best avenue for production. As often as we can, we like to keep manufacturing local – You would be surprised, due to increased efficiencies and modern Western processes, many times local manufacturing is a cost-effective option!

Do you help with Patenting a Product?

We work with many amazing and cost-effective 3rd party patent agents and patent lawyers. Since we have long-standing relationships with them, we are able to get substantially better pricing for our clients on patent work from them, and we know who is best suited for most specific product types. We want to ensure that your intellectual property is protected so that you have the best chance of success in the market. Since every product and business is unique. MAKO helps to ensure that the client’s business strategy, design, and patent strategy are aligned.

Do I get a patent first, or develop first?

MAKO works with many 3rd party patent agents and patent lawyers to help protect our clients’ intellectual property.Most of our clients file a patent after they are at least part-way through product development, and usually after the prototype is complete. If you patented first, then made any changes in the development, you would then have to do a second patent, which might even be nullified due to the first one! Most of our clients file at the end of development so that they have their intellectual property protection stretched out as long as possible. In the mean-time, prior to filing, you can protect yourself in talking with a company such as ours through signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which basically is an agreement between two parties to keep discussions confidential.

How do I spot a Licensing Company or Invention Submission Scam?

Unfortunately, there are groups out there that try to rip off inventors, and we can give you the 3 simple steps to ensure that you don’t become one of them:a) Right off the bat, be wary of any organization that uses ‘royalties’ or ‘licensing’ as a sales buzzword. b) If they are offering royalty agreements, licensing deals, or something like this, ask what their success rate is. They will likely either try and deflect the question, or they will have already been sued and thus legally have to disclose the rate. If it is less than 10%, turn right around (and 10% even seems low!). c)If they pass the first two, ask them what specific industrial design software they use. Most of the bogus companies use low-end computer game software to make fake designs of what the product might look like, not the actual engineering of it. If they are not using AutoDesk, Solidworks, AutoCAD, Rhino, or ProE (the 5 industry standard software providers for product engineering), then back away.

Why do you focus on home inventors and small business?

Simply put, we love the small-time inventor, and we have good reason… While all of the other development firms were scrambling to take a piece of the big-bucks from the large product corporations, we decided to go against the profit-driven grain and focus on the home-inventor with a small budget. Our philosophy was to streamline and simplify the product development process so that we could offer the same caliber of service for a fraction of the cost, and thus make it affordable for a regular person to get a product to market. At first, the competitors shrugged us off; however, what they didn’t realize is that 1) 40% of products are derived from home inventors, 2) Home inventors put way more thought into their product idea than a corporate employee, as it is something they truly and deeply care about, and 3) Regular people are the ones thinking of the best ideas because they are the ones who are identifying a real solution to a real problem in their own day to day lives… So, what happened when MAKO Invent took this route? Within a matter of only months, MAKO Invent saw explosive growth. A huge and unforeseen need was out there, and now that need had a realistic option available. By 2008, MAKO Invent became the largest invention development firm in North America catering to small business and home inventors, and we are quickly overtaking the US (it will just be a matter of time).

I came across your site on the net, tell me more about your company.

We would love to show you everything about our company! As a quick re-cap, we are the largest physical product development services firm in Canada, and are well on our way in the US and England. We’ve been around since 1999 (how time flies), have developed literally hundreds of projects, have won a number of design and invention awards, have products in 71 countries and over 500 retail stores, have thousands of inventors on our Social Media platforms, and have creative think-tank product development shops right downtown Toronto Ontario, Austin Texas, and London England. Check out the many news articles on us too, we get written up all the time. The best thing you can do is just come in and see us, even if it requires a quick flight – Meet the actual team of designers and product strategists that will be the actual ones working on your project – They are unreal, and well known in the product development industry. And if you think this sounds expensive, it absolutely is not, for many reasons (see more FAQ below for more info on costs, etc.).

What types of products does MAKO Invent specialize in?

MAKO Invent specializes in a broad range of products, primarily in Consumer Products – Home ware, garden, tools, toys, consumer electronics, games, furniture, etc. With years of experience developing hundreds of products for home inventors and small product firms, our design and research team is well diversified in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, plastics, metals, wireless transmission, PCB chip boards, and textiles. We also have developed a wide array of partners, distributors, and factories across many product categories.

End-To-End Physical Product Development for Startups & Small Businesses

The MAKO Design Process

The MAKO Design Process

FEATURED BY

MAKO IS FOR:

For Startups

For Small Manufacturers

For Home Inventors

SMART

Founders of the S.M.A.R.T. Product Development model for new product development

SMART

Founders of the S.M.A.R.T. Product Development model for new product development

SELECT PROJECTS

SELECT PROJECTS

Custom Premium Cooler That Became a Celebrated Automotive Accessory for Tesla Cars

Product Re-Design of the UberLight for a 60-Year-Old Consumer Product Manufacturer

This Oakville Schoolteacher’s Custom Fashion Accessory Invention is Now Mass-Produced and Sold Globally

Sports Invention Earned World’s Top Design Award and Red Dot Design Museum Entry

Household Product Inventor Walks Into a Big Box Retailer and Sells His First Batch

Industrial Design of a Simple Physical Consumer Product Invention: The Comfycup

Home Safety Invention Idea that Earned $100,000 Investment on CBC’s Dragon’s Den

New Curved Battery Technology for Extending Smart Watch Battery Life

2 Brothers That Went From Camera Invention Idea to Global Sales to Acquisition

From an Idea to Booming Success for a First-Time Inventor and Mother’s Jewelry Device Concept

3D Product CAD Design Rendering Video for Eyewear Manufacturing Company

Product Design & Mechanical Engineering of Waterproof Children’s Cellphone

WHY CHOOSE MAKO?

WHY CHOOSE MAKO?

The pioneer firm of this industry

Super-friendly designers who are great people

Heavily modernized and improved design process

Winners of dozens of the biggest awards

Complete end-to-end product development

Actual top calibre design talent

The Result: Low Cost, High Quality, Trusted, & Efficient

SELECT CLIENTS

SELECT CLIENTS

Alison Brett

Alison Brett

FEATURED MAKO POSTS

FEATURED MAKO POSTS

meet the mako team

meet the mako team

Kevin Mako

Tim Uys

Magnus Skold

Ryan Davidson

Robert Colgan

Simran Kaur

Paul Davis

Lena Sitnikova

Nav Singh

Wade Harmidy

Jennifer Herbert

Michael Panganiban

Miradi Afiouni

David Brown

Nick Allen

Salman Mahmood

Naumana Ayub

Daniela Rojas

Bruce Lee

Evan Hughes

Demsey Kirkwood

Kevin Mako

Tim Uys

Magnus Skold

Ryan Davidson

Robert Colgan

Simran Kaur

Paul Davis

Lena Sitnikova

Nav Singh

Wade Harmidy

Jennifer Herbert

Michael Panganiban

Miradi Afiouni

David Brown

Nick Allen

Salman Mahmood

Founders of the S.M.A.R.T. Product Development model for new
product development