Kevin Mako, MAKO Design’s President & Founder, recently joined Darren Cabral on his podcast, Obscurity to Authority, to share the critical yet easy-to-follow hardware invention development steps you need to bring an idea to life. Darren is a Canadian entrepreneur and the CEO of Suits Social, a digital marketing agency that helps businesses generate leads with paid social and search. (For the non-marketers, this means advertising on social media and search engine results pages.)
Thanks to their Acquisition Branding advertising strategy, Darren and his team have been able to propel Suits Social and their clients to new heights. For example, Quaaout Lodge Resort managed to secure 1036 reservation requests in 90 Days by spending only $2.42 per lead. Good Energy Worldwide got a 478.20% return on ad-spend in one year, generating $3,017,779 in revenue. It could be the marketing strategy you need for your hardware invention development.
About Obscurity to Authority
As the host of the Obscurity to Authority, Darren interviews entrepreneurs, business leaders, and industry experts about their success stories and their advice to listeners. You might be wondering, how did Darren come up with such an interesting name for his podcast? In his entrepreneurial journey, he realized that the biggest threat to achieving your business and personal goals is obscurity. Because success requires going beyond a great idea, especially when it comes to hardware invention development. It’s a topic we’ve talked about in great detail here on our blog. Indeed, as Darren says, the path to success requires people to hear, learn and become interested in your product.
Thus, the first step is turning your idea into a great product.
And in this episode, Kevin is going to share with you exactly how you can achieve that.
Episode Details: How To Bring Your Invention To Life with Kevin Mako of Mako Design + Invent
In this episode, Kevin starts by sharing his story of how he started MAKO Design + Invent out of high school. If you haven’t heard his story before, It’s quite inspiring as he built this hardware invention development company from the ground up through, not just one, but two recessions. As he built it up, what he quickly was that there was huge movement pushing early-stage hardware product development. The emergence of crowdfunding companies like Kickstarter and Indiegogo helped fuel this movement. Thus, companies like Oculus Rift, which started as a crowdfunding campaign, were purchased by none other than Facebook!
Along with Kevin’s backstory, you’ll also learn about:
- Where and how to start turning an idea into an hardware invention.
- The importance of prioritizing and consistency
- Why the objective of every inventor should be to get to production and put real units in peoples hands
- There is no shortcut to success
- How and when to look for investors
- When is the right time for aspiring entrepreneurs to come to MAKO to build their product
- The power of a brilliantly simple design
- IoT, wellness products, and other trends in the hardware invention development industry
- Low risk and local manufacturing
Click here to listen to the episode!
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!