I'd appreciate if the link was removed mainly because I don't want any comparisons made. Regardless, they also raised $10 million in venture capital funding. I am certainly being naive thinking the public would respond similarly if I had done it (which I fully realize) but the point that irks me is this product proves mine had a market as the concepts are very similar: too much so in execution frankly as some of the most unique aspects of my design are included here.
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Calling All Entrepreneurs: I Think I Made It, Now Make Me Finish
- Thread starter MICHAELSD
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So, was I right? Is the Sense the product you were talking about?
Good luck getting the link removed, btw. An article about it is already on the MR front page
While all I can do is wish them luck, this is the product I had put time into development but nonetheless I didn't have the funds to move as quickly as they did. I planned to do a Kickstarter as well so it frankly sucks to see another another company follow my same product and plan. But hey, they had more funding for polished marketing materials and to beat me to market. This could have been my product in a similar position as it fundamentally is coincidentally what I was planning to release after a prototyping stage, which was to happen in August.
My main issues were not having the funding, and being a student without enough experience admittedly. This probably proves I should jump more wholeheartedly into funding a product during design phases as if I did this could've been my Kickstarter weeks, if not months ago.
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With respect... you've got the wrong attitude to be a successful entrepreneur if this is your reaction. You will need to accept and embrace multiple set-backs and to learn from them. There is a lesson here... and a positive one at that. You had an idea that had merit.
So what if someone else got this particular idea to market first? They simply proved that an idea you had was workable. So get a new idea, and with the confidence that it may in fact be a good one, run with it. Fast. And be prepared for it to fail. Then get a new idea and run with that. You're the one who claims to have lots of ideas...so run with one, and run fast.
Never thought high tech alarm clocks would be a thing 
I'll stick with my digital clock from the early 2000s for the time, and continue asking siri to wake me up whenever for the alarm - don't see how this experience can be made better for me.
I'll stick with my digital clock from the early 2000s for the time, and continue asking siri to wake me up whenever for the alarm - don't see how this experience can be made better for me.
This is interesting, because they seem to have gone Kickstarter months AFTER they got their VC funding. It's basically funding for the first production run more than development.
Certainly doesn't hurt that the principal is a repeat "offender" having been granted the Thiel fellowship and started/sold Giglocator.
Don't let this get you down though!
A useful tool you might want to consider is the route of patents, you can file a provisional US patent for $70-$140 bucks as an individual inventor. This is basically a place holder to get a real patent within 12 months.
If you had filed your concept you could still apply for a utility patent and either get them to stop (assuming they didn't patent it first), sell them the rights to your patent (if your date is better than theirs, they get something of value out of it) or get them to pay you a royalty.
B
This seems to ring true.
But why not continue with your idea? A lot of times its not the first product to market that sees great success. Was Facebook the first? Was Windows? Andriod phones debuted after the iPhone (I think) and they do extremely well.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I agree and saw this as a learning experience. If I had wholeheartedly devoted my time and attained proper funding, with a professional Kickstarter I would have accomplished one of my life goals. For all intent and purposes, seeing this Kickstarter almost feels as if this is my product and my Kickstarter since if I had started full-time development when I made this thread in December of last year my product, pricing, and presentation would have been very similar... and mine would have been crowd-funded before this even got to Kickstarter.
So what this basically tells me is that if I stop second-guessing myself and take a leap of faith I could reach that goal. I do need better business skills to do this myself admittedly but it's good to see my ideas aren't what are holding me back even if I could have accomplished one of my main life goals with this product.
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This seems to ring true.
But why not continue with your idea? A lot of times its not the first product to market that sees great success. Was Facebook the first? Was Windows? Andriod phones debuted after the iPhone (I think) and they do extremely well.
I feel like they've taken a decent chunk of the crowd-funding market I'd rely on but I could probably simplify mine and add features. Can't give updates if I decide to
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It's not a coping strategy. This is the product and Kickstarter page I envisioned. Even some of the features have a similar name to what I called them in my design notes. I'm not at all implying that they haven't poured their sweat into it or copied from me, but this is 90% my vision realized. If I had a Kickstarter up a few weeks ago with even a fraction of their funding it would have looked very similar to what theirs is now, and I can swear by that.
To me, the whole "get funding so I can build an amazingly profitable product" concept is backwards.
Don't get me wrong: sometimes highly engineered products do require a lot of upfront capital investment.
But if I were an VC investor, I'd much rather see someone who'd cobbled and soldered a few devices together, and sold them at something approaching a profit before I brought out the checkbook.
Do that first. Show "proof of concept" that a) your device works and b) people are willing to part with money for it. Once you've done that, the discussion really boils down to how big the market is, and how cheaply you can get the thing built for.
Don't get me wrong: sometimes highly engineered products do require a lot of upfront capital investment.
But if I were an VC investor, I'd much rather see someone who'd cobbled and soldered a few devices together, and sold them at something approaching a profit before I brought out the checkbook.
Do that first. Show "proof of concept" that a) your device works and b) people are willing to part with money for it. Once you've done that, the discussion really boils down to how big the market is, and how cheaply you can get the thing built for.
I feel like they've taken a decent chunk of the crowd-funding market I'd rely on but I could probably simplify mine and add features. Can't give updates if I decide to
At this point you are making excuses. Why not still go through with? If you have a great product, people will buy it. Do you really think there is only one product for everything and only the first one to come to market will be successful? You think google search was the first to come to market? Android? Facebook? Even kickstarter has a major competitor.
There will always be competitors no matter what product you come up with. Ideas are a dime a dozen.
Yep. Be bold. The early bird gets the worm, the bold get the spoils.But then there is also the hare and tortoise parable. That's the problem with metaphors there are too many contradictions. But yes - stop second guessing. Take the risk. Be prepared to lose some money and some time multiple times.
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I feel like they've taken a decent chunk of the crowd-funding market I'd rely on but I could probably simplify mine and add features. Can't give updates if I decide to
That train has already left the station. Move on. Your product will always be compared to theirs, and theirs will always be 2 steps ahead of yours. You know that they are already trying to simplify it - and if the original is successful, then their backers will continue with the known entity and not a copy-cat - which is what your idea will look like despite anything you can say. So move on. You yourself said, iirc, that you have lots of ideas. Pick one and run. Also... don't talk about it here until you are running with it. People here are also looking for good ideas. And there is nothing wrong with taking an idea you read about on a forum and making it your own.
That's probably part of the issue. On one hand I can't simply take out a loan for $40,000 to create the Kickstarter and have the product at the point I would like it to be at in development. Yet, I also do not want to have a lackluster presentation as I want backers (as well as myself) confident that I can deliver on the final product being as described or better -- and to do so requires a real production prototype in my opinion.
Maybe I should take a different approach. Previously, mine was:
Draft concept - develop - speak with factories overseas - create sample/prototype for as low cost as possible - fund further development on Kickstarter.
I know where I'm going now. I'd really like to figure out how to find manufacturers in America though since through research I find a lot of Chinese factories to make faulty products. A justified worry about a high failure rate caused me to throw out hundreds of hours of work on a product last year as it would cost around $40,000 more initially for a different experienced factory to manufacture it.
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It does feel like the Kickstarter market for a particular niche is limited. Not that I can't do the product differently as I can, even though they already utilized some of the most unique aspects of mine.
I do think I can create a better product though
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I'm 99% sure it's coincidental that our development timeframes align but there is a slight chance the other company took my design notes from a factory I spoke with. It's just the fact there are features no one's done before in both our designs implemented in similar ways, and all of my original design notes are from last year. Although I specifically tried to not get too in-depth here, I am slightly thankful I made this thread as it is time-stamped proof that I did find a breakthrough in my concept after weeks of thought... which was later utilized in this other company.
I do have a great new idea that is really coming along and could have a bright future but for my original concept to work I'll need an engineering miracle... err, magic for it to be exactly the way I intend.
Honestly, if I had the funding I could start multiple businesses and I can practically guarantee at least one will do very, very well. What Sense did with $10 million I basically did with next to no money. If I had that funding I could've taken the product and marketing to a much higher level than they did.
Your excuses, and they are excuses, are certainly lending to this idea that you have fallen from grace and accepted that so-called 9-5 job where your life is over. Most importantly, as a teenager who is giving life advice and proclaiming that you have the secret to success, I cannot believe that something as trivial as no money because you're a student crud you're flinging is getting you down.
It seems to me that it is extremely easy to claim the most unique and likely sellable aspects of your idea has come to fruition as someone else's product when there is no evidence supporting your words. I don't expect you to lay out the ideas but then again, I would have thought that you would have acted before this company had you followed your own advice. You certainly type with the confidence of 100 men so now it is time to stop making excuses and do something.
You sit idle and complain and that will never work in life. Even if you accept the same 9-5 job that you seem to think is the worst thing you could do. The same job that is likely putting Macs in your lap, clothes on your back, and food in your belly thanks to mom and dad. You just cannot simply complain and claim that you had it first. As far as the world is concerned, you did not have it first. You could have it second and second sometimes does win.
It seems to me that it is extremely easy to claim the most unique and likely sellable aspects of your idea has come to fruition as someone else's product when there is no evidence supporting your words. I don't expect you to lay out the ideas but then again, I would have thought that you would have acted before this company had you followed your own advice. You certainly type with the confidence of 100 men so now it is time to stop making excuses and do something.
You sit idle and complain and that will never work in life. Even if you accept the same 9-5 job that you seem to think is the worst thing you could do. The same job that is likely putting Macs in your lap, clothes on your back, and food in your belly thanks to mom and dad. You just cannot simply complain and claim that you had it first. As far as the world is concerned, you did not have it first. You could have it second and second sometimes does win.
You undoubtedly have a point. The fact is I'm not jumping in with both feet when I should. Yes, I am making excuses in lieu of taking risks but I will need to change that. Every business needed someone to take a financial and emotional risk. Foremost, I want to put out a quality product and the bill is quite hefty for quality control -- but I will pursue venture funding in the future rather than relying specifically on crowd-funding. Sense wouldn't be what it is without the $10 million it raised prior to Kickstarter. With even a million in funding I could probably put out a superior product but I digress. Of course first-run on this is preferred but I could develop a fantastic new alarm clock still but I do have other ideas I'd like to pursue. In fact, I'm in the process of developing a service contingent on working out a contract for an API that's necessary for the service to work.
I do need to work through the roadblocks of product development and accomplish this goal though, and I believe I'll have a great product released eventually at the right time. If the API works out then you can expect a lot from me to follow that service
. If not, then you're right -- I will more actively work through roadblocks rather than write them off as excuses. Not putting out a subpar product for the sake of releasing it is a priority but I'll get to that point soon enough that I can turnaround quality product designs quicker.
I didn't say you should put out a subpar product. I think they call that a prototype. You could have bumped out the basics and then moved from there. Drop school, family, friends, pets and burgers
you know, because that is the way.
I'd move past this idea that you could have had a better product. You did not and do not. Move along and focus on the API idea. I'm sure it will be better than any other idea dealing with APIs.
You could have bumped out the basics and then moved from there. Drop school, family, friends, pets and burgers
you know, because that is the way.I'd move past this idea that you could have had a better product. You did not and do not. Move along and focus on the API idea. I'm sure it will be better than any other idea dealing with APIs.