Had I Known..I Too Would Have Founded a Me Too
Lessons Learned from a Startup Founder New to the Manufacturing World
Starting Re-Nuble from scratch is friggin’ hard! Developing this company, one that I envisioned would be capable of producing physical products in-house, is about as easy as catching a unicorn. There are not enough quora forums, committed SCORE advisors, nor industry professionals interested in mentoring that could have made this journey pain-free. Nor did I expect it. Trust me I’ve tried the LinkedIn networking tactic and failed, failed, failed — never made it past a LinkedIn request. Mentorship relationships should always be established in person; don’t allow a self-help blog article tell you differently.
As a founder that lacks a manufacturing related background, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Thankfully, I love to learn (when it’s debt free) and new challenges don’t scare me. What I faced though was a learning curve involving regulatory hurdles, expenses that would make a tech startup vomit, and a long roadmap of contingencies that made it seem like our product launch day would never arrive.
And yet we’re still moving forward.
Here’s a glimpse of our experiences when managing what I see are the Top 3 Hurdles relegated to most manufacturing startups. I hope that this helps you avoid the pitfalls, time sucks, and high expenses lost to these efforts.
“Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others experience.” — Otto von Bismarck
Top 3 Hurdles Familiar to Manufacturing Startups
(1.) IMMEDIATELY Find a Mentor or Advisor with executive level manufacturing experience if you haven’t yet.
Both operational and risk management experience is invaluable. There are too many factors such as having to plan for personnel planning, throughput optimization, inventory minimization, and equipment downtime that a first time founder will fail at without the proper guidance. SCORE has a nation-wide network of partnered offices to help increase the access and formation of mentorship relationships between fledgling and small businesses, and industry experts that have at least 20 years of experience. Our team at Re-Nuble has been fortunate to work with three advisors sourced from SCORE and our business plan couldn’t be more thankful for their reviews.
(2.) When it comes to real estate, search high-and-low for low cost facility spaces owned by ‘desperate’ landlords
Finding industrial zoned real estate in an economy that is ‘purportedly’ still in a state of recovery can become difficult. With the resurgence of manufacturing returning to the U.S., finding small spaces to sublease is competitive especially in cities with large ports, such as Newark, New Jersey. The commissions demanded by middle-men commercial real estate are real and alarming. You may have the most innovative, promising start-up in the world but if you are looking to form a deal with ‘creative financing’ they will not be your best friend; they’re simply not interested. Your best scenario will be to find a landlord that has owned a vacant builidng on the market for months. He or she can be most likely found in a town outside of a large city that hasn’t benefited by the growth of neighboring cities. You will quickly learn that these individuals will be ecstatic to engage in a deal that entertained a multi-year lease for the right tenant. It took us several months to find this type of space (2,500 square feet) and relationship and to make the deal even sweeter, the environmental permits required are less arduous and expensive compared to other cities we approached.
(3.) Invest Time in Rapid Prototyping FIRST, THEN Your Business Plan
I’m a huge fan of rapid prototyping. I first learned about this approach to product development after reading about Tom Chi, Google X’s Experience Lead, on Unreasonable Institute’s blog. We have spent the last eight months rapidly prototyping our hydroponic nutrient formulas in a way that a traditional fertilizer manufacturer wouldn’t dare to. Within two-week intervals, we tested for various variables during our product development including:
- Increased plant nutrient uptake
- Visible nutrient deficiencies
- Comparative product performance
These growth beta testing spurts enabled us to validate the above factors, and more importantly, assess if we needed any revisions to product formulations before investing more time to growing efforts. If you’re not aware, anything that is even remotely involved with agriculture requires exponentially more time including: relationship building, product testing, and sales. By incorporating Tom Chi’s strategy, we were able to save the obvious: Time, Money, and Resources — an investor’s three favorite words.
Had we known the above challenges innate to manufacturing startups, I would have maybe considered doing something simpler, something more conventional, and certainly cheaper but I don’t regret these experiences. If anything, they have made me a more experienced business developer and fully cognizant of the barriers of entry that only strengthen Re-Nuble’s positioning.
I’d love to hear from other founders in the maker and manufacturing space. If you would like to read more, be sure to recommend/share the article and connect with me on Twitter (@viarenuble). The conversation shouldn’t end here.
