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Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Making Something From Nothing: Joshua Bronfman Of Quiet Time On How To Go From Idea To Launch

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Develop thick skin! We knew that not everyone would love our product; that’s just the nature of the game. But I can’t tell you how gut-wrenching it was to read that first negative review. No matter what, someone will always criticize, and that’s okay! It was a great reminder not to focus on one bad review when many people love the product. Again, you must be objective and willing to learn as you go! Not only that, but we have also been able to take customers’ feedback and work on improvements to the Dreamer in the future!

As a part of our series called “Meet The Inventors”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Joshua Bronfman.

Joshua Bronfman is a motorcycle racing pro and entrepreneur. He’s also a young dad who became an unlikely inventor after a late-night mishap with a faulty baby sound machine. If this seems improbable, you don’t know Josh. While inventing the perfect noise machine for infants wasn’t exactly in the motorbike enthusiast’s wheelhouse, through trial, error, and more trials, Josh took his idea from imagination to market in two short years. Now his Dreamer product is available online at major retail sites and soon coming to a brick-and-mortar store near you. How and why, he did it is rooted in core family principles and a mission to get his kids to sleep at night.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

It’s my pleasure! Thank you for having me. I grew up between Southern California, Utah, and Arizona with two brothers and a sister. My dad was an entrepreneur himself and an energetic explorer. My mom focused on my siblings and me. Both of my parents are passionate about giving back to the community, so we grew up always seeking adventure and finding ways to help those around us.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

The quote that resonates the most for me comes from my grandfather: “Leave the world a better place than you found it”. That sentiment has had a profound impact on my life. I have always strived to approach every relationship with the idea that I could positively impact every person and initiative I come across.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I am reading “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by OG Mandino. While the title insinuates a narrative about selling, the lessons resonate with being a better person and living a full life. The book talks about ten scrolls, each with a lesson about life. The one that has recently resonated is “if you persist, you will succeed”. That quote has been particularly insightful in navigating creating a product from scratch and preparing it for the public. There are a lot of obstacles in creating and selling your product, and many of those have been ones I did not expect or anticipate. But, if I continue to believe in myself and our team, I truly think we will overcome every curveball that comes at us.

OK, super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

You might have had an experience when you were using a product or service and realized you could have done a better job. But then, the moment passes, and life moves on. But the last time this happened, a couple of years ago, I couldn’t shake the feeling. My wife and I had a newborn and bought a noise sound machine to help him sleep. It worked, until it didn’t. And it stopped working in the dead of the night. The thing was plastic and took batteries. You also needed the world’s smallest Phillips screwdriver to open the damn battery case. To make matters worse, we had just moved into a new place and hadn’t unpacked boxes. I barely knew where the light switch was, let alone batteries. I thought, there had to be a better way.

I vowed right then to invent the best baby sound machine ever — and I stuck to it. My background in art and design kicked in and I started coming up with ideas. Then, I connected with my buddy Nik Wogen, and together, the Dreamer got closer to reality. So, I think it’s having a passion for something but then finding someone who shares it. In this case, our different areas of expertise and strengths make us a strong team.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it, saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether their idea has already been created?

In our case, we did a comprehensive search of the players in the market. We also had some specific ideas from our experience as new parents and features we wished were available. We combed the competition meticulously to see if our ideas on how to improve on the industry were present or not. We quickly realized that no one was addressing the issues we cared about the most. We then focused on the most important features to us and worked to craft those into our design.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? We’d love to hear about things like how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

The Dreamer started on a piece of paper, exploring different design ideas and imagining how it would fit into our hands and our ideal functionality. We used a 3D printer to test hundreds of different sizes and designs. We were able to source a manufacturer to test our Printed Circuit Board(PCB) and get an idea of how we wanted The Dreamer to work. After a series of complete redesigns and constant PCB upgrades, we were confident we had something amazing. We have been incredibly lucky to find a great network of lawyers, manufacturers, and marketers to help us progress. Every bit of help was a referral from a friend, so we have been fortunate to find people within our network to help The Dreamer come to life. Determining which platforms to sell on has been a challenge. We have started exclusively on e-commerce sites such as Amazon and our DTC channels, but we are excited to bring the Dreamer into as many brick-and-mortar stores as possible.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

1. Launch is harder than Production: Launching the Dreamer has been harder and more stressful than it has been to make it! We spent two and a half years in development, and it was a fun learning experience. Daily FaceTime and calls with Nik Wogen made it easy to insert our ideas and passion into the product. Contrasting this with entering a super niche market that has some big players whose names already carry customer trust isn’t easy. We have had to be incredibly creative with our marketing and outreach to connect to our target market: parents looking for a beautiful yet durable and portable baby sound machine that also takes advantage of modern technology.

2. Learn to pivot quickly. We are fortunate to have a small team, so making decisions and changing paths was not problematic. Once we started manufacturing and relying on larger companies to help reach our goals, we quickly saw how important it was to make simple, technical decisions to bring us to the finish line. It was easy to get flustered and emotional when an issue came up, but we’ve become better at taking a deep breath when confronted with issues. For example, we had some issues with the manufacturing of our PCBs that had the potential to delay our entire manufacturing operation. We took advantage of this delay and made some firmware upgrades that we were excited to be able to incorporate at launch.

3. Get comfortable asking for help! I knew going into this endeavor I would need to learn to ask for help, but I didn’t realize how critical it would be to our overall success. Navigating this journey from concept to reality, I relied on the help of so many people. Allowing them to have input with decision making and suggestions and relinquishing some control was the most positive experience in this process. There were so many great technical ideas from our partners, and when they were free to be creative, our product and process only improved. We are also lucky to have investors with great business experience, and we benefited tremendously from following their direction.

4. Logistics is more complicated than it seems. Our team is new to creating and selling a product, so we did our due diligence in ensuring that our product and packaging were exactly as our distributor wanted them. Despite that effort, we had an issue where some customers received the wrong color of The Dreamer during the first few days of launch. We had to close our e-commerce store for almost a week, right when we were getting started. This is where “Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me” numbers two and three came into play. We had to stay calm and lean into our team and the advisors working with us to help. Everyone did a great job remaining technical and not emotional, and we rectified all the issues and continue to get The Dreamer out to parents in need.

5. Develop thick skin! We knew that not everyone would love our product; that’s just the nature of the game. But I can’t tell you how gut-wrenching it was to read that first negative review. No matter what, someone will always criticize, and that’s okay! It was a great reminder not to focus on one bad review when many people love the product. Again, you must be objective and willing to learn as you go! Not only that, but we have also been able to take customers’ feedback and work on improvements to the Dreamer in the future!

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

It depends on the team around you and what each of you brings to the table. I was lucky to team with Nik who was vital in bringing the Dreamer to life. From designing the PCB board and mixing silicone in his kitchen to completely creating our App, we had a team that we felt confident could handle the project’s development. We complement each other so well that bringing anyone else on board didn’t seem necessary. We also wanted complete control of our company and its direction.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

I have always believed in having as much control over my company as possible. Fortunately, we had a small family investor group who believed in our vision. Again, each person or company must look at their landscape and understand their needs. Sometimes, looking for venture capital will be the best solution. Other times, you may be able to scrape together funding from the people around you.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

The biggest movement I think I can inspire based on my experience is to believe in yourself and take that chance that you fear taking. No matter what happens with the Dreamer, I have learned so much about myself, my family, and my friends that will make for invaluable knowledge and experience moving forward. I have become a better father and husband through this journey. We can learn so much about ourselves by pushing forward into unchartered territory and doing things we never thought possible.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would love to have the chance to have lunch with Shaquille O’Neal. Not only have I been a basketball fan of his for over twenty years, but I greatly admire his business prowess and how he treats those around him. He has always bet on himself, believed in what he could do and bring to the world, and is a champion for those less fortunate than he is.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine

Published in Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Authority Magazine Editorial Staff
Authority Magazine Editorial Staff

Written by Authority Magazine Editorial Staff

Good stories should feel beautiful to the mind, heart, and eyes

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