FAQ Category: For new/customized products

You pay for that work and you own all the resulting deliverables.

The only exception is the templates we have developed over the years — you do not have the right to re-use them.

First, you will need more than an idea. At the very least, get a first version of the design, as well as a general description (intended use, etc.) on paper.

Second, before sharing the design with anybody, make sure to have a solid agreement in place that targets all the usual risks (not your standard non-disclosure agreement).

Third, you might go in the wrong direction and spend many months working with the wrong type of suppliers and, in the end, get nowhere. Talk with a company like ours. We have worked with a number of people who were in your situation.

You may also like our guide to manufacturing a new product in China.

Yes. And this should be planned from the design stage. Many projects have gone very far into prototyping and even production, only to be dropped because they had to get back to square 1… a new iteration of the design that takes certification constraints into account.

We have experience with the most common types of certification for the US and Europe.

Learn more about certifications and compliance here: Compliance Testing Consulting

Yes, for several reasons.

Because you might need to make changes to your design to make it easy to manufacture in China or to have a chance at hitting your budget & timing targets.

Our product engineers are ready to help if you need assistance with product design and development.

And because you need to know what type of supplier you should work with even before starting the search:

Yes, we can!

Our in-house R&D team has experience in designing and testing packaging.

We will either source the designed packaging from local manufacturers or may be able to manufacture it ourselves, too.

Packaging actually shouldn’t be an afterthought – it’s an important part of the new product launch project, as it both protects and advertises your product. With this in mind, we created this guide to common packaging types to help you decide what’s best for your products.

No. We work on a purely on-demand basis.

You select which of our solutions you want to purchase, pay, and we do the work. We don’t do work in return for equity shares in hardware startups’ businesses.

Please note, any product IP generated belongs solely to you as you have paid for that. We do not retain your product IP after you have finished working with us.

If you need support to move your hardware startup and product idea forward in return for equity shares, finding an incubator or hardware accelerator could be the right move for you.

Not directly, however, we do have a list of partners including law firms and companies who specialize in Chinese business matters such as trademark registration whom we can put you in touch with.

This is a really difficult question to answer as every new product launch project is different, however, we’ll try to give you some ballpark figures.

• Engineering design: 15 days to 6 months
• Accelerated life testing on prototypes and iterations until a final approved prototype: 1 to 3 months
• Tooling fabrication: often around 6 weeks
• Pre-production preparation, including pilot run(s): 1 to 3 months
• Mass production (first batch): 1 to 3 months

Note: we typically help clients after the industrial design has been completed.