As a new product founder or MedTech innovator, your greatest hope is to create a thriving, successful company that is highly valued. Is an IPO your endpoint? Or is your goal an acquisition? You need traction, cash flow, and startup product development (PD) expertise to bring any of these dreams to reality.
You drive your team to create a product that embodies your vision and clearly demonstrates a new, unique, and better approach. Your team is narrow in focus but delivers a minimum prototype. But what then? To achieve your dream, you need more than just one working prototype. Investors and acquirers seek a well-planned, viable, scalable product solution.
Your next steps toward scaling require meticulous attention to supply chain and manufacturing partnerships. These decisions can either propel you forward or serve as costly lessons. You want to avoid the horror stories of businesses that struggle with suppliers or contract manufacturers due to misaligned goals. Or others where a redesign is required late in the process, needlessly consuming capital and missing the critical market window.
Choosing a contract manufacturer (CM) is vital and demands a balanced approach. Moving fast can result in decisions that prioritize immediate costs over long-term risks and rewards. A hasty choice can often lead to missed opportunities, like securing materials early or ensuring the manufacturer meets your criteria.
Recently, we partnered with On Tap Consulting to put Defibrio, an ambitious startup innovating in the field of personal atrial defibrillator technology, on a path to their dream. With an eye toward building a supply chain in parallel with product design, our teams focused on critical components and found a contract manufacturing partner early in the process.
Let’s look at how AC and On Tap Consulting can guide you in planning your supply chain and choosing a CM that fits your budget, timeline, quality standards, and strategic goals. By investing in this selection process early, you avoid costly setbacks, ensuring your startup stays on track for success.
Derisking the Supply Chain in Parallel with Startup Product Development
Traditionally, designers would integrate supply chain management (SCM) during the later stages of new product development (NPD). The design was often nearly finalized before making decisions on suppliers, manufacturers, and logistics.
However, because of increased product complexity, material availability, competing markets, and instability within the global supply chain, we integrate SCM early and in parallel with product design.
In the design stage, we identify key components and custom parts. We also consider the supply chain implications: suppliers, choices, costs, and lead times.
We develop assembly steps and test prototypes early in the process. Our goal is to define the manufacturing requirements of your unique CM partner. Selecting the CM becomes our priority after we overcome the hurdles to achieve a working prototype.
By considering supply chain and manufacturing factors, costs, and constraints upfront, we prepare your product for successful manufacturing and better insulate it from risks in the supply chain.
With Defibrio we integrated early supply chain planning into our solid program management plan for their startup product development project. Meanwhile, On Tap Consulting molded their expertise with manufacturing processes and CM requirements into an optimized Request for Proposal (RFP).
Through a strategic partnership, this concurrent approach enabled our teams to create objective discussions with CM candidates to reduce risks and misalignments that improved overall manufacturing success.
Avoid "Ready, Fire, Aim!" by Finding the Right Contract Manufacturer, in the Right Order
One of the most common pitfalls we help you avoid is firing off a Request for Proposal (RFP) before you’ve looked closely at the requirements of your product and the right-fit manufacturers who can meet your needs. For instance, mounting pressure to move fast might tempt you to handle these steps out of order.
But with the support of AC and On Tap, your startup product development project can move forward carefully and confidently to achieve the right outcome and avoid costly backtracking and delays.
Ready! Carefully define your startup product development requirements:
To find the right CM for your unique requirements, we help you define your musts and wants:
- Where do you want to build this product?
- What are the must-have process capabilities?
- Is there any special experience needed for assembly and test?
- Can they meet the scale of production needed for your startup product development?
- How big should they be to handle your project without getting overwhelmed?
- What level of communication and responsiveness do you both expect for this partnership?
- What certifications do they need for your project? (e.g., ISO 13485 and FDA registration for medical)
- Do they have experience building a similar product?
Aim! Accurately narrow down your prospective manufacturers and suppliers:
With your requirements in focus, we now aim to generate a prospective list of candidates by polling your network of investors, executives, and engineers. Then, we reduce this list using a matrix of the candidates compared with your musts and wants.
From the remaining handful of candidates, we set up introductory meetings that facilitate the right level of intimacy. We aim to gauge their interest in your product, get into any particular details, and gain a feel for their working style and company culture.
Through this informed analysis, you’ll gain clear insights. After that, you will select partners best equipped to meet your requirements and successfully deliver your product.
FIRE! Send out a clear, well-defined RFP to the right CM that meets your needs:
Now that we’ve reduced your candidates to a group that meets your musts and wants, it’s finally time to fire off a well-defined Request for Proposal (RFP).
Understand that you aren’t simply asking for a quote (an RFQ). You want to know all the critical details that will keep the program afloat: the build location, the team involved, their approach to your product’s assembly and testing, and so on.
It’s particularly crucial during this RFP phase to have the support of expert partners like AC and On Tap. So, we work to reduce the chances of selecting the wrong CM for your startup product development. The wrong manufacturing pick can be painful or even company-ending in some cases.
On Tap Consulting brings a wealth of experience to this process and adds value through connections, content preparation, and meeting facilitation.
AC and On Tap Consulting worked together seamlessly for Defibrio. We developed a solid list of candidates, an RFP document, and a well-planned review process. Meeting participation was critical, and in-person meetings with the finalists generated multiple viewpoints and perspectives, making the final decision as well-informed as possible.
Start Strong, with a well-defined MSA:
Before you award the project, we will help you define and agree on key terms for your Manufacturing Services Agreement (MSA). The MSA follows the award, and it’s much easier to negotiate when key terms are already in place.
An MSA is like a life preserver. You hardly ever need it if you are using good practices on the water, but when you need it, you need it!
We also help you prepare for the kickoff meeting; it can happen parallel to the MSA negotiation and is critical to start the partnership on the right footing.
- Be there in person.
- Review the timeline and the design.
- Bring samples.
- Introduce the entire team.
- Assign roles and responsibilities.
Expertly Guided Startup Product Development is Valuable
Experienced engineers, project managers, supply chain and operations experts on your New Product Introduction (NPI) team save you time and money, especially when working synergistically.
Expertly guided startup product development adds value to the life of your project. You avoid delays and costly mistakes, because you uncover issues early. Through early planning, you can launch your product with fewer surprises. In addition, these benefits amplify when preparing to launch a MedTech product. We also guide you through that space’s added complexities and regulatory requirements.
Ultimately, On Tap Consulting and Andrews Cooper bring crucial startup product development expertise to the table and integrate seamlessly with your team as a catalyst for your success. Let’s start the conversation today!
Connect with AC and On Tap today
Are you ready for expert partners to support your startup product development journey?
Does your team need help building resilience and success in your supply chain and CM selection?
On Tap Consulting offers the operational guidance, knowledge, and network that Tech Startups need to achieve their goals through a broad diversity of operations and manufacturing services. Partnering with Andrews Cooper enables our clients to find the right engineering team to navigate product design and testing, regulatory compliance, design for manufacturability, and contract manufacturing to ensure product launch success.
Andrews Cooper Product Development (PD) solves novel and ambitious technical challenges to deliver well-engineered, right-fit solutions and accelerate your time to market. We have experience leading hardware startups through the entire hardware product development lifecycle. Partnering with On Tap enables our clients to reduce costs, achieve product quality, hit time-to-market windows, and ensure product availability, dramatically improving client product commercialization success.
Defibrio, led by a skilled team of engineers, medical professionals, and innovators, is on a mission to significantly increase survival rates from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) by developing the first personal automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) powered by a smartphone. Defibrio’s state-of-the-art AED improves every step of the SCA rescue by taking advantage of the ubiquity, connectivity, and capability of today’s cell phone and combining it with world-class hardware and software design for medical devices. Their strategy not only significantly advances the functionality of today’s personal AED, but also opens the door to future innovation that will continue to escalate SCA survival rates worldwide.
