This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
The next time you go swimming, maybe you can listen to this podcast, or maybe another podcast, or some music, or an audiobook. And this is not an ad, by the way. It's all thanks to our listener, who is inventing a form of underwater headphones. That's right, our listener, Ryan, you're going to hear from him in a moment. He's got a vision to, well, as I said, invent underwater headphones. Apparently, these exist already in some forms,
but he wants to do something a bit different. And even though he's got this vision, he is a little stuck, which is what it's all about, trying to figure out how do we go from idea to implementation. Ideas are everywhere, implementation, execution, that's where it's at. That's how you can truly create value from your ideas. So what do you do when you have an idea, but aren't sure how to proceed with some unknowns? Welcome to Cydosil School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. We're going to hear this listener's question and my attempt at an answer right after this quick shout out to our sponsor. Hey, Chris, this is Ryan from Santa Cruz and I do triathlons and spend several hours a week in the pool. Unlike Apple AirPods or the Beats by Dre headphones, there just aren't a lot of great ways to listen to music or podcasts while swimming. There are some headphone options, but they tend to be pretty expensive and clunky. I have an idea
to develop something better. I have an engineering background and have already made some progress with initial designs. To go further, though, I feel like I need to team up with someone. I'm out of my element when it comes to seeking funding or negotiating with a factory. What should I do and who do I talk with? Thanks for any help you can give me.
Ryan from Santa Cruz. What's up? Thanks so much for calling in. I've had several really fun events in Santa Cruz at the Santa Cruz bookshop and various other events associated with them. Hopefully I'll get a chance to come back at some point. So let's talk about this.
Underwater headphones, or specifically, because I don't know anything about that, but specifically when you're trying to go from idea to implementation with an all-new product and you're a little bit uncertain, you've got some skills, you've got some background like Ryan does here. He says he's got an engineering background. That's great. But just coming up with the product design, it's a little bit different from the full-on product design. The concept is one thing, then actually figuring out how do I turn it into a product? How do I deal with that
manufacturing issue? So really what Ryan needs here is he's going to need some specific advice. He's going to need more than just like general advice from me. He's going to need to see if there is a local business incubator or a co-working space that has experts available to meet. In fact, since I've been to Santa Cruz a couple times, I've worked with the local business co-working space there. So I know that there is at least one there. I think that is a great starting point to go and
talk to somebody and say, "Who else should I talk to?" Inevitably, what happens is this person says, "You need to talk to this person." So you have to go down a bit of a chase for a while and that's normal. You're just trying to explore. You're trying to find the right people but also gain the knowledge you need. I would also encourage you to look at the startups subreddit. So that's just reddit.com/r/startups. Lots and lots of resources there. I don't talk a ton about traditional
startups here because I'm trying to help people who want to get started without spending any money, without necessarily going into debt or forming a more formal company. But if your goal is to manufacture something that is going to have some complexity, then you might need that formality. So I'm not sure who exactly you need to team up with, but you do have a lot to learn. You're asking the right questions. Just take it one sub project at a time from product design to manufacturing, a path to market, as well as your ultimate goal. Is it your ultimate goal to be the
operator of this kind of business or to simply invent this product and maybe hopefully sell it to a larger company? The paths there are a little bit different. So decide in advance what your goal is and work towards that. Ryan, I'm excited for you. Good luck, man. Listeners, if you've got a
question, sidehustleschool.com/questions will continue to feature them each week, along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects. I'm so excited to hear what you come up with. Let me know what's going on. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
From the Onward Project.
