Getting Charged Up: Man Creates One Adaptor to Rule Them All

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Hello, hello, welcome back to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, I'm your host. And I have the privilege of bringing you a different story every day of somebody who starts a side hustle. And another thing that I love to do is to travel. And on average, I probably spend about half of my year in different cities all over the world.

And one of my favorite cities is Hong Kong. I have been going to Hong Kong several times a year, every year since 2006. And it's one of those places that kind of feels like home to me. It's a disorienting kind of home because it's not my home. But I've been so many times that I know it pretty well.

And today's story actually features someone from Hong Kong. In fact, a guy from Hong Kong who travels a lot. And if you travel internationally, you probably know that the world of chargers and adapters can be a bit confusing. Different countries have different systems. For a long time, probably like five years, I didn't have a universal adapter and I just traveled with a set of different adapters.

Sometimes I would forget the one I needed or I would bring the wrong one. Well, anyway, this guy from Hong Kong has set out to fix that problem or at least reduce its complexity. And this story features a Kickstarter campaign that did very well. And at the end of the episode, I'll talk a bit about why I think that was and some prerequisites that I think are key to having this sort of success. That story is coming up right after this quick message.

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With seven years under his belt as a product manager and a company producing power chargers, Michael Ma had the scoop on all things electric. But as a global traveler who has long taken business and pleasure on the road, he became exasperated with the tangle of cables and adapters he had to stuff into his travel bag and the peculiar plugs and outlets he encountered around the world. Michael had the moxie to make one adapter to rule them all. So he got to work studying crowdfunding campaigns and his new company called One Adapter plugged in. [Music]

In 2015, Michael and One Adapter led a successful Kickstarter campaign called Twist that offered a MacBook connector with four USB connections and universal adaptability all in a single unit.

From that first idea to Kickstarter prototype took about six to nine months. That meant going from concept to product definition draft, to design and testing until he was satisfied with the result. One Adapter focused on Mac products at first because Apple standardized the MacBook charger connector, setting an easier design target over the many types of PC connectors. Michael also felt that Apple fans adopt new products faster than PC users. And from his base in Hong Kong, Michael was also troubled by the bulky and often unsightly UK power plug that's used in many Asian countries.

And since Power is his pleasure, One Adapter next designed the Flip, the name of a new product that slimmed down that unwieldy plug by more than 70% so that travelers can power up without the packing problems. Flip was fueled by another Kickstarter surge. And these two funding sources gave Michael the leeway to gain sales traction at his online store as well as to find distributors. In those two campaigns, they raised more than $60,000, which covered all of his tooling and certification costs, as well as the ability to make final adjustment to his designs. And these products have moved at electric speed.

They now have distribution at Apple premium resellers all over Europe and Asia. And Michael recently learned that One Adapter is in the final stages of making it onto Best Buy shelves as well as the stores of other major US retailers. He is on a mission to establish One Adapter as the innovative power solution brand. From its early days as a side hustle, One Adapter is now becoming a full on company and is expanding customer service operations, a Salesforce, and a new R&D team. Michael is also looking to develop even more new product lines, including surge protection and power strip modules.

These days, Michael isn't traveling as much as he used to, but whenever he does, he's traveling light with fewer tangled cables and cords. And no matter where he is in the world, he's almost always fully charged. [Music]

Three chairs for a Hong Kong side hustler turned entrepreneur. Maybe I'll see Michael on my next trip over that way. And for all the rest of us, what can we take away from this story?

I think first of all, not everyone wants to do what Michael has done. So let's just acknowledge that. There's a lot of complexity to this kind of project. And it's not like a lot of other side hustles that we feature on the show. However, for those who do like this model, who do think it's pretty cool, I think you can see a clear path to Michael's success.

And that path has three steps or three components, the right product, the right crowdfunding campaign, and the right team. Now getting all three of these right is easier said than done, of course, but I do think this is the recipe for this kind of manufacturing project. First and foremost, you do have to have something that really meets a need, that really is interesting, and people can look at and say, "Wow, I need that." Or even if I don't need it myself, I can totally see why someone else does. And that relates to the second step, the right crowdfunding campaign. Certain projects do much better than others on platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

And with Kickstarter, classically, traditionally, the community there really supports gadgets or anything that pushes technology forward, something new and innovative, or just something that makes a major improvement to a problem or a challenge. Now, one adapter meets both those criteria, but then Michael is the first to say he didn't do it all himself. As time went by, as he kind of built this out, he did recruit a team. Because even though he had a background as a product manager and a company producing power chargers, to really turn this into a company, which was his goal, it's not everybody's goal, but it was for him, he knew that he couldn't do it all himself. So from the beginning, he kind of laid a foundation to where everything didn't rely on him.

And as we see after just two years, he is now able to hire the sales force, the R&D team, presumably anyone else he needs. So as I said, this isn't for everyone, but if you gravitate toward this model, if you don't have those things, the right product, the right crowdfunding campaign, and the right team, you might wanna reconsider or at least keep trying until you get them right. 'Cause I really think they are critical to something like this taking off. [Music]

If you'd like to see the show notes for today's episode, just go to sidehustleschool.com/217, that's 217. As always, remember, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action, so much better.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're looking to visit somewhere in Southeast Asia, may I recommend Hong Kong? Say hi to me online and I'll tell you about a couple of my favorite spots. But whether I'm in Hong Kong or somewhere else in the world, you can know that I will also be here in your podcast feed or however you listen to the show. I hope to see you tomorrow.

I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]