The Sugru story
sugru.com
sugru.com
Get some sales, suddenly investors come out of the woodwork expressing "passion" and "belief".
Been there. Bankers will lend you an umbrella when you don't need it and demand it back when it starts raining. So many investors are similar.
But not all. The good ones are better than brilliant.
Well done Sugru - I hope you go from strength to strength.
Not to mention most investors would see the idea as some form of play-dough and balk at the idea.
Ok. Time to man up.
BTW, notice how the story follows the classic startup curve?
That is magic stuff! :-)
The Sugrued part, however, is still in perfect shape, and still attached to the key ring.
How I wish all companies were like that.
12 minipacks in a lovely big pouch Multi-Colour 12x5g * £11.50 *
12 minipacks in a lovely big pouch Black and White 12x5g * £12.50 *
er,... that's strange. Why would the black-and-white ones cost one pound more? It's just silly anyway - they could easily make them both, say £12.00, and overall they would get enough revenues, and people could just choose the colour they want!
but hang on a minute! They actually want people to take the colourful ones! Most people are so mean, that they would rather save £1 and they don't care about the colour - and then there are lots of nice colourful pictures for the website. Compare the pictures on https://www.buymightyputtynow.com/ - how boring are they?!
I am totally sure that Sugru is a great product, and has many more uses than mightyputty etc., after all it's flexible! and grippy! and I will probably buy some myself for something I do actually want to fix, but the thing Sugru are doing the best is * great marketing !!! *
Well done Sugru, all the best.
I ordered some sugru a year ago, but apparently the shipment got lost in the post. I replied to the order confirmation mail pointing up the delay, and shortly afterwards I got a mail from Jane herself telling they would ship a replacement.
I'd play down those two examples if it was me, until it did get certification from a reputable source.
There are people out there working on cyborg and transhuman technologies. People with training, expertise, and something to fall back on besides the NHS.
No, there hasn't, because IV catheters are a cheap commodity. You don't repair them, you replace them.
As for the tubing? That possibly a more interesting question, but I suspect it's being used in an underfunded medical facility or they would have replacements aplenty, and if if comes down to sugru-ed IVs delivering life saving medicine possibly tainted (but no obvious reaction) vs no medicine and probably rapidly apparent and dire consequences, well you can guess what I would (and the doctors/patient) choose. :)
As for the medical tubing, I agree that is what I would probably choose, but again it's that through their marketing of 'safe for medical tubing' when it hasn't undergone any applicable safety tests; they have potentially made themselves liable should anything go wrong.
It comes down to the fact that if they've marketed it as suitable for such-and-such then they should make sure they've undergone any safety tests that other products use in similar situations.
Many cameras are aimed at children.
http://www.target.com/p/Fishe-Price-See-Yourself-Camera-Purp...
http://www.target.com/p/Vtech-Kidizoom-Camera-Pink/-/A-13357...
etc.
Lovely story and marketing of the community though.
I suspect there is a billion dollars in it for someone with supply chain experience who wants to make the Amazon of manufacturing.
You can't read stories like this all day (at some point you have to work on changing your corner of the world), but having something like this once a week is super motivating.
You want innovation? You want jobs? You want people excited about the future again? Make this one change (combined with efforts to ensure due diligence).
http://crowdfundinglaw.com/ has some more information.
This bill, if it becomes law, will survive until one stupid person loses their 1% net worth and then sues anybody and everybody because they were 'tricked' or otherwise decieved and then the whole thing will become illegal again. The reason the existing rules are not kicked out is because they are setup only to screw 'rich people' who are not considered a 'protected class' by the voters.
Yes, its a bit cynical but you can see evidence of this thinking everywhere. From banning dogs in National parks to making chemistry sets illegal.
I think the benefits warrant investigating ways to do this so that the public knows what they're getting into, yet have the opportunity, as in the story above, to fund what investors won't.
(but please monitor+scale your buying page - it's often down)
http://www.polymericsystems.com/epoxies-adhesives/epoxy-putt...
This stuff has been around for more that 30 years. What she really discovered, more than the putty, is a new way to market the stuff.
- Curing via oxygen exposure makes mixing unnecessary, which is a bit more convenient
- The cured material is elastic rather than rigid, which makes it more suited for many applications
- It can be cut and removed more easily
Fixed the broken side brushes of my Deebot yesterday. With Sugru of course. Very nice material, easy to handle, good results. Recommend it.
-jsl
It is interesting how much they mention "community". I have a feeling that forming such a community of early adopters and treating them well is the future of marketing. The days of "build a better mousetrap" may be numbered; now you not only need a better mousetrap, you also need a community of people who will use it and support you.
Good for them.
Will be getting some for friends for Xmas.
The video of the stack of items isn't enough to see how strong the bond truly is.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-S...
Sugru, on the other hand, does not need to be heated. It is moldable immediately after opening the package, and it self-cures at room temperature 30 minutes after being opened. Once it cures, it can not be reused.
From what I've read about it, Sugru sounds very much like ordinary epoxy putty, except that it might be softer or more rubbery than regular epoxy putty once it's cured. Or maybe it could be called a silicone in an epoxy putty-like form. While "Friendly Plastic" is more like ordinary plastic that's moldable when very warm.
This company exists because they were able to patent their invention.
People say that patents are bad because everything relies on previous efforts. Well, they didn't invent silicon rubber. They didn't invent the volatile compound that allows their rubber to cure overnight. But they did invent a new thing.
Pretty analogous to software patents and combinations software-hardware patents like the iPhone's multi-touch.
Also, even if a company like 3M did start making the stuff (and patents or no patents, they easily could by finding a different variation), do you really think that would put Sugru out of business, given the kind of community they've managed to build?
Absolutely. If not put them out of business, it would completely cripple their future prospects. 3M has MASSIVE distribution. When Suguru finally gets to the store in their town, why would Joe and Jane buy from some brand they've never heard of when they've been using the 3M equivalent for a year and it's been working great?
3M has invented and discarded more forms of sticky gooey junk than you can imagine. If it's not going to be sold in 50 gallon drums or has the guaranteed demand of adhesive tape, they're not interested.
Read about the guy who invented Post-It notes in 3M and what he had to do internally to get them to actually productize it. It's far more likely that these inventors are infringing 3M's patents than that 3M would be unable to replicate it without the sample.
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/frysilver.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f08e8a9a-fcd7-11df-ae2d-00144... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fry
So it was actually two inventors at 3M. Spencer Silver discovered the low-tack adhesive in 1968 and spent 5 years promoting it as a product within the company. He eventually hooked up with Art Fry at 3M who recognized its utility for small notes. In order to get the company to recognize it as a useful product, (as I heard the story) they had to personally make the post-it pads and distribute them to the secretaries all around the company.
Eventually some executives got hooked on the notes. The initial product launch in 1977 was deemed a failure. It wasn't until 1980 that the product was re-launched successfully.
So even after the chemistry was done, 3M's own product developers had to do 8-12 years of internal evangelism to get this new product launched to consumers.
Hardly. Software patents are a tangle of prior art, and software requires almost no initial outlay.