WELCOME TO PLA - 33:01 - Welcome to Product Launch Accelerator! Congratulations on making an excellent decision. Today's video, and really section 1 in general is all about understanding 'the big picture'. We'll go over the physical product industry as a whole and discuss your place in that ecosystem. Most importantly, you'll learn how this course works and how to take full advantage of it in the weeks to come.

HOW THIS PROGRAM WORKS - 05:52 - Just some quick housekeeping so you know exactly how to navigate the course platform.

HOW TO SUCCEED WITH PLA - 11:01 - Some quick yet important advice to ensure your success.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY - 59:12 - In this video, you'll learn all about design, engineering, prototyping, and the most efficient way to go about all 3 for your product. I give you the exact product development process that my team and I use every day at my company, Brainchild Engineering. We'll also discuss the different development team approaches that you can take, depending on your preference: Professional development company, online freelance team, or co-founders. Finally, you'll create a formal RFP (request for proposal) document and post it online for designers and engineers to bid on. 

PATENTS AND SECRECY STRATEGY - 01:10:59 - Intellectual property, patents, non-disclosure agreements and general secrecy are one of the first questions on the minds of physical product creators. Therefore, it makes sense to cover this topic as our first lesson, as our strategy is going to be immediately relevant.

SEED FUNDING STRATEGY - 58:35 - Lack of funding is one of the most painful problems that product creators face. Thankfully, that's not going to be the case for you. In this lesson, we cover the main startup seed funding methods available to you: Private equity, crowdfunding (reward-based and equity-based), grants, and loans. We'll discuss the pros and cons of each method, and by the end of the video, you'll be able to decide which fundraising method (if any) you want to use. Even though you won't start your fundraising campaign yet, it's important to tackle the subject early on, as your decision will influence your product development strategy. 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT - 30:33 - Between funding strategy, prototyping, patents and other variables, your project is unique to you. Because no two products or entrepreneurs are exactly alike, it's necessary for you to be able to slightly customize the order in which you handle lessons and tasks. So in this lesson, we'll codify your master plan and upload it into a professional project management tool (the same one I use to manage my own company). You'll also learn my own battle-tested principles of team management to keep your project on time and on budget. 

THE WINNER'S MINDSET - 24:50 - Adopting the right mindset is one of the most important ingredients to success - yet most entrepreneurs ignore the topic entirely. In this lesson, I share with you the common mental characteristics of winners and losers in the physical product space. Where will you be 1 year, 2 years, 5 years from now? With the wrong attitude, you're doomed to failure. And with the right attitude, your success will be inevitable. 

SECTION 1 CHECKLIST - Ensuring everything is complete before continuing on to section 2

WELCOME TO SECTION 2 - 17:09 - Welcome to Section 2, where we focus almost entirely on the market. Market research is an often-overlooked yet absolutely vital pillar of product success. You'll learn why the best products come from people solving real problems in their own lives, not from trying to brainstorm 'cool ideas'. First, you'll learn secondary market research techniques and tools to gain valuable insight into your future customer base. Then, you'll learn how to intelligently estimate the revenue potential of your product. Next, you'll assemble your technical development team and kick them off on phase 1 of product development. Finally, while your team progresses on phase 1, you'll reach out to your target market to gain feedback. Finally, we'll establish a go-to-market strategy at the end of section 2.

SECONDARY MARKET RESEARCH - 40:43 - Market research is an often-overlooked yet absolutely vital pillar of product success. You'll learn why the best products come from people solving real problems in their own lives, not from trying to brainstorm 'cool ideas'. You'll learn the techniques and tools to gain invaluable insight into your future customer base.

MARKET SIZE ANALYSIS - 40:52 - Product startups are notorious for oversimplified 'pie-in-the-sky' guesstimates that always over-promise and under-deliver. In this lesson, we learn how to approach market size analysis from a two-pronged scientific standpoint to arrive at a realistic future revenue prediction. These estimates aren't just for you - because even though 'millions of dollars' might be enough motivation for you, it'll never convince investors. 

BUILDING YOUR TEAM - 35:27 - In the 'Product Development Strategy' lesson, we created and posted our RFP. After 2-3 days, there should be plenty of bids for us to review. We'll identify qualified candidates and weed out the weaklings, then conduct interview calls to find the true cream of the crop. We'll then hire qualified candidates and kick them off to work on phase 1 while we do our market research and analysis. 

MARKET FEEDBACK - 1:00:47 - Finally, it's time to get some real market validation for your product idea. We'll be hooking you up with a heavy-duty, fully-functional feedback funnel. It comes with a feedback survey, pre-sale checkout, email follow-up campaign, and a lot more. Thankfully, it's incredibly easy for you to copy over. We'll be continually modifying and upgrading our funnel as the course progresses.

GO-TO-MARKET STRATEGY - 30:39 - Armed with the knowledge of market research and validation, it's finally time to figure out how to sell our product (when the time comes, of course). We have many options: Retail, direct-to-consumer, and more. You'll learn why our 'Hybrid D2C funnel' is arguably the best approach for new, unique consumer products. We finish the lesson off by examining 'guerrilla tactics' to help you penetrate market already dominated by entrenched competitors. 

WELCOME TO SECTION 3 - 07:54 - Welcome to section 3. Here, we're moving in multiple directions. This can feel a little overwhelming, but just take things one step at a time. We'll start with your provisional patent application. Then, we start building our following with pre-launch organic marketing. Next, you'll learn how to find grants and equity fundraising, if those are part of your fundraising plan. Even if they aren't, I'd encourage you to watch those lessons. Finally, we'll kick off product development phase 2: detailed design and engineering. We'll finish the section by learning all about manufacturing (AKA mass production) so that you're speaking the same language as your technical team. 

PROVISION PATENT APPLICATION - 41:27 - Like we learned back in section 1, it's wise to file a PPA as soon as possible. For most, this will require some level of progress in phase 2 (detailed design and engineering). I'll be showing you how to craft your PPA in a way that covers as much ground as possible. Thankfully, you don't need to hire a lawyer, and there's an amazing tool to help you knock out your own PPA in just a couple hours or less. 

PRE-LAUNCH ORGANIC MARKETING - 25:04 - Pre-launch organic marketing is all about building a big following. This isn't just helpful for official product launch, it's mandatory for crowdfunding. The sooner we can start building our crowd, the bigger it'll be when we need it. Now that our product's vision is crystal clear, there's nothing stopping us from starting now.

FINDING GRANTS - 16:27 - Grants are essentially free money. We've made enough progress now to be able to apply for most grants, so the sooner we can jump on these opportunities, the better. From quick and casual to huge, lucrative government grants (ex: SBIR), you'll learn where to look and how to get help if you need it. 

EQUITY FUNDRAISING - 32:35 - Contrasting with reward-based crowdfunding, finding equity investors is a different beast entirely. We'll go over your specific fundraising options and learn how to use 'friends and family' funding to raise small-to-moderate amounts of money that otherwise wouldn't be practical with traditional equity fundraising. You'll learn why equity crowdfunding is such a powerful approach, and how you should move forward. 

DETAILED DESIGN+ENGINEERING KICKOFF - 25:03 - Once we've got positive market feedback, it's time to continue pushing ahead with product development. I'll be revealing my own company's 'ways of working' to help you build the foundation for a great prototype as quickly and painlessly as possible.

MANUFACTURING STRATEGY - 44:36 - It's important to understand manufacturing (AKA mass production) early on, even if it feels a long way off. DFM (design for manufacturing) considerations like production quantities, manufacturing methods, and make vs. buy will all influence your product's design direction. The knowledge you gain here will empower you to steer your team in the right direction.

WELCOME TO SECTION 4 - 05:49 - Welcome to section 4. Here, we're moving in multiple directions. This can feel a little overwhelming, but just take things one step at a time. We'll start with your provisional patent application. Then, we start building our following with pre-launch organic marketing. Next, you'll learn how to find grants and equity fundraising, if those are part of your fundraising plan. Even if they aren't, I'd encourage you to watch those lessons. Finally, we'll kick off product development phase 2: detailed design and engineering. We'll finish the section by learning all about manufacturing (AKA mass production) so that you're speaking the same language as your technical team. 

REWARD CROWDFUNDING PREPARATION - 40:01 - For those interested in funding their projects through reward-crowdfunding (Kickstarter or Indiegogo), this lesson lays out the strategies and tactics found in virtually all highly successful campaigns. As anyone in the industry will tell you, crowdfunding success is built on pre-launch organic marketing efforts - months before actual campaign kickoff. You'll also learn how to hack the platform ranking algorithms to achieve a compounding growth (i.e. 'snowball') effect. 

PRODUCT COMPLIANCE - 45:18 - Product compliance and certification is the annoying subject that nobody likes to address until the last minute - when it's too late. Waiting until after prototyping to figure out your product's requirements could cost you another round of prototyping, so now's the time to dive in. We'll bring light to this notoriously murky and confusing subject. As with most things, it's actually not that complicated once you have all the information in front of you! 

LEGAL, TAX, AND INSURANCE - 12:52 - Nobody likes to deal with legal red tape, insurance, or taxes. But, you'll have to get these items taken care of in order to move forward. Fear not, it's not as hard as you think, so just dive in and get it done! 

PROTOTYPE KICKOFF - 18:58 - Once you and your development team are confident, it's time to kick off creation of your first physical prototype! I'll share some helpful tips and tricks, my preferred suppliers, and then walk you through a sample purchase of 3 custom parts. Once your prototype is presentable and has all the major bugs worked out, you'll have a much easier time raising funds for your project.

WELCOME TO SECTION 5 - 05:49 - Welcome to section 5. Here we continue to keep the ball rolling on multiple fronts simultaneously in order to save as much time as possible. Because your prototype probably isn't done or perfected yet, we have some time to work on your Ecommerce funnel while we wait for your engineering team to finish up. Once the prototype is perfected, then it's time to prepare for manufacturing, and kickoff your crowdfunding campaign (if you've chosen to use one). While your campaign runs, you can then shift gears and set up your Amazon FBA listing, and finally kickoff mass production! 

ECOMMERCE FUNNEL - 40:01 - Up until this point, our go-to-market strategy has been an abstract plan. Here, it's time to dive into the technical details and actually begin to build your ECommerce funnel. First we'll recap the available funnel 'loadouts', then confirm your specific architecture per your niche and personal preferences.  

PREPARE FOR MANUFACTURING - 27:37 - Once you're happy with your product's design, it's time to reach out to actual manufacturers for price estimates. You'll learn what materials you need to send to send out, and how to get lots of bids easily. Your manufacturing cost estimates will be one of the major influences in how much money you need to raise (through crowdfunding or other means). 

CROWDFUNDING KICKOFF - 03:50 - Once you've gotten a large enough crowd and prepared your marketing machine, it's finally time to pull the trigger on crowdfunding. We'll go through a pre-launch checklist, learn the final tips and tricks to a successful campaign, then unleash our blitzkrieg to hack the ranking algorithms. 

AMAZON FBA SETUP - 18:58 - Here, you'll learn all about Amazon FBA, from white and black hat tactics to freight forwarding and to product listing strategies. Then, we'll actually go in and setup your account, product listing, and UPC codes. 

MANUFACTURING KICKOFF- 08:27 - Finally, you're ready for manufacturing! From completely finishing your product's design to raising the money needed for production, some congratulations are in order, as this is no small task. 

WELCOME TO SECTION 6 - 07:21 - Welcome to section 6. Quite possibly the most exciting part of the PLA program, we're now setting up your advertising campaign and finalizing your EComm setup. With manufacturing tooling most likely still in progress, you have some time to create your Facebook ads and finalize your Amazon listing. Then, the moment we've all been waiting for: You officially launch your product and learn how to scale to crazy levels.

FACEBOOK ADS STRATEGY - 45:13 - Here, you're going to learn the theory behind Facebook ads. With so much conflicting information out there, it's hard to know who's right and who isn't. We'll cut through the noise and learn exactly how to structure your campaigns with a proven strategy that's simple (and simply works). You'll also learn how to capture your market's attention in a world saturated with irrelevant ads. 

FACEBOOK ADS SETUP - 20:31 - In the last lesson, we learned theory and you created your ad creative. This lesson is mostly technical, click-by-click work. Actually create your Facebook ad account, load in the ads, set up tracking and re-targeting, and connect all of the pieces. 

AMAZON KICKOFF - 32:52 - Having set up the underlying structure in a past video, now it's time to finalize your Amazon listing and go live. 

OFFICIAL PRODUCT LAUNCH - 15:42 - Congratulations, it's time to pull the trigger. We'll go through a final pre-launch checklist, have a toast, and officially launch your paid advertising. 

AD SCALING DAILY WORKFLOW- 32:19 - Once you've established a positive ROI with your paid advertising campaign (which is no small task), there's only one thing to do left: Crank your money-making machine to the limit. Learn how to increase your ad spend to literally thousands of dollars per day while maintaining profitability.