@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
For those saying I have no exp w China
In 2017 I made a joke online that we should bring back the headphone jack and got >30,000 pre orders
Designed a prototype, got tooling in Shengzen, setup production
While onboarding to Walmart, I found out the Chinese factory rekt me lol https://t.co/ek9oLJA2Wq
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
When Apple removed the headphone jack, many of us hadn’t switched to Bluetooth yet - I wanted to listen + charge my phone at work
On the left - prototype I hacked together in a weekend & a lot of YouTube
On the right - 7 weeks later, working production unit https://t.co/h4OoU5nT7g
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
I didn’t know much about China at the time, early 20s small town kid
Just wanted to build fast, and tracked down Apple-approved vendors building dongles & adapters
We used my prototype and made a production ready version https://t.co/q8lb6SfwQz
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
Got design, mfg, packaging all ready. I needed to solve distribution.
Gf at the time didn’t love kitchen being covered in boxes, so I set them up on Amazon. Huge fees but oh well
I tracked down & started to talk to Walmart & other giants https://t.co/whK2yXJVEE
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
after I shipped batch #1… a portion had a “accessory not supported” …Wtf?
The supplier cheated the “Apple MFI Certified” hardware I paid a ton extra for
Around the same time, the buying manager at Walmart asked to chat. Fml https://t.co/uOnSlWvO4d
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
They let me know the alibaba type markets have been flooded with this exact product & design - they can’t move forward -
1) what
I offered to show all the IP. My CAD, gerber files, ffs, I helped design the tooling and paid for everything to be built. Didn’t matter, REKT https://t.co/JjENofsW2m
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
Chinese factory used me to fund the ramp up, then flooded the market at 1/10th the cost I could sell for, using our design & prod
They gave me knock off Apple certified chips - when I met them next, three suits asked “What’s your legal budget kid?”
Lots of learning. Hahaha https://t.co/Y7YfllDi0F
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
I couldn’t stand the idea that I could’ve just sold a bunch of junk
I refunded every unit from the bad batch out of pocket which put me net -25k into this adventure
I said F this and sold all the designs, IP, backlog, everything. I came out ahead but with honor intact https://t.co/gMDyBQnAHM
@codyaims - Cody James 🇺🇸
Now obv this is just one experience, but a fun one, and really a great learning opportunity
I don’t claim to know a ton about Chinese manufacturing, but I’m also not a layman
TBH, I feel I learned about 4 years of lessons in one Summer. Highly recommend just sending it!
