284: The Story Behind The SwitchPod With Pat Flynn And Caleb Wojcik

Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:55 — 58.7MB)

Inventing a physical product means iterating against real customer feedback rather than perfecting an idea in private. Pat Flynn and Caleb Wojcik went through 12 to 15 prototypes over two years, spent $25,000 to $30,000 before launch, and hit their $100,000 Kickstarter goal in 11 hours and 26 minutes.

Both built their businesses in digital products, so the SwitchPod was a genuine departure. It is the handheld tripod I use for essentially all my videos.

This episode covers where the idea came from, the prototyping and feedback loop, how they priced it, the manufacturing and quality control, and the influencer relationship that changed the launch.

Key takeaways

• 12 to 15 prototypes over two years, costing $25,000 to $30,000 before the Kickstarter launched.
• The mold alone cost about $70,000, which is why the funding goal was $100,000.
• Negative feedback is useful. People who hated it helped define exactly who the product was for.
• Fewer parts means better margins and easier molding, shipping, and support.
• They asked buyers what they would pay and why, getting a range of $80 to $150.
• Peter McKinnon made an unpaid eight-minute video after receiving a prototype with no strings attached.
• Kickstarter traffic still converts long after the campaign, routing people to Shopify.
• They reinvested everything into 10,000 units, taking no money out, because inventory is the constraint.

Where the SwitchPod idea came from

The observation happened at Vid Summit, watching people use bendy GorillaPod tripods in ways they were never designed for.

Vloggers were pressing the flexible legs together and bending them so the camera sat further from their face for a wider angle.

The failure modes were obvious in a room full of them. People laid the rig on a table with the camera touching the surface, or struggled to open and reclose the legs, and the whole thing felt clunky in hand.

Caleb’s framing is that he gets annoyed by equipment that does not work the way he wants, and both of them were hitting the same frustration at the same moment.

His specific idea was tripod legs that come together to form a grip and swing out into tripod mode quickly.

Their friend Richie Norton, who runs Prouduct helping entrepreneurs turn physical product ideas into real things, told them to do it.

Why they took an iterative approach

Pat’s reluctance was about the medium. Digital lets you change something overnight and ship it, without inventory or overhead.

What convinced him was seeing the need in person rather than theorizing about it.

He applied the process from his book Will It Fly: take baby steps and only continue when you get a green light at each stage.

The principle he cites is Seth Godin’s, that you should find products for your customers rather than customers for your products.

How the prototyping process actually worked

It started with crude sketches on whiteboards, with Pat producing better drawings given his architecture background.

Those went to an engineer, Cole Chamberlain at Prouduct, in what amounted to a half-hour phone call covering the drawings plus what the product needed and did not need.

The first thing back was a shaped piece of plastic, purely to test whether the form was right or wanted to be longer or less curved.

Then came 3D printed working models. The first had springs popping out and was ridiculous, and it let them visualize it and mount an actual camera.

The loop repeated for two years. Prototype, gather feedback, adjust, prototype again, at 12 to 15 versions.

Early changes were shape and material. Once the shape settled, the questions became narrow: does it need magnets, does it need another mounting hole.

Why negative feedback was the most useful feedback

Reactions were polarized. Some people said they needed it immediately, and others called it the most ridiculous thing they had seen.

Pat’s read is that polarization is a good sign, because it lets you ask why and sharpen your understanding of who the product is not for.

That is what focused it on vloggers and travel videographers on the move.

The specifications followed from those people. Extremely lightweight, minimal, quick to open, and deliberately not bendy, because most GorillaPod users never wrap it around a tree.

Pat’s summary is that the product was created mostly by the people who offered feedback.

How to get honest feedback on a prototype

The first eight months stayed private, shown only to friends and YouTubers who visited the studio.

Caleb took early plastic versions, with parts breaking off, to the NAB video conference to show industry friends.

They went public at VidCon after securing patent-pending status, on advice that private sharing with trusted people is fine but public exposure should wait for that filing.

The method at the event was simply carrying it around, swinging it open and closed in hallways until people asked what it was.

The reason strangers matter is that friends want to be nice. Real feedback comes from people with no relationship to you.

Why they shared the process publicly

Pat knew documenting the build would matter for marketing, which is what he has done since day one.

The approach was showing where they were, what they were fumbling, and how they were trying to improve.

The effect was people rooting for them. Several told him they bought a SwitchPod without needing one, purely because they enjoyed following the story.

His explanation is that involving people in the process makes them feel part of it, so they invest.

What it costs to develop a physical product

Roughly $25,000 to $30,000 over about fifteen months before the Kickstarter, spent incrementally rather than upfront.

The pattern was a few thousand for engineering, a few thousand for prototypes, then more engineering.

Near the end, each prototype cost about $1,500, and they had four at launch. Those one-off precision-machined aluminum pieces were a significant share of the investment, used for photos, video, and shipping to influencers.

The mold was the largest single cost at about $70,000, which does not include manufacturing any units, shipping them, or tariffs.

That is why the Kickstarter goal was $100,000. It covered the money already invested plus the mold.

How to design for margin

Two constraints drove the design: staying under a price point without compromising quality, and using as few parts as possible.

Fewer parts makes the product easier to mold, easier to create, easier to ship, and easier to support.

They removed a great deal from earlier designs to get there.

Pat’s analogy is feature creep in software, where accumulated requests produce a cable remote with a hundred buttons when people use four.

Their target was the equivalent of a remote with on, off, channel, volume, and mute.

How to price a new physical product

The inputs were competitor pricing, manufacturing and shipping cost, and the margin retailers would need on wholesale.

They landed on $99 retail as a sweet spot: not too expensive, still double digits, with a discount for early Kickstarter backers.

The customer research was direct. At VidCon, Caleb asked people what they would pay, and the range came back at $80 to $150.

The more important question was why, because the answer determines whether you can support the price with things buyers actually value.

The answers were comparison to what they were currently holding, and perceived quality. Having an aluminum prototype at VidCon that people could mount a camera on communicated that it was not cheap plastic.

Why they chose Kickstarter

The platform lets people vote with their dollars, which is a genuine test rather than a survey.

It also functions as a trusted platform for telling your story, where visible backing turns the campaign into a shared idea rather than a sales pitch.

Video equipment performs particularly well there, and the audience is familiar with buying that category through Kickstarter.

They kept the campaign deliberately simple. One SKU, one product, no colours, no sizes, and none of the twelve pledge tiers with t-shirts and meetups that most campaigns run.

The reason to keep it clean was delivery. Kickstarter has no contract obligating fulfillment, so it runs largely on trust, and they wanted to communicate and deliver on time. The campaign ended in early March and units were in backers’ hands by early October, without a mold existing at the start.

The influencer relationship that changed the launch

Pat met Peter McKinnon at a Vid Summit VIP party after both spoke at the event.

They showed him the SwitchPod and filmed it, then never used that footage. He wanted to take it home and it was their only prototype.

What they did instead was have a prototype made for him and send it with no expectations. Nice packaging, a handwritten note, and a personalized video saying thank you, with an affiliate program mentioned only in case he wanted it.

They hosted the video on Wistia, so they could see it had been viewed once, and then heard nothing.

Six hours into the campaign, already halfway to the goal at $50,000 on their own, he published an eight-minute video about it. He said explicitly that they had not paid him and that he thought it was the next big thing for vloggers.

The goal was hit in 11 hours and 26 minutes of a 60-day campaign.

How to build influencer relationships before you need them

Caleb’s answer to what they would have done without an existing network is that he would go back in time and meet people.

The reason is not only marketing. Without being videographers who knew videographers, they would have built the wrong product, working silently on assumptions.

Seven or eight people made videos during the campaign, all but Peter being pre-existing friends of Pat or Caleb.

Pat’s rule is to dig your well before you get thirsty, because approaching people once you already need something is a poor position.

The alternative if you are starting cold is paying to attend the conferences where your customers are, then a targeted Facebook or YouTube video ad campaign, since the product demonstrates well on video.

How manufacturing and quality control worked

The product is fully assembled at a factory in China, then shipped in retail packaging to a US warehouse.

Prouduct sourced the factories and had visited multiple times over the preceding two years. Caleb’s own visit came about six weeks before inventory arrived, timed to the production run of over 10,000 units.

The critical detail is that the same factory had been making their prototypes for nearly a year, so it knew the product as well as they did.

Caleb’s argument for going in person is that the risk changes at volume. A one-off machined part gets measured precisely, and 10,000 units assembled by many people is where small deviations creep in.

His example is the screw at the top of the tripod. Too long and either the camera does not fit or it fits badly, which they only learned through two years of development.

He caught something on that visit that could otherwise have been a major issue, and four engineers he had never met fixed it overnight.

How SwitchPod got into retail stores

Five retailers, each acquired differently.

B&H came from Caleb’s long-standing affiliate relationship with them, which led to a meeting with a buyer while he and Pat were in New York showing the product around.

Adorama reached out during the campaign, from someone monitoring Kickstarter products.

Focus Camera was a cold outreach that worked. Moment came from a relationship Caleb built during the campaign while studying their Kickstarter page as a framework for his own.

DVE Store came from meeting them in person at Vid Summit.

The arrangement is wholesale. Retailers buy inventory outright and handle returns, shipping, and holding stock, earning their margin on the spread.

How cash flow works on a physical product

The public Kickstarter number is not what you receive. Kickstarter takes a percentage, credit card fees take another, and some backers churn.

Shipping to 4,000 backers consumed roughly $40,000 to $50,000 on its own.

Their decision was to double down. They calculated how many units they could manufacture, import, pay tariffs on, and ship without running out of money, and it came to about 10,000, against fewer than 5,000 sold.

Caleb’s description is taking the chips from one table and putting them all down at a higher-limit one.

Neither has taken money out of SwitchPod. The reasoning is that a physical product without inventory makes no money, and manufacturing in one large batch lowers unit cost and shipping.

Retailer payment terms add another timing constraint, since net 30 or longer delays the cash.

Digital products versus physical products

Pat’s biggest difficulty is patience. He can film, create, and launch a course within a week or two, while every physical iteration means new CAD drawings and remolding.

Caleb’s is cost and margin. A digital course runs 95% to 97% margin, and a physical product is more like 50% to 70% at best.

What keeps them in it differs too. Caleb points to it being genuinely fun, opening doors their digital businesses could not, and reaching more people because more people are involved.

Pat points to the moment someone mounts their camera and uses it. A course cannot deliver value until someone acts on it, and a physical product delivers in thirty seconds.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to invent a physical product?

Pat Flynn and Caleb Wojcik spent $25,000 to $30,000 on development over about fifteen months, plus roughly $70,000 for the injection mold before manufacturing any units.

How many prototypes does a product need?

The SwitchPod went through 12 to 15 versions across two years, starting with shape and material changes and narrowing to small decisions about magnets and mounting holes.

How do you get honest feedback on a prototype?

Show it to strangers rather than friends. Pat and Caleb carried prototypes around video conferences until people asked about them, and treated negative reactions as useful for defining the target market.

Should you patent before showing a product publicly?

The advice they followed was that private sharing with trusted people is fine, and public exposure should wait until you have patent-pending status.

How do you price a new product?

Ask potential buyers what they would pay and, more importantly, why. Their range came back at $80 to $150, and they set $99 retail after factoring in manufacturing, shipping, and retailer margins.

Why does part count matter in product design?

Fewer parts improve margin and make the product easier to mold, ship, and support. Pat compares excess features to a cable remote with a hundred buttons where people use four.

Should you visit your factory before a production run?

Caleb Wojcik recommends it, or at least getting units shipped to you for final sign-off. Precision on a one-off prototype does not guarantee consistency across 10,000 assembled units.

Does Kickstarter traffic keep converting after the campaign?

Yes. People searching the product name still land on the Kickstarter page and click through to the Shopify store, which drove a majority of early post-campaign sales.