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Tell us about your project

Who we work with

Our customers are companies with their own innovative hardware products, wearables, health monitoring devices, audio equipment, robotic systems, and various electronics.

They design and own their products. They come to us to manufacture them.

In general, our customers have a credible plan to purchase at least USD 300,000 (factory price) worth of products within the first 12 months of mass production. For a new product, it means there is demonstrated market traction and adequate funding.

We work with these companies in one of two situations:

  1. Companies already in production and looking for a better manufacturer.
  2. Companies that are developing a new product and getting ready to bring it into production.
with agilian customer
If this sounds like the position you’re in, we’re really excited to speak with you. Please contact us for a conversation about your project and needs.
Speak with Agilian about my project

1. Companies that are already in production, and looking for a better manufacturer

Some of our customers come to us because their current manufacturing setup is no longer working well enough.

They have outgrown their manufacturer’s capabilities. They need stronger process discipline, better quality control, and more visibility into what is happening on the production floor. In many cases, they have been dealing with inconsistent quality, poor communication, or a reactive approach to problems — and they have reached the point where the cost of staying is higher than the cost of switching.

These companies value a manufacturer that operates with structure and transparency. They want clear data, predictable timelines, and a partner that proactively manages risks rather than waiting for problems to surface.

2. Companies that are developing a new product, and getting ready to bring it into production

Other customers come to us because their product design is well advanced, and they need a manufacturing partner to take it through industrialization and into mass production.

These companies have already done the hard work — defining the product, validating the concept, and understanding their market. What they need now is a structured path from design to reliable production: Design for Manufacturing (DFM), a disciplined New Product Introduction (NPI) process, and thorough validation before ramp-up.
They are not looking for a prototype shop (even though we make plenty of prototypes). They are looking for a manufacturer that will help them avoid surprises in mass production — and that will still be the right partner years later, as volumes grow.

Who we’re a good fit for

Agilian works with companies that own their own innovative hardware products and need a structured manufacturing partner to help bring them into reliable production.

Our clients develop products such as wearables, health monitoring devices, audio equipment, robotic systems, and consumer electronics. They design and own their products. They come to us to manufacture them, industrialize them, and help manage the production risks that can appear before and after launch.

We usually work with companies in one of two situations:

  1. They are already in production and looking for a better manufacturer.
  2. They are developing a new product and getting ready to bring it into production.


In general, our clients have a credible plan to purchase at least USD 300,000 factory price worth of products within the first 12 months of mass production. For new products, this usually means demonstrated market traction, adequate funding, and a product design that is mature enough to move into engineering validation.

 

Are you developing a new product?

We’re probably a good fit for each other if you satisfy most/all of these points:

  • You have an understanding of the materials, components, and technologies needed to make your product a reality.
  • You have done market research, gotten feedback from target users, and understand your market and where your product fits into it.
  • You have a plan for product development, transfer to production, production itself, and distribution.
  • Your company can fund the whole development & production, or you are working with outside investors.
  • Your product design is complete or near complete in the best cases.
  • You want to come on site and work with our teams to make a lot of progress fast, based on our prototyping equipment, our testing lab, etc.
with agilian customer
If this sounds like the position you’re in, we’re really excited to speak with you. Please contact us for a conversation about your project and needs.
Speak with Agilian about my project

Are you developing a new product?

We’re probably a good fit for each other if you satisfy most/all of these points:
  • You have an understanding of the materials, components, and technologies needed to make your product a reality.
  • You have done market research, gotten feedback from target users, and understand your market and where your product fits into it.
  • You have a plan for product development, transfer to production, production itself, and distribution.
  • Your company can fund the whole development & production, or you are working with outside investors.
  • Your product design is complete or near complete in the best cases.
  • You want to come on site and work with our teams to make a lot of progress fast, based on our prototyping equipment, our testing lab, etc.

If this sounds like the position you’re in, we’re really excited to speak with you. Please contact us for a conversation about your project and needs.

Speak with Agilian about my project

Common red flags which mean we’re not a good fit for each other yet 🚩

If you are planning to launch new products that have never been manufactured before and find yourself in the following situations, it’s likely that the time isn’t right for us to work together…yet.

We can’t really provide value when a project is not mature enough yet. Typical red flags are when a potential customer:

  • Has not investigated or validated what technologies are a good fit for the product, and expects us to think of the whole solution for free (or for a low flat fee). This type of exploratory work is actually very valuable and requires experienced engineers' attention, so we are happy to do it only if the customer is willing to pay for all our work -- seldom below 5,000 USD.
  • Does not have a clear idea of the target market, the typical user profile, and the distribution channel. The best companies have ways to figure all this out very early.
  • Asks us questions such as "can you make this prototype (of new and complicated products, starting from nothing) in a few weeks?" or "once there is a prototype, you can go into mass production right away, right?". In other words, they have little idea about the whole process yet.
  • Asks us to finance the project, to set up marketing & distribution, or pushes us into other unrealistic business models -- that's especially unrealistic if the "inventor" wants to have no 'skin in the game'.

In such cases, it makes sense to join a community such as the Hardware Academy, or an incubator, before starting to talk to companies in Asia. Once the concept is a bit more mature, we can help with industrial design (we offer an “express” plan that costs between 800 and 1,500 USD for simple products).

Project Fit & Expectations

Project minimums: Because our R&D team specializes in complex, ground-up product development, we work best with well-scoped projects. For projects requiring Agilian design services, we typically look for a minimum total design budget of $50,000 (only a portion of this needs to be spent with us). For projects already designed elsewhere, we can support you with a DFM review starting at $1,000.

FAQs about who we work with

Yes. Production transfers are an important part of our work. A successful transfer requires preparation, documentation, and a structured approach, and this is something we take seriously from day one.
We work best with companies whose design is close to complete, and at the right stage to go into engineering validation. The more mature the design, the faster and more efficiently we can move through DFM and NPI.

Most products we work on include electronic features.
They often present multiple challenges, many of which cannot be foreseen in advance since the products are “new to the world” (in other words, there is no identical product to learn from).

What does all this imply?
Every project necessitates a lot of attention from our management. In the first years of our existence, we worked very hard to help customers who came with a low budget. We worked with many entrepreneurs who were trying to launch their product for the first time, and it felt great… until we found it was not workable from a business standpoint.

What was the problem?
At one point we went up to more than 80 different projects. We hired more than 30 project managers because there was so much work involved just in planning and tracking what to do. We worked hard on our processes, we hired a lot of support staff. 35 R&D engineers worked around the clock. Our managers became extremely busy.
However, we noticed that most of these small projects ‘died’ at one point.
The customers had prototypes in hand, but they failed to raise enough funding. Or they got some funding to pay for tooling and for a small production run, but they then lacked enough for marketing and distribution. Or they found, after spending time and money, that they could not sell their product as easily as they had assumed.

What did we learn from this?
We noticed clear patterns. Certain types of projects are more likely to be successful. And we want to spend all our attention, and bring all our experience, on those projects because they are more interesting and fulfilling at every level for both you and us.
So, we work only on projects that are relatively mature and that are somewhat likely to be successful. 

Topic

Customer traits for a…

productive relationship

difficult relationship

Involvement

Researched technologies etc.

Expects all done for them

Team member dedicated time

No regular team time

Funding

Has a plan & advisor

Limited budget, uncertain funds

Market

Validated pain points, got evidence

No validation, waits for prototypes

Approach

Understands uncertainty, patient

Impatient, pushes on delays

Assists in solving problems

Complains, seeks free work

Communication

Clear, structured, to the point

Long emails; escalates to CEO

 

Topic

Customer traits for a…

productive relationship

difficult relationship

Understanding

Values NPI process

Wants to skip steps

Involvement

Team member dedicated time

No regular team time

On-site for pilot runs

Remote only, expects fast approvals

Funding

Sufficient for full project

Insufficient and no strong plan

Market

Started to pre-sell product

No sales, no traction

Approach

Assists in solving problems

Complains, seeks free work

Communication

Clear, structured, to the point

Long emails, escalates to CEO

Based on our experience, projects that fail to make it to the market and to sustain a company financially, tend to have these traits:

    • No market research beyond getting feedback from the founders’ personal networks, and few insights about the target market (competitors, main pain points of users, required warranty time, etc.). No structured survey of target users. No attempt at early market validation, for instance with advertising and a landing page.
    • No overall plan for the development of the product, for the transfer to production, for the production itself, and for distribution. (Note: we can help refine the plan, and we have useful templates for that, but successful entrepreneurs usually do research or have previous experience, and they come up with an initial plan.)
    • Since there is no plan, there is no budget. Again, we can help refine the budget, but there has to be an expectation that engineering work is not very cheap and that, apart from very simple products, it takes several rounds of prototyping to get the product design validated. Most of the products we make have taken a budget above 30,000 USD in prototyping, above 10,000 USD in tooling, and above 50,000 USD in other preparation work — and that’s before the costs of the first production run.
  • Since there is no evidence of market demand or market traction, no plan, and no budget, there is usually no investor beyond friends & family on board.

For all these reasons, we tend to ask a lot of questions when someone reaches out to us for prototyping a new product. Not surprisingly, the more likely the product is to be successful, the more eager we are to work on it!

Congratulations! You have already done a lot of the work.

Here are two pieces of advice:

A. Don’t wait until the very last “look like, work like” prototype — you need to start doing DFM reviews relatively early. You will probably have adjustments to make in order to ensure the product is manufacturable at the right cost & quality. The later you start to consider DFM, the deeper and more painful the adjustments may have to be. Please contact us. We have a lot of experience with DFM.

B. Make sure to keep some timing and some budget for the process development & validation. In certain projects, the amount of work to get from prototype to production is as high as that of going from idea to prototype…

Yes, we can and we’re very interested in talking to you about your situation. Please contact us so we can have a discussion.

Oh, and make sure to prepare adequately for the transfer (we have written a detailed guide on how to switch from one supplier to another).

Where Agilian stands as an EMS/CM

(Click on the graphic to expand it.)

agilian cm/ems capabilities positioning

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