This may be a bit off-topic, but hopefully someone on here has some advice/tips/guidance for me.

I've designed and am currently prototyping and testing some new off-road electronics parts for lighting solutions that I'd like to manufacture in large quantities and sell. The problem is I'm an active duty Marine, and my responsibilities in the Corps obviously take priority. I'd like to make these parts available, and hopefully make a bit of profit, but I could deploy at any time, and I don't want to fail to get the parts to customers.

Anyone else been in a similar situation? Should I look for a business partner (and if so, how and where), or would I be better off trying to sell/license the parts to one of the big companies like OMIX-ADA?

Hope someone has some insight for me.

Thanks.


(Moderators: If there's a better place for this post, please let me know. I am not a manufacturer (yet), and if I ever succeed in becoming one, I won't be promoting the products here, per the forum rules. I'm not mentioning any of the details about what I'm making in this post.)

 

First of all, welcome to the forum and thank you for your service to our country. Before you contact anyone regarding a partnership, you probably should make sure that you have a patent for your invention. I would look for a smaller company that is more specialized in the types of product you are working on to partner with, maybe Rigid industries or Inspired Engineering.

 

I'm in the process myself and going through the same thing. I currently have a few things in the R&D right now. Its a fair amount of work and more money than you probably realize... I say that only because I've gotten that fair in my process and I was surprised at the cost. Its not stopping the forward momentum, but it is more than expected.

If you'd like to discuss it more I would prefer we do it off the forum, as I'm sure the forum owner would prefer that as well. My email is John@tacticalinf.com.