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Hong Kong Report
Seasoned Greetings!
Hello from high above the Pacific. We are currently heading home from a trip to Hong Kong and Shenzen China, where we had the opportunity to visit the factory that is about to begin manufacturing our product. Overall the trip was very successful, and I think the best way to sum things up is with a quick list of our most and least favorite things:
Carol's favorite thing: Her street-vendor meal of octopus balls and pork pizza.
Carol's least favorite thing: Walking-induced blisters.
David's favorite thing: The wickedly fast escalators in the subway stations.
David's least favorite thing: The humidity.
Food and escalators aside, the primary purpose of the trip was to visit the factory and check on the status of our project. The manufacturer is in the very final stages of the tooling process, which is when they create the molds for the polycarbonate injection machines. The most surprising thing was to see just how large these tools are; the mold for even the smallest component is carved out of a large chunk of steel and weighs at least 400 pounds. And there are about a dozen of these just for our product!
We reviewed the latest test samples and found they were very close to being perfect. Being there in person was invaluable as we were able to convey just how much resistance there should be when certain parts snap together, or the exact type of surface the stainless steel faceplate should have. These types of details are next to impossible to express in an email message, so it was well worth the effort to have the in-person meeting. It was also extremely reassuring to see how well-run and professional the manufacturing firm is, as that gives us a lot of confidence that our project is in good hands.
All of this will, of course, lead to the obvious question: When will our product be available for sale? Assuming no new delays, we're still on track to have product stateside by the end of summer. We learned the shipping is going to take considerably less time than we had originally planned for, so that will perfectly offset the delays we had in the early stages of tooling.
Meanwhile, things are moving well on the marketing side. In recent months we finalized our new logo and color palette, and substantial work has been done on our brochure and new web site design. No, we're not ready to show these yet; we want to wait until all the pieces are in place so we can do one big unveiling. Perhaps the most exciting thing, however, is that we finally have business cards!
Finally, it occurs to us that there are still a lot of you who don't yet know what it is we're making. Sorry about keeping you in the dark for so long, but we wanted to be a bit stingy with details until things reached a certain stage. Happily, we can now bring everyone up to speed: Our first product will, quite simply, be the best-designed, most functional spice containers available. They address the many flaws of all existing products and well, you won't be able to comprehend how you could have lived this long without them.
Well, it looks like there's still another 11 hours left for this flight, so it's time to grab a pillow and sleep some of the time away.
Best regards,
Carol and David Peterman