The modern age of the Internet has made many aspects of daily life more accessible, and the same is true for small design companies. Creating the connection between start-up companies and potential investors has never been easier through sites like Kickstarter and Indie-gogo, allowing the makers of the World to test the market before committing to the expensive steps that use to be required to prototype a new product to be tested by the consumer. By December 2013, a handful of Canadian start-up companies had successfully funded their hardware products, […]

Last week when the WSJ reported of a new Canadian government program that sought to lure US hi-tech startups to the great white north – heads turned. The article described how Canada had a new subsidy program that would pay 80% of a foreign based startups’ labor costs if they moved their operations to Canada.  The only catch was that the company had to be majority controlled by a person(s) who was a Canadian resident. But even by setting up a satellite office in Canada a startup company could net […]

A couple years ago many great product ideas were sitting collecting dust in the minds, workshops and hard drives of entrepreneurs. These ideas sat behind the barrier of funding – often dismissed after the entrepreneur exhausted their bootstrap, government and private lending finance options. But crowdfunding changed that. Using online platforms, crowdfunding meant new product ideas could be pitched to a wider global audience and funded through individual donations. These fundraising efforts have led to some pretty impressive success stories, the most notable being the Pebble Smartwatch which fundraised $10.3million […]

Ottawa inventor Jay Conohan walked into the Design 1st office in January 2013 with a product idea and the enthusiasm to dive head first into the product development process. Now 10 months later, he has a working prototype, Kickstarter campaign and is preparing for the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas to showcase his product. Here’s a quick summary of Jay’s journey and how he re-invented bath time for toddlers. The Product Idea: Like many inventors, Jay stumbled across the “Bath and Play” product idea by accident; literally, his son […]

It's an exciting day for enterprising Canadians! Kickstarter - the largest global crowdfunding engine has officially launched its Canadian operations! What is Kickstarter? If you're not familiar with Kickstarter - its a crowdfunding platform for creative projects. These projects may include new inventions, gadgets, products, music, art and film. The concept is simple, anyone can "donate" to a project they want to see completed in return they get rewards which may include the end project, behind the scenes access to its design or anything else you can imagine! How does […]