Nathan's advice is to "work with the makers directly," skip middleman agencies, and actually visit factories in person — in countries like China, Vietnam, India or Bangladesh. You can start on platforms like Alibaba and at trade shows, but "you need to do 99% of that work" rather than hoping to do it from home.
See Nathan Yun's full take
Nathan says for a consumer product, "try to work with the makers directly" because "middleman agencies are definitely history, it doesn't make sense anymore, it will bring up your cost way too much." Go to "a different country where they might manufacture your product, whether it's China, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh," and "actually visit that place, actually talk to those makers and visit their factories" — knowing the people behind your products also gives you "more leverage in your negotiation process." For someone starting with no contacts, he suggests platforms like Alibaba to start conversations you steer toward a visit, plus trade shows "not just in Shanghai, Guangzhou, but also in Paris, in Tokyo." His bottom line: "do the hard work when it comes to sourcing, there's no shortcut," and "you need to do 99% of that work instead of just hoping that you can do all the work from home."
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Phung, Daniel and Hanson
SipHRD · EP 12
Daniel was "emailing about maybe 20 breweries" and "even went to like page three of Google" to find the right manufacturing partner. Most "won't even help you out or don't even respond" — the ones that do should "want to work with you and understand what your vision" is.
See Phung, Daniel and Hanson's full take
Finding a manufacturer was "tough times." Daniel was "emailing about maybe 20 breweries" and "even went to like page three of Google" out of desperation. His advice: "most of them can't even won't even help you out or don't even respond," but with the ones that do, "you want to make sure that they want to work with you and understand what your vision are for the product." He also recommends having "a second option or second opinion" and attending industry events — they went to the "Australian Distillery Festival" to "talk to them and see how the industry works." For the drink itself they "went with the first option cuz they offered us the whole package" — R&D, ingredients, packaging, "quality control" — and for the cartons they worked with "a really nice guy," Andy, who was "really helpful" with their "pretty unique" can size.
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Floriye Elmazi
Sisterwould · EP 9
Floriye wanted the product made in Australia and refused to just white-label something already invented, so they paid for research and development and own the IP — no one else has the formula. They literally looked at the addresses on the back of other products' packaging (required by law), Googled locations in those towns, and reached out.
See Floriye Elmazi's full take
The approach was scrappy. When replying through company websites didn't get them through the door, they turned to LinkedIn — Rina's background is HR recruiting and she's "really good with LinkedIn" — to find contacts and get emails for the people who could help formulate. Floriye's takeaway: "sometimes just replying on the website you don't get through the door."