Product Genius, the Podcast for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Startups
Honest advice for inventors—with obscure cultural references included at no extra charge.
Episode
241
Hope for Products That Might Never Have Been – Pronto Launch
How many promising inventions never reach the market simply because the inventor lacks the right team, contacts, funding, or commercialization experience? Steven and Noah welcome Pronto Launch CEO Mike Ryan to explore a collaborative model designed to connect inventor entrepreneurs with product development, manufacturing, fulfillment, marketing, sales, legal, and other launch resources. They also share the real-world development story behind Magic Pick and discuss why experienced guidance, trusted industry relationships, manufacturable design, and a team with genuine ownership mentality can give good inventions a better chance to become successful products.
Core Topics for this episode:
- Inventor Strategy
- Invention Process
Key Takeaways Include:
Listen here:
Episode Blog
Hope for Products That Might Never Have Been: Pronto Launch and the Inventor Support Gap
How many genuinely good inventions never make it to market?
Probably far more than anyone can count.
Sometimes the product itself is the problem. But often the invention dies because the inventor runs out of money, chooses the wrong development partner, cannot find manufacturing, gets overwhelmed by logistics, or simply does not know which problem to solve next.
In this episode of Product Genius, Steven Julian and Noah McNeely talk with Mike Ryan, CEO of Pronto Launch, about an ambitious idea: build a network that can connect inventors and entrepreneurs with the experienced people they need to move from idea to market—and, in selected cases, actually acquire promising product opportunities and take on much of the commercialization burden.
The Missing Pieces After the Idea
Inventors understandably focus on the invention.
But a successful product business requires much more than a clever idea.
The product may need industrial design and engineering. Then prototyping. Then manufacturing. Then packaging, shipping, fulfillment, customer service, marketing, sales, legal work, websites, trade shows, accounting, and dozens of other specialties.
Very few inventors have deep experience in all of those areas.
Mike describes Pronto Launch as a connector—a network of specialists and industry relationships assembled to help fill those gaps.
Noah offers another analogy: perhaps Pronto Launch is less the quarterback and more the coach, helping the inventor understand which play to run and which specialist needs the ball.
Steven prefers quarterback.
Mike introduces a bus driver.
Product Genius briefly becomes an argument over transportation and football metaphors, but the underlying point is useful: inventors need coordination as much as they need individual services.
Advice Is Useful. Contacts Make Advice Actionable.
Mike repeatedly returns to one idea: knowledge alone is not enough.
You can know that you need manufacturing, fulfillment, a trade-show strategy, or intellectual-property help. The next question is: who do you trust to actually do it?
That is where relationships and contacts become valuable.
A recommendation from someone who has worked with a supplier is very different from randomly choosing a company from a search result.
Pronto Launch’s model is built around bringing experienced people together across disciplines, including product development, manufacturing, shipping, fulfillment, customer service, marketing, sales, legal services, and other commercialization needs.
The goal is not for one person to know everything.
It is to know the right people.
The Two Paths: Advisory and Acquisition
Mike describes two major ways Pronto Launch works with inventors.
The advisory side is for entrepreneurs who want to remain in control of their business but need guidance, connections, or specific resources.
An inventor may need only product design. Another may already have manufacturing but need sales help. Another may need fulfillment while the business grows.
The acquisition side is different.
Some inventors have a compelling product but lack the funding, experience, contacts, or desire to build the entire business themselves.
For selected opportunities Pronto Launch may pursue an acquisition structure in which the inventor receives an ongoing financial interest while the commercialization team takes on the work of bringing the product forward.
That is not the right model for every invention—and Pronto Launch does not accept every product—but it creates another possible path for inventors who might otherwise never get to market.
Designing for Manufacturing Matters
One of Mike’s strongest points is something Product Genius listeners have heard before:
A product is not truly developed merely because someone created a nice rendering or CAD model.
Eventually it has to be manufactured.
Mike explains that one reason he chose to work with Product QuickStart was the connection between product design and real manufacturing experience.
If a design firm creates geometry without understanding the production process, the inventor may eventually discover that the product is too expensive, impractical, or simply impossible to manufacture as designed.
And if every manufacturing quote passes through layers of middlemen, the cost structure can become even worse.
Product development should anticipate production from the beginning.
The Magic Pick Story
The episode’s most concrete example is a product originally patented as Funnel Retriever and later developed under the name Magic Pick.
The inventor, Michael Sapienza, had already experienced the confusion many inventors face: different companies, different advice, uncertainty about whom to trust, and a difficult product that needed more than a superficial design treatment.
Another design company became involved first, but the project eventually reached a point where that team could not successfully carry it into manufacturing.
Product QuickStart then became involved in redesigning and refining the product with manufacturing in mind.
The project was not easy.
It required detailed mechanical development, repeated refinement, manufacturing coordination, packaging work, and plenty of patience from everyone involved.
Mike also emphasizes another important part of commercialization: coaching the inventor through the process.
Inventors are often experts in the problem they discovered, not in manufacturing, engineering, packaging, or launching a consumer product.
A good commercialization team has to manage both the technical project and the human one.
When a Prototype Becomes Real
Mike describes the emotional reaction when the inventor finally saw the manufactured samples.
After years of effort, the invention was no longer merely an idea, patent, sketch, or CAD model.
It looked like a product.
That moment matters.
Anyone who develops inventions professionally has seen it: the first time an inventor holds something that looks and behaves like the product they imagined years earlier.
Mike says Michael and his wife described getting goosebumps when they saw the refined sample and packaging.
There is no guarantee that any product becomes a commercial success, of course. But reaching that stage represents something important in itself: an idea that could easily have disappeared instead survived the development process and became manufacturable.
Avoid the Invention-Mill Trap
The conversation also contrasts Pronto Launch with the invention-promotion companies Noah has criticized repeatedly on Product Genius.
Inventors sometimes spend $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 or more and emerge with little beyond a rendering, generic report, or vague promise that someone will promote the idea.
The problem is not merely the price.
It is the lack of meaningful progress toward a viable business.
Any inventor evaluating a service provider should ask a basic question:
What tangible value will this step create?
Will you have better engineering?
A working prototype?
Manufacturing information?
A validated market assumption?
A real sales channel?
A useful business relationship?
Money spent should move the opportunity forward—not merely make the inventor feel like something happened.
Flexible Infrastructure Can Protect Startup Capital
Mike gives a good example with fulfillment.
A growing product company may eventually need warehouse space, employees, insurance, systems, and other infrastructure.
But signing a long lease before knowing whether you need space for 5,000 units or 50,000 units can create unnecessary risk.
A flexible fulfillment partner can bridge that gap.
Use outside infrastructure while the business proves its needs.
Bring capabilities in-house when the economics justify it.
This principle applies far beyond warehousing.
Inventors should avoid building permanent overhead simply because they assume a “real company” is supposed to have it.
Use resources appropriate to the current stage of the business.
Build a Team With Ownership Mentality
Noah points out another feature he finds compelling in Mike’s approach: the specialists involved are not simply anonymous employees passing a project from desk to desk.
Mike has spent years developing relationships with many of the people in his network, and key participants may have a direct financial interest in the success of projects they support.
That changes the mentality.
People with genuine ownership tend to think differently about outcomes.
They are not merely completing a task.
They want the business to work.
Mike connects this idea to Seth Godin’s book Tribes: strong leaders do not need to personally possess every skill. They need to assemble capable people around a common objective.
Know When You Need a Coach
One of the hardest things for an inventor to recognize is when the next problem is outside their expertise.
That does not mean the inventor is incapable.
It means product commercialization is multidisciplinary.
The inventor may be the quarterback.
The advisor may be the coach.
Somebody else may drive the bus.
Whatever analogy wins, the lesson is the same:
You do not have to personally know how to do everything.
You need enough judgment to recognize what you do not know—and a trustworthy way to reach people who do.
The Product Genius Take
Great inventions disappear for reasons that have very little to do with whether the original idea was clever.
They run out of money.
They get designed incorrectly.
They choose the wrong manufacturer.
They never develop a sales strategy.
They get buried under logistics.
Or the inventor simply becomes overwhelmed trying to coordinate disciplines they have never dealt with before.
The solution is not necessarily one giant company that does everything.
It can be a coordinated network of experienced specialists who know how their pieces fit together.
That is the promise behind Pronto Launch—and why Noah saw a natural fit between its broader commercialization network and Product QuickStart’s product-development and manufacturing expertise.
Because sometimes the difference between an invention that disappears and a product that reaches the market is not another brilliant idea.
It is finally finding the right people to help carry the idea the rest of the way.
Or, read the full transcript here:
Steven Julian
How many great inventions have never seen the light of day? How many great inventions have fallen off the back of the bus? What if you had access to any or all of the pieces of the puzzle that you need to succeed as an inventor and entrepreneur? What if we had someone who's trying to solve all of those problems? We do. Mike Ryan from Pronto Launch, next on Product Genius.
Mike Ryan
Do you want to be a successful inventor entrepreneur? Struggling to get your product from idea to market? Well, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Product Genius, the down-to-earth podcast that explores important topics about inventing and launching new products. Noah McNeely is your trusted guide. With more than 20 years of product launch experience, he's here to help you on your journey to become a product genius. Let's get started. Here's your slightly annoying co-host, Steven Julian. Yeah, that's my line.
Steven Julian
Yes, welcome to another, hopefully one day soon, award-winning edition of the fantastic show you just can't miss, Product Genius. Seated to my right is the intrepid producer Jody Smith. Seated across the table is the genius who got it all started or the. genius who picked up the ball and ran with it a couple years ago and is doing a great job from deep inside his lair in product quick start. It is the host of Product Genius, the genius behind Product Genius. It is he who is known as Noah McNeely.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, I took over the show just so I could be called genius.
Steven Julian
Yes, that's exactly right. So self-entitled or self-titlement. I don't know. Self what? Proclaimed. Thank you to our producer who's not on microphone. He just wanted to correct me. I talked a little faster because I want to get into the topic and the guest pronto. That won't be my last bad joke of the day. We are excited to welcome the CEO of Pronto Launch. Mike Ryan is here today. Pronto Launch, I am not going to read the description. I'm going to let you describe it. Tell everybody about Pronto Launch and what you guys do.
Mike Ryan
Pronto Launch is a unique company that we've felt is badly needed in the industry for so many years. Anyone who's invented a product has found all the trials or tribulations that they've had to deal with. It's unfortunate. that there's so many great products that should have hit the market, just simply never did.
Steven Julian
Yeah, and you guys kind of come at it from a lot of different angles or can help people with a lot of different angles. What are the main... What divisions or what are the main things that Pronto Launch kind of works with? What are the areas that an inventor entrepreneur who's listening to this show, as you list them out, probably at least two or three, they'll be like, oh, I know I need help in that particular area. What are those divisions?
Mike Ryan
Well, there's two main areas. We have 10 divisions, but there's two main areas that actually fall into most, covers most of their needs for inventors, startups, businesses, entrepreneurs, et cetera. One of them is what we call our Acquisitions Company. Acquisition Company essentially works for those people who have limited resources, a great product, phenomenal product, may not have the experience, may not have the guidance, don't have the contacts, certainly don't have the funding to be able to do it, but they just have a world great product. A lot of times what happens is that they'll. speak with someone who needs to, you know, Get the product license or something like that.
And they always find out quickly that the license deal is not the best option. So that's our acquisition company. Essentially what that does is that a company approaches us. If we really like the product, we'll give them a, we'll essentially acquire the company. In addition, in return, they will essentially get an outstanding royalty. In fact, we're working on money now, but the guy's going to end up most likely going to be a multimillionaire in the next couple of years. That's our acquisition company. The next one is we have the acquisition company, and then they also have an advisory company.
We often say in the industry, knowledge is power. All right. But I often say knowledge is having knowledge along with a strong support team plus key influential context gives people superpowers. So we know that we want to give people the ability to give them good guidance, but we feel that you can have the world's greatest guidance, but at the end of the day, you have to have the contacts. And we put together a strong team of. contacts that could solve a lot of their needs.
Steven Julian
Noah, I want to bring you in here real quick because you had developed a relationship with Mike, which is why he's here on the show. When you first started talking to Mike, one of the things we've learned listening to this episode is people who come to this table that you've invited, a lot of the times they've helped you and your clients. So what connected you to Mike?
Noah McNeely
Yeah, but we're not just pulling people off the street here. Not yet. Yeah, well, we'll see. We'll get the mailman in.
Steven Julian
TBD, yeah, absolutely.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, so I've known Mike probably more than a year now, maybe a year and a half. And people that have listened to this show have heard us talk about some of the big companies that kind of prey on inventors, the ones that I talk about, you see advertised on the late night TV. And I stay away from those companies. But I met Mike and I really liked what he is trying to do or what he is doing with people with his program. And that's why, in full transparency, I am working with.
Mike on Pronto Launch and on some projects right now that we're very excited about. One that Mike kind of alluded to, we think we're going to make the inventor of a multimillionaire in a few years, is one of our first launches here. And we've been working on that. Frankly, we're about to pull the trigger on manufacturing, so that's really exciting. But Mike's a good guy. In our introduction of the show, we talk about how this is a down-to-earth podcast. One of the things I love about Mike is he's a down-to-earth guy.
Just like me, he's going to call it like it is. He's going to tell you the truth. And he's only going to pull people into his team that are the same way. So that's... That's why we seem like a natural fit.
Steven Julian
Mike, as people come to get to know you and as people start to get introduced to Pronto Launch, what are you finding? What are some of the main reasons why inventors come to you or find you? You talk about acquisition, you talk about advisory, but what specific services or why do they need Pronto Launch's services? If they're not? working with you, what are they? Who are they working with? or how are they working with someone that it's not working? or what are they trying to do on their own that honestly you can really help them find greater success?
Mike Ryan
Yeah, an inventor, the first thing an inventor needs is they need to make sure that the product is properly designed. We have spoken with hundreds of design companies out there and that's what brought me to Noah at Product Quickstart. Unfortunately, what happens is that when inventors, Get a product design. It's not designed for manufacturing. A lot of times there's programs out there that will design it, but they don't have the contacts in the manufacturing industry. Product Quickstart is, in my opinion, the best company in the country. The number one company, in my opinion.
That's why I chose to work with Noah.
Noah McNeely
Well, thank you, Mike. Appreciate that.
Mike Ryan
There's no company in the country that can give them the ability that Product Quickstart can do where they cannot invent a product. Design the product, but also give them an opportunity to get it manufactured. And what happens is that a lot of design companies don't have the manufacturing contacts. And even once they say that they do have the manufacturing contacts, they go through middlemen. And all that does is just drive up the product cost. Product Quickstart, you know, I have worked with a couple of different, no one knows, there's a couple of different design companies that I initially started with this.
Product that we're referring to called Magic Peck, it was clear that Noah was just hitting shores above it because he could not only design it, because this was a very difficult design, and he clearly just was hitting shores in terms of, it was very delicate, detailed, oriented, and he just, like a champ, just came through big time. And just as importantly, he deals directly with the manufacturing companies to get this product designed, and it allowed us to not only give us a high-quality product, But he was able to do it in a very less expensive way.
That's one option. The other issue is that a lot of companies out there, they have a product. You can have, and I often make this phrase on a personal event, you can have the world's greatest bus, even. if you have a product design. How are you going to get manufactured? How are you going to ship it? How are you going to get it fulfilled? Most people don't have all those contacts or the knowledge to be able to do that. So we can, for our team, We get a product designed for them, manufactured for them.
We have social media contacts. We can get the product. We can do shipping for them. We can do a fulfillment for them. We work with trade shows, some of the largest trade show companies in the country I have a relationship with. We just did, over the last little over a year, we did two videos with Instagram, Stanley Dirt Monkey, who's known as one of the most influential influencers in the country. We did two videos for him on one of my other companies called the Original Safety Siphon. that garnered over 25 million views and generated a tremendous amount of revenue for us.
Noah McNeely
Just the breadth and depth of contacts that this entity brings together. And I'm very proud to be one of those contacts now in the design and manufacturing space. But, you know, I look. at what I do. and yeah, I've got manufacturing contacts, but there's like so many other things I have no idea how to do. So I would have to go out and find those for my clients. Sometimes I wouldn't know where to look, but Mike's almost like a single, Mike's like a connector. He's like the Nexus, Pronto Launch is like the Nexus of all these things.
Patent work or trademark work or, like you said, fulfillment, shipping, design a box, design a logo, all these things, lots of accounting, setting up your website, all the stuff which I have, I wouldn't even think about necessarily at the beginning. Mike's been there. He's done that in his other companies and now he's rolling that over into making that available to everybody. Yeah, it's fantastic.
Steven Julian
Noah, I'm going to ask you this because one of the... You know, we've joked on the show. We used to joke on the show when Tiffany was on the show about that, you know, the whole thing of genius. You even started this show by kind of, you know, joking. The show is called Product Genius. And one of the interesting things is as. you've been doing this show, the way you approach your business, the way you approach your clients, you are bringing the team members and the key relationships that you've started.
Have had and continue to develop. And so we're having guests on the show that are doing what the show is all about. And so let me just ask, how specifically did you meet Mike and Pronto Lunch?
Noah McNeely
Well, I got, if I recall correctly, I got a call from one of Mike's salespeople that was just, I guess, cold calling design companies around the country. Saying, hey, we're thinking about doing this thing and this is what it's all about. Are you interested? So he and I had a really good conversation and he was like, yeah, I'm going to introduce you to Mike. Now I get calls, random calls from time to time and there's never any follow-ups. I was like, okay, well, maybe I'll hear about this. Maybe I won't.
But then Mike and I got connected and I like to say, think that we hit it off because we said a lot of the same things. You know, we're here to help people. We're here to, you know, we're here to help. Her goal is to help our clients succeed more so than us making money off of it, which that'll come if our clients succeed. And that's really his attitude and it was my attitude. So that's how we got connected. Now, Mike, you may have a different perspective on that story, but that's how I remember it.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, exactly. That's pretty much the same thing. One of the things we do is we have one of our key people reach out and make some calls. A cool product or an opportunity or whatever, then we actually have a telemarketing company that actually reached out and that works internally. And we tried to talk to Noah and say, this is a, he's spoken more highly of Noah. He said, this guy is, he's the big deal. This is this guy you want to work with.
Steven Julian
And Mike, it sounds to me like Pronto Launch kind of wants to be The quarterback of any inventor entrepreneur during their process, wherever they are in that process of getting them connected to the right people or standing with them and actually, and I guess that's where we can. kind of talk a little bit about the division of acquisition versus advisory, but whichever path people go down. Pronto Launch is trying to help them take the next step, help them get introduced to the right people so that they don't go down any rabbit trails or go down any dead ends.
Is quarterback the right word? Is it more just, hey, wherever you are in the process, we can walk in and we'll walk whatever step you want us to walk with you?
Mike Ryan
Yes, that's a good... Comment, good point. But one of the things that we try, whether it's a business or personal level, I try to live a very humble life. And I say this very humbly. Probably one of the most, actually gave me a little goosebumps, to be honest with you, is that people, I've heard it maybe three or four times that people have shared with me that they feel that what Amazon is to the retail industry. We're almost like the Amazon to the invention industry.
Noah McNeely
I would actually, Mike, I would say your role here or Pronto Launcher's role here is really almost more of coach than quarterback. Ooh, I like. that. Well, I guess it depends on if it's the acquisition or the help model. But it's almost, I view it more like you're... You and Pronto Launch is, as the coach and the inventor can be the quarterback, you're telling them what plays to run and who to throw the ball to and who, you know, when to pass, when to run, you know, all the football stuff.
I don't know, that was just how I thought about it. What do you think about that?
Steven Julian
We're arguing over the analogy now.
Noah McNeely
We are arguing over analogies. I apologize for that.
Mike Ryan
Most inventors out there, it's scary. It's scary for them. They don't know who to talk to. They may have a friend who's a relative, whatever, may be focused on marketing. They may have someone who focused on one or two things, but they really don't have someone who has a wide range of resources for them. That's number one. The other thing, too, is that no matter what we try to do, what kind of separates us from the coaching programs out there, the advisory programs out there, is that... We just can't stress enough.
It doesn't matter. how great of advice you may get. It really comes down to contacts. You need to be able to, you can have the prettiest bus in the world, but someone has to drive that bus. And what separates us from any other company is that I've put together a program we alluded to a couple of times. is that my team, which also includes Noah. I have people in the trade show industry. We have people with manufacturing. We have people with customer service, shipping, fulfillment. These are industry leaders that actually have a personal stake and they get a piece of everything that I do.
I don't deal with third parties. These guys actually have a literary stake. So every magic pick that I sell, Noah has a vested interest that he gets a piece of everything that I sell. Same thing with my guy who does my shipping, but fulfillment, customer service. I have a right-hand person, Teresa McErdan, who is very, very well-known. She is my right-hand person, handles a lot of my administrative stuff. I'm going to plug another company here, and I highly recommend it. I'm a big Audible guy. I feel that the day. you think you know everything is the day you just quit growing.
And Noah and I just recently talked about this. There's a product out there, a book out there, an audio book, it's called by Seth Godin, G-O-D-I-N, called Tribes. And it's absolutely brilliant. I advise anybody to read this book. And what it does, essentially what it says is that, in a nutshell, and it covers a lot of area, but at the end of the day, leaders... The key with leaders is that they know when to get good people. No one, whether it's me or anybody, has all the answers on everything. Nobody does.
It doesn't matter how big a multi-billion dollar company they are. So what I did was that the key with us is that we want to get key people, influential people that I rely on to help us get to meet our objectives. And that's what key is that you have to have leaders. Get good people. And that's what I focus on. And that's what has turned us to be successful.
Noah McNeely
I think it's fair, Mike, to say you've been building this team for years through your safety siphon company and. other venues. And now you're continuing to grow the team. I mean, you brought me into the team, you know, relatively recently. But this is not just something that you just started making a bunch of random calls and started from. These are a lot of people you have a lot of trust with over the years. And the other comment I would make about all your leaders, all the people get a piece of things they work on.
I think that's a distinct difference between some of the other, quote, invention service type companies, which Pronto Launch is not an invention service. We're totally different. Is that you don't know who you're working with there. It's just some guy they hired or some person they hired and they're going to be in a different job in three months. Here, it's almost like an employee-owned company in a way in the sense that everyone you're, you as an inventor, the advisors you're going to work with or in the acquisition company, they're going to be working with people that feel a sense of ownership of making of that success.
Mike Ryan
Yeah, and that's really it. I mean, it comes down to. is that contacts is going to separate us from everything. And it's not just the contacts. Able to help them start, but what about those companies that start to be successful? We also can help them from the beginning phases, get them with the right people. We can help them. What happens if they have 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 items that they need to sell? It's expensive to get into a warehouse, to tie into a one-year, two-year, three-year, five-year lease. We recommend... Use our services, our shipping fulfillment services for two or three months until you get your feet on the ground and know exactly what you do.
What happens if two, three months from now you outgrow your space? It's expensive to get a lease. You got a lease involved. You got insurances. You have manpower, et cetera. There's just so many different factors in it that we can actually help them at the beginning while the growth stays. And then what happens down the road? whenever so many times something, so a company goes from my... A zero company to 100,000, half a million, five million. A lot of times what happens, they get to a point where. they have to sell the company because they don't know how to manage that.
We can help them in those areas so they don't have to prematurely sell their company. Product Genius is brought to you by Opu Probiotics. Pre and probiotics you can pour directly on your tongue in delicious mint and mocha flavors. But the taste is just the beginning. With Opu, you can see improved digestive function, boosted immune system, We're speaking with Mike Ryan.
Steven Julian
He is the CEO of Pronto Launch. As the slightly annoying co-host, I just have to point out that we were fighting over analogies. I said quarterback, Noah, you said coach, and Mike actually said bus driver. So we had three different analogies. We'll let the audience decide which one they like.
Noah McNeely
All three of those are necessary for the team to succeed. Oh, well done. You got to get to the football field.
Steven Julian
That's why he's the host and I'm just the slightly annoying co-host. I have a very kind of a question, Mike, as someone who's listening to this for the first time, you and Noah, you obviously have been involved in a long time. Noah is now kind of. part of the team. So as someone who's just hearing this for the first time, how does it start? Do you start with a conversation? Do you start with a fact-finding? Do you start with an interview? I'm someone who's got a product. I'm trying to launch it.
I'm at whatever phase I'm at. What can I expect if I make that first contact to pronto launch? What is the process like in working with you guys?
Mike Ryan
The first step that we do is to contact us. They can reach us by phone or by email. We'll reach out to them. Just give them the initial phase. What the bottom line is, is that once they give us an idea of what is it that they would like to do, we recommend them to sign a nondisclosure agreement. That way, that protects them. And then once they get going, we'll get all the different guidelines, what we have to offer, depending on what their needs are, whether it's shipping, process, and whatever.
We'll send them information on each one of those needs. And then connect them to the proper people. If they have a design product that they, product design. they want to do, we forward that information over to Noah and we go from there. Depending on their needs, there's a fee involved in that. It's a slight fee, but we feel that that slight fee involved is minimum compared to the money that will save them and minimize their cost and time.
Steven Julian
So I'm assuming, and please correct my assumption or refine it if you need to, So if someone comes to you and they're looking for one particular thing, I really am just looking for help with product design. I really am just looking for help with legal, trademark, patent, that kind of stuff. That's more on the advisory side. The more of these things that they might be looking for, is that when it starts to tilt a little more toward the acquisition or is the acquisition side more where someone goes, I've got a good idea, but I absolutely have no idea what to do with it.
And I'm willing to potentially have someone. Have part ownership or acquire it to help me get it to the masses to help the masses. Talk a little bit about that.
Mike Ryan
The first thing is we do our. initial call would be as a free consultation. The key would be is to find out what are their needs. I can't help them unless I know what their needs are. So what we do is we find out what are your needs? Are you looking for someone who just take over the company? Are you looking for someone? Are you need funding? Do you need? Do you need help across the board? Usually the people that need all the above, so to speak, those are people most likely going to be involved in the acquisition program.
If they say that, hey, I have a contact in the marketing end, but we're weak on sales, as we separate sales and marketing as two different components.
Steven Julian
I'm guessing one of the other things that sets Pronto Launch apart, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, but having talked to Noah long enough and kind of being adjacent to the product development space, I would imagine one of the things is you guys are probably about as transparent as you can be or vastly more transparent in pricing and agreements than other companies that won't be named here but will certainly be. thrown under the bus in concept.
Noah McNeely
If we name them, then Jody will have to bleep them out later.
Steven Julian
We like doing bleeps on this show.
Noah McNeely
We don't want to be sued.
Steven Julian
But is that right, Mike?
Mike Ryan
Yeah, I don't want to say we're a nonprofit company, but we are. But we have bills to pay, too. And we have, in order for us to provide the best service and take care of our team members, they need to be properly compensated as well. We put together a very, very inexpensive way. I have, I can't tell you how many times someone calls me and say, I spent $5,000, $10,000 with this company out there. If I would have known you, I would have saved a lot of money.
Noah McNeely
Now I can vouch for that. You know, I'm not going to get on my soapbox about all the scammy companies out there.
Steven Julian
The previous episodes of Product Genius.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, I mean, you wake up your $10,000, $20,000, $5,000 in the hole, and you really have a pretty picture, and that's it a lot of times with these companies. I've got a CAD drawing, Noah. Pronto launches charges are, well, frankly, fractionally minuscule compared to what those scammer companies do to you. Yeah.
Steven Julian
And reasonable and well worth what the service is delivered.
Noah McNeely
Well, because they actually deliver something. Right.
Mike Ryan
Jody. And our program is set where it's not a long-time commitment. They can be with us for one month. They can be over two months. They can be three months. They can be with us for six months. They can go try doing their own. And then if they realize, you know what, I need some more guidance. I need some more help. They can come back. It's a very... We're a very low-key, low-pressure company. I mean, we have to, our goal essentially is that in most cases, you're dealing with people who feel that they came up with the world's greatest idea.
They hear the horror story that people have been burned, ideas have been stolen, and it's scary. And their idea can change their life. It can change their family life. And we take that personal. We take that very seriously. And I think once people reach out to us and contact us, They'll see that we're a very low pressure company. We'll be very straightforward that. if we feel it's a good fit, we'll tell them. If we don't, then we'll also tell them as well.
Noah McNeely
Mike, I was, okay, Steven, if I cut you off here, I apologize if you want to come back.
Steven Julian
Listen, I was just, I'm going to cut you off first. I was going to tell Jody I tried to break you before and it didn't work. But anyway, go ahead.
Noah McNeely
Very good. So I was going to say, Mike, I was wondering if we could. Sort of tell the Magic Pick story a little bit and actually kind of starting with what you told me recently about, I guess you had dinner with the inventor and his wife and I'd love to hear you say what they told you in that meeting and then kind of go back to how it started and where they came from. And I can fill in some pieces there too, but I think it's a really good story. I think it's one, it's a story that had a lot of ups and downs.
And like you said, we had another design firm involved and that didn't work out well. And all, you know, there. was some turmoil there, but we, you know, part of the magic is we saw it through to the end. So could you tell that a little bit?
Mike Ryan
Yeah, it's gone actually almost two years for this product. Most light inventions don't necessarily take that long, but this was a very, very long process. But the bottom line is that what happened was that the inventor had a product invented. It was called Funnel Retriever. That's how he got the patent under Funnel Retriever. Funnel Retriever, he reached out to a lot of people, went from one thing to another. Bring a lot of issues, didn't know who to trust, didn't know who to take care of. One thing led to another. And through a contact who knew me, the inventor knew someone who knew someone type thing, who ended up knowing a company called Cardboard Helicopter out of Cleveland, Ohio, who actually said, hey, who reached out to me and said, hey, Mike, I got a product that I think you do great with this product.
It's a great product. I think it can do change, help a lot of people. So one thing, we reached out to one. design company who thought we were going to get some good advice.
Noah McNeely
Don't name them by name.
Mike Ryan
I promise I won't do that. But as it turned out, they were not able to manufacture it. And it designed it in a way that was A, manufacturable, and then B, the contact they had for manufacturing was through a middleman, which we knew was going to drive the price up.
Noah McNeely
And Mike, I remember being on the conference call at the time with you, me, and I guess the president of that company, when he just says, that's it, I'm done, I'm out. And we never heard from him again. So I guess he realized he didn't know how to take it any further.
Mike Ryan
Unfortunately, yeah, it gets to a point right now where when I start questioning things, it just was not. So the bottom line is, fast forwarding it, we reached out to Noah, and it just became very clear up front that Noah had the ability to manufacture it because it was such a delicate design. It took a lot of tedious work to get done, and it's just, I mean, we could not have been any more. happier. And then, just as importantly, is that unlike most other design companies, he was able to get it designed, and then his direct contacts with the manufacturing plant has saved us a lot of time and a lot of money.
Noah McNeely
Let me sing your praises a little bit here, too, Mike, is that this particular inventor, great guy. I love him. He's awesome. But he needed a lot of coaching, and you handled that masterfully. People, well, engineers out in the world really don't know how to deal with, but you did a fantastic, masterful job with it. And I think that's a key element of the success here too.
Mike Ryan
Well, inventors are great at inventing products. They're not manufacturers. They're not designers and so forth. So the key is that you're trying to get people who have their passions there. So you're trying to submit personalities and so forth to get people to, you know. Mesh together to come at the end of the day, come up with one goal. By fast forwarding. where we are right now is that after an incredible job that Noah did, the inventor first saw the first, well, P1 sample is what's. called as some people may not be familiar with in the industry.
He saw it and he said, I mean, he saw, he said he literally got goosebumps on his arms. He said, this is just incredible.
Steven Julian
That might have been an allergic reaction to the manufacturing process, but go on.
Mike Ryan
Absolutely. So then, and the product wasn't even finished yet. After a few tweaks and so forth, and anybody knows, Noah knows this, Mike knows this, I'm very particular and detail-oriented. I believe that if you're going to do something, do it right. Don't, you know, I kind of like solve problems, I guess you can call that. And what I did was between Noah's help, the inventor's help, and so forth, we were able to come up with a product just sort of credible. Because you're dealing with not only manufacturing the product, you're dealing with not only designing the product.
You got put together the box with Noah's help. In addition to all that, he actually designed a box. that was just unbelievable. I mean, and yesterday, I met with the owner yesterday, the inventor. I should, not the owner, but the inventor of it. His name. is Michael Sapienza. And Michael is just incredibly appreciative and blessed the fact that where things are right now, him and his wife, he was telling me when they saw the final, the last T1 sample, along with the box, I know I say this a couple of times, she says it was just amazing.
Both her and I both had goosebumps. And she says that we are. We cannot express how appreciative that we are on what you have done for us. She says that this product over the next couple of years is going to make them a multimillionaire. I have no confidence, no doubt about that whatsoever.
Steven Julian
All right. So I have to jump in. We're recording this in fourth quarter of 2024. Am I allowed to ask what's the name of this product is going to be on the market? What is the name of the product?
Noah McNeely
It's Magic.
Mike Ryan
It's called Magic Pack.
Steven Julian
Magic Pick.
Mike Ryan
Okay. Magic Pick. They'll be able to see it at magicpick.com. Okay. We are hopefully in the next couple of weeks, it'll be ready to go to manufacturing. It will be available sometime in June, late, hopefully, late January. Early February. at the latest, hopefully, if not sure.
Noah McNeely
Well, see, now you're going to get me in trouble, but that is the goal. I'm going to interject one thing here just to point out that Steven is across the table from me and he's been snickering for the last three minutes because, Mike, no one has given me this many compliments on a single episode. So thank you for that.
Steven Julian
I was just waiting for someone to compliment me, but that'll never happen. You're fantastic. No, that's why I'm slightly annoying, is I'm the one who will go. By the way, Jody is, that's why I call him intrepid producer, because he's so fantastic and it's wonderful. So we can finish up the love fest here. And I'm just, listen, I'm giving you guys, I'm busting your chops a little bit.
Noah McNeely
It's possible that Mike and I have man crushes on each other.
Steven Julian
A little bit of bromance going on. But you know what? What it is, is you guys are passionate about what you do. When you find other people who truly want to help people succeed in their business because they know that helps themselves succeed in what they're. doing, we can laugh about that a little bit and have a little bit of fun. And I think you two would say to Jody and I and other people who are listening, because I think if any longtime listeners of this show or even short-time listeners will recognize the field you guys work in is...
There's a plethora of other types of companies that prey on people and that, you know, don't really care about the final success.
Noah McNeely
And if Mike and I didn't like each other, we wouldn't be very good working together. Well, that's true.
Steven Julian
So there's a little bit of that, too. All right, Mike, I do want to ask, we're going to wrap up here because I think what if listeners haven't figured it out at this point. If they are potentially looking to get acquired, if they need some advisory services, if they're looking at new products, if they are looking at potentially investors, or they're looking at product design, manufacturing, logistics, shipping, fulfillment, customer service, social media, legal help with trademark patent and contract services, and probably other things I can't even think of, I think they know where they need to go. now.
And so it's really just up to you, Mike. As CEO of Pronto Launch, clear your throat, get yourself ready, give us your best sales. Mike Ryan, CEO of Pronto Launch, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your passion and just... All the good things that you're doing and the good team you've put together. Thanks for letting Noah be a part of that team because I know when you did that, you did not know that you'd have to deal with me, but you did a good job and I appreciate it very much.
Noah McNeely
And now you have someone you can refer to. if they need a podcast too, right?
Steven Julian
They need a slightly annoying host.
Mike Ryan
I appreciate your time.
Steven Julian
Absolutely. Thanks for being on the show, Mike.
Noah McNeely
Thank you, Mike.
Mike Ryan
Thanks for your time. Absolutely.
Steven Julian
Noah, yet again, you bring another MVP to the table.
Noah McNeely
Yeah. And a very, very complimentary of me. So I'll be, you know, doing more of that in the future.
Steven Julian
Listen, you know, I love Mike.
Noah McNeely
Mike's awesome. We have enjoyed working together and it's just, we have such similar viewpoints on how to help people. And. I think it was just a natural, natural fit.
Steven Julian
Authenticity is, is people would say it's lacking, but I also think it can, it can be spotted. Not. Not always, but I think what came through, and I've never met Mike. This is the first time we've talked. But just there's a level of authenticity to him. And it's very refreshing when someone's like, I just want to help. And I think I've got to, you know, and it's not just I want to help, but I have no idea what I'm doing. Hey, I just want to help. And through my career and through what I'm doing, I've put together some people that'll help.
And there was something that came through in that interview. There's a buy-in. When people are selling, sometimes they're just selling just to get you to say yes. But there's a level of buy-in with you and the other team members that I think I would like to dig a little more. If I was someone with a product, I'd want to dig a little more into that because he was saying that, and I don't want to just throw that line away. There's a. piece. He kind of was saying, well, Noah's got a piece.
There's some buy-in from everybody who's involved in projects.
Noah McNeely
That totally changes the attitude of, well, let me rephrase that. I think that that reflects the attitude of the people that Mike's brought onto the team is that he's only brought people into that system that he does share common philosophies with and viewpoints.
Steven Julian
He's willing to be the gatekeeper because it's his baby.
Noah McNeely
Absolutely. And I think it's... Again, like I said, there's a huge difference between working with a team that does have that sense of ownership of what's going on versus going to another company and you might be working with someone that was hired three weeks ago and they're going to be at a new job in a year. You just never know.
Steven Julian
Now, I don't know if listeners are asking this, but again, just to be slightly annoying and just to make sure I cover it, this does not mean that if someone just needs help with just the product. And they want to contact you and Product Quickstart. That's not like all your leads have to go through Pronto Launch.
Noah McNeely
I mean, Pronto. Launch and Product Quickstart are two totally separate entities where I would call us allies and collaborators. But no, it's, it's, and frankly, some people that go to Pronto Launch don't need Product Quickstart. And that's, you know, that can go both ways.
Steven Julian
A total side note, when you play Axis and Allies, are you always the Allies or do you sometimes play as the Axis?
Noah McNeely
I played it one time in college and it took all night. I was the Axis and we lost.
Steven Julian
And you said, I'll never do that game again.
Noah McNeely
Well, six hours into it with the guy that loved board games and he was still ready to go. I'm like, dude, we started this on Friday. This is what nerdy people at Georgia Tech do on a Friday night. That's exactly right. So I don't know. Why did you bring that super nerdy thing up? You said allies.
Steven Julian
So as a nerdy tech guy, I really went to access an ally. Besides, we have listeners who we have to bring up. I feel like it is my duty. when I find a rabbit trail I can go down. There's at least one or two listeners. that I know will go, oh, check the box. All right, they got it. So I'm not going to mention any of the other things that we usually mention. There'll be another time to do that.
Noah McNeely
I think the listeners are gradually turning off the podcast right now.
Steven Julian
So before they do that, they can go to productquickstart.com. Make sure. You fill out the contact us form. Please do not put in there. I have a great idea. Call me. It doesn't ask for everything, but it does ask for enough so that Noah can get in touch with you. So for Noah McNeely, for our producer, Jody Smith, this is your slightly annoying co-host, Steven Julian. I'm going to go deal with my goosebump rash, and we will catch you next time on Product Genius.