Episode 007 – Tara O’Brien on Manufacturing and Marketing a New Teaching Tool

Summary

Today you’re going to hear from a piano teacher who noticed a problem and decided to do something about it. Tara O’Brien tells us the story of how developed a tool called Note Match to help her students learn to read music faster.

Tara’s first Note Match prototype was hand-drawn on a piece of paper. Today, it’s a professionally-manufactured flexible whiteboard mat that she uses in lessons every day.

In our chat, Tara takes us on the Note Match journey, from design, to manufacturing, to marketing, and she’s completely honest about the challenges and expense of bringing a product to market.

Takeaways

If you have an idea for a product that you know works, go for it. You will have setbacks, but just keep taking the next step.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. The expertise of others may be the key to your success.
Bringing Note Match to market was going to be an expensive project, so Tara used Kickstarter to raise funds.
Running a successful Kickstarter project is a project in an of itself – putting the project up wasn’t enough. It took reaching out to individuals she knew to get the support she needed
Getting a product produced takes more time and more money than you might expect 🙂
You’ve got to believe in your product to endure the sacrifice of time and finances to get it to market