The Year of the Start-Ups
Thus far, 2025 has been our start-up year, as we’ve launched two independent start-ups since March. Stanford Manufacturing has always been more than four walls that house machines to make parts, we are also an idea-factory, and we encourage creative thinking by our clients and our employees.
We’ve learned a few things over the year as we discovered what it takes to get a start-up off the ground. First, we learned that launching a successful start-up takes a lot more than a great idea. People have great ideas every day; it’s what you do with that idea that turns a concept into a product. Paint Daddy, our first start-up of the year, is a versatile paint bucket attachment that combines the functions of a bucket, roller tray, and tool storage in one convenient unit for any 5-gallon bucket.
As we decided to move forward with Paint Daddy products, the rest of the Stanford Manufacturing team jumped into preparatory action.
Our engineers turned a concept into a prototype. We ran into some issues with warping and with the fit of the attachment onto the rim of the bucket, which led to multiple rounds of prototyping and tweaking to perfect the product. Tweaking a design is somewhat of an expectation in the initial stages of launching a start-up, but then we had to account for machine time.
We are fortunate to be busy at Stanford Manufacturing, with most of our machines running for 22-24 hours a day, even without our start-up products being in the mix. We had to re-work our machine schedule to fit Paint Daddy products in. With so many new projects in the works, reorganizing the machine schedule wasn’t enough, we had to purchase two new machines, which you can read about here. Then, the fate of Paint Daddy turned over to our communications team.
A start-up needs as much attention as you can garner for it to help the public and retailers know that you offer a product of value and longevity. Our communications team got to work designing a website, advertising and publishing press for Paint Daddy.
A great product line, coupled with strategic marketing and PR tactics, helped move Paint Daddy forward in its first weeks on the market. After initial success with e-commerce sales and strategies in the works to move Paint Daddy onto commercial retailers’ shelves, we were ready for our second start-up of the year, LipLidz.
LipLidz is a line of reusable, specialty cocktail glasses made from BPA-free plastic. Each cup comes with an attachable lid to avoid spills or bugs in your drink, and their sturdy plastic makeup ensures durability. LipLidz came to Stanford Manufacturing as a client who previously used us as a contract manufacturer. In early 2025, the owner of LipLidz decided she was ready to hand the reins over and asked if we would like to take LipLidz into our own hands. The answer was yes. Fortunately, LipLidz had already seen success through e-commerce and small vendor markets. It was our job to elevate LipLidz even more.
As with any product, a key piece of information to identify is the target audience. Who are you attempting to sell to, or what person is most likely to buy this product? With Paint Daddy, that audience was more targeted from the get-go. People who purchase Paint Daddy products are likely within the painting industry, like a commercial painter, or they are a DIY-er. LipLidz has a broader audience as everyone can enjoy a nice cup to drink out of, whether they drink alcoholic beverages or not. We took these factors into account as we started marketing and advertising for both Paint Daddy and LipLidz.
Getting a start-up off the ground is no easy task, and we dealt with some surprises along the way like with the warping issues, organization of machine time, etc. The most important factors to launch a startup are flexibility and persistence. We took our setbacks as learning opportunities which we can apply to future start-ups or to our clients products.
