SparkFun Forums

[VSNMT]

Although I’ve read the “Selling Your Widget on SparkFun” page, it still rather vague about the SparkFun’s business model, and how SparkFun works with its developers.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a “sticky” thread about the more advanced “nut and bolts” info on to do business with SparkFun? (ie. Royalty ranges, desired markups, numbers, etc)

I think this information would be a great help for developers (like me) that have product ideas/lines that they might want to bring to SparkFun’s attention. It would also give younger, up-and-coming developers an idea of the kind of money they could make with, and for, SparkFun.

Are there any documented guidelines that SparkFun uses for royalty structures on products? Anybody have any examples and experiences they might want to share?

Cheers,

VSNMT

[thebbxx]

After looking at the comments on that page, and the lack of response to threads like this, I think SparkFun is probably only interested in products that already have a fan base / already being sold. I don't think you'll have much traction with submitting an "idea" or even a prototype.

[godefroi]

I sent in a detailed plan, and I didn't get even a reply.

[motopic]

try seeedstudio

[SFE-Pearce]

Howdy All,

Sorry for the wait on responding to this. We're currently revising the tutorial and will have the new version available soon (there will be a homepage post). While it should address most of the questions in this thread including how we decide on products, other questions will unfortunately remain unanswered. Most notably explaining the royalties system. The reason for this is it varies from project to project and we feel is better suited being explained on project to project basis.

That being said, we are still looking into ideas and prototypes. The things to remember with these is that they require attention from the engineers and inventory department to get them into the system, which takes them away from internal projects which is huge factor when considering products to carry or manufacture. Please don't let it scare you. We're always open to ideas and the worst thing is we say no.

I like comment above this one as well. Seeedstudio has a small batch service; http://www.seeedstudio.com/propagate/ that you can get your prototypes and an initial run. How our manufacturing has evolved, small batch runs have become difficult and customer small batch runs, which at one time were something we did on occasion have become something we cannot do. Speaking as a DIY community member, no ties to SFE, I would take this approach. Sell a few myself, possibly go through Kickstarter if I think the project requires good funding to get up off the ground. Once the project has gained a bit of a following (projects utilizing it, sample code available) shop it out to the likes of Adafruit, Seeedstudio, Makershed, and SparkFun. One of the things companies like to see is that there is a market for it and more times than not, taking the person's word for that is not convincing enough.

Sorry for the long-winded post, just wanted to make sure I wasn't leaving anyone hanging.

[Cyclop]

Thanks for clarifying that. It would still be nice to have a range of numbers that projects fall in to like 10-20% of resale value or whatever else you use as the metric. This is just to get an idea of the magnitude of numbers we are dealing with if we work with SparkFun.

Thanks,
Cyclop