Pre-sell one product to people you already know, then make it only on order

Who it’s for

Someone with a job and a small network who wants to test a physical product without buying a warehouse of stock.

The lesson

Oliver Charles launched one sweater through a crowdfunding campaign whose first $10,000 came from people the founders already knew, and it says it knits to order rather than holding stock. The transferable lesson is to collect money before you make anything, so demand pays for production instead of your savings.