The challenges of creating a unique product – Chris Lefteri – Fixits

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:04

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

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Let's get started. Hi, so today I'm talking to Chris Lefteri from Fixits. Fixits is Chris's very own invention and we have a great conversation today about inventing a product and all that entails. The product Chris has invented is really unique. And of course there were some challenges with creating a product and selling a product that people don't even know that they need, um, because it's something brand new. And we talk a lot about that during this episode. It was a fantastic conversation and I would love now to introduce you to Chris. So, hi Chris. Thank you so much for being here.

Chris Lefteri: 00:00:56

Hi Vicky. My pleasure to talk to you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:59

So can we please start by you giving an introduction to yourself, your business, and what you.

Chris Lefteri: 00:01:05

So my business is based on empowering people, householders to repair their stuff, and I founded Fixit in 2018 as a product that would be a friendly, fun, and convenient way for, you know, anybody, anybody in the house to be able to repair their stuffand avoid the whole idea of putting stuff into landfill.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:29

That's brilliant. Thank you. And can you just, I know it's really hard cause this isn't visual, but can you, and we've all obviously linked to your website so people can see, but could you just give us a really little instruction as to what Fixits is and how you might use it?

Chris Lefteri: 00:01:41

Well, Fixits are essentially a series of, uh, plastic sticks. You dip them into a cup of hot water. Straight from the kettle could be around minimum of 60 degrees. The hotter it is than the faster the, um, they will soften. Uh, once you put the stick in the cup of hot water, it will begin to become quite soft and within sort of 30 seconds to a minute, it will become floppy. You take it out, it's completely cool. So it doesn't, doesn't, it's not even hot. And you, um, then can mold it into any shape you want in the same way you can with, you know, modeling clay or plasticine and use it to repair any number of things that would be very difficult to repair with tape and glue. So things that may be quite brittle and, and the glue doesn't have much of a contacts area or things like tape where you need to wrap it around, you know, Fixit does things that all, both those two products can't do. So we use it for a very popular one with our customers is repairing, broken, uh, glasses on the side frame, uh, for charging cables for big things like children's toys, that sort of snap and you want to fix it back, you know, you want to fix it back together. Um, any number of things taking them on holiday with you. So I think the best thing about it is that, and, and the unique thing about it is that if that repair doesn't work or you wanna try it again because you wanna make it better, then you stick it back into the whole water and um, and do it again.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:14

Oh, that's amazing. So it's completely reusable.

Chris Lefteri: 00:03:17

Yeah. Fixit is completely reusable and I don't have to use it. I don't have to use hot water. I can use, um, a hair dry, heat it up again, and yeah, pretty much. Yes. Infinite number of times.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:30

That's amazing. So how did you come up with the idea, Chris, and what inspired you to even start thinking of a product like this?

Chris Lefteri: 00:03:37

My background is a designer and the the other company that I run is a materials design studio. So several years ago when I was writing one of my books on materials for designers, I discovered a sort of material that was used in industry. In a very obscure way, in a way that you'd never really see it. And I was really fascinated with it. And I, you know, got some, some material from the supplier. I was using it at home. I took some home and we kept some granules, a bag of granules in the kitchen drawer, and my wife thought it was fantastic. We take it on holiday with us, you know, the little bag bag of granules and she had this idea to turn it into a, a consumer product and to make story, which it didn't have, you know, it wasn't a product that was ever used for repair, part of what the material could offer, and that's really where it started from.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:33

Well, that's amazing. And what was the material used for? Just out of interest? What? What did people use to use it before, before you came up with this use?

Chris Lefteri: 00:04:41

It's used in packaging as a compostable material for packaging. It's used as an adhesive. It's used in medical applications. Yeah, I mean, a whole range of things are quite obscure. Nothing that you'd be able to point to and say, oh yeah, you know, I know what it is. I know the material. Yeah, so quite obscure and, and not having anything like a story to do with, uh, repair.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:05

That's really interesting. So it came in granule form, is that right?

Chris Lefteri: 00:05:10

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:05:11

So how did you come up with the idea of creating the Fixit sticks?

Chris Lefteri: 00:05:16

Well, so I, I really thought. You know, as magical as it is to watch these granules, you know, soften in a cup and it is quite magical. I wanted to have something that was much more accessible and much more handy. And I always had it in my head that when I had this bag of granules, I'd keep it in the kitchen drawer and I wanted something that would feel like you'd keep it in the kitchen drawer, you'd put it in your in a bag if you were going a holiday, or if you were going camping, you know, very convenient. And I started by looking. The shapes that you could, that were conducive to putting something into hot water and a stick felt very natural because, I mean, you know, you dunk it, you only hold as much of the material of the stick in the hot water as you want to, to soften. And so we played around with different proportions and different sort of, Variations on the stick and then settled with something that I wanted people to feel very familiar with, you know, so it was about, I, it's about the same proportions as a lolli stick, or same proportions as a nail file, because it's a completely new product. It's not something that exists in any. It is completely a new way of repairing something. And that's a quite a hard story to tell. So I didn't want to then create a shape that was out there as well. I thought let's just keep it something quite generic that is familiar that people can at least have some connection with, you know, so I, I kept it very simple. And then in order to kind of consider the colors and make it, you know, feel something that was, um, You know, universal and the, and the, you know, color is a very personal thing, and pe people can be put off by color very easily. So obviously black and white, because a lot of products are black and white, so it kind of, you know, blends in. And then the orange one, so we launched with black white, orange. Then the orange one really, I, I think, came about because, um, the first color that we trialed to get the coloring right was orange. And it looked really good. It was kind of bold. It was bright, optimistic. It kind of talked about. Utility and functionality. And so we kept it. And so we, the first ones we launched were black, white, and orange. And then I re, as I said, I re, I really wanted to have this element of repairing, being fun and to, you know, empower people. And the easiest way of doing that is you make the product attractive. So from the beginning, from the outset, it was, I, I wanted this idea that people would look at and think, oh, that's interesting. I like, and I'm gonna need it at some point. So it was those two things. I need it and I like it. And the extension, the natural extension of that was to launch some colors that were much more, uh, fashion colors, you know. So I went to, um, Rymans, it's not Rymans, uh, Paperchase on Wandsworth Road. Uh, and they, and they, you know, it's filled with color in there and colors of pens and paper and, and crayons and all that sort of stuff. And I just remember thinking it'd be great to see Fixit in this type of environment and, and to actually, you know, build that story of fun and accessibility through the colors. So that's why we launched. I'm trying to remember. We have a, a specific name for them. I won't use specific names. I'll just say yellow, green, and pink. They have quite nice, catchy names, but I have a, a memory problem, so I can't quite remember. I don't wanna get it wrong.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:50

No problem. I know exactly what that's like

Chris Lefteri: 00:08:53

Flamingo pink. Flamingo pink is one. Sorbet Yellow and Mid Green. Am I right? I'm not sure. Something like that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:02

I think I've seen the colors and I think that's a good description anyway. Even if that's not the exact names of it as a great description of what they look like. So. How, um, I'm, I'm really curious, actually, there was something you, you, um, mentioned, I'm gonna touch on a bit later, but what I'd love to know is, so were you working with a manufacturer to go through this process of developing them sticks and developing colors? How did that come about and how did that work?

Chris Lefteri: 00:09:27

That's a very good question. It was, it wasn't easy. We had to, to find, we had to contact a lot of manufacturers because it's not an easy to, to mold. And because we were starting up, there wasn't a huge, uh, you know, business for them. You know, we weren't gonna order millions of, of sticks. And we were really lucky we found somebody in the UK who's been a fantastic partner, so he, he used an existing. Mold tool to trial the material. Looked at how it, how it worked, how it would be produced. You know, does the mold separate quickly, you know, easily without sticking to the, to the sticks. And then being quite specific about the texture on it, because the texture on the sticks was, I mean, you know, people don't really think about texture. You pick up a product and you, you, you just perceive it as being something. Either it feels cheap or it feels Matt, or it feels nice, or it feels premium or glossy, but you don't really. Perceive it, but I, I did want something that unconsciously would just feel quite nice in your hand. And obviously when you put the stick in the whole water, the, the texture disappears because it then, um, you know, becomes, Just a, a neutral kind of semi, semi glossy surface. Um, so we did a lot of trials with the manufacturer working out exactly the right thickness of the stick so that it would mold well efficiently, uh, without any problems, making sure that the, you know, specifics of, you know, ejection molding of where the two parts of a steel tool come apart is in the right place. So yeah, we had a great partner.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:02

So Chris, are you still working with that same manufacturer now?

Chris Lefteri: 00:11:06

Yes, I am. Yeah, that's, yeah, he's, he's a great partner. He, he's fantastic.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:12

That's great. And I think it's, like you said, it's so important when you can build up those long-term relationships. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Chris Lefteri: 00:11:19

Absolutely. And um, I couldn't really have done it without him. And, and, uh, you take it, I don't, I don't actually take it for granted at all. Cause I've worked with manufacturers before and you know, when you're trying to develop something new, you have to get somebody who embraces it and who actually appreciates the challenge and wants to do something that is different rather than somebody who thinks it's a kind of a labor and, uh, a chore. And, and actually he's kind of doing reluctantly. So we have a great champion.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:44

Oh, that's brilliant. And, um, I know that something else that's important to you is responsible manufacturing. Can you talk a little bit about what that means to you and what the impact has been on your product and your packaging?

Chris Lefteri: 00:11:57

I mean, the, it's absolutely, absolutely. I think that the product is in itself about, Helping, encouraging, you know, consumers to, to repair and not throw things away. And on that level that, that is the most important thing about Fixit it is the idea that you, you make it fun, you make it accessible, and you point out that actually it's better to repair something than it is to buy or replace. That actually makes you feel good when you do that. There is that. Nice sense of achievement of of, of being clever and solving the problem and, and making that repair, that that is the most important thing about fix it. It is. The fact that it's manufactured in the UK is important because, you know, we don't have to deal with shipping and that aspect of, um, of co2. The packaging originally was plastic, and it was plastic originally because it was just, you know, it was a small startup. It was the most convenient, easiest, low-cost way of making the sticks. We've stopped using plastic, now we use cardboard, and the material itself is, Conforms to EU regulations for, uh, bioplastic classification, but I don't necessarily wanna focus on that. I think it's a complex area to talk about bioplastics. In any case, it is officially a industrially compostable plastic. But you know, as I said, the story for me is much more about the repairability and encouraging people to repair than it about what the material is because ideally you don't want to get rid of the material, you just reuse it again and again and again, so you shouldn't have to worry about where it. Yeah, that makes sense. And as you

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:44

say, the fact that it's a product that's designed to help people reuse things that they might otherwise fit in the bin or, yes. Yeah, I think, I think that speaks to itself really. And coming onto that, Chris, so I picked up on something you talked about, um, earlier, it was probably about 10 minutes ago now, so apologies if you don't remember. But you, you mentioned that, um, there were some challenges in selling a product that's completely new that people haven't heard of. Can you talk a little bit about the challenges of selling such unique products and maybe some ways in which you've overcome that? Please.

Chris Lefteri: 00:14:16

Yes. It's, I mean, I, I underestimated how difficult it was gonna be to, uh, sell this product because, you know, I thought it was fantastic everyone I'd shown it to, I really thought that people would get it. But as I said, I, I understood very quickly, I mean, after we launched on Kickstarter, that there is, Big hurdle to overcome in the sense of I'm not selling tape and I'm not selling glue, so I have to explain what it is. You know, I have to give a description. I can't just say it's glue, it's tape. So, so that's the first thing you have to overcome and, and do that in a very quick way because, you know, we don't, we don't have huge attention spans. So you have to, you have to get that across. And at the same time, uh, encourage, encourage consumers to, to build the value. Um, you've got to, you know, point out the advantages, um, so that it does save money. It does save the planet, it does make you feel great to fix stuff. And that's very much a about building a community and showing illustration, you know, photographs of, you know, customers and what they've done with the Fixits and just keep repeating that message that it's fun. It saves the planet, it saves you money, you know, in just repeating that and building on that from the sticks. You know, we're launching, uh, we've launched the tape, uh, we'll launched some variations on the tape and some other repair products very soon as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:47

That's brilliant. Thank you. And I completely get what a challenge it is because I guess also there's a thing that people don't understand it and they don't understand exactly what the product's for. They might sort of say, well, this doesn't work, and it's because they haven't quite got what the intention behind the product is.

Chris Lefteri: 00:16:03

Yes. I mean, exactly, and you, and you, you have to be quite explicit because, you know, I mean, as somebody pointed out, you are showing me a stick. How do I get from a stick to this repair? You know, I don't need to do that. I don't need to explain that. If I, if I'm selling tape or glue, everybody knows how, what tape is and how it works, and everybody knows how, how glue works. With the stick. You have to, you have to, you have to be very clear. But for me, the, the, the magic of this stick is that you put in hot water, becomes soft and then becomes hard, and then you can do the whole thing again and again. And, um, I wanna make sure that we, uh, that's shared.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:42

And were there any specific sort of communications or pieces of media that you created that you think really helped with this, with explaining what the product is?

Chris Lefteri: 00:16:52

Hmm. Uh, yeah, I, I don't think that there's a single, I don't think there's a single one because there are so many facets to this story. There are so many attributes that I want to get across. The, the hardness of the stick, how it works, what you can do with it, um, how you can remold it. So there are so many facets to the story and, and the usability that it's, it's difficult to pinpoint to one image, to be honest with you. I mean, and I think video is absolutely the, the way that we're moving forward because you can tell so much you, you can communicate so much more with a video.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:17:25

I was just about to say that I've seen your video and I think that that for me is a really great way of just demonstrating what the product is and how it works in just a couple of seconds because it is so visual and it's much easier to get that across visually than it is in text.

Chris Lefteri: 00:17:39

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And, and we're trying hard with it. We have a great copywriter. A again, you know, I have people are working with fix, poking, working with me on Fixits who I really appreciate and they totally get it. You know, uh, we have a copywriter who totally, you know, understands the voice to Fixits has and where our target is and what we're trying to. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's really about storytelling and making sure the story is very clear.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:18:09

And while we're speaking about storytelling, if you don't mind, um, I know that you mentioned that you launched with a Kickstarter campaign. Can we just talk a little bit about that, about what your experience of running that campaign was, and perhaps any insights that you had from it?

Chris Lefteri: 00:18:25

Um,

Vicki Weinberg: 00:18:27

I know that's a very big question. Um, so wh when, when was your, your Kickstarter campaign, what was that, 2018 or was it a bit later? Yes.

Chris Lefteri: 00:18:35

No, no, 2018. I mean, I think the, the thing was that we, I think we did fantastically, I mean, I, I've never run a, a campaign like this before, and no one who was working on that with me had run a campaign like this before. We did a lot of preparation. I did have access to certain, uh, journalists. That I could, you know, write something for about, you know, Fixits that, that was directly related to the Kickstarter campaign. So that really helped. But I think just getting the, the message out there. I'm being very prepared. I mean, you know, I, I thought it was a quick thing to, to launch a kick, sunny kickstarter, but not at all. I mean, you have to be supremely prepared and organized and have a team behind you because it's a global thing. It's, it will, it will launch. You know, I think it, when launched in Asia and maybe Australia, you know what, uh, whatever it was, midnight UK time, and it's a 24-hour thing, so you have to keep managing that.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:29

And how long typically does a campaign run?

Chris Lefteri: 00:19:33

I think typically they run for a month. I was run, ran for.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:19:36

Oh gosh, that's quite a long, that's quite a long time. And I guess that's quite intense then if you're constantly trying to draw attention to the campaign. Yes. I mean,

Chris Lefteri: 00:19:45

yeah, it is quite intense, but not half as, as intense as it was to actually send out the products because, you know, we, we did very well, um, sold thousands of packs of Fixits. But the hard work really was was getting them out there after the campaign and getting them out there, getting them out there to different parts of the world in a timely way. That was the, that was the really, that was a very challenging part.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:07

Oh, that's really interesting.

Chris Lefteri: 00:20:09

So we had, we had the office filled with, you know, my, my team who worked in the design studio, packing sticks, putting them envelopes, and putting labels on, taking to the post.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:20

Oh, I'm glad to hear it was a success. Um, and you mentioned you were working with some journalists at the time, so was that to get words out about the campaign? Was that the purpose of that?

Chris Lefteri: 00:20:30

Yes, yes. Design journalists, yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:33

Well, that's fantastic cause I've, I've spoken to a few people who've ran Kickstarter campaigns, but neither of none of them have actually spoken about that angle. So that actually makes a lot of sense. So were you targeting journalists from the kind of publications that you thought people might be, you know, people that read those might be interested in supporting your campaign? Was that the idea?

Chris Lefteri: 00:20:52

No, it, it was, I was very lucky. I knew journalists because of my design studio, because of the success of the books, because the book books and the popularity of those books over the last 20 years, I was able to contact a couple of people that I knew very well and say, Hey, I'm launching this product. A really designed for any product about the environment. You know, would you be, you know, would you like to write something out? Or for me to write something up? So we did it in that way. Not necessarily, it wasn't a huge kind of level of research to find the right magazines or journalists, and they were. Magazines, uh, journal, you know, uh, online magazines.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:23

Oh, well, clearly it's, clearly it works. I think it's great and I think there's, it makes total sense to use any connections that you have.

Chris Lefteri: 00:21:30

Oh, absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:33

And is there any other advice that you have for anyone who might be looking at using Kickstart to, to get started? I think it was a really good point you made about ACT actually having to send the products out afterwards. Cause I think that's something that I'd never thought about that of course the better you do the, the harder the job you might have afterwards. Is there anything else you think people, um, might be interested to know or take on board.

Chris Lefteri: 00:21:54

Well, you're building a, you're building a story, and, and that story has to be inspiring, has to be informative, and I would test the story on, you know, friends, family, just see if what it is that you want to say about your product is clear, because you might think you know your product inside out and you should, but you know, making sure that other people know that it's a different.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:19

That makes lot of sense. Tell that story and um, and get it tested by your friends and family. That really makes sense. I guess, especially if in the case of your products, it's so unique. Um, I guess if your friends and family couldn't understand what the product was and what it did, yes, then that was a really good indication that perhaps everyone else would be in a similar.

Chris Lefteri: 00:22:41

Yeah. And tell people about it and they'll point, they'll say, oh, really, what does that mean? Or what does that do? Or, why are you doing that? And, and they were, they're very, they were fantastic conversations to have had.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:50

Yeah. That definitely sounds valuable. And it also sounds like, so if you were looking to mark a Kickstarter, there's, it sounds like there's an awful lot of material you need to create before you even think about

Chris Lefteri: 00:23:00

Yes.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:00

Getting something up there.

Chris Lefteri: 00:23:03

Yes. Yes, you do. That's really good to.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:07

Well, thank you so much for everything you shared, um, with me today. Chris, I just got one final question, if you don't mind, which is one I ask everybody who comes on the podcast, which is, what would be your number one piece of advice for anyone who has a product idea that they'd like to take forward?

Chris Lefteri: 00:23:24

I would say without a doubt, just do it, and if you dunno anything about retailing, if you dunno anything about. You know, product development, just do it anyway cuz you'll learn on the spot. And I didn't know anything about retailing. I had no concept of what online marketing was or is, or how it functioned. Um, I did know about materials. I did know about storytelling and I knew about design, but that's not, that was not nearly as much information, you know, uh, expertise as I did have. So my advice is just do it because, You regret it if you don't.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:02

That's brilliant advice. Thank you. And I've also picked up as we've been talking that along the way you've obviously worked with other people who can help you out in areas where perhaps you you know, you didn't have as much experience and I think that's a really good people to hear as well, that you don't have to necessarily do it all yourself or, or learn it all yourself. You can work with other people and build on their strengths. Yes.

Chris Lefteri: 00:24:22

Like working with you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:25

Yes. I should probably disclose the fact that I've been working you on your, on your, on your Amazon account

Chris Lefteri: 00:24:30

and you are one of those people so thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:33

Oh, thank you. And thank you again for everything you shared today.

Chris Lefteri: 00:24:37

No worries, Vicki, my pleasure.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:39

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalog and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg.com. Please do remember to rate and review view this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find are useful. Thank you again and see you next.