We can finally start our kickstarter which will only last 2 weeks because we need a lot of captial to start manufacturing it. So if the kickstarter fails we fail due to lack of funds and affordable resources, Although we are looking into using other materials with the prototyping machine. We will leave the kickstarter open until Friday of exams week. Then we will manufacture and start an e-commerce website if all goes well. Here is the preview: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/333255341/552265960?token=5bf8a75f

We have finally gotten a quote from PRG for our manufacturing cost which is over $5500. The main cost is the starting mold for manufacturing. We learned the hard way that you will have delays if you don't have the right file format or something goes wrong etc. We had long delays, so in the future when dealing with manufacturers we will always ask what CAD file format is needed and have the actual prototype done before even calling the manufacturer. We are editing our kickstarter now, so we are in a bit of a time crunch now.

Here is our final design for the windblocker. It is easy to push down and push up and blocks the wind from the flame. We focused on the easy of use in this design. So our next step would be to get our windblockers manufactured, so we are outsourcing to a company called PRG. Hopefully we can sell during the last few weeks of the

Here is our second prototype in which we made out of a different material that created a rough texture on the outside. The consequence of using this new material caused us to have to make a thicker design. This prototype also failed due to it not being flame proof and not fitting the lighter properly. We are thinking that we should just make the prototype out of the previous ABS plastic and then manufacture it in a flame proof material when we make it in 

This is our first prototype in which all we succeeded in creating the right shape. But it was too small to fit the lighter and was not flame proof. So we will continue with the prototyping process. the material used in this prototype was ABS plastic, so we will try to make a prototype out of the other grainy material in the ISAT prototyping lab.

When we created DAK Creations, the product/service we were most interested in pursuing was unique cornhole sets as well as a rental service around the JMU campus and Harrisonburg area. However, as we got deeper into our Customer Discovery, we realized that more people already owned cornhole sets than we had originally predicted. We also learned  that most JMU students play cornhole while tailgating at an athletic event and on the quad, dorm lawns, or townhouse/apartment lawns. The major factor that caused our business to start considering the need for a pivot in our business model was the upcoming colder months. The pivot we decided to integrate into our business model is the entire product, which is now a plastic clip-on wind guard for a BIC lighter. Therefore, our Target Market is now smokers at JMU and in the Harrisonburg area. We will continue with the Customer Discovery process, which is now focused on the lighter wind guard.

And so the adventure begins. We began our customer discovery in Showker Hall, asking students questions about our product ideas - mainly cornhole sets and rentals. Some of the responses varied, but certain ones remained consistent across the board, such as tailgating being the primary event where cornhole is played.