Small Startups - TempPoint

on daily, small, start, and ups

Today I launched a small startup called TempPoint. Inspired by what I know about the book ‘$100 dollar startup’ (it’s in my “to read” list after reading this review), I have decided releasing a product a go.

Update (2022-02-08): This idea/product was discontinued a while back.

The journey

We were discussing if temperature checks would be part of our risk management strategy at work. One of the team had done some initial research and found that you either had to buy/rent an expensive system or could use a temperature gun which requires having a person operating it.

It occurred to me it might be possible to create an automated cost-effective temperature gun that could be mounted on a wall. So, I ordered some components and started to figure out the design for the electrical side of this project. After a bit of experimentation I managed to get a working version

This leads me to today, I created a Squareup website and have released it to the world. Next stage is to see if anyone will buy one.

Just do it

Recently I have been selling a few small items on Facebook Marketplace that were no longer wanted. I realized that I get a bit of a thrill when I manage to sell something on the platform.

This has fed my desire to create my own business, so decided to just push this idea forward and to put it out there.

The upsides

  • It could potentially help battle the spread of COVID-19. This product could helps as it removes the need for another person to be present on testing.
  • First thing to mention is that I enjoyed the process of making the electronics work. One difficult aspect was working out how to fit the electronics into a container, and making the holes for the components.
  • I could potentially sell a few of these, which a very exciting prospect, as it would be my first ever product sold.
  • The learning experiences gained by the whole project, as I am planning to give a small amount of marketing a go as i haven’t done that before.

The downsides

  • I think the only real downside would be monetary costs I have put into this product. I have however tried to keep the irrecoverable costs as small as possible. For example, I have used female jumpers on the components so I could take them out and reuse them in a different project if needed.
  • The largest irrecoverable cost is going to be the small marketing budget.
  • I also don’t know if there is a market for this product, especially as I’m also quite late with regards to the emergence of COVID. On the other hand, businesses are still trying to figure out how they may open up again.

Future

Well now to see what happens, I will post a blog in a few weeks to let you know how it goes.