Editing The Pen Addict 371/transcript (section)

== SpokePen Feedback ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um, we're generally, we're happy with the feedback on the pens. People are loving the pens. The feedback has been spectacular. Um, we're really happy with that. We're not happy with the assembly process taking so long. It's taking longer than both of us anticipated. Uh, especially Brian, who is very analytical about these things and like, you know, like has like build timers down to like seconds, like everything's timed and known. And it's just taking longer than anticipated. So we're a little bit over 50% fulfilled. Um, we're cranking out pens every day. We, we built probably parts for 300 pens this weekend and shipped probably 150 orders just over Saturday and Sunday. So that was a big chunk. And that's still that, that, that, that's what got us to like the 50% fulfillment. So we still have a ways to go. Hopefully we get done in August. It may trickle into September, but I mean, big picture. We're like good on timeframe. We're great on quality and we're a little bit behind on assembly time. So that's kind of our takeaway so far. Um, especially after, after this weekend and seeing like how hard we work this weekend, how far we got and how far we still had to go in the process. So it was a, it was an eyeopening weekend for just how hard we, we pushed it to get everything done this weekend. And then by the time the weekend was over, it's like, there's still a lot to go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You'll get the, we'll get there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, we're the feedback on the pen is what keeps us going. Yeah. Right. Like that. Everyone's loving it. We're ready to get this fulfilled so we can then have it in the store. And then we can start even doing more crazy stuff. Like the assembly process is what it is because we designed it that way on purpose. Right. So we could have all these different colors and different types of pens and different things like that. So it's just, you know, sorting all that out, figuring out the best ways, best practices and realizing that the assembly time, since we are assembling the pens ourselves is longer than we anticipated. So not, no big deal. We just, you know, as usual, you never know about timing these things correctly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, and yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, it's all this work and this will never happen again with this product, right? That you'll need to be shipping out this many at once.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. Exactly. So it's good for us to sit there and do this because we just come up with like, we've spent, you know, countless hours together and we just come up with all these other product ideas while we're doing it. So we're, we're excited to get out there and get into kind of phase two of what spoke pen and spoke design is going to be. So we're just, we're just, we're more anxious than anything, right? We were anxious to get the pens in people's hands because we personally are anxious to get into like phase two of what this is going to be long-term. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Cause this is like a thing that you two are in together now, right? Like that's one of the big differences.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. This is not a one-off like campaign product. We're going to continue on with this. It's based on like all the feedback that we've gotten. We're just, we're in like, this is going to be a go.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's really exciting.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited. I did hear that you might, there might've been something else besides like an extra spoke pen in the box. I did hear a story from Brian.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What do you want to tell me what these are? I've got some fancy Bic pens, right? What is it? B-A-U-X. Is that it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Box. Yes. It's the box pen. So that's Brian's company on his own. He did this project on Kickstarter. I remember this. Yeah. He made like the fancy barrels for like the Bic stick ballpoint pens, like the fancy barrel for the cheap pen. Right. But, and it's still like a super inexpensive barrel, like all things considered. It's like 12, 15 bucks, something like that. The, I guess selling points, I guess it's twofold selling points for the box pen. It's one, it's an upgraded barrel. If you like that style of pen, right? You get a fancy barrel and cool colors. Two, you can get them laser etched with various words, phrases, sayings, logos. What? I don't, I did, I swear, I'm not like, I'm not setting you up. I do not know what is on these pens. I genuinely do not. He just told me he did it and that he put stuff on there, but I genuinely do not know what is on there. If anything, I'm assuming there's something on there. That's kind of his thing. I mean, the laser machine sitting in the room where we're making the pen. So I'm sure he did something.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, the, uh, he made two. I've got two sent to me. One, uh, says at iMike on it. Okay. And then the other is for, it just says, uh, Idina on it. He sent one for Idina too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ah, smart man. Yep. Smart man. Smart man. Well, maybe, yeah, maybe he's figuring like, uh, this maybe isn't a mic pen. So, you know, maybe I'll, I'll, uh, butter up his wife and see, see what she thinks about it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What color are they? I don't even know what color they are.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Uh, mine is blue and Idina's is like a pinky purple color. Nice. Nice, nice, nice. It was very nice of him to do. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Got lots of extras.