Prototype Salvation for Young Entrepreneur

Prototype Salvation for Young Entrepreneur

Rowena Mead, a 24 year old entrepreneur, scoured the UK for 63 days trying to find someone who would take on her oral hygiene prototype project.

Her innovation, a revolutionary malleable infant's toothbrush along with its own sterilising unit, appeared to be too complicated for many of the people she approached.

"You needed lateral thought to work out a solution to my problem, and obviously not enough people possess this skill, as it took me so long to find help!"

Her salvation came in the form of Richard Hall, MD of Harrogate based design and manufacturing consultants Pd-m International. He realised immediately what needed to be done.

"The stem of the toothbrush could be produced with rapid prototyping, but the bristles had to be hand-inserted separately, which Rowena offered to do to save time." says Richard.

Rowena added "At the end of the day, I needed a product which looked like my pictures, ideally it would have been a working prototype, but when Richard explained to me how rapid-prototyping works, I knew it wasn't possible."

Her relief at finding Pd-m was enhanced further by an unexpected phone-call from the BBC's Money Programme, who wanted to film her for an upcoming documentary on inventors, due to be broadcast this Autumn.

Pd-m worked solidly for 6 weeks to get everything finished in time for filming, and Rowena spent 60 hours inserting 42,000 toothbrush filaments to finish her prototype.

"Exhausting, but definitely worth it to see the final result".

You can follow Rowena's progress in her journey to secure a license agreement for her products in her monthly blogging spot www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog/