Product Development for Entrepreneurs & Inventors
You have the idea. We have the engineering to make it real — first sketch to finished, manufacturable product, with honest costs and a plan you can actually follow.
Get Your Free 30-Minute Design ReviewWho this is for
You're a first-time founder or independent inventor with a product idea and no in-house engineering team. Maybe you've got a sketch, a rough 3D-printed mockup, or a working prototype you built in your garage. Maybe you already tried a freelancer or an overseas factory and got burned. Either way, you need someone who can turn an idea into a product that actually gets built — and tell you honestly what it will cost and how long it will take.
First-time founders
No technical co-founder, no engineering background — just a product idea worth building.
Inventors with a prototype
You've built something that works on your kitchen table. Now it needs to survive manufacturing.
Second-timers who got burned
A freelancer ghosted, or an overseas factory shipped something that didn't match the drawings.
What's different about building your first product
No one's catching your mistakes
Established companies have an engineering team that flags bad decisions before they get expensive. As a first-time founder, that check doesn't exist unless you bring in a partner who has it.
Every dollar has to work harder
You're likely funding this yourself or with a small raise. A wrong material choice or a skipped DFM review can eat a budget that doesn't have room to absorb it.
You're learning the vocabulary as you go
Tolerances, BOM, tooling, DFM — you're picking up terms you need to make good decisions while the decisions are already being made. Vendors who don't explain what they're doing leave you exposed.
How RMA solves it
Your engineering partner from day one
Reid personally guides every client through the process, translating your vision into engineering decisions you can understand and own.
One team, design through manufacturing
The same team handles design, prototyping, and production. No re-briefing a new vendor at every phase, no blame games when something doesn't fit.
We explain what we're doing and why
You leave the engagement knowing more about your product — and about product development — than when you started.
How this compares to the alternatives
Most first-time founders try one of two paths before they find RMA. Here's how those paths tend to play out.
Freelance designer
Overseas factory direct
RMA Engineering
New to product development? Start with the Inventor's Guide.
Download our free Inventor's Guide for a plain-English walkthrough of how to take an idea from concept to finished product, or visit our dedicated page built for first-time inventors.
The kind of work we do for founders
Concept to first prototype
Taking a sketch or a rough mockup through CAD and into a working, testable prototype before you spend a dollar on tooling.
Redesign for manufacturing
A founder-built prototype that works on the bench but needs to be re-engineered so it can actually be produced at a reasonable cost.
Design for a first production run
Turning a validated prototype into a fully documented, DFM-reviewed design ready to hand to a manufacturer — ours or someone else's.
What it actually costs
No one tells first-time founders real numbers up front. Here's what to budget for.
Design
Starts around $2,000
Typically $3,000–$25,000 depending on complexity — covers concept development, CAD, and DFM-reviewed documentation.
Prototyping
$5,000–$50,000
Across 3–5 iterations, spread over 3–12 months — enough rounds to validate fit, function, and manufacturability before tooling.
"Working with RMA was a game changer for Shifters Eyewear. As a startup founder, I needed a partner who could take my design sketches and turn them into a real, manufacturable product. Reid guided me through every phase with patience and precision."
"RMA Engineering was an invaluable partner in consulting on the designs and applications for three of our recent projects. Their expertise and guidance helped ensure that every detail was executed flawlessly. Our customers were absolutely blown away with the end results, and expectations were exceeded across the board."
Questions founders ask us first
Ready to bring your idea to life?
Book a Free 30-Minute Design Review. No pressure, no obligation — just a straight answer on what your product needs.
Book Your Free 30-Minute Design Review