Product Development for Los Angeles Founders, From North Jersey
Design, prototyping, and manufacturing hand-off for Los Angeles inventors and hardware founders, done by mechanical engineers in North Jersey. You keep 100% of the IP. Prototypes ship to you; reviews happen on video.
Who develops products for Los Angeles founders?
RMA Engineering develops products for Los Angeles founders remotely from North Jersey: mechanical engineers on staff design the product, build the prototypes in our own workshop, and hand off to manufacturing, while you review every stage on video calls and hold every prototype in your hands a few days after it is built. We have done this for more than ten years, hold a BBB A+ rating, and answer every inquiry within 12 hours.
The workshop is closed to visitors on purpose. Nobody walks past your prototype on a shop tour, because there are no shop tours, and that policy is part of how client IP stays protected. It also means working with a Los Angeles founder is the same engagement as working with one across the river: drawings, CAD, and prototypes move to you; you do not have to move to them.
Why do Los Angeles founders work with an engineering firm in North Jersey?
Because the product still has to be engineered by someone, and the three-hour time difference is easier to work around than a $25,000 minimum or a design studio that hands you renderings. Los Angeles founders bring us consumer products, fitness and wellness hardware, and e-commerce brand extensions that need a real design before a factory will quote them, and the engagement runs on video, with files and prototypes moving west. Overnight shipping costs less than a single week of delay.
What kinds of Los Angeles products fit RMA?
Consumer hardware with mechanical content: housings, mechanisms, mounts, accessories, home and kitchen products, and products that will be injection molded or machined. Brands with an existing customer base adding a physical product are a frequent fit. Apparel and soft goods are not; a product that is mostly electronics may be a partial fit, and we will tell you which parts on the first call.
What does RMA deliver?
Every project ends with files you own: 3D CAD in STEP and native formats, 2D drawings with dimensions, tolerances, materials, and finishes, a bill of materials, manufacturing specifications, and assembly instructions, plus the physical prototypes built along the way. Fees are hourly and per deliverable; they start around $2,000, and basic products typically run $6,000–15,000 through design and prototyping to a manufacturing-ready package. No royalties, no equity, no licensing back to us.
How does remote product development from North Jersey actually work?
Four steps, none of which require a visit.
- Free 30-Minute Design Review. A video call with an engineer. Bring the sketch, the render, or the prototype you have. You leave with a scoped design stage and a fee estimate.
- Design. CAD reviews on screen-share, drawings delivered as PDFs, decisions recorded in writing. Typical design stage: 4–12 weeks.
- Prototyping. Built in our workshop, shipped to you. Ground shipping from North Jersey reaches Los Angeles in four to five business days; we ship prototype revisions overnight when a review is waiting on them, and we schedule reviews in the afternoon Eastern so they land mid-morning Pacific. Proof-of-concept builds run $100–2,000; production-intent builds $5,000–30,000+.
- Manufacturing hand-off. A production-ready package that any molder or machine shop can quote, with tooling ($5,000–50,000) and first runs (8–16 weeks) planned with you, domestic or overseas.
Not ready for a call? Run your idea through the free Reality Check first.
What do Los Angeles founders ask us first?
Los Angeles founders start the same way everyone does: a Free 30-Minute Design Review with an engineer, on video, this week. Bring what you have.