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I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

nick.winans.io

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Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#11

Post by Graziano_M »

c7b wrote: post #8

I admit, I barely understand what the product does, much less how there's 50k people wanting this. This is a component you can use if you're building a DIY keyboard and want to make it wireless? Seems profoundly niche to me. Am I missing something? Anyway, congrats on finding and reaching your market! The Internet at its best (although part of me wishes this nerd community had found a more self-hosted way of connecti…

It doesn't have to be for that, but yeah, that's the target. At the time, a lot of keyboard designs were based around the pro-micro formfactor, so this made it more-or-less a drop in replacement.

Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#13

Post by Scene_Cast2 »

Palomides wrote: post #12

neat product, but where's the FCC ID for an intentional radiator on it? your million dollar product can afford the legally required testing, right?

Exactly the same thoughts here (I've been looking into FCC part 15 myself too). And IIRC nRF has some pre-cert stuff to avoid going through the full gauntlet.

I'm guessing he's using the fact that dev boards are excepted (as opposed to final products). Somewhat unfortunate though, as these do end up in a lot of people's boards.

Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#15

Post by freetime2 »

c7b wrote: post #8

I admit, I barely understand what the product does, much less how there's 50k people wanting this. This is a component you can use if you're building a DIY keyboard and want to make it wireless? Seems profoundly niche to me. Am I missing something? Anyway, congrats on finding and reaching your market! The Internet at its best (although part of me wishes this nerd community had found a more self-hosted way of connecti…

> Seems profoundly niche to me. Am I missing something?

As someone who dreams of someday starting a "lifestyle business", I love that it is profoundly niche.

It gives me hope that I can go out and solve a problem that is important to me, but too niche for investors to bother with, and earn some money from it.

Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#16

Post by virgil_disgr4ce »

Nicell wrote: post #7
Aurornis wrote: post #4

This is a really cool story. If the author is reading: It would be interesting to read about your experiences with marketing and building support for your products. I know you said a lot of it was luck and timing, but it would be helpful to get your thoughts on which moves you made that best took advantage of that luck and timing. I have dozens of friends who launched group buys for small boards around this price ran…

Hey! I'm the author. I think my good timing and luck showed up mostly through my initial Reddit post garnering a ton of attention. I road that wave to the group buy. From that single Reddit post I had tons of people interested and got them to join a community Discord. Remember that this was right when covid lockdowns had started, seriously good timing for me. I worked hard to move fast, engage, and share often on my…

> After that I worked with vendors to get it in ecommerce storefronts ASAP to not let the hype die out

Give yourself credit for this move, because it might seem obvious to you, but I suspect a lot of people wouldn't have bothered!

In any case, thank you for writing this up and congrats on everything :D

Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#17

Post by saghm »

freetime2 wrote: post #15
c7b wrote: post #8

I admit, I barely understand what the product does, much less how there's 50k people wanting this. This is a component you can use if you're building a DIY keyboard and want to make it wireless? Seems profoundly niche to me. Am I missing something? Anyway, congrats on finding and reaching your market! The Internet at its best (although part of me wishes this nerd community had found a more self-hosted way of connecti…

> Seems profoundly niche to me. Am I missing something? As someone who dreams of someday starting a "lifestyle business", I love that it is profoundly niche. It gives me hope that I can go out and solve a problem that is important to me, but too niche for investors to bother with, and earn some money from it.

Yeah, it sounds like there just legitimately are 50K people who are in this niche. Maybe the fact that people might assume there are fewer is why there was a gap in the market for the author to fill!

Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#18

Post by tredre3 »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #13
Palomides wrote: post #12

neat product, but where's the FCC ID for an intentional radiator on it? your million dollar product can afford the legally required testing, right?

Exactly the same thoughts here (I've been looking into FCC part 15 myself too). And IIRC nRF has some pre-cert stuff to avoid going through the full gauntlet. I'm guessing he's using the fact that dev boards are excepted (as opposed to final products). Somewhat unfortunate though, as these do end up in a lot of people's boards.

nRF modules are pre-certified to avoid this issue, but OP integrated the chip into their own design so the certification is entirely on them to obtain compliance.

Re: I made a million dollar product from my dorm room (2025)

#20

Post by spaqin »

fragmede wrote: post #6

> both of these new boards that popped up are advertised as nice!nanos and are shipped with the exact same firmware I use on the nice!nano, so when someone plugs it in, it says it’s a nice!nano. Trademark dispute is the way to go. Since there were no stories about an onerous amount of returns of clones to the author, probably not worth it, but returns of clones is why it financially makes sense and not just to enrich…

That's gonna be tough; as author mentioned, they're made and sold primarily in China, for 3$ a piece (no wonder they're popular). The clones also have a different PCB design (it doesn't say nice!nano on it), so they're not that easily mistaken.
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