Making Hardware Easy
The “Scout” Hidden Camera Finder: From Concept to Consumer in 9 months
The “Scout” Is a brand-new Hidden Camera Finder from Allen Walton of SpyGuy.com designed to detect camera lenses in public spaces such as AirBnbs.
In December 2018, Allen was having a tough time understanding how to get started manufacturing his own products and saw a huge opportunity to grow his company but didn’t know where to start. He appeared on Tim Ferriss’ podcast to discuss this challenge.
Upon hearing this episode shortly after its release, Knectiv’s Founder/CEO Nick Frank reached out to Allen and told him he could help.
“I was actually listening to that podcast in my car and my ears perked up when I heard him talking about some of the challenges that he was facing in developing his own products. I pulled over to the side of the road to write Allen on the spot because I thought Knectiv would be the perfect partner for what he was looking for.”
By February 2019, SpyGuy had officially contracted Knectiv to develop the Scout Hidden Camera Finder and the real fun began. At the time, the Scout was still at the basic concept stage.
“We had a pretty cool mechanical design of the plastic enclosure to work with but little else other than a description of what the product was supposed to do,” remarked Nick. The task was straightforward but challenging: go from a concept with minimal design to a sleek, fully-functional device ready to sell before the 2019 holiday season.
Knectiv knew time was of the essence to get the Scout designed and manufactured in time for the holidays later in the year. As Nick remarked, “One big advantage at Knectiv is that our design team in the US has a close working relationship with our manufacturing teams in Asia. This allows us to iterate quickly, take care of any DFM issues early on, and be ready to go into manufacturing as soon as the design files are completed.”
“Knectiv managed the entire development and manufacturing process, from A-Z, and it was fantastic” Allen recalled, “In only nine months after our first contact, we went from only a concept and basic drawings to having 2,000 flawless units all packaged up and ready to sell.”
For anyone that hasn’t seen it, the Scout is a nifty little device that uses bright, directional LEDs to detect hidden cameras in hotels, Airbnbs, dorm rooms, etc. Knectiv started developing this product in February of 2019 and by November had delivered 2000 units of SpyGuy’s first mass production run.
“Deciding to work with Nick and not being involved in the hardware design/manufacturing (other than a visionary role) was one of the best decisions I’ve made at SpyGuy. We’ve got a partner that can work on new products for us, which are much higher margin and better quality than the stuff we’ve been reselling for years.“
Knectiv is really proud of the work done on this project and like Allen, very happy with how everything turned out.
Oh yeah, we may or may not be cooking up some new products together... Stay tuned.
Click on any of these links to hear more about the buzz Scout has created
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/scout-25a84578-79b0-4f28-b2b1-6358900f7624
http://www.gadgethelpline.com/hidden-camera-detection-the-scout-by-spyguy-review/
http://www.aarlreviews.com/2019/12/is-your-vacation-bugged-use-scout.html
https://naptownbuzz.com/guides/2019-holiday/scout-hidden-camera-finder/