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INNOVATION RESOURCES

Bringing the BagelPod to Market

Breakthrough:
The BagelPod solved the problem of compressing and shredding bagels while trying to slice them, providing a clean, simple cut that divides any sized bagel into two equal halves.

Inventor:
Andre Nel, United States

The Story:
Bringing the BagelPod to Market

In 1996 Andre Nel was faced with the dissolution of his marriage, and the possibility of being edged out of his job. Out of the chaos, he decided to go into business for himself. If his company could outsource functions, he figured he could design his own product and outsource the engineering, manufacturing, distribution and marketing himself.

While attending a local inventor's group, he decided he needed a business education in order to proceed, and successfully completed an MBA degree and a Masters in Science and Engineering, paid for by his employer.

However, even this did not fully prepare him to launch his own product, and he began to feel that his MBA stood for "Master of Barely Anything."

Six months after earning his degrees, his employer offered him a buy-out package, which he accepted.

Nel had spent 23 years as a hands-on engineer, building complex systems involving electrical, mechanical and software engineering. But despite his expertise, he wanted to design a low-tech product.

His wife suggested a bagel slicer, and listed her complaints with the devices currently on the market. Nel based his design on solving her list of complaints.

After coming up with a basic design, he created a prototype using some cheap woodworking equipment, and had the blades water-jet cut out of sheet steel, which he then spent tedious hours sharpening with a small cheap mill.

The first attempt revealed a design flaw – the blades pivoted in holes, but needed to pivot in slots. He changed the design and finally had a working prototype.

He sent his CAD drawings out and got a quote for rapid prototyping. Three days later his parts arrived. There was no escaping the drudgery of sharpening each tooth of the blade, however.

Buoyed by the success of his prototype, he started working with an industrial design firm on the aesthetics and manufacturing issues. A quote of $6,000 and time frame of 4 weeks ended up costing $18,000 and took 9 months.

In the mean time, a graphic designer was hired for two weeks of work, and needless to say, that stretched out to eight weeks, when Nel had enough and terminated the contract. Only half the work was done.

A second design firm was hired, but after spending $14,000 the packaging design was too flimsy and white printing on a yellow background was unreadable. Nels then started using PhotoShop and created his own designs for around $900.

Manufacturing costs likewise blossomed from an initial $4,500 for plastic injection molds, to more than $20,000, and another change in manufacturers was required.

Nel was finally able to redesign the blades and develop a method of sharpening them, which is patent pending. Other design changes involved designing elastic grips, and being able to handle a wider range of bagel sizes.

Further problems were encountered with quality issues when the first batch of blades were improperly hardened, a problem that has since been corrected.

After all the struggles and false starts, the final product is a slick-looking device that is simple, easy to use, and makes nice clean slices without compressing or crumbling the bagel. Two serrated blades do the cutting once the pod is closed and you press the lever downward.

When the pod is open, the blades are tucked away so you can't accidentally cut yourself.

The BagelPod Slicer can be purchased at [AMAZON] and other retailers

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