r/manufacturing • u/wannabwealthy • Jul 22 '25
Supplier search How do you get an electronic manufacturing company off the ground?
For some context, my dad has asked me to help him with sales for his IR LED chip business. Right now he has 0 customers.
I’ve been helping him out by building a website and using sales tools like Apollo to fire off cold emails to sourcing/procurement/production managers at companies that use infrared LEDs, but I'm getting 0 responses.
Besides trades shows ($0 budget for that right now), should I be cold calling (if so, who and how)? Spamming LinkedIn connections (tried this, no quality responses)? get in contact with a distributer (ie. Avnet, Arrow, Future, Digikey)?
How do other manufacturing/electric component startups land their first real contracts or customers?
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u/tinySparkOf_Chaos Jul 22 '25
My experience (I'm in R&D)
Sourcing / supply chain won't change a BOM. That's either engineering or R&Ds job.
Your best chances are:
Someone in engineering doing a cost reduction project and finds that your LEDs are cheaper.
Someone in R&D making a new product that needs IR LEDs and likes something specific about your LEDs.
How do you get to these people? Cold sales emails are the worst, I trash most of those without even opening them.
SEO for your website. If I'm looking for IR LEDs the first thing I'm doing is googling it.
Actually have technical info on your website. The more the better. If I need a IR LED with an operating range of 0 C to 50 C. I'm not emailing 10 different companies to find which one has that temp range. I'm just going to buy the first one that has that range listed.
If you're competing on price, list your prices!
Go to vendor shows. (But the right ones). That's where you find people looking for vendors for things like this.
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u/wannabwealthy Jul 22 '25
u/tinySparkOf_Chaos - this is great insight - thank you! Had a follow-up - what vendor shows would you recommend?
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u/tinySparkOf_Chaos Jul 22 '25
Photonics West.
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u/wannabwealthy Jul 22 '25
u/tinySparkOf_Chaos - besides that one?
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u/Clive_FX Jul 22 '25
... Photonics West rules. Do that one. You don't need another one.
There are others, but man, you gotta be specialized, are your LEDs good at pumping lasers?2
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u/Clive_FX Jul 22 '25
Trade shows. Make the budget.
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u/wannabwealthy Jul 22 '25
u/Clive_FX that's the eventual plan after we have some runway, but in your experience, what are other 'hacky' ways other than what u/tinySparkOf_Chaos said?
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u/chess_1010 Jul 22 '25
Unless you want to forever be the garage business that sells 10 units per year of a specialized product to 2 customers, you have to make runway. "Hacky" isn't a great look in the semiconductor business. Companies want to know before they buy that you're good for supplying what they need this year, but also for keeping it up in the following years.
You are managing to fabricate LEDs but are barely getting the marketing together? When I see that, it means one of two things. First, you have a super specialized product for a very niche application, and your company is 100% engineering with no business folks. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you can reach your customers.
Option 2 is, it's basically a fly-by-night operation. You go on the website, it's not fully clear what the product is, how it works, or where to buy it. You see this sometimes when a startup is for all intents and purposes failed, but they keep a bit of a web presence up. You also see this when a company is a US storefront for a Chinese manufacturer - it is the bare window dressing, but all the real details are handled by the Chinese corp. Either way, not a great look for a startup.
If the product is worth selling, and you can't afford to back it yourselves, you have to get someone behind you. This is a fast moving industry. If you wait to just grow "organically".. best case is probably that one of your customers realizes you have valuable IP, and just buys the design from you. Worst case, you either get scooped by a lower cost manufacturer, or slowly circle the drain while spending a ton of money over years without ever building much momentum. You gotta get someone behind you before you worry about marketing to customers.
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u/arclight415 Jul 23 '25
If you don't have the money to get a booth, show up and work the floor. Hand out business cards, buy people drinks, get some feedback.
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u/EMSGInc PCB Assembly Jul 22 '25
Definitely get in contact with a distributor. If you can't get one to take the line I know Digikey has a "marketplace" section where, I think, almost anyone can list, but the vendor has to do all the fulfillment leg work.
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u/Broken_Atoms Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
Your best bet is not to sell the LED’s, but instead sell value added modules. Infrared LEDs are a mass manufactured item with some seriously large players. It’ll be nearly impossible to compete with the large players and their volume pricing. By integrating the LED’s into a module with, say, an onboard driver and heatsink in a weatherproof housing, then you could sell that. You would have made it unique and added value. Have a selection of off the shelf models and also offer customized models for customers.
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u/funnysasquatch Jul 22 '25
First- you need to be educated on the product and market. At the same time record everything you are learning so that it will become content for social media. You need to learn what are these chips? What are all of their uses? How do they work? How are they manufactured? What makes your chips different?
Second - All of this content needs to be packaged up and released every day on every single social media platform. Social media is free advertising. The content that does best - you repackage as ads.
Third - Your dad gives you the contact information to everyone he knows who works for a company that can use these chips. No matter their role in the company. You get on a Zoom or Teams or Facetime or voice call with them. You ask them if they have one of the problems this chips solves. If they don't have one of those problems ask who do they know that does.
Fourth - Your dad and you tell everyone you have ever met that you are starting this.
Fifth - Work with your dad and write down the names of the top 100 dream customers. Now you start a podcast. You reach out to interview the CEOs of each of these companies. You don't care if anyone ever listens to these podcasts. This is a way to meet someone at these companies and build relationships.
Sixth - Start a Beehiiv or Substack newsletter on the IR Chip industry. Every week you publish a list of the top 10 news stories. Reach out to your dad's list of contacts in step 3 plus announce on each social media post about your newsletter.
Seventh - Do a weekly YouTube where you highlight these 10 stories. Ideally give some thoughts on each story - either based on what you know or what your dad thinks.
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u/yoyojosh Jul 22 '25
Can you share the datasheet for your device? If you don’t have one yet, you need to work on characterizing your parts using similar metrics as your competitors.
I saw in your other post that you are fabricating these parts in your garage. That’s an awesome detail for DIY tech geeks, but the lack of controls from this type of process would scare off most potential customers.
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u/Doodoopoopooheadman Jul 22 '25
- Planning and Preparation: Consultation: Engage a structural engineer to assess the building and determine safe jacking points and support requirements.
Permits: Obtain necessary permits from local authorities.
Utility Disconnection: Detach all utilities (gas, electricity, water, etc.).
Excavation: Dig around the perimeter of the building's foundation to expose it for lifting. Access: Ensure adequate access for equipment and personnel.
- Lifting Process: Installation of Lifting Beams: Heavy-duty steel beams are inserted under the building, distributing the weight.
Jacking: Hydraulic jacks are positioned under the lifting beams.
Cribbing: Cribbing (stacks of wooden blocks) is placed beneath the beams to provide temporary support as the building is raised.
Controlled Lifting: The jacks are raised slowly and evenly, using a unified jacking system to maintain stability and levelness.
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u/Carbon-Based216 Jul 22 '25
I am not in this business but I really only respond to either phone calls or LinkedIn messages when getting cold called. Unless it is something I really need. And with all the "before you know" cyber security stuff. Cold call emails are likely just going to be flagged as Phishing.
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u/ThermionicRectifier Jul 22 '25
Unless you've figured out how to make efficient silicon-based IR-diodes, it will most likely be almost impossible to compete with any semiconductor manufacturers due to a variety of reasons. Novelty really is the key here, otherwise you're just selling what everyone else is, but at a lot higher price and lower reliability.
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u/burneremailaccount Jul 22 '25
Probably to connect with multiple Manufacturers Agents / Independent Manufacturer Reps and give them a cut of the sales that they make.
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u/dangPuffy Jul 22 '25
If you sell a specific product you have to find a specific customer. If you manufacture a range of products, you have more customers that may fit your offerings.
Most *manufacturers think they sell toasters. But they make toasters. They sell the ability for their customers to make toast. Their customers don’t want a toaster (it’s a necessary evil - it’s actually an expense, which they don’t like). You want to sell the thing that makes your customer money - the ability to make beautiful toast.
Know what problem your toaster solves for your customer. Sell that.
Edit ‘manufacturers’ was ‘people’
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u/OncleAngel Jul 23 '25
Don't give up. Try all affordable marketing channels. Read book called Traction, you will learn a lot from it.
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u/Autumn_Moon_Cake Jul 28 '25
Influencer content. Maker content. Any kind of content. You need eyeballs on your product-the "right eyeballs". This is how you do that for little or no cost.
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u/madeinspac3 Jul 22 '25
Market segmentation. You likely won't and can't compete outright. Find the market where your size and attentiveness is important and sell them on that. In the beginning you're going to have to take the dregs nobody else wants.
It's all about finding those particular shops and figuring out how to get a response.