Wiiv - Creativity and Business Idea About the Company Wiiw is a 3D printed wearables manufacturer. They have developed a way to 3D print custom insoles for people that feels significantly better than current orthotics, last longer, and are highly customized to each person Now you don't have to worry about paying $250 and getting a bad insole that ruins you further. With data-driven Wearables coming in the future, this company is doing really innovative things! Bioengineered series gve mettere support Ne to thongs & custom foethengecement Quadruple-condly foam futbeds for entre comfort Custom woorde aptimal port Deep hoo Cuse stabilire ang sob shock The Idea Story The original idea for Wiiw is a story about the two co-founders, LV and Shamil, and how they utilized their own experiences, strengths, passions, and resources to build this company. During LV's high-jump career throughout high school, he suffered from an unfortunate accident that left him needing orthotics Forced to use them, LV continued to have bad experiences with the insoles. Sometimes they weren't right and sometimes they would be great, and since it was made by hand the product was not consistent. These discrepancies with the product can cause people to actually experience more pain than they would without First Step into Entrepreneurship When he was about 18 years old, he started a nutrition analytics company. After a lot of effort, the company failed. However, by this time, LV had caught the entrepreneurial bug and loved it! After his first year in college, he started his second company which was a Natural Gas Compressor import company. He would import these compressors from China, and sell them to make a profit. Each start-up and experience played an instrumental role in the continued success of each venture. In LV's sophomore year of college, he discovered 3D printing and began 3D printing his own car parts for fun with the complexity that comes with 3D printing car parts, using various metals and plastics, LV was able to become very proficient with utilizing multiple materials. This helped him immensely with the idea that was about to come, as most people who think of a business idea from 3D printing become limited due to experience. Some think anything is possible with the technology, but it can bring restrictions if you do not know what you are doing. From his own frustrations with the orthotics industry, past experiences 3D printing. LV began to look at the intersection of these two concepts and found an idea for 3D printing insoles. Quickly, he noticed the materials used in orthotics were identical to the capabilities of 3D printers. With the explosion of the e-commerce industry over the last decade, he wanted to make the product accessible to everyone. This led to the beginning idea for Wiivv! The Co-founder With this idea, LV brought it to his friend, Shamil . They met through the 3D printing world when creating car parts, while Shamil helped pioneer HP's 3D printing strategy (HP now has some of the greatest industrial 3D printing technology in the world) Through this, Shamil was able to bring a lot of his connections and resources to the table for Wiiw, and take them to the next level. They didn't want their product to be something that varied in quality and durability, so they set a strategy to utilize industrial printers, which was perfect with Shamil's experience and connections Analysis for Validation To help validate their idea, they used a technique that they continue to use today with new products. Using 100 of their target market customers, Wiiw implemented tests that push their products to the limits to see what can be improved upon. Extreme athletes are some of the people incorporated in the analysis, for example. During these tests, many data points were collected relating to bio-mechanic variables, durability, and comfort to name a few. This gave them great feedback for a successful launch, and they did the same with the continuing development of their product line. From this, they have been labeled one of few footwear products clinically validated to reduce injury, maximum pronation angles, and other factors detrimental to sound biomechanics. Point of Pivot They began taking the clinical route - approaching doctors for prescriptions but they quickly decided to pivot when they saw a competitor fail taking the same route. This is when they started building their mobile application and computer vision system. As well as began working to launch their 74 shoe sole, as there was always an end vision to be a Direct to Consumer company. How to Help Drive This Innovation A large contributor to LV and Shamil's success with innovation and creativity has steamed from their commitment to working on the business, and not IN the business when needed. For example, they take some time to look at the latest new tech. or gadgets out there, and see if they can further optimize their business with it. A key lesson to see out of this is, if you are thinking of an idea, don't get caught-up in the smaller tasks and how you would complete them -concentrate on the larger image and how you can build that. Last Tips from the Co-Founder Don't stay with your idea being an idea for too long. You will always want to test it over and over, while still staying with what you believe in and sticking to it. However, it can be an easy trap to test your idea, and get feedback that is not from your target market, and should not be followed. A lot of people do this, so it can be hard. Like insoles, a several people need them, but no one talks about it. What is critical is to let your one idea lead to another, and to discard your assumptions in the process.