From concept to cash register: the evolution of Barmaid prototypes

One of the ventures that I’m involved in is “just getting off the ground” — and by that I mean we’ve been working on this for well over three years now. The concept that we have finally taken to reality is the world’s first handheld drink rimming device, called The Barmaid. So it’s great for margaritas, lemon drops, specialty coffees, and any other beverage that requires a sugar, salt, or spiced rim.

The company is called Lime Design, and we’ve taken a long road to make our initial strides into retail, both at our online brand Lime Tree Cove, and offline at local specialty retailers. In reaching a milestone like this one, it’s always a good time to look back and figure out how far we’ve come. I put together a mini-retrospective of how we arrived at our design, by examining all of the various prototypes we’ve gone through.

As you can see to go from concept to cash register is not an easy road. Here I shared how we refined the concept through prototyping, but there is a lot more that goes into this, that I’ll cover in future posts (manufacturing, focus groups, launching a brand). The bottom line is that there is a long road from having a good idea to having something you can sell — but that’s what makes it fun.