Today we’d like to introduce you to Nigel Flynn.
Nigel, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Slingshot Product Development Group is about to enter its 27th year of business during which time it has become one of the most significant new product development businesses in the South-East of the United States.
The company started small but quickly grew in the early 2000’s. Slingshot has grown its business as corporate clients have evolved from the use of in-house new product development resources to third party resources in order to avoid the high fixed cost of in-house new product development.
Two things have made us successful. Diverse market focus and diversity of core competences.
Slingshot addresses a broad range of market sectors within which we develop new products. This ranges from Consumer and Military/Security products to Medical/Dental/Veterinary Products as well as Industrial/ Professional products. Our gallery of case studies includes examples that range from training hand-grenades to ladies’ lingerie. We like to joke that we think we could impress even James Bond if he took a tour of our facility.
The second secret of our success is a broad range of core competences that we can bring to any given project. This ranges from: Industrial Design and Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Software and Firmware) to a Science and Technology Group (Chemistry, Materials Science, the Life Sciences and STEM) and a Manufacturing Services Group for conversion to manufacturing. Additionally, we also offer Intellectual Property Services; Regulatory Affairs support; Voice of Consumer and a Quality Management system to assist with the FDA requirements of most medical projects. Most important of all we have a team of seasoned Project Managers managing our projects and interacting regularly with our clients to report on our progress.
Our diversity of talent definitely differentiates us, especially our Science & Technology Group, which allows us to handle early stage-R & D before we enter full-scale new product development. We believe that we are one of the only privately held, commercially focused, new product development companies in the US – that possess this core competence.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The company has weathered the economic impact of at least three recessions, a global pandemic and a period of runaway inflation. We are told that over 80% of US-businesses fail by their 20th year of business, so we are very blessed to continue to play an important role in our sector.
Our business life has not been a straight road with gentle sunshine and the wind at our back. In some years, survival was success. I’m British by birth and in the old country we have the expression “home and dry” which broadly carries the same message. We have found that in good years it was important to build a war chest for those years that may be more challenging.
When we experience an exceptional circumstance in our business, we also try to devise a system or practice that will prevent us from falling into the same hole in the future. “Thinking in systems” is the title of a book on this subject, but it is also a business principle that has served us well.
I think one further element of our success has been maintaining a sense of levity through our challenges. Most businesses experience the rollercoaster of changing circumstances within the economy. We try to be realistic about our hopes and expectations, especially when time get tough. A sense of humor definitely helps.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have been fortunate to work throughout my career in the field of new product development. My own career began as a scientist and corporate inventor for a British multinational until I eventually transitioned through successive companies to Slingshot Product Development Group. It is an endlessly challenging and interesting occupation in which no two days are alike. It is a cliche, but the project that excites me the most is always the one we are just about to begin.
In its 27 years of business life, Slingshot has developed over 1,000 products and can identify more than 750 items of intellectual property that we have contributed to our clients.
We are proud of products that began as a napkin sketch and have now become product businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I am pleased to say we have a number of them. We are also proud of the many professionals who have worked for Slingshot during the last 27 years and whose professional success has been built in part on the time that they spent with us.
I believe that two additional differentiators set us apart from others in this field. The first is our Science and Technology team. The team is capable of handling basic challenges which must be solved before a revolutionary product can be developed. The second is our proven new product development process. Slingshot’s Process was in fact adopted by the founders of the Biomedical Engineering Program of Georgia Tech. and has formed the backbone of their undergraduate new product development program for almost two decades.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
The success of Slingshot Product Development Group is a team effort. Without the team, we would have an empty building and no business. I do not believe that robotic products or AI are going to replace our business any time soon: although our company is engaged in activities in both of these fields.
Our success rests upon 25 team members in all of the disciplines we earlier described. In fairness, I feel I could not mention one unless I mention them all. Nonetheless, I must mention my forever faithful business partner Ms. Taylor Leigh, who enjoys the universal admiration of everyone on the team. Taylor is multitalented multitasker, a team builder, brilliant CFO and highly creative project participant.
The other person I must thank for our business growth is the well-known Atlanta entrepreneur and personal mentor Mr. Dennis Hayes. The Hayes modem gave US and global business and domestic consumers the very first product with which to access to the internet. He grew a business that today would be worth over one billion dollars. Dennis has shown me that creativity can extend beyond our work into every area of our business life to fuel our success. Dennis also runs an early-stage entrepreneurship program based in Spartanburg; SC called the American Technology Venture Labs. ATVL.org.
Finally, our roster would not be complete without mentioning Mr. Sam Zaidspiner who originally founded Slingshot at the turn of the Millenium and who remains a great friend of our organization.
Pricing:
- Initial Consultation at no cost
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.slingshotpdg.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slingshotpdg/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slingshotpdginc/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/slingshot-product-development-group
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBP4UJuIPNk
Image Credits
Slingshot Product Development Group
