Today we’d like to introduce you to Dang Tran.
Hi Dang, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I was a kid, I was always fascinated about creating products. I enjoyed video games, building legos, 3D animations and website design. I’ve always been drawn to aesthetics in product design. From the product packaging to the product itself.
In high school, I dabbled with graphic design, 3d modeling/animation, programming and websites. I wanted to design something for people to enjoy. I pursued a degree in Art: Graphic Design at SDSU.
During college, I got into painting cars. I love customizing cars and made some money on the side. After college, I’ve built social media websites that were similar to MySpace, created websites to help businesses market themselves, created 3D images/graphics for self checkout kiosks and created iPhones games.
Now I’m an engineer building cloud solutions to help scientists and doctors fight diseases. When I’m not working I would once in a while have ideas come to mind.
One day I had an idea to create Gravity Chopsticks. I was eating at a Thai restaurant with my wife. We were eating appetizers. After the first course, they cleared our table and I had my chopsticks in my hands with nowhere to rest them. That was when a light bulb moment hit me. My idea was to design chopsticks where you could rest on the table and the eating tips wouldn’t touch the table.
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 hardest part in making a product is worrying about the return in investment. Bringing a product to market and seeing how it is perceived costs a lot of money.
The first Gravity Chopsticks design was a hybrid of metal and wood. The cost to produce them was really high because the wood was handmade. I tried to machine them but the wood would split and break. It is really hard to automate the process since the tolerance needed to be tight. If the wood wasn’t exactly to size then the handle wouldn’t flush and would look ugly.
I launched the first Kickstarter and it met its goal to run the initial production. It was hard to produce a high amount of chopsticks consistently. A lot of them were defective. A few couple years later, I wanted to make the same design but entirely out of plastic.
I hit the drawing board to design Gravity Chopsticks 2.0. The design is simple but getting to simple was complicated. I used a 3D printer to come up with many designs. This helped me narrow it close to the final product before taking it to the manufacturer for mass production. Mass production for a product like Gravity Chopsticks 2.0 is different from 3D printing. In mass production, it requires the mold to be created via CNC machine. Then the manufacturer injects hot liquid plastic into the mold to create the final shape.
I had to be sure of the design because any changes would break the bank. That alone was pretty stressful. I got back the first test samples from the manufacturer but it failed the usability test. The plastic was too soft. I couldn’t grip food with them. The manufacturer suggested different materials that would be harder. There were many options but not many that were food safe.
After I found the right material, I launched my second Kickstarter. We raised over $70,000 during our campaign run and delivered thousands of chopsticks to our Kickstarter backers.
I created the website for Gravity Chopsticks, filmed all the videos and did my own marketing. Every aspect had challenges in itself. I took everything I learned in the past and put it into this project. Lots of blood, sweat and tears went into it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Gravity Chopsticks is just one my side projects. I love to build something I believe in from scratch and see it to fruition.
Gravity Chopsticks had a lot of news/media/blogs/magazine coverage worldwide. I had friends come up to me and tell me they were inspired by what I created. I am proud that I was able to finish the project. It is easy to come up with ideas but hard to bring it to life.
I carry many different types of skillsets and can hone in on them when I need to. Jack of all trades and master of some? I think that is what makes me different.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
The book “Crucial Conversations” by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler is great on how to communicate with others.
“Rework” by the founders of 37 signals is great for entrepreneurs.
“24 Techniques for Closing the Sale” by Brian Tracy is a great sales training video.
“The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries another great one for entrepreneurs.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@gravitychopsticks.com
- Website: https://gravitychopsticks.com/
Image Credits:
Dang Tran
Niki Tran
