It's time for some more Gold Nuggets where we talk with some of our most loved makers, founders and do-ers. Digging into their stories to reveal tips, precious wisdom, and even some music to get your under-the-desk feet dancing.
In this edition we’d like you to meet one of our favourite couples, John Nussey and Avril O’Neil from Ding, a project we helped become successfully funded on Kickstarter.
Tell us about yourselves and Ding
Hi! We're Avril and John, and with support from The Design Council, John Lewis and our amazing backers on Kickstarter we’re launching Ding.
Ding is a simple, beautiful, smart doorbell that’s perfect for your home and makes your life easier. When a visitor presses the button, the chime rings in your home and also connects to the Ding app on your smartphone, allowing you to talk with the person at your front door from wherever you are in the world!
What’s the one thing you wish you knew in your first year?
There's a lot I wish we'd known in our first year! Making a physical product comes with many challenges and it's hard to know what to prioritise. In all honesty, we don't have many regrets, as we've learnt so much through the experience. The one thing I think we wish we'd had was a way of meeting and expanding our team quicker. We have secured an amazingly talented team, including the guys at PWG, but it took a lot of searching to find them.
What are your top 3 tips for how to best use funding?
Tip 1. Spend it on things you can't do yourself
Tip 2. Trust your gut and don't worry about spending it
Tip 3. Invest it in the company, rather than using it as an income, get your product out there sooner.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given, and who gave you it?
Make the business work for you and don't be a slave to any other formulas or compare yourselves to others too much.
What’s your ambition for Ding?
On a personal level, it is to see a product we've made out there in the world, solving a real need. In the bigger picture, it's to make IoT products that have a genuine benefit for people, rather than producing technology for technology's sake.
What song motivates you in the studio and why?
"Ring my bell" by Anita Ward. Then there’s "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica, "My doorbell" by The White Stripes...we could go on! ;)