"Never treat not knowing something as a reason to stop. Treat it as the next subject to learn."
Founder Journal #4
About the Founder Journal
Building a company isn't a straight line. It's a series of experiments, setbacks, unexpected lessons, and small victories that rarely make it into product announcements.
The Founder Journal is where we share the stories behind PFV Innovations—not as a marketing campaign, but as an honest record of what it's like to invent, build, and keep moving forward. Whether you're a musician, an entrepreneur, an inventor, or simply someone with an idea you can't stop thinking about, we hope these stories encourage you to keep going.
"The moment you decide to build something new, you also decide to become a student again."
One of the biggest surprises on our journey wasn't learning CAD.
It wasn't 3D printing.
It wasn't filing a patent.
It was realizing that inventing a product and manufacturing a product are two completely different disciplines.
When we built the first working Flip Pick prototype, we proved an idea.
Now we had to prove we could actually make it.
Those are very different challenges.
We Thought We Had Solved the Hard Part
By the time we'd put our first Flip Picks into customers' hands, we thought the difficult work was behind us.
We had a working design.
Customers loved the concept.
We had proof there was a market.
Then reality arrived.
The resin rings weren't good enough.
We knew they wouldn't scale.
If Flip Pick was going to become a real product, we needed another way to manufacture it.
That realization sent us down a path we never expected.
Google Became Our Classroom
I didn't know anything about injection molding.
Literally nothing.
So I did what I've always done when I don't understand something.
I started learning.
Google became my teacher.
One search led to another.
Soon I was reading about manufacturing methods.
Draft angles.
Parting lines.
Shrinkage.
Gate locations.
Material flow.
Tool steels.
Things I didn't even know existed a week earlier.
The more I learned...
The more I realized how little I knew.
Oddly enough, that wasn't discouraging.
It was exciting.
Because every new concept made the next one easier to understand.
We Didn't Need to Become Experts.
We Needed to Understand Enough.
There was a point where I briefly thought,
"Maybe I'll just build the molds myself."
So I learned how to use a desktop CNC router.
I started machining prototype molds out of clear acrylic.
Not because I thought acrylic would become our production tooling.
It wouldn't.
I simply wanted to prove the process before spending thousands of dollars on steel tooling.
That became a recurring theme throughout this journey.
We weren't trying to become the world's best mold makers.
We were trying to learn enough to ask better questions.
Sometimes that's all you need.
Manufacturing Is a Partnership
For more than a year we searched for someone willing to manufacture Flip Pick in the United States.
We sent emails.
Requested quotes.
Had conversations.
Received estimates that made our stomachs drop.
Every engineering fee.
Every tooling charge.
Every setup cost.
Individually they made sense.
Together they made Flip Pick feel impossible.
We weren't looking for charity.
We were looking for a partner.
There's a difference.
Many companies understandably viewed us as a risk.
Murray Plastics saw something else.
They saw the idea.
More importantly...
They saw our willingness to keep improving it.
That made all the difference.
Timing Matters More Than We Realized
One of the funny things about looking back is realizing that "no" was sometimes the best answer we could have received.
When we first contacted Murray Plastics in early 2024, they responded.
They were interested.
But we weren't ready.
At the time, Flip Pick still used the traditional ring.
The resin version was our primary product.
The molding costs felt overwhelming.
So we stepped away.
At first, that felt like a missed opportunity.
Now I think it was exactly what needed to happen.
Because over the following year, everything changed.
Customers helped us understand the limitations of the resin ring.
We developed the FlexBand.
We created the interchangeable RAVEN Wing pick system.
I learned enough about CNC machining to make prototype molds myself.
By the time Murray reached back out—after rediscovering our original email—they weren't looking at the same product anymore.
Neither were we.
Sometimes progress comes from moving forward.
Sometimes it comes from waiting until you're actually ready.
We Started Designing for Manufacturing
One of the biggest shifts in our thinking happened quietly.
Early prototypes were designed around function.
The FlexBand was designed around manufacturing.
Those sound similar.
They're not.
Every curve.
Every thickness.
Every feature.
Every transition.
Now had to answer two questions.
Would it work?
Could it be manufactured consistently?
Once we started thinking that way, the entire design process changed.
We stopped treating manufacturing as the final step.
It became part of the design itself.
We Almost Forgot the Biggest Lesson
Looking back, I don't think learning injection molding was really about plastic.
Or molds.
Or machines.
It was about learning how to learn.
Every time we reached something we didn't understand, we had two choices.
We could say,
"We don't know how."
Or we could say,
"We don't know how...yet."
That one little word changes everything.
If there's one lesson this entire journey has reinforced, it's this:
Never treat not knowing something as a reason to stop.
Treat it as the next subject to learn.
That philosophy carried us through CAD.
Through 3D printing.
Through CNC machining.
Through manufacturing.
Through patents.
Through software development.
And I have a feeling it's going to carry us through whatever comes next.
Looking Back
People sometimes ask how we learned to build a product company.
The honest answer is...
We didn't.
At least not all at once.
We learned one subject.
Then another.
Then another.
Each time we reached the edge of our knowledge, we found the next lesson waiting.
Looking back now, I don't think learning injection molding taught us how to manufacture Flip Pick.
I think it taught us something much more valuable.
That almost any problem can be solved if you're willing to become a beginner again.
Thanks for reading.
The Founder Journal is our ongoing record of what we're learning while building PFV Innovations. We don't have all the answers, but we believe there is value in sharing the journey honestly. If you're building something of your own—whether it's a business, a song, a piece of art, or simply a better version of yourself—we hope you'll keep going. So will we.
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