I have been looking at starting a business and am a Software Engineer with lots of experience.
I also love learning about mechanical engineering and manufacturing, but have never actually tried making anything.
Lately I have been interested in buying things that are made in the USA. One household item that I would like to buy is a toaster; I did a lot of searching online and this seems to be something that has a decent amount of demand.
Here is an example: https://www.usalovelist.com/toasters-made-in-the-usa/
The made in USA item that we hear readers are looking for the most is the toaster. In fact, ‘Toasters made in the USA” is such a frequently used search term that there are many articles out on the internet filled with false in information, just to capture this search traffic.
There does seem to be a market opportunity for a nice quality toaster made in the USA.
My question is: as a software engineer with 0 experience building physical things, should I try building this? I have plenty of space to set up a small operation and a little capital to get started building. What are the pitfalls? Has anyone with a software background moved into manufacturing physical items like this?
Also: is anyone interested in building this with me?
There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.
The toaster that needs to exist is a Sunbeam Radiant Control with bagel-width slice capacity. It’s a simple mechanism from decades ago with only a darkness control, and its only caveat is it can’t fit a thicker slice.