Elezar Tonev
COO
Domenic Aluise
CEO
Jacob Barrineau
CFO
Since the beginning, the RDM founders had always shared a passion for building things. For 7 years, the collective traveled across the United States to compete in product design and engineering competitions sponsored by their school district. After winning several national championships in engineering design the team began thinking:
What if there’s more to product design besides winning trophies? What if we helped other inventors create their ideas?
In 2015, the founders did just that, in a garage with two computers and a 3D printer. Working in the garage for two years, the team formed a bond and vision for success that followed them into their dorm rooms in pursuit of undergraduate degrees at the University of South Florida and the University of Florida.
During that first year in college, RDM partnered with a photographer to develop a product called the band.it. After securing a utility patent, managing a successful Kickstarter campaign, and winning the UF Big Idea and USF Fintech business plan competitions for band.it, RDM proved its business model as a unique product development company and scaled operations into a 3,500 sq.ft. office space in Gainesville, FL.
In the new space, the team continued on its path of innovation, creating two proprietary manufacturing processes, called PIIM and SIIM. These new processes allowed RDM to offer clients a low-volume manufacturing service, a cost effective bridge between prototype and final product.
With the expansion of services, RDM refined its business model to utilize three calculated phases of product development: Research and Design, Prototype Development, and Low-Volume Manufacturing. These phases are tailored to clients seeking to bring their product to market efficiently.
This unique approach has allowed RDM to successfully develop products for a wide range of industries. From consumer goods to medical devices, we focus on building products with our clients, instead of for them. Each project brings a unique set of challenges, and RDM has a diverse team that is united by a passion for solving tomorrow's problems today.
RDM’s customer base for engineering design and rapid prototyping is broken into two categories, individual inventors and small businesses looking to either innovate upon an existing product or invert a new product. Product development can be summarized by three words: lengthy, expensive, and confusing which detours many from pursuing an idea.
For inventors who have an idea that they want to bring to life knowing where to start is often very difficult which results in one of two things: premature abandonment of their idea or incurring unnecessary expenses due to misguidance on what they need to procure to create their product. Too often have we seen clients come through our door having spent a third of their budget on industrial design sketches or on a prototype that only meets half of their design specifications.
On the other hand, small businesses want to remain as lean as possible during growth and don’t have/do not want to bring on a dedicated product development team to innovate or help invent a new product. Having worked with several small businesses, we learned during our initial consultations is that they are all eager to improve or expand their offering but cannot afford to hire a full-time engineering team for R&D. Because of this, that new product remains a dream for years.
