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> Of the thousands of retail startups have seen that are going to contract manufacturers, none have had a manufacturing expert or even one with any experience.

Wouldn't that be why they are trying to contract manufacturers?

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Not at all. Manufacturers constantly contract to other manufacturers. Hence terms like OEM. If you haven't been involved in some part of the chain at some point, it's non-straightforward to learn the ropes. Certainly possible, of course; the stats are not encouraging though.

Basically I was trying to say, it really helps to have someone with some manufacturing experience in-house if your startup involves it, even if you're not the actual manufacturer.

Consumer-level quality is not a thing you can easily spec. You're going to give a 3D model to a manufacturer, and they'll put the parting lines, ejector pins and gates wherever is easiest/cheapest to manufacture, not where it'd minimize evidence of molding. You can then spend a lot of time learning about processes and redesigning your form to meet both cost and aesthetic requirements, or you can have someone with manufacturing experience iterating with you from the beginning.

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