How I came up with Distro MFG

In 2022, I started a company called Lone Birch (www.lonebirch.co) where I make home office products and accessories. I was making everything in my garage, but after a few months, I couldn't keep up with demand (can't complain about that!). I was faced with a decision on how to scale productivity and there are two obvious options:

Outsource
Lease commercial space, hire

I wasn't a huge fan of either option, both are incredibly expensive and risky and definitely not cost efficient. So using my tech background (Product Designer @ GitLab), I decided the most efficient way to scale was to hire people to make, pack, and ship my products from their own shop. This means I wouldn't have inventory (made to order), a warehouse, or a commercial space and by making products closer to my customers, I would save 60% on shipping and reduce my overall carbon footprint, plus support more makers and communities than just my own. The only missing piece was the software, which we built, and made the process seamless. It's called Distro MFG.

So far, it's been incredibly successful. I currently have 6 people across the country making, packing, and shipping my products and I'm completely hands off, all while I save 60% on shipping (which is massive for low margin products). Oh and payouts are automated too, so the makers do everything, including printing shipping labels, requesting pickup and get paid, all from the app.

We're currently working on making Distro available for other companies to use, so they too can benefit by not spending THOUSANDS of dollars scaling production or expanding to different markets. All it takes is time and next thing you know your company based on Vermont or Virginia or Florida can hire someone to make your products in California and ship them same state, for a fraction of the cost and getting to the customer in half the time.

Our software can be used for all kinds of companies, specifically those whose products can be made from home and from people who have the equipment. These products range from wood products like mine at Lone Birch, or sewn products, or 3D printed products, or Leather products, or even imagine starting a custom t-shirt business where you partnered with t-shirt printers nationwide, where you send them the order to fulfill and you never had to invest in a single piece of equipment! That's the kind of vision we have for the next generation of companies and the next evolution of manufacturing.