Rising Stars: Meet Lucas Williamson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucas Williamson. Them and their team share their story with us below:

From the Beginning Lucas, an entrepreneurial and formidable wrestler launched a custom line of wrestling headgear and apparel at 18. During his tenure at Columbus College of Art and Design, Lucas put his academic background in Industrial Design to the test to design his sports gear line. There, he became passionate about product development and the intricacies of making premium goods. In the process, he began to see the hundreds of different touchpoints needed to successfully design and manufacture an excellent product. As a builder by nature, he used his first product launch as a learning experience to optimize and streamline the manufacturing process and began his journey into the world of Product Development. 

Small Steps Forward 

While studying Industrial Design and Entrepreneurship at the Ohio State University, Lucas took his experience in developing his wrestling gear line and pivoted his focus from wrestling to tech with the creation of the Juicebox, a hard plastic case for MacBook chargers that prevents fraying at the critical weak points where the wires connected to the box containing the AC adapter. With this new product, Lucas was able to launch his first successful Kickstarter campaign and win Ohio State University’s Undergraduate Business Plan Competition two years in a row. 

After finding success with his new flagship product, Lucas founded a team of creatives to create Launch Labs, a firm dedicated to bringing products to market in the same way that he was able to bring Juicebox to market. While there, he and his team worked to launch new products, but what was once hundreds of different touchpoints per product scaled to thousands, and the team eventually dissolved after failing to meet the demands of the present market. 

Digital Adaptation and Scaling 

Despite the closing of Launch Labs, Lucas continued to gain momentum in the world of product design through his work with Funded Today, a crowdfunding agency that specializes in building successful campaigns for already designed products. There, he designed dozens of crowdfunding campaigns for clients and was naturally promoted to Senior Designer. 

The Birth of Neumodern Creations 

Having started in the trenches working on the supply chain for his wrestling headgear, and later working on the front-end of consumer acquisition and marketing campaigns, Lucas had the pieces of the bigger picture and wanted a way to put them together. When Lucas had started with his wrestling headgear, created Launch Labs, or during his time at Funded Today he wanted more than anything to have a partner that would be able to take care of a product’s lifecycle from end to end. So, with his years of experience, he set out to build a solution for a market that desperately needed a one-stop shop for product development. 

Success Means Growth 

As the founder of Neumodern Creations Lucas hustled and won client contracts with product inventors from various industries. Grypmat, one of Lucas’ first clients, partnered with Lucas to build a global brand for mechanics that found financial success via Kickstarter with over 125k in presales, which eventually made it to Shark Tank, and is one of the biggest brands in the world for Tool Mats and kits. Additionally, Lucas took it upon himself to provide coaching and support to entrepreneurs where he shared his experiences working within the Product Development industry and connects individuals to relevant partners to allow them to build sustainable product-based businesses. 

Building a Team to Define Product Refinery 

Actively connected in Ohio through various roles and participation in community events, Lucas wanted to evolve his business into an organization that provided all of the services he was already providing creators under one roof. The impetus for finally building the team and beginning Product Refinery happened in 2019 in Koh Samui, Thailand. There, he met with Alex, the present Market Director, and the two, excited by the idea of building a Concept-to-Consumer coterie, set off to expand and grow the refinery. 

Make to Market 

Alex, a graduate of the Ohio State University as well, arrived at his expertise in marketing from a non-conventional background. Having studied International Relations while at school, he quickly found a passion for international economics and sustainable products that would create a positive impact on the world. Having started his career with tech startups and small businesses in Columbus, Alex eventually transitioned his career internationally to design and develop the marketing strategy for a tech startup in the home security space. From there, he set off to write a book about his experiences in Thailand, and while the book was never finished, he quickly became passionate about Lucas’ vision for Product Refinery. 

Experience in Design 

As a seasoned Industrial Designer, Jeremy Sanders has worked on projects of all kinds. From personal projects focused on sustainable systems to massive corporate product lines, he has the experience and understanding of what it takes to produce a premium product in any industry. His partnership with Product Refinery allows our team to provide a world-class design treatment to every idea that comes through our door while keeping our client’s budgets in mind. 

Untangling International Logistics 

Having spent five years traveling around Asia to acquire partners and build a supply chain network for clients, Lucas met Nicolas Tsen. Now Nicolas is Product Refinery’s Overseas logistics manager and is an integral part of the Product Refinery ecosystem. With over a decade of supply chain management and manufacturing logistics experience, Nicolas is on the ground with our manufacturing partners overseas to guarantee that the highest quality products are produced and that their integrity is maintained from the manufacturer all the way to our client’s customer’s hands. 

Clients as Partners 

With a few projects underway, Lucas and Alex began to provide support for Lady Liberty Drinking, inventors of the Kong Beer Bong. Originally starting as a client to relaunch an unfunded campaign they had previously fallen short of the goal, Kong Beer Bong, with the support and guidance of Product Refinery, scaled their small business into a multi-million-dollar operation within a single year. Under Chase Snowden’s leadership, Product Refinery has started a joint venture to build Ship Carri, the fulfillment arm of Product Refinery which came about as an expansion of the fulfillment that Kong Beer Bong already required. 

Refining the Refinery 

Together, under the leadership of Lucas Williamson, Product Refinery is a Creative Coterie of Product Development that allows individuals to Design, Make, Market, and Ship their ideas to a global audience. As a one-stop-shop for product development, Product Refinery’s team of industry experts in their fields have a collective half-century of experience to share with clients. Our team is unified by the ambition to provide clients with the ability to produce excellent products efficiently, and without the need of sourcing various different partners and suppliers. Building tomorrow’s markets is no longer a painstaking process. 

We Design, Make, Market, and Ship Products, Refined.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think that with all businesses, you start out on your own thinking that the road that lies ahead is relatively straightforward because all of the pieces that make up that road have been traveled and done before in one way or another. However, the reality is that the road is long and winding, and while you see the destination ahead, the detours along the way grow with every passing year. Like most startups, growing a client base, and streamlining operations have been a struggle from the beginning. Thankfully, because of the support of our partners in Cincinnati, we have been able to keep growing our client base and are launching more products year after year. 

For us, the largest challenge was figuring out how to help our clients do it all while making sure we could present them with the shortest route possible to market launch. In that all of the products that we design and produce are novel, we never know what we don’t know until we cross the road at that point. Every new client and every new product is a new road that gets built as we go down it. Therefore, managing expectations and understanding that there will always be changes and hurdles along the way to market is the toughest part of our business. 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The short answer is a concept of consumer product development and market entry. We work with creators to bring their products to life and introduce them into their awaiting markets. 

When we set out to start Product Refinery, we wanted to provide creators the opportunities we never had to get our own ideas off the ground. Building a product-based business is tough, and it takes thousands of little steps to get a product to market. Whether it’s getting a prototype that actually works designed and made, or even understanding how to build a brand around the product, everything in the market is generally segmented into one aspect or another. By having to work with a dozen partners it takes a lot of time to get into the market and succeed, and it requires a lot of money and a lot of time. We looked at that and realized that we have already done the legwork to get those networks established, so why not streamline the process for creators? So that’s what we do, and that’s what we’re good at. We allow folks to come to us with their ideas and we take them through the process to build their products and get them into the market without having to invest massive amounts of money and trying to figure it out on their own. 

Because of our approach, we have launched dozens of products and have helped to build the livelihoods for dozens of clients around their product ideas. To be honest, I think that’s what we are most proud of. We support people to build their own lives around their own ideas and give them freedom from the standard 9 to 5 slog that working can become. 

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Culture and Diversity in business, food, the arts, and sports! OTR is a genuine melting pot – 

It’s hard not to fall in love with Cincinnati, especially as a creator and business owner. The community around building a dream is so tightly knit into the fabric of the city, that it’s a genuine manifestation of the American dream. It used to be that folks could set out on their own to build their businesses and fortune, but the reality of today is that it’s no longer really an option. 

Today, to be successful, setting out on your own can only be successful when you have a community around you that believes in what you’re doing and wholeheartedly supports the endeavor. That is Cincinnati’s biggest strength in my opinion. Organizations like Cintrifuse, and Startup Cincy are massive support networks that catalyze the success and growth of people that want to build their livelihoods in Cincinnati. 

Whether it’s a product-based business, a restaurant, a bar, a gallery, or any type of business, Cincinnati has a wonderful community to help you build out what you want to go after. You can see it when you walk down Vine Street, or through the neighborhoods. Every other week it seems that a new ethnic restaurant is opening or a new brand is announcing its launch, and it’s amazing to see the diversity and variety of businesses that serve our community. 

The diversity of culture and the opportunity to experience so much from so many walks of life in the arts, food, and business paired with the opportunity to watch them thrive in Cincinnati is the best part of our city. 

As far as the thing I like least about the city, I would probably have to say that gameday downtown traffic can be a bit of a nightmare, Bearcats, Cincinnati FC, and Red’s days can be a bit hectic. 

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.productrefinery.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/productrefinery/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/productrefinery/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNfzSp7jH8B8Zlq4wx8j7cA

Image Credits
Mike James Photography