Inside Two Successful Makuake Crowdfunding Campaigns [Part 2] — DP-M2, Building for the World

Part 1 covered the first Makuake campaign for DP-M1 — wrestling with 100 different protein powders, a spec change mid-campaign, the relief of shipping just in time.

Part 2 covers the development of DP-M2 and the second Makuake campaign.

The Limits of DP-M1 — “This Alone Isn’t Going to Work”

During those weeks of dosing 100 different proteins for DP-M1, one realization sat with me.

Protein powders vary wildly by brand and by flavor. DP-M1’s dosing approach couldn’t handle a lot of them. With this mechanism alone, we’d never get to “a dispenser that works with any protein.”

That conviction kept building while I started on the next product.

From a Failed Motorization to a 360-Degree Rotating Chamber

The first thing I tried was electrification — a button press, and the dose is done. We ended up abandoning that direction. The full story is in Development Story Part 2.

What survived from that failure was the idea of a dosing chamber that rotates 360 degrees. Repurpose that as a manual mechanism — pull a ratchet lever to advance the rotation — and you have a design that doesn’t run into prior US patents.

We started development in April 2024. The concept came together in about a month. DP-M1 had used a 120-degree lever swing; DP-M2 changed the rotation angle and added a nozzle. Once the concept was set, we commissioned a US patent search, folded in the patent attorney’s suggested revisions, and moved forward.

The Rat-Holing Problem — Powder That Won’t Leave the Walls

The dosing mechanism itself came together fairly smoothly. The hard part was the section above it: getting powder to actually drop from the hopper into the dosing chamber.

DP-M2 has a larger opening below the hopper than DP-M1 did, to encourage powder flow. But that larger opening made rat-holing more visible.

Rat-holing is when powder funnels straight down the center of the container while the walls hold residual powder in place. From the outside the container looks emptier than it actually is; the powder stuck to the walls never drops, and dose accuracy drifts further off with every pull.

To fix it, we reshaped the agitator vanes repeatedly. Long vanes, short vanes, how many to use. Change one variable, run a dosing test, repeat. It took a lot of iteration to land on a geometry that consistently moved powder off the walls.

Six Dosing Chambers — and the Base Plate Problem Comes Back

DP-M1 had two dosing chambers. DP-M2 has six. The change improved accuracy and consistency, but the torque required to rotate the chamber went up significantly.

With DP-M1’s base, operating the lever on a unit holding 1 kg of protein moved the whole product around. The base had to be larger, heavier, more stable.

Part count went from 15 to 17. We built 11 new molds, mostly around the new dosing section. DP-M2 tooling alone came in at ¥14,850,000 (about US$99,000). Including DP-M1’s modifications and revisions, total tooling investment topped ¥36M (about US$240,000).

The Material Problem — Japan’s Food Sanitation Act Wasn’t Enough

DP-M2 was built with the US market in mind from the start. That meant we needed materials that complied not just with Japan’s Food Sanitation Act, but also with US FDA regulations.

Material selection got hard again.

For ABS, no Japanese domestic supplier had a grade compliant with both the Japanese spec and FDA. As mentioned in Part 1, ABS doesn’t get used for food-contact applications often, so the resin makers haven’t prioritized those grades.

We ended up sourcing from Taiwan: Chi Mei for ABS and Hua Fu (華孚) for PS. POM was already compliant under both Japanese and US specs, so that didn’t change from DP-M1.

We’d originally planned to use PP (polypropylene) for the dosing chamber, but the molded parts didn’t have the strength we needed, and we switched to POM there as well.

FDA Testing — A First-Time Experience, Waiting for the Result

Material compliance on paper isn’t enough. The actual molded parts had to be sent to a test lab, analyzed, and certified.

This was new territory for us. We had to start by finding a lab. Once we’d shipped the test parts, the waiting was anxious — until the report came back, you don’t know whether it actually clears.

It cleared without issues. But the experience drove home how much extra work goes into preparing a product for overseas markets.

Why We Stopped Including a Dose Guide — Same Protein, Different Powder

DP-M1 shipped with a printed dose guide. DP-M2 does not.

The reason: when we re-purchased some of the same proteins we’d tested for DP-M1 — same brand, same product — the powder was noticeably different than before.

When we checked with the manufacturer, they told us the raw ingredient supplier can change between lots, which can shift the powder behavior. If that happens with a major brand, it’s safe to assume it happens with others.

So any dose guide we printed for a given protein could be wrong by the next time someone bought that same protein. We decided a dose guide that’s only sometimes right isn’t worth printing, and dropped it for DP-M2.

The Second Makuake — 179 People Chose “Next”

November 2024. DP-M2’s Makuake campaign launched.

We used the same project page agency that had built the DP-M1 page. We worked with a tighter group of influencers this time, mostly people who’d helped with DP-M1.

We also built a landing page with a LINE flow for ongoing communication. Honestly, I didn’t really understand funnel design well enough to use it effectively — we got as far as collecting LINE followers and broadcasting to them. Funnel discipline is a next-time problem.

Even so: 179 backers, ¥2,947,500 (about US$19,650). Roughly 35% more backers than DP-M1, and over 55% revenue growth versus DP-M1’s 133 backers / ¥1,895,000. DP-M1’s awareness mattered more than I expected.

Patent Granted, Then a US Filing

The moment DP-M2 development closed out, we filed a Japanese patent. It was granted as Japan Patent No. 7580860. A US application followed shortly after, and that one is currently under examination.

The “Protein Dispenser” trademark is registered in both Japan and the US. The product category itself is still new enough that owning the category-level name is part of the strategy.

And Now, Round 3 — Kickstarter

Two Makuake campaigns later, the next stage is Kickstarter in the US.

312 backers in Japan said they wanted this. The patent is granted. FDA compliance is in. Materials and tooling are ready for a product that ships globally.

Selling into a different language, a different market, a different culture is a completely different fight from Makuake. But DP-M1 taught me that when something breaks mid-project, you face it instead of running — and that lesson travels.

For more on the product’s development arc, see Development Story Part 1 and Part 2. For the engineering behind the dosing mechanism, see 19 Prototypes to a Dosing Mechanism.

The ALENNE Protein Dispenser is a Japan-made dispenser, chosen by 312 Makuake backers across two campaigns. Built around a patented dosing mechanism, one lever pull dispenses a measured serving. It stores up to 1 kg of powder. The nozzle is shaped to reduce scatter.

▶ Back the project on Kickstarter