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Part 1 followed the first Makuake campaign for DP-M1: the material challenges, the mid-campaign spec change, and shipping on time against the odds. Part 2 is where we took everything we learned and built something better, the DP-M2, and the Makuake campaign that followed. The Limits of DP-M1: “This Alone Isn’t Going to Work” During…

Miaomada has run two crowdfunding campaigns on Makuake (think Kickstarter, but Japanese) for our protein dispenser. The first, for DP-M1, finished with 133 backers and ¥1,895,000 (about US$12,600). The second, for DP-M2, brought in 179 backers and ¥2,947,500 (about US$19,650). In total, 312 backers and just over ¥4.84M (about US$32,000). The numbers alone look clean….

Most people who drink protein measure with the scoop that came in the bag. It’s already there, it costs nothing extra, and there’s no obvious reason to question it. I used to do the same thing. For nearly three years I scooped my protein every morning and assumed that was just how it worked. Then…

Search “how to store protein” and the same advice surfaces every time: keep it airtight. Avoid moisture. Avoid pests. Avoid oxidation. The reasoning is straightforward. But over two to three years of running a dedicated protein storage and dosing device (our protein dispenser), the picture has shifted a bit. For typical month-long usage cycles, airtightness…

The heart of a protein dispenser is its dosing mechanism. “Pull a lever, get a measured dose of powder.” The sentence is simple. Getting it to actually work, consistently, took 19 prototype revisions, REV0 through REV18. That mechanism, by the way, came directly out of the failed motorization attempt described in Development Story Part 2….

Part 1 covered how DP-M1 (born inside a contract-manufacturing town factory) reached 133 backers on Makuake. Part 2 picks up there: the failed attempt at motorization, the DP-M2 that grew out of it, and the move into the US market. The Push for an Electric Dispenser — and Why It Failed With DP-M1 done and…

Keiichiro Honda, Miaomada’s founder, started drinking protein in his mid-forties. He’d always liked moving. Years of jogging led him, almost by accident, to a gym near his home, and from there into serious lifting. Watching his muscles actually grow turned the routine into something genuinely fun. He learned that protein helps muscle development, so he…

Measuring protein is a hassle. Pretty much everyone who starts drinking it lands on this within a week or two. I did. About two weeks in, I caught myself thinking, “wait, I have to do this every day?” I wanted to keep at it for the obvious reasons (health, fitness, whatever you want to call…

The first wall most people hit when they start drinking protein is the spilling. Open the bag, scoop, transfer to the shaker. That’s all it should be. But somehow the kitchen counter ends up coated in powder. Your hands are coated. And while your hands are still covered, you’re turning on the faucet, screwing the…

I drink protein every morning. I’ve kept it up for over two years now. For most of that time, I measured with a scoop, and honestly, that part of the routine always bothered me. Reaching into the bag to fish out the scoop. Dumping it into the shaker. Powder spilling. Hands covered in it. Every…