We started a physical product company instead of a SaaS. Here's what the first 12 months taught us. (I will not promote)

It all started with four friends, even before we became business partners, driven by a desire to combine our passion for eyewear with an entrepreneurial venture. We wanted to build a company founded on values ​​we believed in, rather than making profit our sole objective. The idea was born in a garage, amidst sketches on paper and a few beers, with the goal of creating a high-quality product with a fresh style that people would genuinely want to buy. We soon realized that building a company based on physical products is very different from launching a software startup. The "launch an MVP and then make adjustments" approach doesn't apply when the product involves manufacturing processes, suppliers, inventory management, and distribution. Before you can even begin to learn from the market, you have to tackle prototyping, production, quality control, supply chain management, warehousing, logistics, sales channels, and a massive amount of administrative work. And then there is the toughest challenge of all: convincing customers, in our case, optical shops, to place their trust in a brand-new brand. Over the last 12 months, we've had to: - select the first models and frames for our initial collection; - build and manage a supply chain involving suppliers both in Italy and overseas; - learn how to deal with the bureaucracy and administration involved in starting a company; - build a sales network from scratch; - find and work with sales agents across different Italian regions; - make difficult decisions, including ending relationships with some agents and postponing the launch of some products until September. One of the things we underestimated the most was distribution. We initially thought that finding people who could promote and sell the product in different regions would be relatively straightforward. It wasn't. Building the product was only one part of the problem. Getting the product in front of the right customers and convincing them to give a new brand a chance was another challenge entirely. Where we are after 12 months So far: - our first customer opened an account two months after we incorporated; - we built a sales network of four agents covering six Italian regions; - we built an internal management system to monitor our company KPIs; - we reached double-digit new customers within the first six months; - we launched our second collection in September 2026. The most rewarding part isn't really any of those numbers. It's seeing an optical store decide to introduce a new brand into its shop, and then seeing consumers actually choose our frames. That's when you realize that you're no longer just building a product. You're building something that is starting to have a life of its own. Why I'm sharing this here A lot of startup discussions revolve around SaaS, AI and software. We're building something very different. Brand is a physical product brand being built from Italy, in a market we didn't fully understand when we started, with an established and competitive market around us. We're sharing the experience because I'm interested in comparing the challenges of building a physical product company with those of building software startups. There are obviously similarities, but some problems are completely different. For those of you who have built a startup or a physical product business: What did you underestimate when you started? Which part of building the company turned out to be much harder than expected? For those building software: what problems do you think are unique to physical products? And for everyone: what has been the most rewarding part of your journey so far?