Peter Muller (a UIC grad, woot woot!) was our guest speaker last week. He is 1/3 of the Misen brand. Their current Kickstarter, Misen: Cook Sharp has exploded, and that’s an understatement. It was awesome to hear his process, struggles, fears and everything in between in producing the prototypes for this product and the candid reaction to the overwhelming support of the campaign just three days in. What resinated the most was the passion and dedication he had in getting this product to physical fruition. With over two years of testing, pitching at Home and Housewares, finding his exact design ripped off by larger companies, and educating himself on materials and methods was comforting to hear. Shit happens and the hustle is real.
Through that process however, he was uncompromising on the product integrity, materials and performance. Everything about the Misen knife is calculated and requires precision to get precision. The boom of backers on Kickstarter has the initial appearance of propelling forward, yet Peter was very real about the start-up money not turning a huge profit, so honest that he said they could even end up losing some money…a financial step back. This made me think of the moonwalk. Misen is sleek, smooth and every detail makes up the whole, but most of all the initial appearance of moving forward while actually stepping back isn’t always a bad thing. MJ is a legend, no hyperlink necessary to support that. Misen too, has been reviewed by top critics as being game-changing and I have no doubt their business will catapult forward.