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Four fundamental forces of nature shape everything.

Every product that reaches the shelf needs four of its own. That's the four in Form by Four.

  1. Strong nuclear forceDesign

    Without design, it stays an idea.

  2. Weak nuclear forceManufacturing

    Without manufacturing, it stays a render.

  3. ElectromagnetismLaunch

    Without a launch, it stays in the warehouse.

  4. GravityCapital

    Without capital, it stays small.

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A drawing of one form held together by four forces: the strong nuclear force stands for design, the weak nuclear force for manufacturing, electromagnetism for launch, and gravity for capital. As you scroll, each force is taken away in turn and the form breaks.

Every product that reaches the shelf needs four of its own. That's the four in Form by Four.

Book a call See the work

Every product starts as a line.

Here's how a line becomes a product on a shelf.

02 of 10

Then it gets numbers.

Wall thickness, draft angles, the radius your thumb finds without looking. I turn the sketch into CAD a factory can actually hold to.

03 of 10

The inside decides the outside.

Boards, batteries, seals and screws. I design the parts nobody sees, with engineering partners I trust, so the parts everyone sees can stay this simple.

An exploded render of the Vertigun massage gun showing its internal parts.
Fig. 03Vertigun, the massage gun I designed to mount on a wall, taken apart.

04 of 10

220 design variations.

That's how many it took before my first product, Vertiball®, would hold to a wall. You can't skip this part. I can make it shorter.

A sheet of dozens of Vertiball design variations laid out in rows.
Fig. 04The actual Vertiball iteration sheet.

05 of 10

Vertiball®.

A massage ball that mounts to any wall, for the spots on your back you can't reach. Variation 220 is the one that held. The mount is patented, and more than 200,000 recovery bundles have sold through Amazon, Target, Best Buy and QVC.

See the Vertiball project

06 of 10

Then it meets steel.

Tooling is usually the biggest cheque a hardware founder writes. I've designed or fixed about 20 moulds, standing on the factory floor, not over email.

A steel injection mould core mounted in a moulding press, with a part on it.
Fig. 06A mould core in the press.

07 of 10

First shot.

The first part out of a new mould tells you whether the last six months worked. I like to be standing at the press when it drops. Vertigun's first shots came out wrong. We tuned the mould settings until they didn't.

A first moulded part held up beside the press controller screen.
Fig. 07A first shot, still warm.

08 of 10

Then make it 300,000 times.

Assembly lines, quality checks and packing, written with the factory. The products I designed and launched at Symbodi reached more than 300,000 customers.

Fifteen boxed Vertiballs laid out in a grid on a factory table.
Fig. 08Boxed and checked, fifteen at a time.

09 of 10

On the shelf.

Retail boxes with an insert that holds the product still, quick start guides and store displays. My products sold through Amazon, Target, Best Buy and QVC, won a deal on Dragons' Den, and made Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies list in 2024.

The Vertigun retail box, front and side.
Fig. 09The Vertigun box I designed.

10 of 10

Yours next.

That took you a minute. Yours will take longer, and it's worth doing properly. Bring me the sketch, the prototype or the problem.

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Curtis Kennedy.

Curtis Kennedy, founder. Entrepreneur in Residence at UNB's J Herbert Smith Centre.

Designed it. Made it. Sold $20 million of it.

Now I help other founders do the same.

I spent six years building Symbodi, from a sketch in a university makerspace to Amazon, Target, Best Buy and QVC.

Our first product took 220 design variations to get right. Then came a deal on Dragons' Den, $6.5 million raised, more than $20 million in sales and more than 300,000 customers. Form by Four is how I help other founders get there faster, with fewer surprises.

Read the whole story
Sales
More than $20 million
Raised
$6.5 million
Dragons' Den
A deal on CBC's Dragons' Den
Fast Company
Most Innovative Companies, 2024
Patent
US patent for the Vertiball® wall mount
Entrepreneur in Residence
J Herbert Smith Centre, UNB
Accelerators
Summer Institute and Energia Ventures
Canada's Business Model Competition
Winner, 2018

One force, or all four.

What each force covers in practice, and the work that proves it.

  1. The strong nuclear force holds every atom together.

    I turn the idea into a product a factory can actually build.

    • Concept sketches and 3D CAD
    • Working prototypes: 3D printed, CNC and silicone
    • Design for manufacturing, tolerances and draft
    • Electronics architecture, with partners I trust
    • Patent drawings, with your attorney

    Proof: Vertiball®: 220 design variations and a US patent

    The Vertiball iteration sheet.

  2. The weak nuclear force turns one kind of matter into another.

    I find the right factory, get honest quotes, and stay with the product from first mould to first shipment.

    • Manufacturer search and scored shortlists
    • Quotes and cost teardowns
    • Factory trips
    • Moulds, first samples, QA and assembly procedures
    • Packaging and freight

    Proof: Vertigun: about 20 moulds designed or retooled on the floor

    A steel injection mould opened to show a moulded housing in its cavity.

  3. Electromagnetism carries light, and everything you see and touch.

    I make the product look as good as it works, on the shelf and on the screen.

    • Retail packaging and quick start guides
    • 3D renders and launch animation
    • Websites and product apps
    • Retail display systems
    • AI tools for your team

    Proof: One founder ad, shot on an iPhone: $5 million in sales

    The Symbodi retail display kit.

  4. Gravity is the weakest force, and it still holds galaxies together.

    I help you tell the story that pulls in investors, partners and retailers.

    • Pitch decks and investor stories
    • Grant and funding strategy
    • Retail and channel plans
    • Pricing and unit economics

    Proof: Dragons' Den, and $6.5 million raised at Symbodi

    Winners of Canada's Business Model Competition 2018 holding prize cheques.

Selected work.

Same four forces. No two products alike.

All seven projects
  1. A studio render of the black Vertigun on its wall mount.

    Symbodi, 2023

    Vertigun

    A massage gun that mounts to the wall. Concept to mass production.
  2. Studio renders of the black Vertiball and Vertiroller, side by side on their wall mounts.

    Symbodi, 2019 to 2024

    Vertiball and Vertiroller

    The recovery bundle, from 220 design variations to retail.
  3. The Thelm interface, building a financial model step by step.

    Co-founded with Sam Poirier, 2025 to 2026

    Thelm

    An AI platform that plans a startup, then deploys agents to build it.
  4. Curtis with founders and factory staff in a factory lobby, giving a thumbs up.

    Hardware startups, 2026

    Factory sourcing for hardware startups

    Finding manufacturers for other hardware startups, and taking the founders to meet them.
  5. Three phone screens from the Symbodi Recovery Network, locating reference points on a person's back and building a personal back map.

    Symbodi, 2024 to 2025

    Symbodi Recovery Network

    An app that maps your back, tracks each session and connects you to a clinician.

Concepts and side projects.

Ideas I designed that never went to market.

  • A render of LiquidLift, a tall black resistance training column with a screen and two cable handles.

    LiquidLift 2022 to 2024

    A resistance trainer that uses water to adapt to you, with live trainers and a global leaderboard on its screen.

  • A render of the NeuraCycle headset beside a phone showing its sleep app.

    NeuraCycle 2022 to 2023

    A sleep headset that reads your brain activity and learns which sounds get you into deep sleep.

  • A render of Symbodi Dimension, a flat massage pad, beside a coloured muscle map of a back.

    Symbodi Dimension Concept

    A 3D massage system that learns your back and repeats the pressure paths that work. It began as my final university design project.

  • Three views of the alivo tongue scraper, white with a turquoise film.

    alivo 2016

    A disposable tongue scraper with a dissolvable freshening film.

Companies I've worked with

  • Axolotl Biosciences
  • Shine
  • Mulli Swing Solutions
  • Build Smartr
  • Sleepout
  • Urai
  • Beluga Pods
  • RocketRank
  • Potential Motors

Brand and launch

One phone. One ad. $5 million in sales.

I shot Symbodi's founder ad myself, on my iPhone. On its own, it drove $5 million in sales through online advertising.

A product has to be understood in the first three seconds. Show it doing its job, let a real person say why it matters, and cut everything else.

Campaigns with professional athletes

CeeDee Lamb NFL wide receiver
Carli Lloyd Two-time Olympic gold medallist
Clelin Ferrell NFL defensive end
Minkah Fitzpatrick NFL safety

Product animation

The Vertigun launch film 3D animation for the launch, 55 seconds

Fast, cheap, good. Pick two.

Every product lives inside this triangle. Switch on the third and one of the others gives way. I won't pretend otherwise. I'll help you choose on purpose, and show you what each choice really costs.

Fast and good won't be cheap. Speed costs money: air freight, parallel tooling, more of my hours.

A hand holding a small blue card with three switches labelled fast, cheap and good.
The same three switches, on a card I made.

Thirteen trips to the factory floor.

A good factory can turn a rough sketch into a working sample before the week is out. The wrong one will quote you twice what a part should cost, or cut a mould that won't hold tolerance.

After 13 trips I know how to tell the difference, and how to fix it on the floor. When it's time to choose a factory, I'll take you there.

Plan a factory trip
A meeting table covered in product samples, with a mould-flow analysis open on a laptop.
Design review with a factory's engineers. Mould flow on the laptop.
A hand holding a black moulded part, with a note drawn on the photo that the mark needs to be fixed.
Sample review. What needs fixing gets marked on the part.
A steel injection mould opened to show a moulded housing in its cavity.
Inside the mould.
A row of Vertiball samples on a windowsill, with city towers behind.
Production samples by the factory window.
A group in shoe covers walking between circuit board assembly machines.
Walking a circuit board line.
Curtis and four factory partners raising glasses at a barbecue table.
Dinner with the factory team. Half the work happens here.

How we'll work together.

Every product is different, so every project is scoped to fit it. You'll know exactly what you're getting before anything starts.

  1. 01

    A first call.

    30 minutes, free. Tell me what you're making and where it's stuck. You'll leave with a clear next step, whether or not we work together.

  2. 02

    We scope it.

    I dig into the product, the goals, the timeline and the budget, and work out which of the four forces it needs most.

  3. 03

    A plan you can hold me to.

    A written proposal: the milestones, what I'll do, what you'll get at each step, and what it takes.

  4. 04

    Then we make it.

    Regular check-ins, and I stay with it through the factory floor and the launch. Hire me for one force, or for the whole way.

Book a call Send a project brief

Questions founders ask.

What stage should I be at?

Anywhere from a working prototype to a product already on shelves. If you only have an idea, the call is still worth it. I'll tell you honestly what the next step costs.

Do I have to go to China?

No. Most of the work happens remotely. A trip saves months when it's time to pick a factory or approve first units.

Will a factory copy my product?

It's the most common fear I hear. The risk is real and manageable. Work with established manufacturers who have more to lose than to gain. Sign an NNN agreement written for China. File your patents before you share drawings. When it matters, split sensitive parts across suppliers. I'll help with all four, and your IP lawyer should review the agreements.

How much do you charge?

It depends on the project. After the first call I'll scope it and send a proposal that says exactly what's included, so you can decide with everything in front of you.

What does it cost to get a product made?

It depends on part count, materials and volume, which is why the first call is free. Once I've seen what you're making, I'll give you a range.

Do you only work on hardware?

Mostly. I also build the software, apps and AI tools that go with a product, and I've built AI systems for professional firms.

Who does the work?

I do. For specialist work like electronics, tooling and translation, I bring in partners I've worked with in person.

Where are you based?

Saint John and Fredericton, New Brunswick. I work with founders anywhere.

Bring me the thing you're trying to make.

Tell me what it is and where it's stuck. I read every message myself and reply within two working days.

Book a call Send a project brief Email me