From napkin drawing to final product, this Fairfax business helps inventors through the process – WTOP News

This story is part of WTOP’s Small Business September coverage. Each week, WTOP will be highlighting small businesses across the D.C. region, along with financial, government and other organizations that help our small business community thrive.

If you have an idea for an invention or a product that you want to sell on the market, but you don’t have an engineering degree, you are probably going to need help developing that prototype and manufacturing it on a large scale.

Enter Fairfax, Virginia-based X-Pro, which has positioned itself as an all-inclusive product developer from the creation of the concept all the way to store shelves and online shopping carts.

“We do basically full product development from the napkin sketch all the way to manufacturing and fulfillment,” Alex Tomic, the CEO and founder of X-Pro, said.

Most of X-Pro’s customers are regular people who have an idea they want to bring to life but lack the resources to design the intricacies of the product and how it will be manufactured.

X-Pro and the team of engineers will use AutoCAD software, laser cutters, CNC machines and 3D printers to bring that prototype to life at their facilities inside Nova Labs on Jermantown Road.

“All R&D is done in-house. All design, all assembly, all troubleshooting, and everything is done here in the house, so nothing is done outside,” Tomic said.

Tomic is not allowed to speak about some of the products they are helping develop because of patents and nondisclosure agreements with the ideas’ owners, but a few are on the market already, including a case that allows an old Apple Watch to function like an old-school iPod, called the tinyPod. They have also helped companies develop drone technology and VR glasses and worked as a contractor on the Meta Quest VR (formerly Oculus) headset.

He said no two projects are alike, and it takes immense problem-solving skills, persistence and a can-do attitude to not only develop the prototypes but enter the large-scale manufacturing space.

Tomic personally prides himself on solving issues for the client and said it’s his favorite part of the business. He said on around 90% of projects they work on, they find a way to solve an issue for future customers. For that other 10%, Tomic doesn’t see it as a failure, instead describing it as “impossible to make with current technology.”

Many people think they can just come up with the idea for a gadget or a product and find a way to create it quickly, but Tomic said nothing could be further from the truth. Even the simplest of products can take up to a full year or two to actually get on the market.

He gave an example of a small product they had been developing in-house, a night light with a smiley face on it that plugs directly into outlets, called the Happy Socket.

“It has a one electrical board inside, and I think four or five LEDs. It took us a year and a half or two years almost to develop that,” Tomic said. “It looks simple, but it’s not.”

Even these simple items can require two or three engineers to work on them, because of the complex nature of most things now requiring some sort of electrical and mechanical engineering. Add on top of that the costs of producing the prototype on a large scale. To pay to develop the injection molding that would be the base for the Happy Socket, it would cost $20,000 before even one is made.

“It’s a pricey industry,” Tomic said.

And like most small businesses, Tomic is seeing those prices rise with the cost of petroleum-based products like plastic skyrocketing amid the war in Iran and tariffs from many of the countries where he gets supplies from. It has, in some cases, doubled the cost of shipping.

Tomic started his engineering and problem-solving career when he was just a high school student in his home country of Serbia, working as a freelancer designing and engineering objects from home. But he realized banking and tax issues were preventing him from realizing his full potential, and after a few years in college, he moved to the U.S. at the age of 20.

“I moved here because of the better opportunity, and I strongly believe in that,” he told WTOP.

He worked as a consultant briefly before starting X-Pro in 2016, and through contractors and full-timers, the firm is now handling about 30 different projects, each with at least one engineer.

“I’m literally involved in every single (one) of those active products. So, my day starts at 5 (a.m.) and ends at 11 (p.m.), but I love it,” he said.

X-Pro has big plans for the future, hoping to get involved with more military and aerospace projects in the future.

Tomic has also created X-Pro Ventures, where the company would partner with inventors and fund 100% of their ideas for a percentage on the back end. Tomic hopes this will help people with great ideas, but not enough capital, to see their dreams realized.

“People have ideas. Usually, the money is the problem. Because we have a capability of designing in the house, prototyping, manufacturing in the house, we can reduce the cost drastically and help them out. Bring their idea to reality,” he said.

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.