Voices: 15 steps to starting your own electronic-kit business is an interesting article. This engineer started her own successful electronics-kit business. Limor Fried has made Adafruit Industries into a successful electronics-kit business. You can too. Based on her own experience, she offers 15 practical steps for engineers who dream of starting their own kit business.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Startups grapple with prospective employees increasingly seeking information such as cap tables and liquidation preferences
Employees Wise Up
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/17/employees-wise-up/
This week, a Bay Area founder was taken aback when an engineer being recruited by his startup asked for both its cap table and information regarding the liquidation preferences of its venture backers. The candidate presumably “worked somewhere where he discovered that these things matter,” says the founder, who asked not to be named in this story.
Though the startup is still debating how much information to give to the candidate, it will likely need to produce a policy around such requests soon. The amount of information that privately held companies share with employees is becoming a bigger issue, largely owing to the rise of so many billion-dollar valuations.
When people “came through the tech bubble of the early 2000s,” Riggione says, “a lot of them caught [in the downturn] learned a lesson. Now they want to know what will happen in case of X outcome, and they’ll ask the company to take them through that and really force the conversation.”
Companies should prepare for engineers and others of their employees to start demanding the same.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What It Means to Be a Product
http://hackaday.com/2015/07/21/what-it-means-to-be-a-product/
We want to highlight a set of amazing products. These are well-built designs that deserve recognition for doing the extra 90% of work involved in designing for production. This has not traditionally been the fun or sexy part of product development, but that will change.
What does it mean to be a product? Engineering something to be manufactured and sold is a different ball game compared to going from a concept to a working prototype. This is often the downfall of the crowd funding campaign. You were prepared to hammer out 100 units with your friends in someone’s basement. Oops, you now have 1400 backers and have overshot the point at which your plans could work. If properly engineered, a product can be scaled without completely redesigning it.
This is where we are right now. The barriers for having a professionally fabbed PCB made are completely non-existant. But the barriers for making that small-run PCB proof-of-concept into a product are still formidable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lauren Weber / Wall Street Journal:
Etsy reports 86% of its sellers are female, 30% use their creative businesses as their sole occupation
At Etsy, 86% of Sellers Are Female
Report from handmade-goods marketplace offers details on its sellers
http://www.wsj.com/articles/at-etsy-86-of-sellers-are-female-1437624061
Here are a few details about the person who made the brocade dog collar you might have bought on Etsy : She has a college degree, she probably used her savings to start her online shop and most of her household’s income comes from other sources.
And, she is almost definitely a she—86% of the site’s sellers are female.
The data comes from a report out Thursday from the online handmade-goods marketplace, one of the earliest platforms allowing for a certain kind of microcommerce: people transacting with each other through a website or app, with limited involvement from the marketplace. Think eBay Inc., Airbnb, Uber Technologies Inc. and TaskRabbit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tindie Becomes A Part Of The Hackaday Family
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/05/tindie-becomes-a-part-of-the-hackaday-family/
we’re very excited to announce that everyone’s favorite hardware marketplace – Tindie, has been acquired by Supplyframe and will be joining the Hackaday family! Apart from the fact that most of us are personal fans of the website, we believe that Tindie fills an important gap in helping projects cross the chasm between prototype and initial production. Crowdfunding provides access to capital for some (and access to laughs for others), but it’s not always the way to go. You might not be ready to quit your day job or take on a project full-time. You might be working on rev1 of the project and want to try the “lean manufacturing” thing. Or maybe you’re building something for your own purposes and have some extras lying around. Tindie is a platform that has helped launch many such projects, and we’re incredibly lucky to have it be a part of Hackaday.
Naturally, the question that’s on everyone’s mind is, what happens next?
Hackaday.io and Tindie combined represent the world’s largest repository of (working) Open Hardware products, so we will be looking into more closely integrating the two
Tomi Engdahl says:
Better before bigger: How Linear Tech was built
http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4439975/Better-before-bigger–How-Linear-Tech-was-built?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150723&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150723&elq=52c0d614c0e245ada035048a7d8c3d63&elqCampaignId=24072&elqaid=27190&elqat=1&elqTrackId=3ed706be44ca458fa11f5ef657a18f06
EDN: I am so impressed with Linear Technology’s longevity, but in particular the fact that the same two men who started this company 34 years ago still guide the company and have created such an employee-friendly environment from day one in which to thrive and especially value their engineering talent. That philosophy is still in effect at your company and you guys are still influencing this company both in business and technical advances.
Swanson: About three or four years ago we invited all the sales people to come in to headquarters for a sales meeting. The area sales managers come in every six months, but it was some time since all the sales folks were out here. So I was asked to give a talk to the guys and tell them about the beginning of the company. And they wanted it to be motivational. So I was thinking about ‘What is it about Linear 30 years later that enabled us to avoid mistakes that other companies that I worked for made?’
So I told the story about three other companies that I worked for that weren’t just other companies; I worked for them when they were at the zenith of their success—but it didn’t last.
Dobkin: And analog is unlike digital systems. When you make an analog product it takes 6 months to get it out to the customers, another 6 months for them to design it in, and another year for their product to get out. So you really don’t see any business for 2 years or maybe three years on a new product. You have to understand that in this business and be able to handle that. You have to think a couple of years ahead and have them ready when they are needed. Management has to understand that these products are not going to sell in 3 months.
Swanson: Especially hard when the design cycles become 18 months or more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hardware innovation isn’t dead
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4440121/Hardware-innovation-isn-t-dead?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150812&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20150812&elq=bd0421c99a4740ad9d3df86b77be181a&elqCampaignId=24327&elqaid=27479&elqat=1&elqTrackId=1f3f489556b54da5834c3122fc92b577
The death of electronics hardware has been a topic of discussion for years—as pundits predicted that new products would be evolutionary rather than evolution. Inventive entrepreneurs, however, are betting on new electronics hardware as the next big thing, and consumers continue to get excited about helping to fund the next promising hardware offering on Kickstarter.
In recent memory, revenue associated with global consumer electronics manufacturing has been in a slump, as it tried to find new directions beyond the traditional television market that provided the industry’s mainstay. The global market represents a $283 billion market, with an annual growth rate of 6.6%, according to IBISWorld’s Global Consumer Electronics Manufacturing market research report. “Over the five years to 2020, revenue is expected to increase thanks to higher demand in emerging economies resulting from higher disposable incomes and relatively lower penetration of many consumer electronic products,” the report said.
Designers are trying to help this boon along, with new ideas emerging from all over the world. On Kickstarter, hardware captured a lion’s share of the attention from users. Of nearly 2,700 technology projects that were successfully funded in the past year and a half (from January 2014 to August 2015), the biggest share of the pie fell into the general electronics category.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where Are They Now: Terrible Kickstarters
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/14/where-are-they-now-terrible-kickstarters/
Kickstarter started out as a platform for group buys, low-volume manufacturing, and a place to fund projects that would otherwise go unfinished. It would be naive of anyone to think this would last forever, and since these humble beginnings, we’re well into Peak Kickstarter. Now, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and every other crowdfunding platform is just another mouthpiece for product launches, and just another strategy for anyone who needs or wants money, but has never heard of a business loan.
Of course there will be some shady businesses trying to cash in on the Kickstarter craze, and over the last few years we’ve done our best to point out the bad ones. Finding every terrible Kickstarter is several full-time jobs, but we’ve done our best to weed out these shining examples of the worst.
Below are some of the most outrageous Kickstarters and crowdfunding campaigns we’ve run across, and the current status of these failed entrepreneurial endeavors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
8 Cost Saving Steps for Your Next Design
http://aa-pcbassembly.com/design-insights/8-cost-saving-steps-next-design/?utm_source=Promotion&utm_medium=eNewsletter&utm_content=Cost%20Saving%20Steps&utm_campaign=Aspen%20Labs
Large or small, every company wants to decrease costs without affecting the quality of their products or services. There is rarely a perfect way to achieve this and PCB design and assembly is no exception. Accurately assembling PCBs is not an easy task; it takes experience, technology and, above all, dedicated people to ensure your projects are done right. When searching for a low-volume assembly shop to populate your boards, it may be tempting to use a low-cost shop to save money. However, doing so may end up costing more in the long term due to reliability concerns and lower throughput, which could result in a damaged reputation.
1. Design within Standard Specifications
2. Consider the Costs of Mixed Mount Technologies
3. Panelize your Boards
4. Minimize Overages
5. Seek External Review
6. Take Advantage of First Article Service
7. Order in Volume
8. Provide Helpful Information to the Manufacturer
Conclusion
It is possible to decrease costs without giving up quality. Instead of using cut-rate manufacturers and assembly houses, follow these low-to-no cost recommendations that will save you the money you need to make sure that your designs are produced to the highest quality possible. Never settle for less than the standards that you and your customers expect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Erin Griffith / Fortune:
Profile of PCH CEO Liam Casey, the supply chain expert of hardware manufacturing in China
Meet the tech industry’s China fixer
http://fortune.com/2015/08/24/pch-ceo-liam-casey-china/
Need a flashy new gadget designed, manufactured, and sold? Liam Casey doesn’t just know a guy—he is the guy.
His name isn’t well-known in elite business circles, but in the tech hardware scene, Liam Casey is “the guy.” He’s the one you call for a factory connection, the guy you hire for your packaging design, and the one you ask about FedEx FDX -4.91% negotiations. All you have to do is find him. Casey, the 49-year-old founder and CEO of PCH International, splits his time between Shenzhen, China, and San Francisco; he lives out of hotels and carries three phones set to different time zones.
Casey is the guy because since 1996 he’s been facilitating hardware manufacturing for companies large and small in China, the world’s largest manufacturer of (and market for) electronics. The simplest way to explain PCH (named for California’s Pacific Coast Highway) is that it offers “end-to-end” services: from design to engineering, manufacturing to packaging, fulfillment to retail distribution. If you gave PCH a sketch on a napkin, the company could turn it into a product on a shelf—as it actually did recently with Drop, a connected kitchen scale. “Some people expect a ‘China button,’ ” Casey says. “But they’re looking for an end-to-end button.”
With nine offices and 2,600 employees, PCH moves as many as 10 million products through the 2,000-plus factories in its network each day. Last year the company’s revenue reached $1.1 billion.
PCH’s clients don’t want to broadcast the fact that they’re outsourcing their secret sauce
The idea of hiring a fixer like Casey and PCH is alluring for big companies and startups alike that see the Chinese manufacturing industry as a black box packed with potential complication. We know electronics are made in China. We rarely wonder how.
That’s an especially pressing concern for startups that don’t know their way around a supply chain. In recent years hardware startups have proliferated in Silicon Valley—Casey calls it a prototyping renaissance—fueled by online crowdfunding platforms that make it easy to take money and preorders, but provide little else.
Consider the case of Pebble, which raised $10.2 million on Kickstarter for its smartwatch before realizing it didn’t have the infrastructure to deliver 85,000 of them. It took the startup (which isn’t a PCH client) more than a year to fill those orders, prompting a brutal online backlash.
Casey has gotten used to hearing from founders in distress. Sometimes it’s because they’ve found out they designed a product that wasn’t engineered for manufacturing. Other times it’s after they realize they’ve signed one-sided contracts with big-box retailers.
The calls came in so frequently that in 2013 Casey set up an accelerator program in San Francisco, called Highway1, designed to help hardware startups. The four-month program offers access to a prototyping lab, consultation with product and business experts, and a visit to Shenzhen.
“We wanted them to have something that basically protected them from themselves,”
“Shark Tank takes this pivotal time for a startup and condenses it to five to 10 minutes,” Forrest says. “We want to take a step back and show how the product is actually made and how we got to this point.”
“We learn how to make the things that the big companies are going to want in two years,” Forrest says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Problem With Kickstarter: A Lack Of Transparency
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/25/the-problem-with-kickstarter-a-lack-of-transparency/
Since 2010, over one and a half billion dollars has been transferred from Kickstarter backers to project creators, and with Kickstarter’s 5% cut taken on each dollar collected, that means Kickstarter has had somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 to 80 million dollars in revenue in the last five years. That’s a success by any measure, and as with this huge amount of money, questions must be asked about the transparency of Kickstarter.
This is not a post about a Kickstarter project for an impossible project, a project that breaks the laws of physics, or one that is hyped beyond all reasonable expectations. This is a post about Kickstarter itself, and it’s been a long time coming. In the past, Kickstarter has shown at least some transparency by cancelling projects that are obvious rebrandings of white label goods – a direct violation of their rules. Kickstarter has even cancelled projects that violate the laws of physics, like this wireless charging Bluetooth tag. It’s a start, but Kickstarter has a much larger problem on its plate: the Staff Pick problem.
The Staff Pick badge can be a powerful tool that virtually ensures a project will meet its goal.
This Staff Pick badge is so powerful, in fact, it can determine the success or failure of a crowdfunding campaign.
Kickstarter campaign that is selected by a member of the Kickstarter staff has an 89% chance of being successful. Without the Staff Pick status, the success rate drops to 30%.
The Staff Aren’t Responsible for the Staff Pick Badges
And so we come to the crux of the matter. [Yancey Strickler] has said, “staff pick badges aren’t part of our system.” This claim clearly contradicts the Kickstarter search and sorting algorithms. Since Staff Pick badges themselves are one of the greatest indicators of the success of a Kickstarter campaign, it will be abused by those who have something to gain. Yet somehow, it is not a part of the Kickstarter system.
There is no clearly defined way a project on Kickstarter becomes a Staff Pick.
Because of the nature of the Kickstarter Staff Pick, there are obvious ethical dilemmas faced by each and every person that can apply a Staff Pick badge to a project.
Kickstarter has a long way to go before it can be considered a transparent crowdfunding platform.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building a Great Advisory Board
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327522&
The difference between the board of directors and board of advisors sometimes is a matter of dollars and sense.
I’m often asked about advisory boards by executives from startups and the questions usually fall into two categories –– how they differ from a board of directors and their usefulness.
The difference between the board of directors and advisors is discernable. Directors elected to board have fiduciary duty to the company. That is, they work to optimize the return to the shareholders. Normally, they are appointed by shareholders –– typically, investors and founders who sit on the board.
As part of their obligations is their participation in board meetings and the expectation that they will be proactive in helping the company. Board members have a “stake in the game.” For investors and founders it is financial.
Conversely, the advisory board is informal and members typically are bound to the company by a simple services contract. They are chosen by the CEO and the executive staff. Their tasks are defined and expectations in terms of regular meetings are set by the executive staff.
The usefulness of the advisory board is dependent on the energy that the executive staff puts into selecting the right members and then engaging them in the culture of the company.
While the general perception of advisory board meetings is that they are a waste of time, individual engagements between advisors and board members can be useful.
What can a startup expect from a member of the advisory board? In general, advisors provide advice, make introductions to potential partners and customers, make an investment in the company (more on this later) and provide marketing value. What I mean by the latter is the credibility of the company is enhanced by getting a “big name” on the advisory board.
The compensation for advisory board members is usually stock options, about 0.25% to 0.5% vesting over two to four years.
Selecting advisory board members is another question that comes up. The best way to approach this is to make an inventory of the skills that the company needs to be successful and where more expertise is required. If there are gaps, they may be filled through coaching from the advisors.
If a company decides to create an advisory board, two elements are critical to its success. First, it is important to set expectations at the start of the relationship between the advisors and the company, including what is expected in terms of time commitment, on-site presence, travel and so forth.
Also, the company should keep the advisors engaged. If the advisors aren’t used on a regular basis, they lack the understanding of the company’s culture and when the company needs their advice
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why I Won’t Do Another Kickstarter Campaign
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327192&
The survivor of a crowd-funded hardware project shows his scars and tells his cautionary tale.
The interest in consumer oriented hardware startups has exploded in recent years thanks to success stories like Oculus Rift, GoPro, and Nest and a significant improvement in development efficiency.
In September 2012, motivated by some of these success stories we decided to launch a new single board computer project called Parallella on Kickstarter. The campaign ended up raising $898,921 from 4,965 backers in less than a month. On the surface this looked like a huge success, but over the next two years we ended up spending more than $1.5 million to deliver on all of our Kickstarter commitments.
In the end Adapteva would have likely gone out of business if it wasn’t for an infusion of capital from Ericsson and other investors. Based on Kickstarter shipping and funding patterns, I am guessing that there are other successful Kickstarter projects that have gone down the same path.
Once you reach your Kickstarter funding goal, before you get started, ~10% of the raised money disappears off the top due to invalid backer credit card numbers, Kickstarter commission (5%) and Amazon payment fees. Considering that traditional hardware distribution channels can charge as much as 25%, this isn’t bad but it still hurts. If you raise $1M, we are still talking $100,000 out the window on day 1.
If you are thinking about doing a Kickstarter project, you probably think of your time as free. Please don’t! Doing a Kickstarter project is not a good hobby, it is stressful. You should value your time at the market rate.
Based on the data, achievable Kickstarter targets should be: 1K units for professional must have ~$1000 products, 10K units for enthusiast nice to have ~$100 products, and 100K units for ~$25 consumer gadgets. Be efficient and price your product correctly.
Clearly these numbers were way out of bounds given that we had already pegged the selling price at $99 in the Kickstarter campaign.
We had three choices moving forward.
1. Move forward into production at $80 lost per board sold
2. Move manufacturing to China
3. Keep looking for partners and manufacturers in the US who were willing to work for less.
In the end we chose the third option. After many months of cost cutting and extraordinary compromises for all parties involved we were able to cut the COGS shown by over 50% while keeping manufacturing in the US.
When someone asks me if I would ever do a Kickstarter project again, my answer is always “No way!” In terms of technology democratization, the Parallella Kickstarter project was a huge success, but it was a financial disaster for Adapteva.
With true labor adjusted engineering costs, the majority of Kickstarter hardware projects are not viable businesses when considered in isolation. In aggregate, backers put up millions in capital but often end up with half-finished beta level products in return — if they get them at all. Many project creators end up working for months or years under severe psychological stress to fulfill Kickstarter obligations.
So if Kickstarter isn’t the answer, how can you build a hardware business these days? Well, how about going back to basics? 1.) build a product, 2.) sell it for profit, 3.) goto #1. It’s certainly slower, but it has worked for countless hardware companies in the past and it still works today given the right product.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Want to Create a FabLab in your Garage? Start by Joining your Hackerspace
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/31/want-to-create-a-fablab-in-your-garage-start-by-joining-your-hackerspace/
For many hardware enthusiasts, it’s hard to stop imagining the possibilities of an almighty fablab in our garage — a glorious suite of machines that can make the widgets of our dreams. Over the years, many of us start to build just that, assembling marvelous workbenches for the rest of us to drool over. The question is: “how do we get there?”
Ok, let’s say we’ve got a blank garage. We might be able to pick up a couple of tools and just “roll with it,” teaching ourselves the basics as we go and learning from our mistakes. With enough endurance, we’ll wake up ten years later and realize that, among the CNC mill, lathe, o-scope, logic analyzer, and the graveyard of projects on the shelves–we’ve made it!
“Just rolling with it,” though, can squeeze the last bits of change out of our wallets–not to mention ten years being a long journey while flying solo the whole time. Hardware costs money. Aimless experimentation, without understanding the space of “what expectations are realistic,” can cost lots of money when things break.
These days, the internet might do a great job of bringing people together with the same interest. But how does it fare in exchanging the technical know-how that’s tied directly to tools of the trade?
Ruling out forums for taking our first baby steps, where can we find the “seasoned gurus” to give us that founding knowledge? It’s unlikely that any coffee shop would house the local hardware guru sippin’ a joe and taking questions. Fear not, though; there are places for hackers to get their sustenance.
Enter the hackerspace. With coffee mugs and doilies replaced with soldering irons and 3D printers, these places are scattered worldwide and filled with tinkerers and DIY-enthusiasts drawn to the same machines. Hackerspaces put a roof over the heads of local hackers, bring in a few tools, and roll out projects.
Hackerspaces give us something that the internet and our empty garages just can’t: a foreground of tools and a background of “after-hours” engineers who can show us how to use them. If you’ve never taken a chunk out of aluminium with a spinning endmill, the Hackerspace might be the right place to do it. First, we don’t have the up-front cost of paying for the machine ourselves. Second, given some machine time, we now have the opportunity to learn how to use it properly.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Etsy’s Pulling The Plug On Grand St. At The End Of This Month
http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/04/etsys-pulling-the-plug-on-grand-st-at-the-end-of-this-month/
When Etsy bought Grand St. last April, the plan was to let Grand St. continue to operate its maker marketplace for tech hardware. But that’s about to change. At the end of this month, Grand St. will stop processing orders and on October 1, listings on the site will become inactive. At that point, Grand St.’s site will just be a gallery of content and photos.
For background, Grand St. sells things like solar chargers, a smart light for nighttime bike rides and The Cash Cannon for making it rain. Before the acquisition, Grand St. had raised $1.3 million in seed funding
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:
Etsy Manufacturing, a service matching sellers with small manufacturers in US and Canada, coming this fall
Etsy Welcomes Manufacturers to Artisanal Fold
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/business/etsy-welcomes-manufacturers-to-artisanal-fold.html?_r=0
Molly Goodall’s store on Etsy, the online crafts marketplace, started as a creative solution to a parenting problem.
Her rambunctious 2-year-old, Carter, simply refused to wear the hoods on his coats. So she designed a coat with a hood hidden under a shaggy lion’s mane and perky ears, one that Carter loved and was happy to wear for hours on end.
When she started selling the quirky animal coats on Etsy, she was soon swamped with orders. Her aha moment, she said, was a bulk order for 400 coats from Gilt, the flash sales website that had heard about her hot-selling product.
“I was sewing all the time. My husband would come home from work and cut fabric for me on the kitchen table, while I was sewing on the dining room table,”
This fall, Etsy is set to introduce Etsy Manufacturing, a new service in the United States and Canada that matches sellers like Ms. Goodall with small manufacturers. It is a bid by the company, which went public in April, to help its small sellers expand their businesses.
Etsy says the “beta,” or test phase platform — essentially a directory of manufacturers prepared to work with its sellers — will also help bring business back to small manufacturers that have been devastated by a shift of production to low-cost countries.
But the move could fuel criticism that the site is moving away from the artisanal roots that have made it an attractive alternative to mass retailing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Kickstarter Projects that Promote Space Exploration
http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=3219&doc_id=278657&image_number=1%22target=%22_blank%22
For those of us who were born into the “Star Trek” generation, we might use the opening voiceover by William Shatner as our mantra: “To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. The popularity of the newest Star Wars offerings, though, points to enthusiasm that crosses generation. Based on the latest winning projects on Kickstarter electronics free-thinkers are monetizing that enthusiasm with a variety of projects aimed at space exploration.
By shelling out from $30 to $140 dollars, space enthusiasts, whether working in the electronics industry or standing on the sidelines, could feel like they were part of something greater than themselves. At the same time, it’s clear that the innovation continues to evolve as inventors look to capture space and space-themed projects and monetize them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Good guy Kickstarter says no to IPO, becomes a public benefit corporation instead
http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/kickstarter-reincorporates-as-public-benefit-corporation/
Despite its best attempts at convincing us otherwise, it’s time to call a spade a spade: Technology is not a particularly altruistic industry. Certainly, hundreds upon thousands of startups and tech companies operate under the banner of changing the world or making the world a better place, but often it seems that the “problems” such organizations are trying to solve are more petty than they are pressing. Kickstarter, then, stands out as a breath of fresh air in an overcrowded space, and as of Sunday, the crowdfunding platform is reincorporating as a “public benefit corporation,” which means that they are now bound by law to make a “positive impact on society.” Kickstarter is no longer Kickstarter Inc. — world, meet Kickstarter PBC.
It’s a surprising move for the highly successful company that often serves as a jumping off point for companies that are, perhaps, less altruistically oriented. And in technology, an industry where a billion-dollar valuation and a million users seems to be everyone’s end goal, Kickstarter’s decision to become a public benefit corporation makes its mission and its values very clear — it’s not all about that coin.
Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/kickstarter-reincorporates-as-public-benefit-corporation/#ixzz3mTPAf9Ca
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tod speaking about blink(1) at Hackaday 10th
http://todbot.com/blog/2015/02/27/tod-speaking-about-blink1-at-hackaday-10th/
about blink(1), Kickstarter, and some of the fun issues we had getting the product out.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Einstein / Medium:
Quirky failed because it built too many products instead of just making a few great items — The Real Reason Quirky Failed — There’s been a lot of buzz covering the story of Quirky failing this summer (and filing for bankruptcy this week). It usually reads something like …
The Real Reason Quirky Failed
https://medium.com/bolt-blog/the-real-reason-why-quirky-failed-c362b3a3abd7
There’s been a lot of buzz covering the story of Quirky failing this summer (and filing for bankruptcy this week). It usually reads something like “venture backed company burns through mountain of cash without real business” or some other such garbage. I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the fundamental reasons why Quirky failed and think it’s a prescriptive story for hardware founders.
Kluster wound up gaining traction but customers demanded it be used as an internal ideation tool rather than fulfilling the founder’s vision of helping end-users invent better products. So Kaufman left Kluster to start Quirky with a refined mission of “democratizing invention.” I can’t stress how awesome this is. Quirky nailed nearly everything:
Visionary founder with the perfect background (founder of Mophie and Kluster)
Disrupting the incredibly horrible experience of inventing a physical product (from the likes of Davidson and InventHelp, which are really scams masquerading as businesses)
Top-tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, RRE Ventures, Lowercase Capital, and General Electric (for their appliance expertise)
Board of directors stacked with exceptional people: Mary Meeker, Beth Comstock, Jim Robinson, Josh Goldman, John Maeda, Scott Weiss, and Carl Bass
Crazy high community engagement with a product users seem to love (>1.1M users reported by the company)
From the people I know that work/worked at Quirky, an exceptional team of engineers, designers, marketers, and manufacturing/operations folks
So if everything was so good, how did the company spend $180M of investors’ money, sell very little product, replace the founder/CEO, layoff nearly the entire company, and file for bankruptcy?
One Giant Misstep
After many conversations with various people in and around Quirky, I believe the incredibly ambitious idea that is embodied by Quirky failed for one reason: flying too close to the sun.
I imagine many people at Quirky woke up every day excited to build the next great product. What Quirky was trying to accomplish was nothing short of miraculous. This is not an overstatement: building 50+ hardware products a year as a startup is the modern-day version of gluing feathers to your arms and flying.
It may sound harsh but at nearly every step of the way, the loftiness of Quirky’s ambitions far outpaced the laws of physics. The 6 year journey of the company was a balancing act between an extraordinarily bold vision and a fundamentally broken business model.
Lack of Iteration
Quirky didn’t want to build one or two products a year (like most normal product companies), it set its sights on 20, 30, then 50+ products a year. The entire Quirky organism was designed for speed: ingesting thousands of ideas, selecting the best ones with a high-speed voting system, crafting beautiful marketing, and customizing end-caps at major retailers. But that’s where it stopped.
A good company builds one product, learns from its customers, and iterates to make that product exceptional.
Quirky never iterated on its products. I own the first Quirky Aros air conditioner. It wasn’t very good but it was a great idea.
Lack of product focus had a nasty side-effect. When you look across the Quirky product line, you’re left with one fundamental feeling: confusion. Customers are left asking “what does Quirky stand for as a company?”
To look at GoPro again, it’s very easy to understand why consumers pay a premium for a mediocre camera: GoPro has built an exceptionally strong, aspirational brand around action sports.
An Alternate Reality
I plan on telling the Quirky story to many of the companies we invest in. It lends great perspective to what matters (and what doesn’t) when building a hardware company. Many things can go right for a company but at the end of the day you must do one thing really well: sell a product that delights your customers.
So when in doubt, keep your head down and listen to your customers. They’re the only real ambition that matters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Syfy pulls Dave McClure’s ‘Bazillion Dollar Club’ from schedule
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/blog/techflash/2015/09/syfy-pulls-dave-mcclures-bazillion-dollar-club.html?page=all
The Syfy channel has pulled “Bazillion Dollar Club” from its schedule one week after it premiered, in a move first reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal Monday afternoon.
The show, starring 500 Startups’ founding partner Dave McClure and Highway1 Vice President Brady Forrest, was scheduled to run six weeks — one for each of the six startups whose stories would be featured.
“We just didn’t register with the Syfy audience,” McClure told me in a phone call late last night from New York, where he was doing an event. “We’re talking to a few other networks and hoping we will be able to show the rest somewhere else.”
The move was shockingly sudden, suggesting that the audience numbers for the premiere must have been pretty bad.
The second episode of the reality show, which was supposed to air Tuesday night, was orginally slotted to be the first.
It featured San Francisco startup, ivee, which makes a voice-activated personal assistant. I saw an unfinished version of this one and enjoyed it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Challenges Etsy With Strictly Handmade Marketplace
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/business/amazon-challenges-etsy-with-strictly-handmade-marketplace.html?_r=0
Amazon stepped into the handcrafted-goods ring on Thursday, opening an arts-and-crafts bazaar online that squarely takes aim at a niche but growing market dominated by the Brooklyn-based Etsy.
The new marketplace, called Handmade at Amazon, went live at 3 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday with a lineup of over 80,000 items from about 5,000 sellers in 60 countries. The marketplace lets artisans peddle their handmade wares — think walnut cuff links and felt pennants — much as Etsy has done.
Since 2005, Etsy’s handicrafts marketplace has grown to $2 billion a year in sales, showing that a lucrative market exists for knitted socks, upscale pet furniture and a plethora of other quirky, handmade merchandise.
Now Amazon, an e-commerce giant with $75 billion in annual sales, is gunning for a piece of that market. Since May, Amazon has been sending out invitations to artisans, including those on Etsy, asking if they want to apply to sell on Handmade.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Sullivan / VentureBeat:
Andy Rubin’s Playground Global incubator closes $300M funding round, will invest in hardware startups — Andy Rubin’s Playground incubator has closed a $300 million funding round — Former Android chief Andy Rubin has a new incubator called Playground Global, and says the firm has now closed …
Andy Rubin’s Playground incubator has closed a $300 million funding round
http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/07/andy-rubins-playground-incubator-has-closed-its-funding-round-and-is-now-a-vc/
Former Android chief Andy Rubin has a new incubator called Playground Global, and says the firm has now closed a $300 million funding round and will be investing in new hardware startups.
Playground has said that it provides resources, mentorship and funding to startups that make hardware devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heathkit: Live, Die, Repeat
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/08/heathkit-live-die-repeat/
There is no company that has earned more goodwill from electronic tinkering hobbyists than Heathkit. For more than fifty years, Heathkit has been the measure all other electronic kit manufacturers have been compared to. Kits for everything – from televisions to radios to computer terminals – were all sold by Heathkit, and even now, nearly a quarter century since the last kit left the warehouse, there is still a desire for this manufacturer to rise like a phoenix from the ashes.
In recent years, Heathkit has had a confusing, if not troubled business plan. The company started manufacturing its signature products – electronic kits of every kind – in 1947. Production of these kits ended in 1992, and the company went on for another few years manufacturing educational materials and lighting controls. In 2011, Heathkit said they were back in the kit business, before shutting down a year later.
Heathkit lives once more, and this time it might be for real.
The new Heathkit shop features their newest product, the Explorer Jr. AM Radio Receiver kit, a small kit radio available for $150.
Welcome to Heathkit. ®
We invented DIY.
https://shop.heathkit.com/shop
Tomi Engdahl says:
bunnie huang Talks Engineering
http://highway1.io/bunnie-huang-talks-engineering/
One of the stops on the Highway1 trip to Shenzhen is a talk by engineering mastermind bunnie huang about the realities of manufacturing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Startups Without Borders
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327990&
International expansion is no longer a long-range goal for a fledgling startup.
Today’s startup companies don’t have borders. Ten years ago or so, a Silicon Valley-based startup would stick close to home for its initial customer engagements during the first year or two. Proximity made it easy to drive to the customer’s office, get firsthand feedback and drive back to the corporate headquarters to debug the product. It was an almost ideal situation that tightened the interaction loop between users and developers.
International expansion is no longer a long-range goal for a fledgling startup. Instead, the team must be prepared to follow the customer’s project to remote locations. The reality is that all large multinational companies have offices worldwide and most projects straddle multiple sites.
It would seem that founding a startup means living on an airplane for a few years. International travel always is a possibility but distance has shrunk through better communications tools. More cost-effective options are available than hopping a flight to Beijing to interact with a distant project team. Fast Internet connections and Skype, Google Hangouts and WebEx have made it much easier to stay connected. The Internet doesn’t have borders, either.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Skarp Laser Razor Kickstarter Suspended, Jumps To Indiegogo
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/13/skarp-laser-razor-kickstarter-suspended-jumps-to-indiegogo/
An irritation-free razor that gives a close shave has been a dream for thousands of years. [Gillette] came close, and with multiple blades came even closer, but all razors today are still just sharpened steel dragged across the skin. This is the 21st century, and of course there’s a concept for a laser razor pandering for your moola. We recently covered the Skarp laser razor and its Kickstarter campaign, and today the campaign has been shut down.
It only took eight hours for the Skarp team to relaunch their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. As of this writing, over 900 people (ostensibly from the 20,000 backers of the original Kickstarter campaign) have pledged to the new campaign.
Although we will never know exactly why Kickstarter suspended the original Skarp campaign, the reason given by the Kickstarter Integrity Team points to the lack of a working prototype, one of the requirements for technology campaigns on Kickstarter. Interestingly, Skarp did post a few videos of their razor working. These videos were white balanced poorly enough to look like they were filmed through green cellophane, a technique some have claimed was used to hide the actual mechanism behind the prototype’s method of cutting hair.
But for a crowdfunding campaign to be suspended on Kickstarter and immediately move to Indiegogo? This almost never ends well. One of the most famous examples, the Anonabox, had its Kickstarter campaign suspended after it was found the creator was simply rebadging an off-the-shelf router.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A $1.5M Kickstarter Project Fails, Leaving Most Backers Without Their 3D Printer
http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/14/a-1-5m-kickstarter-project-fails-leaving-most-backers-without-their-3d-printer/#.ojwuxm:29iN
Pirate3D Inc raised nearly $1.5M on Kickstarter in 2013, promising a 3D printer that anyone can use. A total of 3,520 backers pledged money to the project including 3,389 who pledged over $300 to eventually get a printer. But as of now, 60 percent of the orders have still not been fulfilled and it seems unlikely that in the end backers will get a refund or their product.
In a convoluted note to backers (below), the company’s founder states that the company is exploring raising additional capital yet seems to say it does not expect to be able to fulfill the remaining Kickstarter orders even with additional cash.
This is why we cannot have nice things.
Investing is a risky business. Not everything pans out. No matter how it’s billed, crowdfunding through sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe is an investing scheme and carries unexpected risks for the general consumer.
Crowdfunding removes barriers and makes it easier to get products into production. And that’s great. Raising money needed to get a product from an idea to a product is hard and takes a lot of time. But often over the course of fundraising and moving things into production, issues arise and are addressed before promises are made to consumers. With crowdfunding, promises are made before the challenges are known.
Sometimes Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects fail. There’s risk associated with crowdfunding. Pledging money towards a project is not a guarantee that the project will be fulfilled as promised. Kickstarter changed its terms of service last October to give project creators a way out of fulfilling their obligations as long as certain criteria had been meet including posting a report showing how funds were used and stating what is preventing the project from finishing as planned. But that terms of use only applies to project that launched after October 17, 2014. Pirate3D’s Buccaneer printer was funded the previous year and subject to a different set of rules.
Pirate3D must fulfill its orders or issue a refund, according to Kickstarter’s terms of use agreed by the company. It’s cut and dried. If neither conditions are met, backers have the right to sue the creator
Crowdfunding must not be confused with purchasing a product. Instead, consumers need to know that they are doing someone a favor and help fund their dream whether it be producing a hair metal album or building a company around a 3D printer. There are countless examples where project creators fulfill their obligations and return the favor in the form of a product or service. Yet it’s projects like the Buccaneer printer from Pirate3D that cast doubts on the promise of crowdfunding.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Starting a Kickstarter Could Kick Your Butt
http://hackaday.com/2015/10/19/why-starting-a-kickstarter-could-kick-your-butt/
So you’ve come up with a great idea and now you’re thinking about starting a crowdfunding campaign – and why not, all the cool kids are doing it. Now, let’s say you already have a working prototype, or maybe you even built a small run for friends online. You’ve made 10 here, or 20 there. Sure it took some time, but making 1000, or 10,000 would be so much easier once you get all the orders in, right? Wrong.
Before you even think of setting up something like a Kickstarter, we would like to invite you to have a seat and watch this series of videos covering the things many people don’t know about manufacturing. It’s going to cost you 7 hours of sofa time, but if you’re serious about getting something to production these seven hours will pay in spades. Dragon Innovation has had many notable clients over the years – Pebble, Sphero, Makerbot, to name a few. They help startups find their way through the manufacturing mine-feild, for a fee of course. The founders are former iRobot employees, and have quite a bit of hard fought, yet free knowledge to share.
Introduction to Scott Miller and Dragon Innovation – DragonInnovation.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84VxN9K_PMM&list=PLNTXUUIxHyNwrlAh2ZkaMTSBrgk86wC-a
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fred Wilson / AVC:
Most of today’s high-growth companies with negative gross margins will ultimately fail, unable to establish a monopoly amid similarly well-funded competition
Negative Gross Margins
http://avc.com/2015/10/negative-gross-margins/
There’s been a lot of talk coming out of silicon valley lately about fast growing companies with high valuations that are going to face problems in the coming year(s).
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 procurement pros explain their role for engineering entrepreneurs
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/supply-chain-reaction/4440608/10-procurement-pros-explain-their-role-for-engineering-entrepreneurs-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151021&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20151021&elq=36a8cbce411a4755bb47bc3137281c90&elqCampaignId=25329&elqaid=28802&elqat=1&elqTrackId=ab8b807d2a204fde977797c5d3227e69
The Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) is finally getting a real seat at the corporate planning table as it becomes clear that these sourcing pros have true strategic value for the organization.
Especially as the global economy improves, CPOs are driving new and strategic agendas. The Deloitte Global CPO Survey 2014, released earlier this year, said it this way:
Change will be felt in the diversity of requirements, the expected workload, and creativity in supply base strategies required to enable profitable growth and business differentiation. Cost control remains a priority, but its relative importance is lower than last year, and businesses are increasingly looking for procurement input to new product development, innovation and mergers and acquisitions.
The procurement function, perhaps more accurately called the strategic sourcing function, must focus on creating a system that is, according to Deloitte:
Rapid: Focused on delivering results to the business.
Efficient: Investing in the right number of appropriately skilled people.
Innovative: Developing business insight driven by analysis and supplier input.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Stupid Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
http://www.hybe.com/stories/5-stupid-mistakes-entrepreneurs-make
Entrepreneurs do the same stupid things over and over again. So says Jeanne Sullivan, venture capitalist, New Yorker, and cheerleader of women in business at Oslo Innovation Week.
So, without further ado, here are the top 5 stupid mistakes entrepreneurs make when looking to get investments.
1. Get the meeting
“It’s very hard to go in cold, so find somebody who knows somebody”.
2. Get the story out of your mouth
“Tell me! Give me a use case, and an example of how a customer uses it.”
3. Tell me about the business of the business
“I don’t want to see a demo in the first minute. Tell me about the business of the business. How are you going to scale? How are you going to market?”
4. Know your financials (cold)
“understand the numbers and bring them to your side to be with you at the meeting.”
“So when the snarky angel or VC says ‘what are the gross margins?’”
5. Follow up — and negotiate- appropriately
Following up with investors to keep them in the loop with how your company is doing will help to keep them engaged.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Drew Olanoff / TechCrunch:
Etsy reports Q3 revenue of $66.17M and a loss of $0.06 per share, meeting expectations; stock slips more than 7% after hours
Etsy Meets Expectations In Q3, Stock Drops 8% After Hours
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/03/etsyq32015earnings/
Following trading today, Etsy reported its Q3 financial performance, including revenue of $66 million, and earnings loss per share of $0.06. The Street expected Etsy to lose $0.06 per share, off revenue of around $66.17 million. So that’s a “met expectations.” The company reported 1.5 million active sellers and 22.6 million active buyers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turning Great Designs Into Great Products
The Changing World of Mechanical Design
http://www.arenasolutions.com/pdfs/resources/arena_wp_pdm.pdf
Once upon a time, mechanical engineers created designs that were sent downstairs to the shop floor to
be made, following a number of prototyping and redesign iterations. Throughout the process, mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, component engineering and sourcing worked closely together to ensure that designs were manufacturable, cost-effective, compliant to regulations and ultimately turned into marketable products.
Global innovation and new technologies have shifted this landscape dramatically. Designers are now just as likely to work with someone across the world as across the building, and more compressed product lifecycles have made the ability to share current and accurate product data in real-time a necessary part of bringing new products to market
Tomi Engdahl says:
SEC Allows Crowdfunding
http://hackaday.com/2015/11/04/sec-allows-crowdfunding/
Kickstarter is not an investment, and no matter how many times this is repeated, you’ll find the phrase ‘my investment’ in the comments section of nearly every failed Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or other crowdfunding campaign. These campaigns are more closely related to group buys, and you’ll never find a Kickstarter offering equity or any sort of return beyond the latest electronic bauble, indie game, or graphic novel. Sure, you may bootstrap a business with that pledge, but don’t expect dividends from Ouya or Pebble.
Now, this may finally change. The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved new rules for crowdfunding, allowing startups to raise money from Jane and Joe Internet.
The rules issued by the SEC immediately place some limitations on what can be done under the new regulations. For startups, a maximum of $1 Million can be raised over a 12-month period.
Brokers and Funding Portals
Investors and entrepreneurs are not allowed to keep their transactions to themselves; this is the SEC after all. Transactions will go through registered broker-dealers or something called a ‘funding portal’. These funding portals are forbidden from offering advice, making recommendations, advertising, paying employees a commission, holding securities themselves, and the regulation bars directors, officers, and partners of the funding portal from holding investments using that funding portal’s services.
It’s The Complete Opposite of Kickstarter
Kickstarter was never known for its transparency. While the basic premise of crowdfunding the manufacturing of a few baubles or 3D printers is sound – it’s cheaper per unit to build a hundred of something than to build just one – the reality of actually building something meant Kickstarters failed – it’s exponentially harder to build ten thousand of something than it is to build a hundred.
Traditional crowdfunding has started a lot of great companies so far
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Kickstarter passes $2B in pledges: games have taken $412.4M, the most money of any category, followed by tech with $360M and design with $351.6M
Kickstarter surpasses $2 billion in pledges
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/4/9670844/kickstarter-surpasses-2-billion-dollars-in-pledges
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter today announced that more than $2 billion has been pledged toward projects as of October 11th. It took the company, founded in 2009, nearly five years to hit the first billion dollars pledged, while the second took around only 19 months. The huge swell in crowdfunding interest over the last two years marks a turning point for platforms like Kickstarter and competitor Indiegogo, which now exist as viable funding options for creators of all types.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fail of the Week: OpenMV Kickstarter Project Hits Manufacturing Snag
http://hackaday.com/2015/11/05/fail-of-the-week-openmv-kickstarter-project-hits-manufacturing-snag/
Making stuff is hard, especially when you are making lots of stuff. The OpenMV Cam project knows this, because it has hit a problem while putting together their cheap machine vision module. The problem is with the BGA solder balls that connect the image sensor to the main board.
There are 38 balls on the OV26040 image sensor and even a single bad link means a failure.
The makers of the project have tried a number of solutions, but it seems that they may have to remake the ball links on the back of each sensor. That’s an expensive process: they say it will cost $7 for each, more than the actual sensor cost initially.
A few people have been posting suggestions in the comments for the project, including using solvents and changing the way the sensors are processed before mounting.
Machine Vision With Python
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/botthoughts/openmv-cam-embedded-machine-vision/posts/1405134
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comment to http://hackaday.com/2015/11/05/fail-of-the-week-openmv-kickstarter-project-hits-manufacturing-snag/ camera project:
There are much cheaper ways to do this, here is a nice 720P h.264 camera running Linux on an ARM9 for $6.40.
http://world.taobao.com/item/521662517549.htm?spm=a312a.7700714.0.0.Vhsx6O#detail
It has 64MB of memory and Ethernet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HYBE TV Series – Episode 6 – Dark Side of Entrepreneurship
29th Oct. 2015
http://www.hybe.com/videos/hybe-tv-series-episode-6-dark-side-of-entrepreneurship?autoplay=true
In this episode several startup entrepreneurs open up about the challenges, hardships, and failures they have faced on the long road to success. When is it advisable to give up and when to keep going? We also report from Brussels and Failing Forward, an event dedicated entirely for celebrating failure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Another $1 Million Crowdfunded Gadget Company Collapses
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/11/08/0435251/another-1-million-crowdfunded-gadget-company-collapses
In 2012, a company raised over a million dollars on Indiegogo to build a robotic dragonfly. It was originally supposed to be delivered in 2013. Unfortunately for backers, the company seems to be struggling to complete the project. They haven’t been able to resolve issues with the drone falling apart after just a few seconds of flight. Unless they locate investors soon, they’re going to run out of funds to continue work at full force.
Another $1 Million Crowdfunded Gadget Company Collapses
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/07/another-1-million-crowdfunded-gadget-company-collapses/
Remember the Robotic Dragonfly? The little drone was an early crowdfunding success story, netting over a $1 million in pledges on Indiegogo in 2012. At the time, it was one of the first crowdfunded gadgets to raise more than a million dollars. The project promised a tiny robot that can fly like a bird and hover like an insect — and for $99, too. Bad news, friends. This little drone is not taking off as scheduled.
The company announced yesterday that it is in deep financial trouble. But it’s not their fault, the founders say in notes on Indiegogo. It’s PayPal and Indiegogo’s fault for not releasing funds. How much? The company didn’t release that information.
This is not the first crowdfunded gadget to fail to ship. It’s becoming a trend. Pirate3D promised an easy-to-use and cheap 3D printer, but the company ran out of cash before fulfilling orders placed on Kickstarter.
It seems TechJect failed to even fully develop the Robot Dragonfly even though the project hit first hit Indiegogo nearly three years ago.
After the company announced the financial troubles yesterday, backers took to the comments section on Indiegogo en masse. And rightly so. Today, the company clarified that technically the project has not been canceled yet. The company just needs more money to continue.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Thus the founder of Flickr to identify promising entrepreneurs – Sisu said
“The company’s founders are the most important people. Company traits come from the founder of the team, ”
Caterina Fake says that he recognized quickly the entrepreneurs, which he himself believes.
“As such, the entrepreneur sees that if he promises something, he takes it to the end. He’s got guts. ”
“Amount of innovation there is no shortage. Funding is available. It’s just that inject a contractor. ”
“Silicon Valley, everything is organized for you. Everyone understands what you’re doing. The entire ecosystem is built for entrepreneurs. ”
“If you do not know how to program, yes you will learn how to program,” Fake encouraged.
“The first startup is the most difficult. Things go easier, when to consolidate your position be eligible as an entrepreneur. ”
Finally, at the Fake advise startups to entrepreneurs is simple:
“Build something to feel the passion.”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/nain-flickrin-perustaja-tunnistaa-lupaavat-yrittajat-sisu-mainittu-6064771
Tomi Engdahl says:
International Telecommunication Union ITU indicates that the frequency range of 1087.7 to 1092.3 MHz is allocated to continuous monitoring of aircraft.
In the past, these ADS-B frequencies (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) is used for communication between the aircraft and ground stations LOS connections (line-of-sight), or a link operates as between aircraft and the ground station is line of sight. 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface has been the ADS-B out of reach.
Continuous monitoring of aircraft frequencies set in the ongoing WRC15 radio at the meeting.
In 2017 the ADS-B receivers satellites will be moving the ADS-B signals of all the earth fly the aircraft control towers throughout the world. This makes all aircraft equipped with ADS-B transmitter business data practically in real time.
The solution enables aircraft can be monitored on the high seas, deserts, polar regions and mountainous areas, where the machines have so far been outside the radar field of view.
In addition, the system increases the information on aircraft movements can therefore help to optimize the machines air routes.
In the United States each aircraft must be installed in the transmitter at the latest in 2020.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3595:lentokoneiden-jatkuva-seuranta-sai-taajuudet&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
So why exactly are IT investors so utterly clueless?
I wash my hands of the whole matter
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/27/so_why_exactly_it_investors_utterly_clueless/
One of the things that used to drive me mad, and helped drive me out, was being surrounded by divs and flakes, with their embarrassingly daft app launches, misconceived proofs-of-concept, childishly incompetent business plans and – despite their frank incompetence – their six-figure salaries.
Unfortunately, this one dubious advantage was bulldozered by the knowledge that I was surrounded by millions of pounds sloshing between dopey investors and every dipshit Bitcoin development wanker to knock on their doors with yet another brain-dead scheme to lose their money.
Jealous? Perhaps. However, it is difficult to hold anything against the entrepreneurs themselves: they’re trying it on, and if it works, good luck to them. What riles me is how thick the investors are.
Someone’s created a website that looks like a cup of tea? Give him £50,000! You’ve invented a wristwatch selfie stick? Have £100,000! What that, you say, you want to develop an app that launches apps for running apps? Sounds cool, take £1m!
Can they not see that they are pouring hard cash into products with all the substance of a dick-swinging hipster’s electronic cigarette exhalation? Don’t they realise they’re investing money into no-hope projects that are simply faking it?
Worse, in today’s crowdfunding climate, we’re all idiots with money to burn. And it’s funnier because private individuals like us don’t even understand the difference between an investment and a loan. We are shocked and get angry when told that the crowdfunding project we invested in has failed after spending all our money.
Well, duh? As the presenter of Kickstarter Crap points out, while genuine commercial products are sold with the safety net of a returns policy, crowdfunding operates with a fuck-you-dumbass policy.
Wise up, that’s what investment means: for every four failed startups, you hope that fifth one will keep going long enough for you to sell it off to an even stupider investor for even more money before they find out the truth.
The thing is, so many of these startups sound so plainly idiotic, I am beginning to suspect that their very idiocy is part of their appeal. It’s as if their utter pointlessness and overwhelming unlikelihood of success is what makes them so attractive.
Consider those nutty stories that pop up from time to time about no-frills airlines: charging money for tap water, making passengers stand up, removing the toilets, dispensing with the wings, etc. None of them is true but they get reported anyway and the net result is always the same: sales for those airlines goes up, not down.
This all comes to mind yet again when my inbox informs me that a British tech startup called imertec (the self-conscious lower-case ‘i’ at the beginning of the name already makes me want to commit an equally self-conscious act of violence) has launched a Crowdcube campaign to develop an app that shows health workers how to wash their hands. It wants £360,000.
Let me run that by you again. How to wash your hands. £360,000.
You certainly do not need £360,000 of development cash to explain how to wash your hands, nor indeed another £520 to purchase the Epson Moverio BT-200 virtual reality glasses that are required to run imertec’s app.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deployable by Design With Bunnie Huang, Nadya Peek, and Joi Ito
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/02/deployable-by-design-with-bunnie-huang-nadya-peek-and-joi-ito/
We follow [bunnie]’s blog as he posts interesting and usable information quite regularly. [bunnie] posted about a video of a recent talk he did at MIT Media Lab with Nadya Peek and Joi Ito. This was in lieu of his monthly “name that ware” competition, which is worth looking into as well.
[bunnie] prefaces the conversation with an explanation of some of the design and manufacturing processes involved when working on the circuit stickers project. He talks about the importance of testing the product and the complex test jig that is required to quality check a simple (in comparison to the test jig) product
The design and manufacturing process is discussed on many levels throughout the talk.
MLTalks: bunnie huang in conversation with Joi Ito
http://www.media.mit.edu/video/view/mltalks-2015-11-24
Tomi Engdahl says:
Products over Patents
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4546
Tomi Engdahl says:
Experiences In Developing An Electronics Kit
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/05/experiences-in-developing-an-electronics-kit/
A decade ago, Spare Time Gizmos came out with a reproduction of a PDP-8, but this required a rather rare chip. Surely, with tiny Linux boards and emulators [Oscar] could build something to give him a taste for the PDP.
Kim-1
The KIM Uno: A KIM-1 on an Arduino
This wasn’t [Oscar]’s first venture into reproducing classic computers. A few years ago, he built the KIM Uno, a replica of the KIM-1 that used a few buttons, resistors, seven-segment displays and an Arduino pro mini.
While the KIM Uno emulated the original 6502 single board computer from 1976, it wasn’t really a successful product.
Turning this project into a product meant a few lessons needed to be learned. The cost of parts includes the cost of failures, and the cheapest parts usually aren’t the least expensive. Standard parts, and not 1980s ex-Chinese Army components like he used on his first run, should be used.
Of course [Oscar] isn’t done developing his Pi-powered minicomputers. Since all of the simulation happens in a Pi, and everything about the project is hardware agnostic except for the front panel, [Oscar] can theoretically turn any of the computers simulated under SIMH into a product. This includes Data General Novas, IBM 1401, an Altair 8800, and the entire line of PDPs from the PDP-1 to the PDP-15.
Will [Oscar]’s latest project be a success? Probably; he’s already sold one thousand PiDP-8/Is, and everyone with an ounce of respect for retrocomputing lusts after the 11/70. In any event, turning a simple project like the 8/I into a real product has taught [Oscar] a lot of valuable lessons, and things will surely go easier this time around.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Be the Hardware Engineer at a Startup
http://hackaday.com/2015/12/07/how-to-be-the-hardware-engineer-at-a-startup/
For those who prefer the smell of solder smoke to lines of code then you may be a hardware engineer. What you should consider is how to land a job at a startup, how to work fast, be a team player, keep an open mind, and be organized. Joining a startup will be the greatest challenge of your career. You can do it! Be a hardware engineer at a startup and change the world.
At a startup you will need to be able to translate an idea into a working solution. Having a portfolio of completed projects shows that you are the problem solver.
Build your website and online footprint.
Use your website to document and show off your portfolio. Organize content so that it is simple and easy to navigate.
With your skills well showcased you now have the credibility to solve problems, suggest solutions, provide examples showcased on your own website. This will enable you to seize the opportunity when it arises.
Once you become a member of a startup, arriving in first place and being the first product offering of that type is what counts. You’re in a race, for this reason you must learn techniques to work faster than ever before. These are some of the methods I use to execute fast:
Meetings are for decision-making. Try it rather than debate or philosophize for hours on end. With limited resources and time, prioritize acting on the lowest hanging fruit with the highest payoff.
Never leave work on the table. If you need to spend another hour or two to get the job done then do it before you go home.
Make a plan. Layout the work plan with your team then have a look at the date at which you must reach.
Think about what could be done in parallel. Many tasks can be kicked off with back-of-envelope calculations or experience of someone who has done it before. Most of the time all you need is a ‘ball park’ spec to get the job moving, hard specs will converge over time.
Seek action.
Working at a startup is not all fun and games. Our worst daemons like to come out in this high-pressure environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://gettingthingsdone.com/
GTD METHODOLOGY
The heartbeat of GTD is five simple steps that apply order to chaos and provide you the space and structure to be more creative, strategic, and focused.
Use an in-tray, notepad, digital list, or voice recorder to capture everything that has your attention. Little, big, personal and professional—all your to-do’s, projects, things to handle or finish.
1. Capture: Take everything that you capture and ask: Is it actionable? If no, then trash it, incubate it, or file it as reference. If yes, decide the very next action required. If it will take less than two minutes, do it now.
2. Clarify: If not, delegate it if you can; or put it on a list to do when you can.
3. Organize: Put action reminders on the right lists. For example, create lists for the appropriate categories—calls to make, errands to run, emails to send, etc.
4. Reflect: Look over your lists as often as necessary to trust your choices about what to do next. Do a weekly review to get clear, get current, and get creative.
5.Engage: Use your system to take appropriate actions with confidence.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From Trash Picking to Startup
http://www.glcharvat.com/website%20pdfs/GL_Charvat_SHPE_talk_3_9_13.pdf
Build%things%% soon%as%you%can.%
Learn%to%take%on%larger/longer%Vme*frame%projects%and%finish%them:%
Apply%theory%to%pracVce%soon%as%possible.%
Now%you%have%Vme%to%focus%and%learn%specific%talents.%
When%given%an%opportunity%to%lead%yourself%take%it.%
Make%a%Web%Page!%
•Document%everything.%
•Share%w/community,%you%are%doing%everyone%a%service.%
•Show%what%you%can%do,%facilitate%career%movement.%
Summary%
•Build%something%as%often%as%possible.%
•Freedom%in%grad%school!%
•Make%a%website%to%posiVon%yourself%for%opportunity.%%
•Responsibility%when%working%with%an%FFRDC%like%MIT%Lincoln%Laboratory.%
•Join%a%startup%and%drive%yourself%harder%than%ever.%
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.rle.mit.edu/staelinfest/documents/Nuggets-of-Knowledge.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech Startup Crowdfunding Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be
High-growth firms face powerful discentives to use JOBS Act provisions
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/tech-startup-crowdfunding-isnt-all-its-cracked-up-to-be-1449464460-lMyQjAxMTA1ODA5NzQwMDc5Wj
Allowing everyday Americans to invest in today’s high-growth startups—picture grandma and grandpa putting a portion of their retirement savings into the next pre-IPO Facebook —has long been the dream of advocates of so-called equity crowdfunding. This dream was supposed to be enabled by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, which became law in April 2012. Three years later, after substantially more wrangling than anyone anticipated, Title III of that act is finally codified as rules written by the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to those rules, as of May 16, the floodgates of equity crowdfunding will be officially open.
But if you talk to people building startups around equity crowdfunding, you’ll discover an open secret: As a mechanism for funding startups like Oculus, it is basically a nonstarter.
This is apparently deliberate.
These rules stipulate that any company that takes on more than 500 individual investors or grows to a size greater than $25 million in assets must start filing regular disclosures just like a publicly traded company. It is all the pain of an IPO without the benefits of the IPO.
Thesenewrules also limit the amount that any individual can invest. If you have less than $100,000 in annual income or net worth, each year you can only put $2,000 or 5% of your net worth or income, whichever is less, into crowdfunded startups.
“Given the disclosures that are required, I doubt a lot of tech companies are going to want to use regulation crowdfunding,”
It’s also true that, while it might not be appropriate for most high-growth tech startups, equity crowdfunding will almost certainly be huge for some startups as a type of marketing, and a way to demonstrate market interest to traditional investors. It is similar to how companies on“traditional” crowdfunding sites such asKickstarter and Indiegogodemonstrate interest in their products today.
The next Oculus might not launch on an equity-crowdfunding platform, but it might offer some shares in the company as a way to stoke interest.