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Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

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Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#51

Post by mbruschi »

drabie wrote: post #33
mbruschi wrote: post #32

How do you managed to get your campaign to the press? Any advice if there is no time for building up relation-ships with the journalists?

The best option is to get warm introductions and develop relationships early. Getting people to hear about your product, give you feedback and feel invested before you launch is critical. However, that's not always possible. If you're scrambling and haven't had time to do that, you can always reach out blind or use services/agencies to help. There's a YC company called PRX that helps with this and does it at a very a…

Thank you, will check that out! Did you sent the whole story in the first reach-out or how much information do you recommend to send the first time?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#52

Post by dfox »

What is your approach to low-volume prototyping? Do you use same components for prototypes that you intend for volume manufacturing? How do you source them? (for example LCD panels, where there seems to be nothing in the intersection of "long-time available", "available in unit quantities", "available in bulk" and "reasonable quality")

And another question for the business side of things: where is the line for consumer products that are not meaningful to crowdfund? niche-ness? complexity of installation? does it make sense to crowdfund what is essentially an B2B product?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#53

Post by pwinter28 »

cbw5 wrote: post #37

Great hardware has the tradeoff of being "built to last" but then not re-engaging the customer for new purchases for quite some time. How do you think about re-engaging customers who purchase a Nebia shower?

Great question. Fortunately showerheads are often something that people need more than one of for different bathrooms in their home. So if they like one, hopefully they will buy more.

Further to that we have plans for making the Nebia experience more customizable. And so in future versions there will be features that allow you to make the experience even more personal, and these will allow for repeated brand interactions with the customer.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#54

Post by wilcoxbr »

thetli8 wrote: post #15

Do you think hardware IoT companies should eventually open source their hardware to solely focus on the software? (Based on the belief that if we can make it, there's always someone who can make it better for cheaper). How would we go about doing that in a way that does not greatly damage revenue streams?

The honest answer is that it depends. There is not a clear cut answer for this because it highly depends on the market, business model, value proposition, etc.

Development and production of hardware is fundamentally different than software. Thinking and making are separated much further in time and resources, and copy-paste simply doesn't work the same way.

The statement of open sourcing hardware and focusing solely on the software implies someone out there is magically going to make high-quality hardware for your software to run on. That's a thorny assumption.

Most IoT is more than just PCB's. There are also enclosures, actuators, and physical UI/UX. Relying on someone else to provide that much of the user-experience is a brittle proposition for a business.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#55

Post by Hykso »

dookahku wrote: post #34

I've lots of embedded linux experience. It's less consumerist products but more embedded systems experience. Where do I find people's problems to solve that can be addressed by HW?

What about a problem that you wish you could solve for yourself?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#57

Post by cfort6 »

Lots of platforms exist for home automation, control of IoT devices, etc... HomeKit, Nest, Wink, etc.

How worth it is it to integrate with these platforms? Should new IoT devices "cover all the bases", or is it not worth the extra cost & development?

Currently I'm doing an IoT project and I think I may just skip all those platforms. The HomeKit app costs $14.99, a Wink base station or a Nest costs money... Personally I'm doubtful consumers want to pay those extra costs.

Thoughts?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#58

Post by Hykso »

jpcorica wrote: post #17

How can we balance effort, risk taking and authorship protection vs holding progress back because of the blocking some patents create? Product revenue will be enough?

Somebody once told me: you'll deal with patent infringement once you're successful, which is already a big milestone...so to try to get there first.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#59

Post by Hykso »

jpcorica wrote: post #17

How can we balance effort, risk taking and authorship protection vs holding progress back because of the blocking some patents create? Product revenue will be enough?

Somebody once told me: you'll deal with patent infringement once you're successful, which is already a big milestone...so to try to get there first.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#60

Post by Hykso »

jpcorica wrote: post #17

How can we balance effort, risk taking and authorship protection vs holding progress back because of the blocking some patents create? Product revenue will be enough?

Somebody once told me: you'll deal with patent infringement once you're successful, which is already a big milestone...so to try to get there first.
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