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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

#81

Post by Hykso »

drabie wrote: post #62
ogreveins wrote: post #56

Serious question: How do you keep your stuff from getting replicated, tweaked and crushed by people with possibly better tooling and more machines than you? China comes to mind tbh.

Honestly, you don't. You just need to focus on building something that people want and making sure that the experience you deliver is better than any other. Further, if you start to think about your hardware as a means of delivering something else (for us, that's food), then getting copycatted on the hardware won't be as hard to deal with from a business standpoint.

+1 with the boys above! By the time someone replicates you, you should have an improved version of your stuff on both software and hardware.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#82

Post by thirru »

Hykso wrote: post #27
jmcmahon443 wrote: post #3

What are the pros and cons of crowdfunding, vs. self-funding, vs. VC-funding for a hardware startup? When should I be using which sort of funding?

Hi jmcmahob443, My name is Khalil, CEO of Hykso (www.hykso. Are you talking about product crowdfunding like Kickstarter and Indiegogo or equity crowdfunding?

Hey Khalil,

What was the main reason for you going with a selfstarter (your own website) over IGG/KS? Would you do it again?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#85

Post by drabie »

thirru wrote: post #79

Hey Martin from ShapeScale (S15) here. Did any of you attempt any influencer marketing? (celebrities or connectors on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat) If so, how well did it work and did you pay them (if so what was the model, commission, or up-front payment). Would you do it again?

We thought about it, but ultimately it was too expensive and we weren't able to find the right influencers that fit with our brand.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#86

Post by thirru »

Hykso wrote: post #76
thirru wrote: post #73

I have a question for Hykso: You guys had a progress bar of units sold. Did you see that this was creating urgency? Also did you find it hard to create traffic to your own site? What was your strategy? And why Shopify over Tilt/Celery?

No we did not see it had much of an impact. But what we saw had the biggest impact is our website! We refined it a lot based on customer interviews to make sure to convey the worth of the product (which was lacking in the previous version). Also customers had a lot of questions, which is not good for sales. As soon as we put the new website up, sales increased!

Interesting.

1- Was there a reason why you chose not to use a promo video? 2- What has been main driver in sales so far? Like what was the split between PR, Email List and Ads? Any other channels? 3- Why Shopify over Celery/Tilt then? Did it give you more control over the experience?

Sorry lots of questions. We are currently deciding between selfstarter vs crowdfunding.

-Martin

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#87

Post by thirru »

Hykso wrote: post #78
thirru wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the best way for you guys to grow your email list (aside from paid ads)? Did you use Queue?

We created a lot of content and spread it guerilla way aka bombarding facebook groups that were relevant. On the other hand we through all of our network as word of month is still one of the best way to market your company. PR helped but did not make the whole difference.

Interesting on the "FB group spamming", that's a great idea to expand reach!

Did you have any PR coverage pre-launch then to collect more emails?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#88

Post by Hykso »

thirru wrote: post #79

Hey Martin from ShapeScale (S15) here. Did any of you attempt any influencer marketing? (celebrities or connectors on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat) If so, how well did it work and did you pay them (if so what was the model, commission, or up-front payment). Would you do it again?

Hi Martin,

We actually went through some influencers on our side (known fighters or coaches).

It definitely helped gain a lot of credibility on our end because if it was that much of a revolutionary product, why would pro athletes not use it amd endorse it. so for us it helped a lot convince our customers that it was a legit product.

However, we have been offered to post on a few famous people pages for 5k but we didn't do it as we thought it would actually be seen as paid advertising instead of genuine and authentic love for the product. We're still exploring those avenues though.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#89

Post by zeeshanm »

thebiglebrewski wrote: post #30

I have a bunch of hardware stuff lying around. Arduino kits, soldering equipment, even a pocket oscilloscope! I had good intentions with it but now it's mostly just sitting there. Any small cool project ideas to build? Also I always have this problem where I'm missing one tiny component (I live in NYC in Brooklyn) and have to run to a store in Manhattan or wait for an online order to fill it...any tips on things to k…

You should def go to NYC Resistor in Brooklyn. They have open hack nights every Thursday evenings. http://www.nycresistor.com/

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#90

Post by noer »

Hykso wrote: post #72
cfederico wrote: post #67

Hi Guys, we are a hardware startup developing a smart LED lamp. We plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign late Q3 and now we are testing the product with our early adopters. - What is the best way to get traction on the product before launching the campaign? - How much money you need to set up a good marketing Kickstarter campaign ? Is it needed to use a good PR agency ? (Any suggestions about a good PR agency ? ) Tha…

Build an email list! And try to pump up the subscriptions with different sales channels - you'll be able to know which ones work best for your business before launching your campaign

I'm going to have to disagree with part of this. Collecting emails is a good strategy when there's a concrete availability date and that date isn't too far off from the present. I recently had a client who was trying to sell a similar(ish) product. Collected emails for 6+ months. When they announced that their product was available, it took them 3 months to get to 50 orders from nearly 10k emails. Looking back, keeping the email subs engaged might have helped increase conversion from subscriber -> customer, but It ended up not working out nearly as well as we had hoped.
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