Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 150 posts

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#101

Post by joshavant »

Hi folks!

I graduated from a moderately-ranked undergrad program with a 3.0 in Computer Engineering (the HW-centric flavor of CS), going on 6 years ago.

After graduation, I wanted to get into the embedded field, but was discouraged by the employment options (hardware hadn't yet made the comeback it has been making over the last 3-5 years... 'old' players like Intel still dominated, which wasn't particularly attractive to a bright-eyed 21 year old).

In the interim 6 years, I've been doing iOS development, and believe I've amassed a CV that speaks well to my dedication and work ethic (and is moderately accomplished, at that!).

My question is... how far off am I from being a viable candidate for embedded job opportunities? What kinds of projects/side-work would you like to see to prove that I 'still have it' and/or could sufficiently think on my feet, and get back into embedded development?

FWIW, I have resume experience at Apple, Microsoft, and Google (I actually was hired at Apple out of college to do hardware QA but, once I realized the path from QA to embedded development would be a near impossible feat, I quickly moved on to iOS development).

Thanks! And good luck with your respective products!!

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#102

Post by liseman »

joshavant wrote: post #101

Hi folks! I graduated from a moderately-ranked undergrad program with a 3.0 in Computer Engineering (the HW-centric flavor of CS), going on 6 years ago. After graduation, I wanted to get into the embedded field, but was discouraged by the employment options (hardware hadn't yet made the comeback it has been making over the last 3-5 years... 'old' players like Intel still dominated, which wasn't particularly attractiv…

Build things you want for yourself and publish them. Don't worry about cost optimization, production at scale, patents, etc.: just make something with unique functionality. Repeat. You'll be pleasantly surprised how quickly you learn and amass a portfolio of unique toys:)

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#104

Post by anujdeshpande »

A lot of the advice seems to be geared towards B2C startups. Most startups http://www.ycombinator.com/hardware/ seem B2C too. A lot of the reports/blogs/opinions of the Interweb suggest that connected hardware will make the most sense in industrial and smart city kind of environments (which are probably more B2B than B2C) in the early days. Would you advise differently for people working on B2B?

- Getting early prototypes out there has kind of been decremental for us. Even the smaller bizs are willing to pay higher for a more "field-tested" device. Which seems like a recursive problem ;). Should one spend more time on getting v1.0 done ? - Is there anyone who you'd recommend to handle global shipping and taxes? The way that Pebble had tied up with distributors in different places depending on your country, etc.

(We are building talking posters. One's with BLE play prerecorded messages, and you can interact with them, and the one's with WiFi are connected to the Internet and are more interactive.)

Thanks !

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#105

Post by Hykso »

joshavant wrote: post #101

Hi folks! I graduated from a moderately-ranked undergrad program with a 3.0 in Computer Engineering (the HW-centric flavor of CS), going on 6 years ago. After graduation, I wanted to get into the embedded field, but was discouraged by the employment options (hardware hadn't yet made the comeback it has been making over the last 3-5 years... 'old' players like Intel still dominated, which wasn't particularly attractiv…

The best candidate we had just asked us to work for free for a month to see if we would like him. We could not say no. And today he's a co-founder :D

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#106

Post by [deleted] »

joshavant wrote: post #101

Hi folks! I graduated from a moderately-ranked undergrad program with a 3.0 in Computer Engineering (the HW-centric flavor of CS), going on 6 years ago. After graduation, I wanted to get into the embedded field, but was discouraged by the employment options (hardware hadn't yet made the comeback it has been making over the last 3-5 years... 'old' players like Intel still dominated, which wasn't particularly attractiv…

[deleted]

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#107

Post by grape_ »

YC and many other incubators provide startups technology incentive programs (Digital Ocean providing $250k credits, Azure providing $500k in credits, etc.). Are any of the hardware startups here utilizing any of the incentive programs? If so, how so? Very interested to hear about cloud strategies, especially as they relate to hardware companies (APIs, IOTs, etc.).

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#108

Post by joshavant »

liseman wrote: post #102
joshavant wrote: post #101

Hi folks! I graduated from a moderately-ranked undergrad program with a 3.0 in Computer Engineering (the HW-centric flavor of CS), going on 6 years ago. After graduation, I wanted to get into the embedded field, but was discouraged by the employment options (hardware hadn't yet made the comeback it has been making over the last 3-5 years... 'old' players like Intel still dominated, which wasn't particularly attractiv…

Build things you want for yourself and publish them. Don't worry about cost optimization, production at scale, patents, etc.: just make something with unique functionality. Repeat. You'll be pleasantly surprised how quickly you learn and amass a portfolio of unique toys:)

Thanks!

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#109

Post by joshavant »

Hykso wrote: post #105
joshavant wrote: post #101

Hi folks! I graduated from a moderately-ranked undergrad program with a 3.0 in Computer Engineering (the HW-centric flavor of CS), going on 6 years ago. After graduation, I wanted to get into the embedded field, but was discouraged by the employment options (hardware hadn't yet made the comeback it has been making over the last 3-5 years... 'old' players like Intel still dominated, which wasn't particularly attractiv…

The best candidate we had just asked us to work for free for a month to see if we would like him. We could not say no. And today he's a co-founder :D

Thanks!

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#110

Post by erohead »

anujdeshpande wrote: post #104

A lot of the advice seems to be geared towards B2C startups. Most startups http://www.ycombinator.com/hardware/ seem B2C too. A lot of the reports/blogs/opinions of the Interweb suggest that connected hardware will make the most sense in industrial and smart city kind of environments (which are probably more B2B than B2C) in the early days. Would you advise differently for people working on B2B? - Getting early proto…

- stick through it! You should be able to find early customers who are willing to work with early prototypes, even when asking them to pay. Just make sure you give them insanely good customer support. Consider flying out to get them set up! Don't wait til v1.0 to sell, get out there sooner.

- I'd recommend sticking to a local fulfillment service that has great customer support for your early shipments. There is absolutely no need to optimize for cost in the early days. Just make sure you have someone you can call to sort out shipment delays, lost packages, etc. You can always expand to more fulfillment centres later.

Sounds like a cool idea! Are the posters epaper or static?

Post reply on HN