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Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

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Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#101
post #91

We make a camera system for construction sites. Using computer vision, we can identify when and for how long subcontractors show up as well as notify our customers of unwanted behavior on site. https://bedrockwireless.com/ Fun fact, we probably have the best port-o-potty detector in the world.

This is pretty neat. I'm wondering if something like this (on a smaller scale) could be used to catch the elusive illegal dumper in my neighborhood.

We're working on this solution. Most housing projects have a semi-permanent dumpster, but GC's often have problems with people dumping in their houses' dumpsters, causing them to pay for more refills on their dumpster, which can get expensive.

Since we record motion on site, we typically catch the illegal dumpers, but it's hard to pick out from the many motion events that may occur on a construction site.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this were a camera that identified when and for how long a software engineer showed up to the office and notified their employer of "unwanted behavior", how long would it take for that story to end up on the front page of this site and torn apart as invasive and infantilizing?

I guess I would say that subcontractors are more like hourly workers (who are time tracked meticulously in almost all industries) - not salaried like software engineers, who would deserve the respect and absence of tracking.

I would argue salary employees deserve more tracking since they are given more freedoms. An hourly worker is paid hourly, and given tasks at a much smaller interval.. often by day and sometimes every few hours. If you have quarterly goals for salary employees, they probably need more 'tracking' to make sure they are doing what you expect as time goes on.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#103

We make the world's best baby car seats. https://www.kioma.us Fatherly Magazine calls it "The Car Seat of the Future". It's been crash tested, flight inversion tested, flammability tested and mom tested. It is full of patented innovations to make kids safer and parenting more enjoyable. It required lots of material science, production techniques, supply chain adjustments, and a surprising amount of software (to model…

I am a bit skeptical dad but damn these look nice! The price is justifiable, although personally I'd hesitate because the seat is only good for about 2 years, and the seat seems to weigh higher than Nuna products which we got.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#104
Space robotics, trying to build the Caterpillar of construction and maintenance on orbit. Not a lot to show yet but that’s unsurprising because it takes quite a while to get this sort of thing built up to the point where your printing prototypes or bending metal, and it’s along road from there to putting anything into orbit.

Didn’t make the cut for YC Summer 2023, looking forward to applying again with 6 more months of development progress…

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#105
post #22

I work on software at a hardware startup that is designing and manufacturing a next-generation electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen. My personal experience has led me to believe that opportunities to participate meaningfully in climate tech are exclusively available at hardware companies. Anyone attempting to solve climate change with software is at best skimming value off of the work being done by…

> Anyone attempting to solve climate change with software is at best skimming value off of the work being done by others in the physical world, and at worst creating markets for corporate greenwashing.

I've see so a lot of jobs popping up related to SaaS for compliance right now, so things like helping companies stay on top of regulation and track their own efforts and initiatives. I do get the impression that a lot of it is done sincerely, but it does have a hint of ye olde 'selling shovels in a gold rush'.

Still, if it keeps people out of adtech and cryptocurrency it seems like a win.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#107
A couple of good friends of mine spun out hardware start-ups over the past five years. Even though I'm a data/software guy, I helped out with both, up to and including soldering components onto demo boards. Since I've a couple of kids, mortgage, temperamental automobile etc. etc. I wasn't in the position to work for either startup for low salary/high equity though, and I'm kind of glad I didn't TBH.

The first startup should be way bigger and well known than it is, but the product/market fit isn't too good and marketing in general is poorly executed. This startup looks at electro-muscular stimulation to help out diabetic and pre-diabetic folks with getting some exercise (and folks with mobility/joint issues). To be honest I can't see this company surviving another five years unless there's some radical shake up in the way it's marketed, which is as a consumer device rather than a medical device.

The second startup is a spin out from a medical devices incubator, and is a real niche market - basically nerve implants to manage chronic pain. The target market is something ridiculously small, on the order of a handful of people per 100k who may benefit from it. At the moment, the only thing keeping this startup afloat seems to be generous research grants, can't really see how they can stay going unless the overall plan is to drive some hype and hope to get acquired by some bigger fish.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#108

We make physical advertising (DOOH) with real time bidding. If you have an image you want to advertise you just submit it and select the screens/locations where you'd like to end up and choose what you want to pay. Then we approve and rate your ad and if you are the highest bidder (ad quality is part of the equation too) you can end up on the screen right then. The whole process can take 20 minutes, from signup to yo…

The first button looks like a button but doesn't go anywhere. Other buttons took me to pages in another language.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#110
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We make the whole camera system because we couldn't find anything on the market that allowed us to do the AI we wanted. The value for the customer is all in the AI tracking and security detection as well as the ability to just login live and see what's happening on site. So, yes, our core product is our software, but we had to make the hardware to capture market share.

Your website shows OEM cameras and an off the shelf plastic enclosure, along with basic LED floodlights. What hardware are you making? Not saying your product isn't cool, just not clear what hardware you are "making" vs. assembling.

You're not wrong. We have custom boards inside to handle the AI compute and power, but we mostly do assembly.

If a software startup assembles a bunch of open source hardware together and packages it as a product, would you say they don't "make" software?

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