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Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

provenmetal.com

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Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#71

Post by dmicah »

scott_h wrote: post #54

Each of these pretty established suppliers offer this service: - Sunstone - Advanced Assembly - Sierra Circuits - Osh Park They all have ~7 day lead time or shorter. It all comes down to choosing simple processes with generic parts. Do you have your own machines or just outsource these orders and ensure the supply chain stuff moves along quickly? I like the idea, more heads in the game makes it cheaper for everyone,…

I don't believe OSH Park does PCB assembly, only the manufacture of the PCBs themselves.

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#72

Post by mrloopex »

makeset wrote: post #53
ac29 wrote: post #9

Any idea what pricing will be like? The fact that you call out Drone and Defense industries on your page suggests to me this is extremely expensive. I recently priced out getting a PCB done in China and its insanely cheap. My design isnt complicated, a few ICs, a few connectors, an a dozen or so passives. PCB manufacturing, parts, and soldering/assembly is on the order of $10-20 total per board and that is with zero…

It's also the immense know-how Chinese manufacturers have accumulated at this point. For a 5-piece hobby order $25 shipped, I got feedback confirming a wrong-looking part of my design before they printed.

And their ability to pollute without regard for life or the future.

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#73

Post by otekengineering »

willcarkner wrote: post #64
otekengineering wrote: post #63

how does it compare to https://www.circuithub.com ?

Circuit hub has something very interesting in the works. They're a few steps ahead of us. We however plan to own the full stack, from design to board bring-up and testing. We believe that design is becoming commoditized with AI tools, but these systems need manufacturers that are involved from the start to bring down lead times.

what do you mean by in the works? i've used them for years and they were in YC over a decade ago

sounds like your goal is to be an embedded systems job shop based on AI instead of engineers? What's your value over existing AI-accelerated job shops that leverage existing quick-turn domestic PCBA suppliers? as a not-so-random example, https://otekengineer.com/

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#74

Post by willcarkner »

otekengineering wrote: post #73
willcarkner wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Circuit hub has something very interesting in the works. They're a few steps ahead of us. We however plan to own the full stack, from design to board bring-up and testing. We believe that design is becoming commoditized with AI tools, but these systems need manufacturers that are involved from the start to bring down lead times.

what do you mean by in the works? i've used them for years and they were in YC over a decade ago sounds like your goal is to be an embedded systems job shop based on AI instead of engineers? What's your value over existing AI-accelerated job shops that leverage existing quick-turn domestic PCBA suppliers? as a not-so-random example, https://otekengineer.com/

Yes, though it was only somewhat recently that they transitioned to building their own automated facility.

We don't plan to do the design ourselves, we realize that our users will be using AI design tools that need to be integrated with the factory. We will build that link.

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#76

Post by cryo32 »

ac29 wrote: post #9

Any idea what pricing will be like? The fact that you call out Drone and Defense industries on your page suggests to me this is extremely expensive. I recently priced out getting a PCB done in China and its insanely cheap. My design isnt complicated, a few ICs, a few connectors, an a dozen or so passives. PCB manufacturing, parts, and soldering/assembly is on the order of $10-20 total per board and that is with zero…

medium to large defence companies tend to have in house board fabs. I worked in one.

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#77

Post by crtified »

willcarkner wrote: post #66
tamimio wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will definitely be expensive, and if you raised any eyebrow, you will get “made in the US” remarks immediately. Regarding “drone”, it’s a buzz word, in the past two years everyone is piggy backing on it like how all industries did with “crypto” years ago and “cyber” years before, or others with “AI” in software world now, “drone” is the word for hardware related, any new product or startup that has hardware involv…

It's important to focus on where real innovation in the space is happening, and to me that's in drones. Some of the hype is overstated but drones are the new additions to conflict, and they're clearly not going away.

One of your major choices is how much you want to specialise, vs be a general service. I expect you're in the phase of discovering that. Now, with the disclaimer I'm just a random guy who knows not-much about business - and is just a small hobbyist electronics guy - it seems clear that your stiffest headwinds are at General Service. I would be leery of how much success you'd have there, because general PCB service is something the world has A LOT MORE of than it had 10 years ago, and the economics are on balance unfavourable to you.

But to (very slightly!) paraphase you, you think it's important to focus on drones/defense and other nationalist areas where the future is canted toward you, and while that is not an area I'd enjoy working in myself (no personal judgement on you, but I'd rather spend my life doing things other than conflict and war), that is clearly what you know to be your first-rank business chance.

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#78

Post by jrexilius »

I'm super excited to try your service and the KiCad plug-in to move supply-chain dialogue closer to point-of-creation makes a TON of sense. That and the speed seem to be the two points of differentiation from Macrofab, who is my current supplier. They will be stiff competition for you as they are a great shop and have a good software interface and a lot of capabilities. I imagine using you guys for quick turn-around needs and them for production and scale?

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#79

Post by amirhirsch »

Good luck! One valuable differentiation you could provide is a line of credit. If you can’t win on price, you can help your customers win on cash-conversion cycle.

I’ve been making hardware for 20 years. My highest-volume product was Flybrix, a LEGO drone kit manufactured by Seeed and UniPrecision in China and by Sparqtron in Fremont, California. I’d be happy to work with you on a v2 reboot: Flybrix Swarmz, because every American high school needs a drone swarm.

Beyond that, I’ve worked with many domestic suppliers and built ITAR-controlled products as well. Even without owning the production capacity, if you can offer Net 90 on fabrication and extend credit for components--beyond existing DigiKey, Arrow, Mouser, and vendor credit lines--then I can build products and get paid without putting all the capital at risk upfront.

Factoring is expensive, especially against a purchase order rather than an invoice, and I don’t know of anyone offering working-capital credit based solely on an SBIR award.

Credit is what makes the spice flow.

Re: Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks

#80

Post by willcarkner »

cryo32 wrote: post #76
ac29 wrote: post #9

Any idea what pricing will be like? The fact that you call out Drone and Defense industries on your page suggests to me this is extremely expensive. I recently priced out getting a PCB done in China and its insanely cheap. My design isnt complicated, a few ICs, a few connectors, an a dozen or so passives. PCB manufacturing, parts, and soldering/assembly is on the order of $10-20 total per board and that is with zero…

medium to large defence companies tend to have in house board fabs. I worked in one.

yes, what was the utilization like?
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