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I read it twice to see if there was any mention of the word 'Shenzhen'. It's difficult to not keep that in the loop, for a hardware startup anywhere in the world. Even SF.
Are any of these resources available for anyone who isn't already a YC founder? Does that make sense? Wouldn't it be valuable to give interested folks who aren't yet in YC a place to do their prototyping, get discounts, and help, and then use it as lead gen for the next batch? Think of all the companies that could exist but don't because they don't have access to these resources.
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I make robots in Chicago and sell them on Tindie. My top two competitors are in Finland and Japan. Yes, I hear Shenzhen is crazy awesome, but try not to let location dominate your world view of what is easy or difficult. Making a good hardware product is difficult, no matter where you make it.
>I make robots in Chicago and sell them on Tindie sounds very scalable
Are any of these resources available for anyone who isn't already a YC founder? Does that make sense? Wouldn't it be valuable to give interested folks who aren't yet in YC a place to do their prototyping, get discounts, and help, and then use it as lead gen for the next batch? Think of all the companies that could exist but don't because they don't have access to these resources.
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I'll just point out that going into the 3rd or 4th year of YC's existence, everyone was asking this about the software companies they were funding.
It doesn't follow from YC's success with software companies that the model will be similarly successful for hardware companies. It's still very much an experiment at this point, and "it was once an unknown for software companies" doesn't imply that hardware companies will achieve similar success with the YC model.
That is true. A better way to think of it, might be as an experiment. Do you remember when YC was started funding startups? The tech group-thought at the time: a toy, a joke, nothing serious, never to gain traction.
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stay tuned.
I hope this is the start of US bringing manufacturing back to the States. There needs to be a hardware alley in silicon valley, much like the hardware alley in Shenzhen. For one thing, China is still a communist government that is authoritarian and ignores environmental pollutions (to the world). It also ignores human rights, supports dictators in Africa, and props up totalitarian government in Russia. These are good…
Your other comments are factually true, but i don't think they're totally fair. To play devil's advocate: China acknowledge they've got a pollution problem and introduced several methods to start addressing it [1][2][3]. USA also ignores human rights[4][5][6][7], supports dictators and totalitarian governments[8], fights proxy wars and arms terrorists[9][10]. "These are good reasons to not do business with" the USA.
[citations http://pastebin.com/d5UGRB1Z]
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The resources listed here are geared for prototyping that allows rapid iteration of designs and ideas. From electronics prototyping (Tempo Automation) to mechanical (Fictiv). Having been to Shenzhen for manufacturing, it is absolutely great once you get to large volume - you can't beat the robust ecosystem anywhere. For initial runs of designs (quantity 1-10 of something), TIME is absolutely key: dealing with Shenzhe…
Absolutely. At Other Machine Co., ( https://othermachine.co/ ) our volumes just aren't big enough to go to Shenzhen yet. Not to mention the fact that the upfront costs require significant upfront capital investments. That's why we make a product that lets companies (including our own) prototype PCBs and other parts themselves.
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They had to integrate the electronics as well. The most successful hardware companies (e.g. Apple) are building integrated systems including software and services.
I don't disagree with assertion about Apple and similar companies but they end up selling you a physical hardware product. Bufferbox offered a service and didn't sell you a product therefore I don't think they were "hardware" company. The hardware was means to an end. I don't think it lessens what they did. It was a good service. Walmart has a large IT infrastructure, with sys admins and in-house developers. They als…
Are any of these resources available for anyone who isn't already a YC founder? Does that make sense? Wouldn't it be valuable to give interested folks who aren't yet in YC a place to do their prototyping, get discounts, and help, and then use it as lead gen for the next batch? Think of all the companies that could exist but don't because they don't have access to these resources.
What YC is doing is bundling discounts on PCB prototyping, and 3D printed parts. The rest of the offerings are further down the stack (testing, RF, etc.) so the only thing you would be missing as a non-YC company trying to build a prototype to get into YC is discounts. If you are hand assembling your prototypes then you only have PCB fabrication costs, which for a 2 to 4 layer board should be about $500 max for your…