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YC for Hardware

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC for Hardware

#21

Post by anujdeshpande »

hugs wrote: post #17
anujdeshpande wrote: post #13

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.

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 know what you mean. I make development boards(Tah) out of India. But I understand that most of what I use comes some way or the other from Shenzhen. A lot many times there are things that I am using which probably are outdated in China. Relevant article by bunnie : http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297

Re: YC for Hardware

#22

Post by anujdeshpande »

codemac wrote: post #20
hugs wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> try not to let location dominate your world view of what is easy or difficult Didn't YC move?

True that. Cambridge,MA initially.

Re: YC for Hardware

#23

Post by hugs »

codemac wrote: post #20
hugs wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> try not to let location dominate your world view of what is easy or difficult Didn't YC move?

Yes. Of course, I wish YC would take my advice, too! ;)

Re: YC for Hardware

#25

Post by bravo22 »

TheMakeA wrote: post #11

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 protos (1 week turn). That should be doable for most start-ups, even if they need 3-4 spins.

Re: YC for Hardware

#26

Post by shashanksamala »

anujdeshpande wrote: post #13

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.

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 Shenzhen takes extensive communication and long lead times for each production run that a startup or even a big company can't afford.

Re: YC for Hardware

#27

Post by ahhrrr »

shashanksamala wrote: post #26
anujdeshpande wrote: post #13

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.

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.

Re: YC for Hardware

#28

Post by acgourley »

apendleton wrote: post #19
beambot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pebble, Boosted, Cruise, Double Robotics, Pantelligent, Thalmic, UPower, Helion, Terravion, SoundFocus, SwapBox, Amulyte, Coin, IxiPlay, TrueLink, Estimote, Senic, ...

Not to nitpick, but at least some of these arguably haven't gotten far enough along yet that they can reasonably claim to be "successful." Thalmic is just getting early products to market, Helion hasn't yet built a commercial fusion reactor, etc.

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.

Re: YC for Hardware

#30

Post by w1ntermute »

acgourley wrote: post #28
apendleton wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to nitpick, but at least some of these arguably haven't gotten far enough along yet that they can reasonably claim to be "successful." Thalmic is just getting early products to market, Helion hasn't yet built a commercial fusion reactor, etc.

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.

And I'll just point out that blind extrapolation from one vertical to a completely different one is usually a poor predictive strategy.
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