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Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

simonberens.com

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Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#201

Post by throw3836372 »

EarlKing wrote: post #87
cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

What I find particularly galling is that he failed to learn perhaps the most important lesson: Maybe he wouldn't have these kind of problems if he hadn't outsourced his manufacturing to China but kept in on-shore instead.

You should check out Michael Lynch's blog series about building TinyPilot.

He tried to source from America companies first, but the products were actually worse and much more expensive than his Chinese vendors.

He has one blog post which details the quality differences, and the Chinese vendors were much better than the American ones. The American ones also took longer and we're less communicative to him than the Chinese vendors.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#202

Post by starky »

ggm wrote: post #132

This is the second article about hardware supply from China I've read and it reads very much the same, albiet in a different niche (the other one was about SBC construction) -Anything you don't specify will be done least cost, and there is no amount of "least" which cannot be chased in manufacture. The other one noted if you don't specify the density of plastic for bags, or paper for bags and packing, you get clingfi…

A lot of success in working with suppliers in China (and really anywhere in Asia) is in building a relationship with them where they know exactly what your expectations are and holding them to it until they understand that it is just easiest for them to do it right to start.

I've got suppliers who I can send a difficult part to and know that I'm going to get exactly what I expect, faster and cheaper than just about anyone else. It took a few years to get to that point, but these few vendors make it really hard to go with anyone else, much to the chagrin of the sourcing team who rightly recognize it a risk to rely on just a few suppliers.

Once you get to a certain type of supplier you end up running into the problem where their processes are such that they won't do anything without you clearly documenting it. They simply refuse to make any assumptions on your behalf. They can be so frustrating when you are used to the other way of doing it. I simply cannot answer some questions because I'm so used to my other suppliers just doing it correctly and haven't ever asked about it.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#203

Post by jkestner »

absynth wrote: post #195

I'd like other war stories like this on HN. Considering this is a YC website I'd expect more.

You might like the updates from my current project. It’s got it all—-tariff surprises, flaky suppliers, switching manufacturing processes midstream, and most of all, the slog: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supermechanical/pickup-...

Pixels dice have also been going on a “fun” journey with the weight of a huge crowdfunding raise. I’ve been following their updates with sympathy: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixels-dice/pixels-the-...

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#204

Post by jiggawatts »

chillfox wrote: post #105
cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

I find the "no one could have seen it coming" crowd extremely tiring, they usually always say that about something anyone who paid a tiny bit of attention could see coming. It's genuinely baffling to me why business owners pay so little attention to the politics that will directly impact their business. The entire tariffs thing was incredible obvious to me (I am Australian) and I only check in on US politics for 10 m…

Meanwhile, here in Australia I spoke with small business owners (cafes, gyms, etc...) about their preparedness for the COVID lockdowns before the first one we had. All of them just had a wide-eyed look and a mumbled "Lockdowns? Really? Here? You think so?"

More than half of them went bankrupt.

One guys kept dumping money into a new gym buildout mere weeks before the months-long lockdowns commenced.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#207

Post by [deleted] »

Rychard wrote: post #148
mylifeandtimes wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know enough about your neighborhood, and I might have misread your comment (the "under the eaves" makes me think these are outdoor) but as someone who appreciates darkness I'd be really upset to live near someone who did this. Unless you can keep your light on your property (as in, you are extremely rural). why are you lighting up outside unless you are outside in the light?

The lights are indeed outdoor, and cover most of my backyard. It's a neighborhood within a major metropolitan area, but the light doesn't bleed beyond my property lines. As for the "why", the answer is security. If someone attempts to hide in my yard, they'll find it quite difficult to remain unseen. Most of my neighbors have floodlights of their own (though mine are easily the brightest), and I've gotten no complain…

[deleted]

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#208

Post by pinkmuffinere »

I would not advise jumping to mass production for your first deliveries, i think your story would have had less stress and more lower risk of failure of the first n (maybe 10?) units was bespoke, made lovingly by hand in a machine shop somewhere. I don’t think this is unusual advice, it matches the ethos of the lean startup, and pg’s “do things that don’t scale”.

We made our first hardware by hand, i believe we did 15 units. I remember my cofounder broke down because he couldn’t take the pressure of receiving fifteen orders and now we had to make FIFTEEN by hand, lol. But we were able to figure out SO MANY issues before mass production. And of course even then many slipped through

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#209

Post by aabajian »

I don't know enough about lighting, but if I bought five of these, would I reach 50,000 lumens? Is it just additive? This would cost $250.

https://www.harborfreight.com/10000-lumen-4-ft-linkable-diam...

Also, if you've ever been in a Walmart or Forever 21 at night, you'll know that constant LED white light is probably not the best thing for your eyes.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#210

Post by bytesandbits »

I will never understand why when you expect to sell a few hundred units of a product at most, you would decide to go and build something in china. There are instances where building in china might make sense. this is not one of them! you can easily hand assemble everything yourself in America, since this was a 1-year long time-frame. There is phenomenal CNC shops in the east coast (and also some in the mid-west) if you don't mind the lead times. You don't have to deal with tariffs, imports, and more importantly THEY SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE. Yes this sounds dumb. Like, with Google Translate you shouldn't have a problem no? Think again! From my experience with Chinese metallurgic, they are clumsy and often mess up even straight forward designs. Yes, they are fast, but at what cost! They will redo it as many times as you need. But the headache, man the headache of dealing with it is not worth it. On the other hand some of the issues here are expected and fun! well maybe not fun, but part of the process, like the swapped components in the board. it happens to the best of us and that's okay! but it would always be easier to debug when you can drive yourself to the CNC factory, or at least have a video call with the tech in your own language. Also, regulations in china is whole different world and not at all straightforward to navigate for westerners, at all. I really don't like that people turn directly to china cause "that's what everyone does anyway". nu-uh. also, China is not the only option! Eastern Europe, such as Poland, can get you there too for reasonable prices, and have tons of phenomenal electronics and manufacturing engineers. Tons.
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