RE: Time of the Hardware Startup

DAB — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 22:34:16 GMT

Hi Dave,

Good post.

I agree, getting around a lot of creative and enthused people is inspiring. It takes great skill to nurture them into a product cycle without killing them with the complexities of doing the product cycle.

I like the crowd sourcing approach. While you may never get the Billions and Billions sold, it provides a clear block cycle type environment where you can limit the production run for each version. This approach lets you learn on the small scale, get constant feedback and learn that things are not as easy to do as you originally thought.

If the product idea is a true hit, then there are plenty of places that can take over the manufacturing after you have a solid product. If you are a true maker, there is a bit of appeal to just passing on the idea to others so you can go back to building the next thing. You will not get rich, but you will establish yourself as a visioinary and good engineer. After you succeed once, people will come to you.

Some people aspire to be the next Apple, but I think most engineers would just like to be the next Wozniak.

Just a thought.

DAB