Founders with a new hardware product idea often keep it under wraps as much as possible, pushing to get to market as early as possible driven by the fear of being copied. That's a valid concern, but it can lead to a serious blind spot that … [Read more...]
Misguided Legal Advice Given to Startups in China: 8 Examples
We talk to hardware startup founders (on the way to bringing a new product into production) every week, and many of them have talked to a lawyer -- which is a good thing. Unfortunately, the legal advice given to startups is not always … [Read more...]
New Physical Products: Patents Should Come After Market Success
We talk to a startup company developing a new physical (hardware) product at least once a week, and I'd estimate that about 25% of them try hard to secure a patent. I get it. They are afraid of being copied. They know investors and … [Read more...]
Incubator VS Accelerator VS Go It Alone: The Startup’s Conundrum
If you are a startup at a very early stage with growing your business and getting products to market, you have a few choices in order to get on the right path. Do you go with Startup Incubator VS Accelerator, or dispense with them and just … [Read more...]
Bringing an IoT Product from Concept to Market: Case Study
We've been fortunate to help Ahera develop their OSIA IoT smart band from concept to prototype and to get them prepared to take the next steps (tooling, certification, preparation, production). It is actually a great case study for … [Read more...]
5 Marketing & Sales Mistakes Hardware Startups Tend To Make
John Teel from Predictable Designs (a great resource for hardware startups, with a focus on electronic design & engineering) just launched his podcast, and I thought the third episode was quite interesting. The interviewee was Dave … [Read more...]
7 Typical Pitfalls for Hardware Startups Producing in China
A few years ago, I remember reading about the Coolest Cooler, a nice product that raised an amazing amount of money on Kickstarter: over 6,000 people bought it for a total of 13 million USD!! Yet, they went bust leaving a lot of frustrated … [Read more...]
How to start manufacturing in 10 steps for Kickstarter entrepreneurs
This framework will help any entrepreneur who has successfully crowdfunded a product to understand how to start manufacturing. Now, what to do? What are the steps to have the first batch of products made in China? … [Read more...]
Incubators in China for Developing a new Electronic Hardware Product
Many articles have explained why Shenzhen is the best place to develop a new electronic hardware product that is targeting a high sales volume. If you want to do things faster and cheaper than in your home country, this is the place to … [Read more...]
Pros and Cons of Crowdfunding (Kickstarter/Indiegogo) for Startups
Crowdfunding has emerged as one of the main sources of funding for hardware startups (and many other ventures). Here are a few impressive statistics: 15 million people have backed a Kickstarter project since 2009. Backers pledged a … [Read more...]