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 serving them well. (I am not trying to put lawyers down. Some international business lawyers are great and can think both as business people and as lawyers, but they are a small minority. The problem is, many hold a narrow perspective, don't know the limitations … [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 customers will like it. It looks like a wise investment. And, of course, not many lawyers will discourage a patent application, which is -- for good reason -- in their list of the best ways to protect a new product's intellectual property. However, here is … [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 go it alone? Here are the options in more detail (we'll focus more on hardware startups, rather than purely software startups, as working with them is where most of our experience lies): … [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 entrepreneurs planning to develop their own product and manufacture it in China, so I thought it would make for an interesting article. Ahera is in the middle of an Indiegogo campaign these days. I went to interview their founder, Rudy Bottin, about what it took to … [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 Millman of BizDev Global, a company that helps B2B tech startups find their first customers. Here is a summary of what he shared. … [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 backers and interested onlookers scratching their heads as to where it all went wrong for one of the most famous hardware startups of recent times and indeed the most funded Kickstarter campaign of 2014. In this post, I'll explore what went wrong for them … [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 be. Some founders stay in their country and work on the design, marketing, and distribution, and they pick a local partner for handling some of the engineering work. Others decide to relocate to Shenzhen -- these ones are often interested in getting help from … [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 total of 3.9 billion USD. More than 9 million people have backed an Indiegogo project since 2008. However, entrepreneurs need to think about all the pros and cons of raising money this way. If you are in this situation, here are are some … [Read more...]
Example of Indiegogo Project Made in China: NAOX
The number of new products to be launched on Kickstarter or Indiegogo has grown very quickly. It seems not a week passes without a start-up team contacting us over at Sofeast for either developing a new product or for help on their production in China. Some projects are very successful and raise important amounts of funding on these platforms. Most projects raise more modest funds and don’t receive much publicity. However, some are worth studying. Not just because their products can be pretty … [Read more...]