Hardware Startup

Where The Hardware Accelerators Are

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It is finally here –The Hardware Accelerators List.

I am always asked — Are Hardware Accelerators in NYC, SF, or UK? Boston? Who should I contact? What is their website? Do they allow dogs or cats? How much equity do they take? Will they want my first-born child in exchange for said equity? How much money do they give? The list goes on and on. Now you can click on their website link and find out everything you wanted to know and more.

The following is a list I compiled of all the Hardware Accelerators I know of. If you know of more please contact me so I can add them to the list.

Oh and if there are any errors let me know too.

Location Name URL
Any Springboard http://sb.co/accelerator/
Berlin Hardware.co http://hardware.co/
Boston Bolt https://bolt.io/
Denmark Danish Tech Challenge – Scion DTU http://www.sciondtu.com/network-innovation/dtc/
Estonia BuildIt http://buildit.ee/
Honolulu XLR8UH http://www.xlr8uh.com/program.html
Italy Industrio http://www.industrio.co/
Korea SparkLabs http://www.sparklabs.co.kr/kr/html/home.html
London EcoMachines Incubator http://www.ecomachinesincubator.com/
New York City JFE http://jfenetwork.com/accelerator-ny/
New York City NYCEDC Next Top Maker https://www.nexttopmakers.com/
New York City R/GA http://rgaaccelerator.com/connecteddevices/
New York City Zahn Center http://www.zahncenternyc.com/
Ohio Launch House http://www.launchhouse.com/lhx/
Pittsburg AlphaLab / AlphaLab Gear http://www.alphalabgear.org/
Rhode Island Betaspring http://betaspring.com/
San Francisco Highway1 http://highway1.io/
San Francisco Lemnos Labs http://lemnoslabs.com/
San Francisco Nike Fuel Labs http://www.nikefuellab.com/
San Francisco YC for Hardware http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-for-hardware
San Francisco, China Haxlr8r http://www.haxlr8r.com/
Taiwan TMI http://tmi.vc/investment/hardware-acceleration-service/

 

Photo credit: Scott Woods-Fehr / Foter /CC BY

Let It Roll, Let It Roll or Not

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We have been there before. You know that situation when you see people repeating the same mistakes you have made yourself and you think if you advise them that will change their current path. It makes me want to say “Ugh, What the f*@k are you doing?” Most of my colleagues have been there too. However when you are working with startups and people who have their own first business…sometimes you want to tear your hair out. Do you standby and let it roll?

In some situations I will voice my opinion, but there are some situations where you know if you say something it will not work. I have heard it before; “Oh you don’t know our situation” or the best one “That will not happen to us”. History always repeats itself said some very wise man and it is so true.

What do I do in those situations? I let it roll.  Sometimes the best lesson is the one you learn yourself. I watch and see people learn for themselves. It works great. You can sense when someone is not responsive to advice. You can see it in their face when you start talking with them. Sometimes I do give it anyway just to see the reaction.

Not to say I am sadistic by any means, but it is sometimes is funny to watch. It is like a sitcom played out for everyone to see. A show. A well written show. Well written because it happened so many times before that there must have been time to make the writing perfect. Sometimes the endings are difference. Most of the time they are the same. Most of the time it is history repeating itself over and over again.

When I do let it roll good things happen. People learn. They comeback and say oh yeah it did happen…”Oh crap!!!!”. Then the “Oh crap” turns to action and action turns to expected results. Other times you just see it in them. A light goes off and then the path changes. A right turn or left (Doctor Who reference). It is rewarding to see.

It is hard to give advice and it is hard to take advice, but how it evolves is fun to watch. Oh startups, a crazy business and oh so exciting. I am glad to be a part of it.

Photo credit: A Guy Taking Pictures / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Welcome to the Era of the Hardware Startup | LinkedIn

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Welcome to the Era of the Hardware Startup | LinkedIn.

What I love about hardware startups is their willingness to take on and transform dauntingly complicated industries. Until recently, manufacturing had been almost exclusively the domain of big companies that can afford to build at scale. Now, these makers are turning the tables and showing the value of being both adaptable and close to your customers.

I agree. From talking with many hardware startups the momentum is definitely there. I often talk about this as we are now where we were in the 80’s 90’s when software development and computing was transforming from being obtainable only by big companies with deep pockets to everyone who has a PC can now code to create a program that is of value.

Hardware is very different than software. You can not develop a hardware product in a few days to a week. It takes time, patience, and more capital. It requires more relationships that last for a longer period of time.

There are still many hurdles to over come such as:

  1. How do we make the product development process streamlined or lean?
  2. How do we integrate in design for manufacturability into the process from the beginning?
  3. Where is the book of the shelf that people can go to with out a degree in supply chain management to learn how to talk to the factory?
  4. And funding…Will funding for hardware startups get easier over time?

There are a lot more questions to be asked and answered in this journey. I can’t cover them all here. In the future, I will write more about the process of hardware development.  I am going to tell stories from the trenches. What happened, what didn’t, how we solved the issues and how to approach these things in the future so it does not happen to you.

We have been seeing some great things from our clients. For most of them this is their first business. It is great to see them fill out their first Purchase Order ever. It is a great moment for them and for us.