Product Advice for Hardware Founders : YC Startup Library | Y Combinator
ycombinator.com · 4,255 words · saved by 3 readers
Pebble founder talks about how to start a hardware startup, including lessons learned, tricks to launch and iterate fast, and fundraising.
For example: Buy off the shelf hardware (eg RasPi + USB camera) and enclose it in a 3D printed case. Sell it. Many YC companies have done this in the past (eg Flock's first gen device was exactly this - flocksafety.com, and Piccolo) Buy a device that already does 90% of what you want it to do, then work with the manufacturer to customize the last 10% (I explained it a bit in that TC post) You can sell preorders but I find it easier to simply build 2-3 units then actually sell them to early users. Then use the profits from that to build more units, sell them, repeat. That's what we did for…
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