
Ask HN: Im great at building prototypes, what business should I be in? - cronjobma
Im great at building hardware and software prototypes. Im tired of doing work for clients and I don&#x27;t want to pursuit the single product &gt; manufacturing - journey. Is there a business type that I can be in, to tinker along and build a profitable business?
======
codegeek
"Im tired of doing work for clients"

A business by definition means that you will have to deal with clients. Sure,
it could be a product or service or a mix of both but you can never get rid of
clients. Otherwise you have no business.

The only exceptions are the types where you run a profitable blog, online
courses, ads and make money through those but even they require dealing with
your clients at times (e.g. buyer of a course) but the interactions will be
limited and much less demanding.

~~~
cronjobma
The issue with clients is more that I want to make stuff I want. Not based on
someone's brief. Working with people is something I enjoy.

~~~
AznHisoka
the definition of a business is to solve the problems of someone else, not
yours.

~~~
bhnmmhmd
Another approach they use in strategic planning is this:

Build great resources and capabilities in yourself that can be applied to a
plethora of tasks, and then, try to find out which of those tasks are
profitable for you.

This is much like solving a problem _you_ have - which turns out, other people
have that problem as well.

------
azeirah
I have the same skill, can build cool things in a few days, but don't really
like working on one thing for a longer period of time. I want to be a
researcher :o

~~~
magic_beans
Ha! You should work at an ad agency. New projects every couple days.

~~~
franklinho
Yeah, but you also get paid shit. Ad agencies can't afford anyone worth their
salt.

~~~
bluehat
you're in the wrong ad agency

------
rapjr9
I work as a research programmer at a college and prototypes are all we build.
However there are very few jobs like this (grant money rarely pays for
programmers except a few in big grants and colleges don't have much support
for research via engineering and programming staff because it's difficult to
justify the overhead for that kind of staff when the need is so variable and
students work for cheap or free.) . It's also very different from industry or
government jobs, more like being in a startup where you have to train
students, deal with many cultures, and do odd jobs (legal analysis, inventory,
paperwork, purchasing, etc.) to make things work. Also the prototypes you
build often are not actually functional; important parts will be left out or
simulated because they are not critical to the research as a proof of concept.
It can be frustrating to never build anything that actually accomplishes a
functional goal. Pay tends to suck too though that's somewhat location,
project, and skill dependent. Medical research has a lot more support
positions like this, but requires more specialized skills. And all these jobs
are a dead end, there is no place to move up to; the best you can hope for is
to eventually become part of a startup or get some extra income from a patent
or get a discount on getting a PhD. However, that's not a problem if you're
more interested in the research than the money. Projects range from small (a
month) to big (5 years) and you'll likely be working on several of them at all
times (to make sure there's enough grant money to cover your salary). You'd
think there would be a great deal of programming and engineering support for
researchers since they are the ones trying to solve the big problems today
(except when they're following fads or picking low hanging fruit to build
their publish-or-perish careers), but no, most researchers have to do
everything themselves with little outside support. Projects end when the
students leave or the money runs out, and often that's the end of good ideas.
Business rarely adopts them. Occasionally you may get a chance to make a
difference. Most of what you'll do has never been done by anyone before, so
while you learn a lot due to always working with new technologies, you become
expert in nothing since the demands of different projects tend to be very
different, and little is re-usable between projects and the skills you learn
are somewhat weird, like hacking internals of systems to do something no one
in business would ever consider doing. So transitioning back to industry after
a time in research could be difficult.

~~~
bhnmmhmd
That's a very gloomy situation. I've been thinking about continuing my
education in the field of data science, but what you just described makes me
worry about what I will be putting myself into.

May I ask, do you think the situation is the same in data-science / IT
-related fields, too?

------
sharemywin
I'm confused when you say prototypes are you talking

web, apps, etc.?

Hardware as in electronic devices? computers?

Are they functional or just design mock ups?

~~~
cronjobma
Functional prototypes of both hardware and/or software (web and/or mobile). I
used to help companies like theme parks design concepts and build prototypes
that they could use to get sponsors for their parks. As well as large
corporations that needed wuick prototypes of apps or games that they needed to
fundraise to fund the full product development process. I would basically help
them up to the internal or externL fundraising pitches. Won awards for my
work. Im just sick of client work and would love to find a way that I could
use my skills in a more independent way.

~~~
Southworth
Sounds like you need a manager.

------
woolybully
Applied Invention.
[https://www.appliedinvention.com/#about](https://www.appliedinvention.com/#about)

Applied Minds is hiring. [http://appliedminds.com/](http://appliedminds.com/)

------
mring33621
1) prototyping skills workshop/bootcamp 2) prototyping blog/vlog with
affiliate ads/links 3) factor out common sets of items & sell prototyping kits

~~~
cronjobma
Is there a way to find if there's ($$) demand for prototyping workshops?

~~~
eswat
You’d have to do some legwork. Find a local hacker/co-working space and ask if
you can host a paid workshop there.

------
bitshaker
Build stuff you want and then license the things to large companies who would
want to actually make a business around what you build.

Here's someone doing just that:
[https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/podcasts/how-to-get-
paid-...](https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/podcasts/how-to-get-paid-for-
your-ideas/)

------
meric
Building one-off cool devices and auction it to the highest bidder. Market to
the super rich.

~~~
amirouche
Is there a platform to auction things like you describe?

------
mycat
I thought there exist small companies where large corporations outsource their
protoyping, design and manufacutring work. E.g.
[http://www.orcacreation.com](http://www.orcacreation.com)

------
frankwallis
Perhaps prop-making in the movie/tv business, prop-makers build one-off things
all the time, use them in whatever show/movie they are making, and after
filming they are not needed any more.

------
indiesalesman
You can become a indie hacker (like someone suggested already). Start some
side projects until one of them sticks.

------
wprapido
look up indiehackers and hackaday. that might give you some ideas

------
jackgolding
UX agency is what I'd recommend

