

Ask HN: Is it Madness to do a Hardware Startup? - charlieirish

It seems that hardware startups have an even greater chance of failure compared to software startups. Startups are hard - I get that(!) - but is it completely mad to be considering a hardware startup?
======
charlieirish
I've seen articles saying that to do a hardware startup you need to sleep in
the factory in China![0]

[0] [http://pioneers.io/blog/hardware-startups-to-succeed-you-
hav...](http://pioneers.io/blog/hardware-startups-to-succeed-you-have-to-
sleep-in-a-factory-in-china)

Survivorship Bias

There are many success stories of hardware startups (pebble[2], fitbit[3],
nest[4]) and as far as I can tell, they all have the same qualities: they are
beautifully designed and have done very well on crowdfunding sites like
kickstarter. Are these requirements for a successful hardware startup or am I
succumbing to an observation/confirmation bias?

[2] [https://getpebble.com/](https://getpebble.com/)

[3] [http://www.fitbit.com/](http://www.fitbit.com/)

[4] [https://nest.com/](https://nest.com/)

Knowledge and Resources

There aren't that many resources to help hardware startups in terms of product
design, manufacturing and marketing. There is a wealth of information
available for free on the internet for software startups including design,
content marketing, seo and growth hacking but not much for hardware
startups[5]. Some VCs appear to be getting in to Hardware Startups (I know pg
/ YC does a few and Tony Hsieh of Zappos hasthe Nimbus Portfolio) but slowly.

[5]: [http://www.berkeleysg.com/2014/02/a-great-list-of-helpful-
re...](http://www.berkeleysg.com/2014/02/a-great-list-of-helpful-resources-
for-hardware-startups/)

The Little Guys

There are many great products out there that get some exposure but perhaps not
the amount they should (CubeSensors[6], GetNarrative[7],
TinyHardwareFirewall[8] are great examples). Ultimately, perhaps some/most
will fail. Is there any hope for the little guy if they have a good product in
terms of utility but don't make that 'break'?

[6] [http://cubesensors.com/](http://cubesensors.com/)

[7] [http://getnarrative.com/](http://getnarrative.com/)

[8] [http://tinyhardwarefirewall.com/](http://tinyhardwarefirewall.com/)

------
JacobH
The best way to go is getting preorders to fill orders. You won't have to deal
with leftover inventory, or debt. You'll also know in advance if people would
buy your product.

Crowdfunding seems to work best with hardware startups.

------
quarterwave
Whatever you do, please don't design your own chip.

------
sharemywin
Not if you have the capital.

