Ask HN: YCombinator for Electronics based Start-ups?

8 points by demirhan 14 years ago | 6 comments

As an EE, I was wondering why there is not a wide world for electronics start-ups like there is for software/internet start-ups.

Suppose I want to develop a product called "ipod" and want to start a company named "apple". Where should one start ?

The path is easy for an internet startup (you develop product, find investors, try to make traction..).

There is not a ycombinator for electronics startups. (I am not talking about a health tracker gadget which you can track your heart beats via your iphone, I am talking about startups that really do hardcore electronics like chip designs...)

I also couldn't find many resources for electronicsware startups. Just follow eetimes and spectrum (ieee) websites.

I really want to discuss the reasons here.

steventruong 14 years ago |

The following is a guess, I can't speak for sure the true reasoning if there is one.

I think it's not that incubators and investors aren't willing to invest in hardware development companies but its much easier to:

A] Understand the software business as most investors/incubators probably have strong knowledge on software development than they do hardware development.

B] Prototyping, iterating, and testing software/web/mobile base ideas these days are much more low risk, quick development time, and relatively easy to measure results (rather quicker to test).

C] It's a very expensive risk to back a first time entrepreneur who is unable to prototype out some initial version of their hardware device themselves. Even most kickstarter projects (at least the successful ones I've seen) have managed to go out of their way to model a working prototype on their own.

D] This is probably the most likely answer... majority of the companies applying are very software/web/mobile centric. It's not that YC or other incubators are biased just like how they wish more women would start companies, but the market are mostly people focusing on ideas in the software/web/mobile space.

With that said, I realize it takes a lot more than 1-2 guys to prototype out an iPod, generally speaking. Afterall, Apple probably had a decent size team of experts working on the iPod for 1-2 years before the first product was introduced.

To be fair, there are some hardware base companies that did raise funding without a product but the ones I know of are usually backed by proven entrepreneurs (not saying that yet-to-be-proven entrepreneurs can't). Ooma is an example that comes to mind.

There are hackerspaces that do hardware development but I guess there just isn't as many hardware guys as there are software guys. Not to mention the barrier of entry is probably a lot harder (not just in time and cost but also in picking up hardware knowledge vs learning to program). From talking to my friend who graduated as an EE major, most hardware projects are very specialize and require multiple people to work on to produce where as software can be done with 1 guy building the prototype in most cases.

curt 14 years ago |

Take a look a my manufacturing guide, if you have more questions about a specific idea I'd be happy to vet it for you. If it's viable I'll tell you how to progress.

If you're smart you can develop a prototype for far less than you would think.When I was actively taking products from concept through production I could do it for under $10,000.

But if you're talking chip set design that's in a whole new category. It really makes no sense to get that in detail now a days since it's really hard to achieve scale and bring the costs down. Off the shelf components are much cheaper, you would be amazing at how cheaply you can buy parts with a little creativity and negotiation skills. If you want to do chip set design, you need to first find a company that needs the chip, design it, and then establish a relationship with a fab and have a minimum order in hand. It's not that hard once you learn how to handle and manage the channel.

It's a very broad area, can't really help you without more details on the specific area you are thinking about.

As an aside, I've moved from hardware to web/mobile software (taught myself iOS, php, and rails) because I got tired of dealing with all the new regulations and hurdles. So be warned before starting a project.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1840896

dkersten 14 years ago | |

Thanks!! I missed your post the last time. This will be extremely useful as I have just started prototyping an electronics product I hope to get released soon and your I think links will nicely fit my needs.

Can you comment on the regulations you're talking about as I'd like to prepare for future hurdles as best as I can. I'm guessing you mean compliance with FCC regulations and such?

For the OP: I have spent about €400 on parts for building two prototype units. Most of the parts were ordered on Mouser and with a few random bits and pieces on ebay. Of course, I'm not building processors or anything like that, but rather consumer (EDIT: well, not really consumer, more like specialized electronics.. I don't expect to ever sell these in an average electronics store) electronic devices (can't release details just yet, as I am in talks with potential investors). Curts links may prove extremely useful here.

curt 14 years ago | | |

Make sure while you are prototyping to keep production in mind. If you design for production from the start things get a lot easier as you progress through development to production. That was one of the reasons I can go from concept to production in a week, I would always design for mass production from day one.

Tip: also keep your design as flexible (unconstrained) as possible.

I was doing products targeted towards kids, when Mattel had the lead paint problem the government issued new regulations written by the lobbyists for Mattel. Instead of increasing safety in any meaningful way they just limited any competition by small companies by increased compliance and testing costs drastically. Congress is contemplating a number of other laws that will make it even more of a pain in the ass.

schraeds 14 years ago |

Kickstarter.com