Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

I think it depends a lot on the product. If you ask @liseman or Kevin Hale they'll say launch NOW! That was the advice we got. :) In all seriousness I think you obviously need a working prototype, and clear validation that people like your product! Most importantly you should know what it's going to entail to deliver on your promise.

Lots of pros and lots of cons here...

Crowdfunding: Pros --> Big platform that you can piggyback on; somewhat well-understood form of funding; can leverage to build a brand Cons --> Less control over your brand and your message (e.g. hard to A/B test); commission

Self-funding Pros --> Complete control over your website, message, brand, etc. Can offer whatever incentives you want. Cons --> Harder to get the word out, generate press, access early adopters

VC funding --> This is important should you want to build a high-growth business and avoid the pitfalls of a lot of Kickstarter campaign. We've supplemented our Kickstarter campaign with VC funding and used crowdfunding as a means to get early adopters, build our brand and fund our first production run.

Hi jmcmahob443,

My name is Khalil, CEO of Hykso (www.hykso.

Are you talking about product crowdfunding like Kickstarter and Indiegogo or equity crowdfunding?

We made our own storyboard, Carlos, my co-founder is very creative and a good storyteller so he crafted the arch of the video. We studied Nancy Duarte's stuff. We worked very closely with our videographer who also put his heart and soul into it. In short, storyboard/script in-house, filming/editing outsourced.

Don't copy people's products. Other than that, companies spend too much time too early worrying about (and spending money on) IP. Prove demand for your product by launching; you've got a year post-disclosure to file a provisional patent.

Yes. I've had about 10 years working in hardware. Some of those years were at other startup companies.

Experience helps, but as in most endeavors, is not required. You gain experience by doing.

The most important thing you can do is get started and figure it out as you go.

We built up a big email list. Starting with the team we had ~12k emails collectively (team of 6 people). Everyone we had ever emailed. And tiered the emails/frequency. We also did a lot of pilots beforehand and gathered interest from people who had ACTUALLY interacted with the product. And in our case had showered with Nebia!

Happy to help. My background is actually in food and business, so I didn't have any hardware background. Your best bet is to immerse yourself in the hardware world - meet as many people as you can; join maker groups; go to local universities to meet engineers; and read as much as you can online. Ultimately, try to find a co-founder that has the skill set and knowledge to complement you.

Good question. I'll take this one since we are trying to do all of our manufacturing in the US. I do not think companies have an ethical obligation to manufacture in the US at all. Make the product where you can make it BEST. And you have to self-define what BEST is. In our case we care a lot about high quality and cosmetics. So it made sense to focus on the US, where you can have more oversight and be on the line.

As for marketing value of "American Made" I think it can be very helpful, but you have to make that a part of your brand. Otherwise it won't make much of a difference.

Open source it is a substantial investment of time and energy in my opinion.

Some products will just not have a big developer community behind it also.

But again, online community is one of the biggest defense as a company and I definitely software should be a focus in most IoT companies.

The honest answer is that it depends. There is not a clear cut answer for this because it highly depends on the market, business model, value proposition, etc.

Development and production of hardware is fundamentally different than software. Thinking and making are separated much further in time and resources, and copy-paste simply doesn't work the same way.

The statement of open sourcing hardware and focusing solely on the software implies someone out there is magically going to make high-quality hardware for your software to run on. That's a thorny assumption.

Most IoT is more than just PCB's. There are also enclosures, actuators, and physical UI/UX. Relying on someone else to provide that much of the user-experience is a brittle proposition for a business.

Usually, abstractions like this serve as excuses to not launch. Launching doesn't fix everything, but it does increase your speed of learning dramatically.

Somebody once told me: you'll deal with patent infringement once you're successful, which is already a big milestone...so to try to get there first.

Somebody once told me: you'll deal with patent infringement once you're successful, which is already a big milestone...so to try to get there first.

Somebody once told me: you'll deal with patent infringement once you're successful, which is already a big milestone...so to try to get there first.

Not sure there is a black and white answer to this, but that piece of the puzzle takes time. When you're getting close to a prototype that you think is manufacturable (and that is a big assumption that you should vet as much as possible), start reaching out to partners and CMs.

See http://www.ycombinator.com/hardware for current campaigns + products actively shipping. Nebia et al aren't on the list: companies get dropped post-crowdfunding and re-added when shipping:)

Cool. Shoot us a note - hello@tovala.com.

Check out the common part libraries released by Octopart / Seeed , and consider getting a resistor / cap library from your neighbors at Adafruit. Hackerspaces can be good resources for spare parts (and finding potential partners).

You're in luck: prototyping is mostly software:)

A hardware cofounder :D

You should def go to NYC Resistor in Brooklyn. They have open hack nights every Thursday evenings. http://www.nycresistor.com/

Try doing some connected device, esp8266 that turns on an led when you POST to a server (minimal soldering maximal programming). And develop from there. Also there are a lot of tuts for this things. Later try to integrate some sensors. A lot of hardware today is software inside a plastic box.

Build a really great product! We envision improved versions of the shower, and after that other products that use water in the home. The product development cycle is realistically 18-24 before you get something to market, so it is a long timeline.

Most important is to deliver our product (both hardware and food). However, we'll also be able to run some testing on our website to see what content/messaging/copy converts best into additional pre-sales.

We (Tovala) will also be hiring for some software, operations and food roles :)

Product development and improve our sales cycle/customer acquisition cost!

The best option is to get warm introductions and develop relationships early. Getting people to hear about your product, give you feedback and feel invested before you launch is critical.

However, that's not always possible. If you're scrambling and haven't had time to do that, you can always reach out blind or use services/agencies to help. There's a YC company called PRX that helps with this and does it at a very affordable price. Another cool site that was on Product Hunt recently ranked a bunch of media outlets - http://presshour.co/?ref=producthunt. Lastly, take a look at your competition and who covered them - those are probably your best targets.

I recommend doing as much as you can to automate and scale your outreach to the press. I recommend Pitchbox.com for this - it's a sort of CRM for press outreach. It takes some time to set up, but it's worth it. Great support, too.

I recommend doing as much as you can to automate and scale your outreach to the press. I recommend Pitchbox.com for this - it's a sort of CRM for press outreach. It takes some time to set up, but it's worth it. Great support, too.

I'd start with thinking about things you deal with as a consumer and have problems with. After that, start asking other people about their experience with the same problem/issue.

What about a problem that you wish you could solve for yourself?

I would say do lots of market research. See what kind of products are in top demand in your niche and if you have time commitment to deliver.

Great question. Fortunately showerheads are often something that people need more than one of for different bathrooms in their home. So if they like one, hopefully they will buy more.

Further to that we have plans for making the Nebia experience more customizable. And so in future versions there will be features that allow you to make the experience even more personal, and these will allow for repeated brand interactions with the customer.

Depends on what you are trying to prove. If there are questions as to whether people will pay for your product, then yes, proving that that is the case with a functional prototype will go a long ways. If, however, you are trying to get feedback, build up brand evangelists and learn, then selling your prototype is not hugely important.

Hell yeah! You'll learn tons especially what you should build and refine about the product!

Great question. With Tovala, our model is a little different. We anticipate most of our customers will order our meal delivery service - and be delighted by the experience and taste. That'll give us a touch point to our customers throughout the life of their smart oven.

We approach prototyping as a process. http://www.themacro.com/articles/2016/01/minimum-viable-prod...

Early prototypes use whatever we have laying around to get the most fundamental feature of the idea vetted.

Right before production, you will build a prototype that we call a First Article. This is a Golden Sample, and every production unit should be just like the First Article.

Prototypes in between those two are built to answer specific questions and we spend no extra resources on sourcing special components that do not directly impact accurate answering of the question.

For things like displays, wireless modules, etc. we work with the manufacturer's Field Application Engineers. They can get you insight on what will be available for production, documentation for the components, etc. They can also probably get you samples for your development work.

McMaster-Carr, DigiKey, Mouser, AdaFruit, SparkFun, etc. are your friends for making those early prototypes.

Crowdfunding is essentially pre-ordering on a social platform. If your market is there and interested, crowdfunding can be a viable market validation step for any business model.

Honestly, you don't. You just need to focus on building something that people want and making sure that the experience you deliver is better than any other.

Further, if you start to think about your hardware as a means of delivering something else (for us, that's food), then getting copycatted on the hardware won't be as hard to deal with from a business standpoint.

This is a common concern amongst all founders I'm pretty sure. It certainly was for us at first. But it shouldn't be. Most people have their own problems to worry about. Obviously it depends on what stage you're at. If you are "pre-market", that is, if you haven't shipped yet. I wouldn't worry to much about it. Just focus on making it better than anyone else and understanding what your customers or potential customers actually want, from an end-to-end experience. It's unlikely that someone with better tools and more machines will ALSO be scrappier and learn to understand their user better and execute on all of those fronts better (I'm thinking customer service and e-commerce for example).

I would focus less on being replicated, and focus more on handling your own issues. Another way to think about it is if you get to the point where you product is good enough and with enough attention that it gets copied in a serious way, you've clearly achieved something.

Cover your bases with IP and be smart, but just focus on getting the best product to market fastest and delivering a great customer experience.

I believe we're in the earliest days: there's no dominant platform, and no 'killer use' for home automation / iot. I'd focus on your product, maybe adding support for platforms later.

Our company is going with HomeKit since the high-bar of entry means you will compete with less companies. We recently received our MFi Manufacturing license which means we can procure Apple's authentication co-processor and submit product plans directly to Apple.

If anyone has a startup working on a HomeKit product please e-mail me... louprado at gmail.com. Perhaps we can be of service to each other. I am in downtown Oakland.

Build an email list! And try to pump up the subscriptions with different sales channels - you'll be able to know which ones work best for your business before launching your campaign

Hire a PR agency halfway through your campaign when you're so overwhelmed with backers and attention that you can't handle it yourself. Until then, DIY:)