Do not use software thinking to be "creators"! Four Tips for hardware entrepreneurs

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Tiger sniffing has been focusing on the emerging new hardware entrepreneurship movement. For example this "hacker should enter the beautiful new hardware", but also to China's survival status quo report more specific this "Taobao + Huaqiang North + Pearl River Delta +kickstarter, create a guest rise"

Trend and trends are there, but some of the key, entrepreneurs can do more to watch and calculate.

Chris Dixon, a famous American investor, recently wrote an article on his blog about four points worth mentioning for hardware entrepreneurs, especially those from the software sector.

The following content by Tencent Technology translation:

If you want to start a hardware company, the following points you need to keep in mind:

1. Production: Production is a complex process, entrepreneurs have to live near the factory

In the process of turning from prototype production to mass production, many hardware companies have suffered failures. Entrepreneurs tend to live in China for months or even years to get a clear picture of production. In contrast, hardware entrepreneurs tend to have more work experience than software entrepreneurs because production itself is a very complex process.

2. Defensive: What are you fighting against low-cost competition?

Hardware companies often have economies of scale, but hardware products do not have a network effect. This means that as soon as you find the market, you will face competition from low-cost producers. The best startups use software and services with network or platform effects to make up for hardware deficiencies. Use hardware to generate revenue, use software and services to create profits.

3. Planning: Small steps run at any time upgrade software development model is not suitable for hardware start-up

Development-Test-duplicate patterns are popular in software companies, but not for hardware companies. Reasonable planning is necessary because some mistakes cannot be repaired. For example, your design may not meet the requirements of the environment, but you will not see this problem until a few years later when you are ready to market the product.

4. Business-to-business: Better to choose the latter

Consumer hardware is often more of a concern, but business-to-business hardware has many advantages. For the first time, you will have fewer competitors because there are few entrepreneurs who have hardware and are familiar with the business world. Second, you will have fewer international competitors because Business-to-business hardware typically requires localized sales and service teams, making it difficult for foreign competitors to replicate your model. Finally, the production process can be done locally because higher prices mean you don't have to worry too much about labor costs.