1.
THE WORLD IS
OURS TO MAKE
FROM IDEA TO MARKET.
HOW TO BUILD A HARDWARE STARTUP
Agnieszka Nazaruk
@agaonfire

2.
What do these have in common?

3.
Just a few years back, they would have
taken a corporate empire to design, build
and market these products + a looooot of
cash...
Thankfully you don’t need that in 2015...

4.
The difference between a project and a
product is the difference between making
one and making many

5.
6
The 3rd Industrial Revolution IS UPON US!
01 RAPID PROTOTYPING AND SMALL BATCH
MANUFACTURING
03 GROWING HARDWARE ECOSYSTEM
02 CROWDFUNDING AND MORE VC FUNDING
04 ONLINE COMMUNITY
05 AFFORDABLE SUPPLY CHAIN

6.
„Hardware is the
new software”
Erick Schonfeld

7.
01RAPID PROTOTYPING AND SMALL BATCH
MANUFACTURING IS EASIER THAN EVER

8.
02 RISE OF CROWDFUNDING AND
INCREASED HARDWRE FUNDING
$529 million
pledged towards successfully
funded projects on Kickstarter
in 2014.

9.
03 HARDWARE ECOSYSTEM IS
GROWING

10.
04 SUPPLY CHAIN IS BETTER, CHEAPER,
FASTER AND EASILY SCALABLE

11.
05 ONLINE
COMMUNITY

12.
Welcome to The NEW, Programmable
World of HARDWARE!

13.
www.companyname.com
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14
YOUR HARDWARE ROADMAP
FUND SHIPPROTOTYPEIDEA
MVP DFMMFP
BUILD
$

14.
HOW HARD CAN IT BE?

15.
www.companyname.com
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17
HARDWARE ROAD MAP
FUND SHIPPROTOTYPEIDEA BUILD
$
SCALE
ITERATEITERATE ITERATE
BUILD COMMUNITY (Email, Social Media etc)
BRAND
POSITIONING
USP
PITCHING
PR
RELATIOSNHIP WIH
BLOGGERS,
JOURNALISTS AND
INFLUENCRES
LAUNCH!
VALIDATE
FIGURE OUT
HOW TO
KEEP ON
SEELING!
DISTRIBUTION
FULLFILMENT
FUNDRAISING

16.
NEW RULES OF THE
GAME

17.
20
www.companyname.com
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HARDWARE IS NOT SOFTWARE
Skills Development Cycle Cash

18.
21
www.companyname.com
© 2015 Planner PowerPoint Template. All Rights Reserved.
Start with
IdeaLorem ipsum dolor sit
amet, consectetur
Prototyping
Industrial Design
Firmware
Gerber
CAS
Marketing
PR
Branding
Video
Testing
Sourcing
Negotiation
Assembly
Tooling
Quality
Management
Fundraising
Fulfilment
Distribution

19.
22
www.companyname.com
© 2015 Planner PowerPoint Template. All Rights Reserved.
VS

20.
23
www.companyname.com
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Hardware is a
CASHFLOW BUSINESS
It takes money to get to the market and
even more money to scale your
company. This means that your funding
strategy is second priority only to
creating an amazing product.
Marc Barros, founder of contour

21.
24
www.companyname.com
© 2015 Planner PowerPoint Template. All Rights Reserved.
+
$10M
+
-$25k
Friends & Family
Grants
Seed
Series A
Bridge
of
Death
CrowdfundingCROWDFUNDING
$100k-
$1mln
Accelerator
$25-
$500k%
$$$
time
Pre-orders
Debt

22.
IDEA
HARDWARE ROAD TO SUCCESS
$

23.
A Winning Hardware Idea
CHECKLIST

24.
BUILD THE RIGHT THING
The question is not any more
whether we can build it but whether
what we are building is worth while
Cyril Ebersweiler, HAX

25.
Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/haxlr8r

26.
HW+ SW+ Community

27.
We make growing really, really simpleWe’re focused on what’s important
YOUR CROP
HARDWARESOFTWARE
COMMUNITY
THE ARC

28.
Build an Experience
not a Product!

29.
PROTOTYPE
HARDWARE ROAD TO SUCCESS
$

30.
PROTOTYPE
MVP MFP DFM
Minimum Valuable
Product
Minimum Functional
Prototype
Designed For
Manufacturing,
assemble, test and cost

31.
MINIMUM
• Build it at home – use Alibaba, maker
spaces, laser cutters
• Stock up on duck tape
• Use ready made solutions
• Iterate with customers as much as
possible – both look alike and work
alike prototypes

32.
YOU DONT GET A
SECOND CHANCE
Iterate like your life depends on it

33.
FUNCTIONAL
FULLY INTEGRATED
WORK ALIKE and
LOOK ALIKE
PROTOTYPE WITH
DESIGN INTENDED
TO BE
PRODUCTION
READY

34.
MANUFACTURING
READY FOR
Welcome to
manufacturing
madness

35.
„NO HARDWARE SURVIVES
CONTACT WITH THE FACTORY”
CYRIL EBERSWEILER, HAX

36.
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/haxlr8r

37.
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/haxlr8r

38.
SHENZHEN, CHINA
“All Hardware Lead To Shenzhen”
Welcome To Silicon Valley
For Hardware:

39.
PROTOTYPE
FASTER
&BETTER

40.
ALL THE
COMPONENTS
YOU MIGHT
EVER NEED
10 Minutes Away from
The Office

41.
INTEGRATED
SUPPLY
CHAIN
“China has the MOST
COMPLETE integrated supply
chain which will scale you all the
way to $1billion compay”

42.
DEVELOP
RELATIONSHIPS
WITH
FACTORIES

43.
CENTURIES OF
EXPERIENCE
“Factory Engineers can look
at a product and tell you if
what you have can be made
and how to do it”
– Bunnie Huang, Hardware Hacker

44.
FUND
HARDWARE ROAD TO SUCCESS
$
$

45.
It’s NOT ONLY ABOUT MONEY
VALIDATION SOCIAL PROOFCOMMUNITY BUILDING

46.
Lessons Learned
FACTOR IN COSTS AND
DELAYS
CHECK YOUR MARGINS, FUNDED
DOES NOT MEAN PROFITS
PREPARATION IS THEY KEY
MASTER THE ART OF LAUNCH, PR and
MOMENTUM BUILDING
YOU HAVE 4 hours!

47.
BEFORE
LAUNCH
CROWDFUNDING
CHECKLIST

48.
#1.
BUILD A STRONG
COMMUNITY
150k Beta Testers
prior To campaign
Skully. $2.4 mln

49.
#2.
CONNECT AND LINE UP
JOURNALISTS, BLOGGERS
AND INDUSTRY INFLUENCERS
100 Bloggers on
board
24k Journalists
Contacted
10 Media
Appearances
5k email List
1 Private Group
For Supporters
1 Full time Assistant

50.
#3.
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
Be 100% sure you can build it and KNOW
HOW MUCH IT WILL COST!
Factor in ALL the costs + DELAYS
COGS /BOM
Manufacturing
Shipping + Distribution

51.
FUNDING FORMULA
# EMAIL
SIGNUPS
AVERAGE
PLEDGE
CONVERSI
ON RATE
X X
=
FUNDING GOAL

52.
FUNDING FORMULA
# EMAIL SIGNUPS AVERAGE PLEDGE CONVERSION RATEX X
=
100k
FUNDING GOAL
X $200 10

53.
ANATOMY OF A 100k
KICKSTARTER PROJECT
$100k
- $5k (Kickstarter Fee - 5%)
- $5k (Amazon Payment Fee 5%)
- $30k COGS (1/3 of sales)
- $20k Tooling
= $40k for a team for a year
+ Other costs
Certifications, Returns, Fulfillment, Marketing

54.
Ultimate Guide to Launching a Kickstarter:
How to have hundreds of blogs lined up on the
day of launch
Access our launch emails, email templates
for journalists, bloggers and more
How to Build and use your community to
optimize for virality and shareability
Step by step blueprint for crushing your goal:
http://sheisonfire.com/kickstarter

55.
Source: Hax.coSource: http://www.slideshare.net/haxlr8r

56.
BUILD
HARDWARE ROAD TO SUCCESS
$

57.
But.. Expect the
Unexpected to Happen

58.
SHIP
HARDWARE ROAD TO SUCCESS
$

59.
Distribution
Certifications
Retail
Orders fulfillment and inventory management,
Shipping,
Returns and support
ULTIMATELY, ITS NOT ABOUT
LOGISTICS,
ITS ABOUT
YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY

60.
SCALE
HARDWARE ROAD TO SUCCESS
$

61.
SHIP FAST, SCALE SLOW

62.
73
www.companyname.com
© 2015 Planner PowerPoint Template. All Rights Reserved.
$10M
+
-$25k
Friends & Family
Grants
Seed
Series A
Bridge
of
Death
CrowdfundingCROWDFUNDING
Accelerator
$$$
time
Pre-orders
Debt
THE RETAIL CHASM

63.
SCALING REQUIRES HEALTHY CASH FLOW , OTHERWISE
YOU MIGHT END UP SCALING A MONEY-LOOSING
BUSINESS
Benjamin Joffee, Hax.co

64.
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/haxlr8r

65.
76
BIGGEST HARDWARE LESSONS
01 BUILD THE RIGHT THING
04
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
02 CASH IS THE KEY
BE IN FOR A LONG RUN05
GET HELP
03

66.
DO IT!
THANK YOU
agnieszkanazaruk@gmail.com
@agaonfire
www.sheisonfire.com/kickstarter