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The Hardware Startup
Hardware startups leveled off in 2014 after sharp increases the previous two years, but there's no sign that IoT products have lost their luster, given their momentum in key economic sectors from health and energy to agriculture and financial services. In our biannual report, Hardware by the Numbers: Summer 2015, you'll learn the most pertinent data behind the latest IoT trends. Renee DiResta, Vice President of Business Development at Haven, not only reveals how many prominent accelerators around the world focus solely on hardware-and why startups participating in these programs are roughly split between B2B and B2C business models-but also examines the effect this emerging ecosystem is having in several industries
344 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 9, 2017
Great book on the financial, legal and strategic aspects of building a hardware startup. The sections about crowdfunding (increasingly the funding method of choice for small hardware startups), patents and certification were particularly useful; and contained information that is not easy to find elsewhere.
Note that the book does not cover anything on the specifics of design and manufacturing of the actual hardware products - for that, you will need to couple this with another book like "Prototype to Product" by A. Cohen. Highly recommended for anyone thinking about starting a hardware company.
Note that the book does not cover anything on the specifics of design and manufacturing of the actual hardware products - for that, you will need to couple this with another book like "Prototype to Product" by A. Cohen. Highly recommended for anyone thinking about starting a hardware company.
May 7, 2020
As an overall view of the process of starting a hardware company, this book synthesizes the process and requirements well (at a 10,000 foot level at least).
It's outdated, however, which any technology business book may suffer from without revisions by the authors. I think in this particular case, the authors could have updated the book and it would be easily a 5-star treatise on what it truly takes to startup a hardware company, get to profitability, etc.
It's important to note that while the authors lay out one path of creating and building a hardware company, it's not the only path. The costs of PCB manufacture, for example, are going down at a rate to where needing to devote a chapter on prototyping vs. mass-production appears outdated. While there are certain benefits to mass-production at a grand scale, the readership of this book isn't going to include the CEO of Intel. Rather, just honing in on a successful strategy without exploring all of the economics gained by mass production would have sufficed.
That said, again, it's a great overall treatment of this topic. The advance of Arduino, Raspberry Pi and others have created a space where software and hardware must work hand-in-hand, and the authors did a great job explaining the nuances of hardware to anyone with a software background.
Other than being a little dusty (as it's not updated frequently), it's still a great read and an important one if the reader is looking to start a hardware company.
It's outdated, however, which any technology business book may suffer from without revisions by the authors. I think in this particular case, the authors could have updated the book and it would be easily a 5-star treatise on what it truly takes to startup a hardware company, get to profitability, etc.
It's important to note that while the authors lay out one path of creating and building a hardware company, it's not the only path. The costs of PCB manufacture, for example, are going down at a rate to where needing to devote a chapter on prototyping vs. mass-production appears outdated. While there are certain benefits to mass-production at a grand scale, the readership of this book isn't going to include the CEO of Intel. Rather, just honing in on a successful strategy without exploring all of the economics gained by mass production would have sufficed.
That said, again, it's a great overall treatment of this topic. The advance of Arduino, Raspberry Pi and others have created a space where software and hardware must work hand-in-hand, and the authors did a great job explaining the nuances of hardware to anyone with a software background.
Other than being a little dusty (as it's not updated frequently), it's still a great read and an important one if the reader is looking to start a hardware company.
April 8, 2020
This book gave me an understanding of hardware startup's journey. Prior knowledge to hardware development is not required to read this book. The writer have mentioned in many sections about non technical founder who just came up with idea. The hiring part in the book is like it's for nontechnical founder. I recommend this book to those who want to do hardware startup, are first time founder, and are from non technical background. If you can still think about doing hardware startup after reading this book, then certainly you should move ahead.
August 21, 2018
O libro ten información bastante interesante, pero neste momento eu estou centrado na parte técnica polo que gran parte do libro faise difícil de ler ao non ter aplicación práctica. Inda así eu recomendaríallo como lectura rápida a calquera que esté pensando en comezar un proxecto hardware B2C.
O que máis me gustou foron os casos prácticos onde os fundadores de algunhas startups falaban dos seus aprendizaxes. A esas seccións, que por certo hai bastantes, doulles 5 estrelas.
O que máis me gustou foron os casos prácticos onde os fundadores de algunhas startups falaban dos seus aprendizaxes. A esas seccións, que por certo hai bastantes, doulles 5 estrelas.
November 15, 2020
If you need a lot of useful links and a detailed list of "things not to forget" when starting hardware startup this book is for you.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews