NY’s Hardware Revolution

This guest post is authored by Haytham Elhaway, R/GA Accelerator for Connected Devices mentor and founder of the NY hardware startup meetup.

You may not think of NY as a hub for hardware or connected devices, but behind the noise generated by our finance, media, fashion, and software industries there’s a nascent but thriving hardware scene that includes hackers, designers, and millions of dollars of investable assets. A new crop of entrepreneurs armed with the instruments of rapid prototyping such as 3D printers, low cost open source hardware like Arduino, crowdfunding platforms, and global accessible manufacturing capabilities are disrupting industries previously dominated by large corporations. And the results are pretty impressive.  There are startups like Makerbot and Solidoodle trying to put a 3D printer in every home, Quirky which releases three crowd based consumer products a week, and Adafruit which is becoming the ecommerce leader for electronics.

The  R/GA Accelerator for Connected Devices is intended to help nurture this revolution.  It was announced last month as a partnership between R/GA and Techstars (disclosure: I’m a mentor to the program). The fact that NY was chosen as the venue speaks to the many strengths the city offers for connected device startups. Here are a few:

• Design expertise: Blame (or praise) Apple.  Gone are the days when devices just had to be functional, now that have to be beautiful too.  And you won’t get a second chance to get this right. NY is brimming with designers and hackers who understand both the hardware and the software side of product development.
• Investors: NY has a healthy community of startup investors, and hardware is back on the radar of your friendly venture capitalist. A year ago I tried to compile a list of VCs interested in hardware, and believe me, that list could have fit on a small napkin. Now the story is different, and there are lots of investors looking to put money to work in the space. That doesn’t mean they are all experts in the field, nor that they are completely comfortable with the uncertainties of having a product manufactured, but they seem to be willing to learn. Needless to say, Makerbot’s $400M+ acquisition did wonders to prove that hardware startups can be profitable investments.
• Talent and Community: I started the NY hardware startup meetup because I was inspired by the need to bring together the specialized skill sets needed to form a successful hardware startup.  The meetup now boasts almost 1000 members and has around 150 members at each event. Maker spaces and incubators such as Alpha1Labs, the Zahn Center and NYC Resistor also provide playgrounds for these folks to get together. And of course the R/GA Accelerator will do the same.
• Media: all of the mainstream publications, news sites, and blogs are teeming with videos of cool new gadgets or the latest product that is going viral on your local crowdfunding platform (most of which are headquartered in NY btw). Getting your product covered on Engadget, Gizmodo, NY Times, The Verge, CNET, or Mashable  (all located in NY) can be one of the most important marketing exercises you’ll do at a startup.
• Consumer base: if customer development is on your list of to-do items – and it should be – then few places like NY offer the variety and extent of users for any given niche market in the world. No matter how esoteric the niche your product caters to, you’ll find a match for it in NY.

Moving from prototype to product is a tough challenge, one of the toughest hardware startups face. Don’t do it alone. Flock to where people with experience congregate. Find yourself a mentor, someone who has done it before and who can give you valuable advice about the mistakes to avoid.  The R/GA and Techstars accelerator program can certainly help, so consider applying.  Or if you’d like to chat in person, I’ll be at the Maker Media’s Hardware Innovation Workshop on September 18^th in Queens or the Design for Manufacturing Summit on September 26^th  in Brooklyn and I’d love to learn more about your startup.

Realizing that we can tackle important problems with the innovative drive and audacity of a small team is incredibly empowering, and does wonders for the imagination. Folks delving into hardware will surprise the world with what they can conjure up from their garages – the new maker is King!