//

In recent years, we have seen scores of hardware startups popping up. Many have had successes but many have also failed. Although technology has made it easier and cheaper to bring hardware products to market easier, it still doesn’t mean it’s cheap and easy. The successes or even just progress that hardware startups have achieved required massive blood, sweat, and tears.

Like any type of business, there is no one hard and fast rule in building a hardware startup. However, there are components that hardware startups need to get from one step to the next.

As a co-founder of uHoo, I have gone through that entire process. We started uHoo a little over a year ago and are about to launch pre-orders in January 2016.

In a three-part infographic series, I will give an overview of the components I think are crucial in building a hardware startup and share the insights I have gained in the past year.

First up, I will talk about the two things you need to get started and keep the engine running – the vision and the team.

I hope you enjoyed the infographic and watch out for the second part of this series.

This post Building a hardware startup: the vision and team (Infographic) appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia » Startups http://ift.tt/1Y9LyRn

//

Starting up is not for the normal people who won’t do extraordinary things in order to make their dream come true. Here’s looking at you, entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur Emotional Cycle

Dear Startup Entrepreneur,

Congrats – it’s the end of 2015. A few more weeks and it’ll be Christmas, then New Year. The startup journey is an endless roller coaster ride, full of highs and lows, and yet the journey has been a 24/7 hustling experience for you. So it’s funny that we’re looking back at your startup life, like some kind of cheesy 80s movie montage.

Granted, you do have interesting jargon and sometimes have crazy Christmas wishes, but in the end… you’ve done it, you’re running a startup. You even hired a team to boot. Congratulations.

Admittedly, there were times where you were close to giving up, but instead of disappointment punching you in the face, you decided to punch it first. So here’s a celebratory list of those particular moments.

1. When no one wanted to join you

It all starts with an idea — a crazy, yet incredibly feasible idea. Or you thought it’s feasible, the rest of the world seemed to think otherwise. Perhaps it was your young-looking face, the inexperience, and your lack of understanding of proper tech jargon that turned people away, but it could’ve been other factors, right?

Whatever it was, people veered away from you and that was difficult. Because your idea could change people’s lives. Could possibly be the Next. Big. Thing. So you decided to stop caring about what the naysayers said. You decided that just like love, or any relationship, there will always be people who understand you for you.

“These are my friends. These are people who have got my back.”

You’ll tell yourself those words later when the tough got tougher, and perhaps, some of them already feel like brothers and sisters. They’ll stay with you through the late nights, the last-minute changes, the product crashes, and the launch celebrations.

And suddenly you’ll realise, your dream became their dreams too.

2. When no one wanted to invest

So we come to the next challenge: investment.

Now it’s convincing a bunch of people with a lot of money that you’re worth it. Sure you’ve got a small team behind your back, but these people have read thousands of pages of hilarious and horrible pitch decks – so you wonder where your investor deck will fit in.

You wrote the best email your brain could craft, you pitched your hardest – but then, those haunting words were said: “You’re too early.”

And maybe they’re right. After all, you’re not the first fintech, edutech, somethingtech startup to grace their presence. So, you decided to make lemonade out of the lemons you were given. It hurts to be rejected, but it takes guts to accept criticism and improve from that.

So every opportunity you got, you decided to receive mentoring from these experts, showing and updating them at every opportunity with your latest product launches and startup developments…

Because someday, you tell yourself, you’d like to prove them wrong. That while you may not be like the fabled unicorn, you think that you’re a strong, resilient, pony.

Also read: Are Indian startups headed for a bubble burst? 

3. When you ran out of money

In the end, you managed to pool in some funds and ask family and friends for support, get a bank loan whenever possible, and have some angel investors chip in some cash for a reasonable amount of equity.

And while it wasn’t enough to buy you new technology, or hire more people it allowed you to continue working on the prototype and keeping your core team afloat. But then reality throws a punch at you, and you realise there’s not going to be enough money in the bank soon. Crap.

You’ve exhausted most of your options the first time, so you gather your core team and have the “talk.” You tell them how things are, how financials look — you’re not sure if you should be optimistic, realistic, or pessimistic. Whatever. You don’t know yourself. So you admit that and watch and wait for their reactions.

You all make sacrifices. Just make the product work. Fix all the bugs. Sell, sell, sell. It’s easy to read this all now, but it was painful to be in those months of torture. Patience was low, fights happened – but despite those rocky roads, you eventually weathered it out.

You either convinced an investor, decided to take up part-time jobs to keep yourself and the company alive, whatever it is: you felt that this was your first entrepreneurial war. And to tell yourself and your loved ones, that yes, I’m still surviving, still being healthy, is something that you’re thankful for. In the end, you continue to be an entrepreneur.

4. When people start to leave

It’s close to a year since your team got together. You’ve perhaps started winning several contests, hackathons, got some screen time on the big stage either as a speaker or a pitching engagement. You’ve already shown the ecosystem your MVP and are working towards progress.

Then another thing happens. People start leaving. Perhaps it’s one of your employees, or maybe your co-founder decided to do a little side project and two or three employees followed. Or maybe you had to fire them. You try not to get too attached, and yet you can’t help but wonder how they’re doing.

“I hope they’re doing well. Wherever they are,” you tell yourself.

Probably social media reminds you that you’re still virtually connected, so you like their posts, you congratulate them. But a tiny part still aches, and it’s all right.

Because if you love them, you let them go – a good founder knows that they can’t keep their employees with them forever. Good founders look forward, to the future, and accept the challenges that lie ahead of them.

And well, if you ended it on a bad note, you still manage to be professional with them whenever you run into each other. The startup world is small, and drama can take a backseat.

Also Read: Hootsuite cuts 40% of APAC staff from Singapore office

5. When you had to pivot

“Fail fast, fail forward” – that’s what the startups say. And yet, admitting that you were wrong is difficult. Sometimes self-doubt sets in. Did you really lead innocent people to the valley of death? Or was your idea, no – your dream, worth fighting for?

“But the data shows…” Yes. You get it. Enough with the Big Data analytics. Statistically, you need to change your strategies. Your valuation is taking a hit. You’re getting complaints from your investors, shareholders, employees.. everyone.

So you get on with it, like you always have. You make a startup-wide announcement; if needed, issue a press release. And some of your critics laugh and say, “Pivoting again, I see.” But instead of giving them a snide remark you bite your tongue, nod politely, and carry on. Because every majestic and beautiful butterfly started off as a caterpillar.

And here you are, back to reality. Life wasn’t meant to be fair, and to many others, startups are meant to fail. And yet you didn’t. You’re still here, submitting us stories of your successes, your latest product releases and next ventures. You definitely know that the journey’s not yet over, and that’s okay. We’ll be here to cheer you on and hope for the best.

As Steve Jobs said,

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Congratulations for surviving the entrepreneurial roller coaster and braving the new year to ride it all over again. Cheers for being you.

Yours,
Bev Tan

Image Credit: Kyro Beshay

The post An open letter to entrepreneurs: Congrats, you made it appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/1O16xq1

//

We always strive for progress, but some things are just not meant to happen soon. Or ever

The new year is just around the corner and some of us are poring over the horoscope section of glossy magazines to get a glimpse of what will – and will not– happen in 2016.

While e27 cannot say anything about your personal life, let us channel our inner clairvoyant with a list of things that we do not think will happen in technology next year.

Do not forget to check back on this list again in December 2017. We could be wrong. (We secretly hope some of these would actually come true, though).

Also Read: Using lessons from technology innovation to build change elsewhere

1. Light-speed Internet

Countries such as South Korea are embracing the 5G network, but we are talking about light speed here. Woosh, woosh.

When Li-Fi was first announced, the Internet went ballistic with all the possibilities and opportunities.

While this is certainly promising news, we suggest that you check out the terms and conditions page before you cancel your current Wi-Fi subscription. Some things just need to wait.

2. Technology to turn YouTube comments into renewable energy

Admit it, your favourite video-sharing platform is not a very safe zone at all. While videos that exploit war victims and abused animals for likes are bad enough, racist, homophobic and sexist comments that lead to endless debate are abundant on YouTube.

So, when Twitter user Snarkin Pie (@mamasnark) tweeted that Donald Trump is what would happen when the comments section turned into a human and ran for president, we seriously wondered why no technology exists yet to process all the negativity into renewable energy?

I mean, we have done the same thing with human waste.

Also Read: Hong Kong’s new Innovation and Technology Bureau leaves some wanting more

3. Yahoo Messenger making a comeback

Vintage! So adorable. Not really.

Yahoo Messenger was shut down in 2012, but recently Yahoo announced that it is coming back with new features such as GIFs and the ability to ‘unsend’ a message.

Somewhere, some people might be excited about this news, seeing how there was a petition in 2013 demanding its return. No, it did not reach its targeted supporters.

But why stay stuck in the past when you can move on? This applies not only to your love life but also to your chat messenger of choice, especially since we have so many other options now.

I am personally glad that I need to remind most people in my social circle that the news popped up only a week ago.

In the words of the ever wise Regina George: Stop trying to make buzz happen.

4. Wearable caffeine

In this postmodern age, you can basically eat caffeine in the form of peanut butter and even brush your teeth with caffeinated toothpaste (we are not kidding) to give your morning shower an extra zing.

But all these still require consuming it, and we want something that requires even less effort. Maybe something you can wear like a watch that turns you into a morning person right away, because as far as technology goes, alarm clocks are just not working anymore. But it has to work without injections or electric shocks, of course.

So far, the closest thing we have is caffeine we can inhale, the way we inhale tobacco from e-cigarettes.

Wearables startups, your move.

Video: 5 clips that will make you think twice about using technology

5. Total acceptance of ride-sharing

Earlier this week, we were shaken by the news that the Governor of Jakarta had given his blessing for Uber Indonesia to operate. Considering how Uber is greeted by rejection everywhere it goes, we can only imagine the look on the face of its archenemy Jakarta Transportation Agency.

Then the plot twist happened.

Since this is not an episode of Game of Thrones, nobody died, but Governor Purnama ended up denying that he had ever made such remarks. The approval is not happening yet and Uber is being scolded publicly by the Governor like a student who had forgotten his homework.

We can almost hear the roaring laughter of conventional taxi drivers across the city. It is bound to last throughout 2016, we imagine.

Image Credit: gratisography.com

The post 5 things that you won’t see happening in technology in 2016 appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/1NTVWa0

//

The CEO Panel at Flipkart’s Slashn

It was a packed audience at the CEO panel discussion at Flipkart’s annual technology event Slashn, which was held in a Bangalore convention center on Friday. The event featured a star-studded panel with the CEOs of billion-dollar startups like Paytm, Flipkart, and InMobi. But the biggest star of the evening wasn’t any of those CEOs. Instead, it was Rahul Yadav, the maverick former CEO of Housing.com, who got fired from his own company in July.

Yadav, 26, got a thunderous clap when welcomed on stage by Flipkart’s product head Punit Soni as ”India’s jobless CEO.”

“What now, Rahul?” Soni asked as the audience burst into laughter. That’s when Yadav disclosed for the first time ever that he has started a new company, Intelligent Interfaces, and has received funding from Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.

“This time I have decided not to take VC money,” he said, getting applause from the audience.

Intelligent Interfaces, Yadav said, will provide tech solutions to government agencies to solve India’s problems through e-governance.

Yadav, was fired from his own company Housing.com in July, this year after a series of clashes he had with the board members. “There was a clear disconnect from the beginning,“ he said.

Housing.com was founded by 12 young engineers from IIT-Bombay in 2012. The company went on to raise about US$100 million from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Softbank and Helion Venture Partners. It still holds the record for the largest funding in the real estate classifieds space in India, and is currently being run by Jason Kothari.

What went wrong between Yadav and his investors

Yadav talked about how a venture capitalist invested in Housing who would ask him about the page- views of the mobile app. “Now how do I explain that we were a one page mobile and desktop app with a single flow?” Yadav said. “You can’t ask Gmail its page views!” the audience burst into laughter.

Rahul Yadav, former CEO of Housing.com

Talking about dealing with investment firms, Yadav said that it was all very good at the top. “I was advised that relationship between investors and entrepreneurs is like marriage….and all that,” he said. “But when it came down to guys at third or fourth levels, they would start asking for revenues.”

“In this [smartphone] era, some of them were still using Blackberry,” he said, amusing the audience again.

Yadav also addressed some of his own alleged mistakes. On his marketing campaign called ‘LookUp’ which burnt almost 25% of the capital raised by Housing, Yadav said that the company was looking for a big bang approach.

Through LookUp campaign, Housing splashed prime roads in India’s top metro cities with its massive billboards. Similar billboards were lined up along across India’s arterial roads, making it hard for anyone to miss them. The company however burnt a lot of cash, and after turbulence at top, laid off over 400 of its 2800 staffers in the months following Yadav’s ouster.

What would you do?

The rest of the CEO panel was also asked what they’d have done differently from Yadav if placed at Housing.com’s helm.

“Clearly Rahul had too many investors to manage,” said Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. “I always believe that if you have more than three people to talk to for key decisions, it’s always a challenge.” Sharma gave kudos to Sachin Bansal for having managed a number of investors. “A company not run by its founder is not scalable,” he said.

“If I was [Housing] CEO I would hire less people, If the investor, I would bring [Yadav] back,” Sharma said.

InMobi CEO Naveen Tewari agreed. “If I was running Housing, I would bring him back and tell him that it’s your baby, it’s your job to run it. The crux is that you can’t replace the passion which a founder brings to create something disruptive.”

Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal offered slightly different advice: “I would focus more on customers than shareholders.”

Don’t get married

The CEOs also talked about the kind of employees that work best when living the startup lifestyle. Yadav is himself unmarried, and he said it may be best for startups to hire singles. “The difference between single techies and married ones is that married people want to go home as early as they can,” he said. “And single techies say that Sunday ko bhi kaam mil jaaye to accha hai (Life can be better if I can get to work even on Sundays!”

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma jokingly said that ‘married’ people don’t change the world.

This post Ousted Housing founder Rahul Yadav talks with Indian CEOs about what went wrong, as well as his new venture appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia » Startups http://ift.tt/1NL1bx8