My Journey In Building A Hardware Product (part two, the last one, super rough, not fast enough)
First part here: My Journey In Building A Hardware Product.
Continues with…
… but the real change happened once we moved to London in attending of SBC IoT / Connected Devices accelerator. It was October 2017.
We started to face the pressure you often feel on the chest when speeding too much. We were in a hurry to go-to-market and to raise money at the same time. And moving from Airbnb to Airbnb at every fucking six-seven days. With suitcases and more… And be smart. And moving every fucking week. And build the product. And stay hungry, present and true.
And write about it 😜
The most important accelerator lesson I’ve learnt is called “you are always on your own”. That’s why was so important for us to be ourselves.
- don’t please them;
- keep the focus — they will not keep it for you;
- let them put your ass to work (but don’t kiss their asses back).
Sorry, get back to the point: doing hardware…
Doing hardware is not hard, is fuckin’ hard… Is harder than anything, is even harder than to be smart, awake and move from Airbnb to Airbnb at every six days… And be smart, awake and present.
But, in the same time, is soooo nice and rewarding…
… and is so much glamour around hardware. This is an industry for the brave ones.
Ahem!
Is like a Vuitton bag. If anybody can afford a Vuitton bag, nobody gives a shit on a Vuitton bag anymore. Because, you know, is just a fuckin’ damn bag….
What’s the point here?… Hardware is beautiful not because is hardware, but because is hard. Look, this cool guy is doing hardware… Or is wearing a Vuitton bag.
Whatever.
The super-uber-hard-part for us was raising money. Period.
[briefly about the chicken and egg situation — no product, no traction, no good deal]
No, no, I will not explain it again. Just give me a call or smth if you need an advice.
[I’m super sick of all the experts out there that never-ever tried or have done at least of 1% of what they are claiming of. Do you know the meetup kind of people that are always in a panel?… Yep, they are.]
But, the hardest part is to break the circle and sell a complex product to a global market with…
… with no money.
[briefly explaining what happened and how to we plan to turn this into our favor]
This is the change, The Pivot
OK, what’s the point?
Be ready to fail.
Be ready to pivot.
Be ready to change.
Not ready, incorporate the failure/pivot/change deep inside you. Build a culture around it. Make it your inner self.
No kidding.
As a founder you HAVE to build a culture around failure.
I’m sorry to say, but statistically, your will fail. The trick is to fail fast. As fast as you can… Because that way, you will hurt less your team, your friends, your family, and all the people that trusted you.
But…
… Don’t fail like a moron.
You know, in the ski industry is a saying
ride your skis or your skis will ride you…
Same here: ride your journey, control the fail. Failure is part of any experiment. There is no innovation without fail.
Few years ago, while skiing, I had an injury. Surgery, 9 months in crunches, lot of pain… 8 doctors told me, with serious arguments: no ski for you ever. Ever ma’ friend.
But, this is me again, following my dreams and my passion 3 years later.
Part of any startup journey is passing the Valley of Death. Is the place of pain, struggling, fall, rise, pivot, build again, whatever. But it’s fine.
You’ll fly, you’ll see.
I wrote a terrible-complicated post.
Anyway, build a product, change the world, burn a damn Vuitton…
🚀
