How to get your Robotics start-up up-and-running…
Have you got an idea for a robot that could disrupt an entire industry? Perhaps you have the coolest idea for a piece of hardware but just don’t know where to begin? Or maybe you just have a small curiosity that you’d like to explore a little bit further.
The three bullet points below should give you some ideas and direction…
Participate in the robotics community
As with anything, the best way to learn is by immersing yourself fully into the new subject area and it’s wider society. There are a great deal of specialist robotics events and conferences. There are also a large number of specialist platforms and community-groups such as Wevolver — who celebrate and showcase the latest advancements in hardware development, Hackoustic — a hacking group dedicated to exploring acoustics and instrument building, or Fab Lab London — offering a plethora of services based on digital fabrication machines, making tools, open access facilities, educational programmes, event space and a vibrant and driven community of makers.
By getting out there and speaking with people who’ve been there and done it, they can help take your idea to the next level and may be able to suggest improvements that may have initially passed you by.
Enter competitions
By taking part in competitions you can market, validate (and if you’re fortunate, part-fund) your prototype.
Just last week, Motus Innovations, won NACUE’s Varsity Pitch 2017 — they are developing an innovative robotics solution to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke patients. Not only did they get the prestige and accolade that comes with winning a national competition, they have received some invaluable PR and also scooped £10,000 prize money to continue investing in their concept.
Competitions also help you refine your vision and your pitch. If you progress to the latter rounds of competition, you usually have some support and mentoring — that hopefully gives you further clarity and perspective on what you are building, what the true need is, and how best to position your idea so that it has sufficient cut-through when you get to launching it.
Once you’ve got a proven prototype…
As with any good business idea, once it gets to a certain stage — you have a product, you have tested the market, and made some repeat sales — it’s usually time to scale.
With hardware, the challenge is usually getting to that point. In large part, the reason why hardware development is ‘hard’ is that it requires a wide range of traditionally disparate skills to really become competent.
The British Robotics Seed Fund is the only investment fund specialising in UK-based robotics start-ups. As automation and robotisation begin to drive significant productivity improvements across the global economy, BritBots look to invest in and nurture the most innovative and disruptive businesses that are exploiting the next generation of robotic technologies.
