Let’s be honest for a second. We’re sometimes, luckily not always, pretty frustrated by the lack of understanding of what Usine IO stands for and what service we’re offering to our members.
This is the reason why we have decided, a bit too late we must admit, to share more often what we do and how we do it.
In a nutshell, we’re basically offering a subscription that gives you access to exceptional expertise, an extended network of contractors, freelancers and experts, and if you need it, a complete prototyping workshop.
Yeah, that’s right, our machines are optional, the value is definitely somewhere else. That’s it, we said it. The value is not in the machines but in the expertise we provide. Machines are only there to support certain phases between prototyping and manufacturing.
We’re sometimes called a cool fablab. We don’t especially mind, it is indeed a great workshop in which to film your crowdfunding campaign and a great place to prototype. But the value is definitely beyond that. 330 members, 250 hardware projects and 15 boosted project are testament that we do more and we’ll do even more in the coming months.
This is also why we’re offering a remote version of our services.
We’re no incubator, nor an accelerator. We don’t select and we don’t invest (yet). We do believe the openness of the service is an asset for Usine IO’s community.
We basically use our in-house 5P method and our membership offer to advise, follow up, introduce, intermediate, well, whatever is needed, to accelerate any hardware project and build sustainable businesses.
Through Medium, we’ll elaborate more and more on what we do. Especially what we do with SMEs, our 5P method and the contractors and experts we work with.
We’ll share it in French and in English.
Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, people will finally be able to answer the question above: what the f*@# Usine IO is.
