Success factors to develop an IoT solution, by Hacking House Sigfox
Developing a new connected device, from ideation to prototyping, is a complex task. It requires high technical knowledge as well as diverse human resources. Sigfox, the french communications services provider, got it right. Six years ago, the company created a concept of Hacking House that allows graduate student entrepreneurs to kick-start their IoT projects during their year-end internship.
Since this program is close to our ambitions, Sigfox invited us to take part in this adventure. Indeed, through our simulation tool Wisebatt, we support electronics engineers’ creativity and help them develop their connected devices. This is why it seemed natural for us to become a partner of the Hacking House. It gave us the opportunity to share our expertise in electronics design with the participants.
On the occasion of the end of 2020’s edition, we interviewed Maxime Schacht, head of the Hacking House’s Paris franchise, who has managed the participants for two years. He is a tech expert with a holistic view of the IoT ecosystem. Thanks to his multiple skills — ranging from management to R&D, including marketing — he was able to support participants at each stage of their project’s development.
Here is Maxime’s testimonial, which highlights some of the Sigfox Hacking House’s keys to success:
1. Gather talented people
“The Hacking House is an incubation program within Sigfox. We welcome engineering students on an end-of-study internship to initiate a start-up. The subject of the startup is given by an industrial client, who has a problem that could be solved with IoT and more particularly by Sigfox technology.
Yet, these problems does not currently have an existing solution in the ecosystem, which is why we offer to create it. To do so, the hacking house gathers brilliant engineering students and expert mentors who support them on every subjects related to IoT and industrialisation.”
“I have established sponsorship contracts with IoT leaders: Microsoft on the platform side, Lite-on and STMicroelectronics on the Hardware side and of course Wisebatt for the schematics design and the study of current consumption. Finally, we have established partnerships with incubators and accelerators: Telecom ParisTech Entrepreneurs and Euratechnologies.
Our partners first provide us with hardware support: components, platforms, software. This allows us to have access to professional tools despite a fairly small budget.
Then, our partners actively come to train the members of the Hacking House in their technologies and to mentor them on their project. They all made themselves available to answer questions even during lockdown or vacation periods. They were key in the success of the projects.
We hope that the support of partners will continue beyond the Hacking House program because the 4 teams are already looking beyond and could well benefit from their network of partners and customers.”
2. Build an innovative project
“This year, we supervised 4 very diverse projects:
- The Digital Paris team developed a connected car anti-theft solution. It is the only start-up already established. The diagnostic port of cars is the biggest security flaw. The solution makes it possible to secure it by leaving the vehicle overhaul process unchanged. It will be offered to insurance companies.
- A second team developed a connected nest box, which interests and educates people through a nest box enhanced with sensors and a camera. We are also enabling the Bird Protection League to obtain useful data to better understand the evolution of the bird population.
- A third team developed a smart meter that helps an advertising company to monitor pedestrian traffic near its panels, in a precise and anonymous manner. We do this using embedded intelligence rather than video streams stored on servers.
- Finally, a fourth team’s goal was to connect the marinas: mooring buoys and bumpers (pontoon defense) initially. The goal is to improve management for ports and the user experience for boaters through digitalisation. We are fortunate to collaborate with the industry leader: Plastimo.”
3. Have a long-term vision
“In previous editions of the Hacking House, we had a low number of teams that continued the project as a startup. By taking over the program, I wanted to remedy that. Each project is supported by a committed client, both financially and humanely. The quality of the follow-up is felt and each project goes through.
The program now lasts 6 months instead of 3, which allows us to attract end-of-study internship students, motivated and available for an entrepreneurial adventure. The second benefit of this change is that our projects are more successful and more field tested. The chances of the team getting off the ground with their project are much higher.”
4. Take up challenges
“Participants encountered just about every possible problem with the arrival of COVID19 soon after the start of the program.
The current health situation has forced us to review our working methods and the logistics around the program. We had to revise the phases of the project depending on when we had access to the office, where the electronic equipment is located. We had to learn to anticipate component deliveries, partner actions, etc. Finally, we learned to do part-time remote collaboration. We overcame all of these challenges with our energy and passion.
Regarding the development of the solutions, the difficulty for engineers is often to take a step back from the user experience and business aspects. They sometimes tend to favor performance over cost, for example. We have regular follow-ups, and I’m here to remind them the important constraints.”
5. Use innovative tools
“Initially, we turned to Wisebatt mainly for the study of the current consumption of devices. Knowing how to assess the lifespan of a connected device is critical for several reasons. First we have to meet the customer’s specifications, who have requirements on the minimum acceptable battery life. But we also have to look at the business case, which includes the cost of maintenance operations. We must therefore ensure the fewer maintenance operations than possible if we want the solution to provide the right return on investment to the customer.
We were pleasantly surprised by the evolution of Wisebatt’s tool since September 2019. The automation of the bill of materials (BOM), the collection of all the technical data sheets for the components have saved us a lot of time. Last year we did these steps by hand.
Also, Wisebatt greatly facilitated the completion of our projects by adding specific components to the tool.”
Get to know Maxime Schacht
“I am passionate about innovation and new technologies, particularly IoT, AI and blockchain.
I started at Samsung Electronics headquarters in South Korea, in charge of partnerships with startups for the mobile division. At the time, Samsung created its first Android smartphone. I was already very interested in AI and I focused on predictive keyboards, handwriting recognition, speech recognition in particular. In 2015, I wanted to return to France and I joined Sigfox, a promising startup.
I have worked in various positions in the company and have now been running the Hacking House for 1 year. This is the second edition that I am operating in Paris. My manager, Raouti Chehih, is the creator of the concept. He holds a position of Chief Adoption Officer at Sigfox alongside his position as CEO of Euratechnologies, the Lille incubator, one of the largest in Europe. He found that creating an IoT startup was complex for young entrepreneurs and needed more coaching.”
