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mtlynchHNSource author
Business & incomeExperience excerpt · English

When I started the business, I thought the money was in the software, not the hardware

… When I started the business, I thought the money was in the software, not the hardware. I figured people would build the hardware on their own, and they'd pay me to create a nice software experience for them. I offered hardware kits as a convenience for users who wanted to buy all the parts at once. Then, I realized people would pay more for custom parts, and I ended up with electrical engineering at the core of my business before I even realized what I'd done. In the future, I'll definitely stick to software and domains where I'm competent at the core skills myself. But now that I'm here, I'm hoping to make it work despite having to outsource the EE portion. [0] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/10/14/in-defense-of-not-...

Original discussionMy Fifth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder161 source comments · at import
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robomartinHN

Please do not take the following as criticism, just observations based on my own experience and hopefully guidance for others wishing to venture in this direction. First, to state the obvious: Hardware is hard. I have been doing hardware for forty years. I know. The cash requirements to build and sustain a hardware business can be brutally painful if you are bootstrapping. One of the problems I see when reading about solo founders in the hardware domain is that they launch into the business without having 100% of the skills necessary to deliver the product. When I built my first hardware startup I was able to complete all of the electrical engineering, firmware/software engineering, mechanical and had a pretty solid grounding in manufacturing. In looking at the profit statement for the OP's startup, I see $360K in costs that could have been avoided. That is, payroll, electrical engineeri…

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robomartinHN

> When I started the business, I thought the money was in the software, not the hardware. That can happen. I had a business where I set out to develop hardware product A, and then realized I needed product B to be able to make A work. Five years later the business was about product B and A never got off the ground at all. Reminds me of when I bought my first surface mount assembly line from this guy who deals in used manufacturing equipment. We had a nice conversation as the equipment was delivered and installed. He had downsized the business from some 50 employees to just him and a couple of assistants. He could not be happier. At one point he said: You know, a business is like a living, breathing life form that tells you what to do every day, not the other way around. BTW, I still think that businesses that can create a hardware + software lock can be excellent. Generic hardware is tro…

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mckravchykHN

> Yeah, I completely agree with you. One of my biggest influences is Joel Spolsky, and his advice on this is, "If it’s a core business function — do it yourself, no matter what." [0] Keeping that in mind in the era of AI-generated code.

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