How to Win the High-Risk Gamble of a Hardware Startup
Hardware is harder, riskier, and more cutthroat than software. Here’s how to pull it off.
Nobody likes hardware startups. Investors can’t run away from them fast enough, customers are always hyper-skeptical, and retailers love inventing new hoops for new products to jump through.
So why do otherwise rational entrepreneurs keep setting themselves up for the punishment that goes hand in hand with building a hardware startup?
Simple. Much like any high-risk, high-reward gamble, whether it’s a push all-in at a no-limit poker table or a gunslinger quarterback throwing into triple coverage, a good idea for a hardware startup always presents the opportunity that this time, it’s going to work.
Hardware entrepreneurs, and those who invest in them and support them, are the business equivalent of riverboat gamblers.
Here’s what it takes to sit at that high-stakes poker table and not be the sucker.
‘Why is this so hard?’
Last week, I had a call with a friend of a friend, whom I’ll call Tami. Tami had recently been brought in to lead a promising hardware startup in the consumer medical field. The company had a great device with a couple…
