Slope of Enlightenment: Hardware is Making A Comeback

We’re stoked to welcome Hardware Massive with this special guest post by Greg Fisher, Founder at HardwareCon. Check out Hardware Massive and, if you’re in the San Jose area this week, you’ll want head over to HardwareCon to learn about the future of hardware.

Having spent the last 13 years helping more than 900 hardware startups (they used to be called inventors) taking innovative, physical products to market, I’ve seen the industry go from one dominated by large established companies, to the burgeoning hardware revolution that has already brought thousands of startup products to market. Using new tools and technologies, it is just getting started.

Despite growth in the market, in 2017 many promising hardware startups shut their doors. The industry has been doing some soul searching and ultimately discovered a need to pivot. I believe we’ve entered a “slope of enlightenment” and discovered that the current model is broken. We are realizing that it’s nearly impossible for startups to learn all aspects of a hardware startup business, while simultaneously developing and launching an innovative technology in the two or three-year available window.

Hardware became more global last year, with many different models and directions attempted and developed. With only 3 percent of startups seeing any meaningful exit to date, I believe the path forward for successful hardware innovations will come from those that create robust business models with value-driven solutions (solving real problems). They will need to connect with the right partners – true experts that uniquely understand hardware.

To support this new vision for success, we’re bringing together the world’s thought leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and key decision makers across the hardware ecosystem to “Get Deals Done,” which is our HardwareCon theme this year. We chose this theme because it is evident that in order for the next generation of startups to succeed, they will need to have knowledge of and access to the right platforms, software and hardware, investors that share their vision, and a complete ecosystem of external service providers who can fill their roles.

Four years ago, we saw the chance to provide that educational support and bring the community together to facilitate these critical partnerships. I’m excited to say that HardwareCon continues to grow, with a big step up this year by moving to the San Jose Convention Center on April 19-20.  We are also very excited to announce one of the godfathers of the Silicon Valley hardware scene, Allan Alcorn, as our keynote speaker to kick things off. Allan is the founding engineer at Atari, inventor of the world’s first popular video game, Pong, and Steve Jobs’ last boss.

This year’s conference agenda will feature two full days of keynotes, panels, and workshops, all focused on the most important topics around building a successful hardware company and will feature key insights from the hardware investment community.

The consumer device segment of the hardware market remains one of the most exciting areas for innovation. We’ve just added an IoT Summit , Transformation of Consumer Products: Connectivity & IoT, presented by Parks Associates. The Summit will address the impact of IoT on the development, design, and monetization of consumer products. This Summit is designed to help executive-level hardware innovators better understand market trends and how to position for growth.

I’d like to personally invite you to join me at HardwareCon 2018 and right now is the best time to save on tickets, as we’re offering our Insider Rate at 25% off the full ticket price.  I look forward to connecting with you there and shaping the future of the next generation of hardware innovation. Come be a part of the conversation, meet your future partners, and Get Deals Done!

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