Finally, a hardware accelerator: Bolt's Ben Einstein on a leg up for startups
Experienced product designer and entrepreneur Ben Einsteinis part of a team in Boston looking to give hardware startupstheir fair share of the glory. Bolt,a new accelerator program that Einstein cofounded, aims to be atool kit for hardware start-ups rather than for software and Web-servicescompanies—popular draws for talent and investment thatin the current environment have more support at their disposal.Einstein recently spoke to EDN about what Bolt is, what types ofyoung companies it is looking for, and why the focus is on hardware.
Tell us what Bolt is all about.
A: We focus on the startupcommunity. We’rebasically an accelerator programdesigned to help hardwarecompanies. The generalpremise is that if you arebuilding a software company,there are so many resourcesavailable that are incrediblyuseful—software review, mentoringprograms—and raisingmoney is often fairly easybecause there is so muchawareness and popularity inthe space. Bolt is explicitlybuilt from the ground up to dosimilar things, but for hardwarecompanies.
Bolt's Ben Einstein
We have prototyping facilitiesand a full-time engineeringstaff; we help people goto Asia for manufacturing andtooling; we know how to talkto buyers. We have an openapplication process; anyonefrom anywhere in the worldcan apply. We will acceptbetween 10 and 12 teamsevery six months and givethem a little seed capital tohelp keep them alive.
Why focus on physical productsas opposed to softwareor an app?
A: There are maybe 150[support programs] forsoftware in the US [alone].And there’s this device phenomenonthat is about toexplode. [The targeted] companiesact like software companiesin terms of their revenuestructure, the kinds offounders they attract, the waythe IP is locked up, but theytend to have a piece of hardwarethat is sort of a barrier toentry.
There’s a phrase that isthrown around, “softwarewrapped in plastic,” which iswhat some of these companiesbegin to look like. Theyhave a relatively simple pieceof hardware, but it ends upenabling a new set of functionalityand user applications [sothat they] work like softwarecompanies; they have reoccurringrevenue streams, multipleproducts around one pieceof hardware, and reoccurringinteractions with customers.
There’s also [the fact that]these hardware companiesaren’t being helped at all. It’svery difficult for some of theseyoung companies to get thetools and systems they needto get to market, whereas inthe app world a lot of that ispretty easy to come by. Weare trying to leverage that.
Doing manufacturing isn't necessarily hard, but a lot of people that these young companies are approaching for advice are not the people who know how to make hardware, and that makes it more frustrating for them.
What are you looking for?
A: Great teams, but we arereally looking for greatpeople. The [online] applicationis tailored to find teamsof great people. It’s really simple;it’s not designed to be abusiness plan.
You are obviously big on prototyping, then.
A: Of course.
When it comes to prototyping,what can an entrepreneurialengineer learn froma company like Dyson oriRobot or other former start-upsthat showed distinct,difficult, or maybe riskydesigns in their beginnings?
A: That's one of these unfortunate things in the product-development world—these phantom or ghost products that wind up being showcased in some sort of great way for design but never end up making it to production. Dyson is very good with that; they are one of the companies that demonstrated a lot of their prototypes.
Bolt is based on buildingmarkets and helpingpeople find their way along thepath of building a product. It’sless about the sexy, sleek prototypethat people are reallyattracted to. The MVP—minimum viable product—approach involves doing as littleas possible to prove thatsomebody really likes what youare doing. It’s part of the leanstart-up movement ... andinvolves growing the companyaround a core group of usersand satisfying that need.
We take a similar approachwhen building products. When it comes to actual physical prototyping, we do a pretty significant amount of that and have an in-house prototyping facility, so people can assemble and tweak as needed.
What are your thoughts on 3-D printers?
A: 3-D printers are great. They’ve fallen dramatically in price in the last decade. They are unbelievably useful for certain things, but they are a little oversold. We use [the 3-D printer] as a fantastic tool for rapid prototype development, but it’s not [yet the] fantastic tool for production of millions of units of things that people say it may be one day. It may be one day, but the technology really doesn’t exist yet to be even close to cost-competitive with injection molding or other high-end volume production techniques.
When people think aboutstartups, they think abouttwenty-somethings justout of school. Do you seeopportunities for moreexperienced engineers?
A: We expect a good portionof our applicants tobe in that [younger] category.But the other category is thefrustrated engineers who areat a company like Apple orMotorola and have sort ofbeen in their middle positionand chugging along but feelthat they want to be more creativeand try out their ownconcept. Those [engineers]are really attractive to us. Theonly trick is that we are notproviding enough capital toprovide for families when thebusiness is getting started.They have to be able to basicallysurvive on their own forsix months or so.
We expect that a smallerpool of the applicants wouldbe these kinds of guys, butwe encourage them to apply.You have to have a certainkind of crazy to start a company,especially in hardware,and that tends to be beatenout of people as they getolder. But their experience[can be] incredibly valuable.Even if they are not leading thecharge, it’s great to have themon a team with two or threeyounger guys.
Einstein will be presentingat next month’s Design Eastconference, hosted by UBM.Register and get moreinformation at http://east.ubmdesign.com.
TAG:Ben Einstein Accelerator Program Design East Bolt
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