The 2nd annual Hardware Summit put on by Hardware Massive will be held in San Francisco on November 6, 2019. It turns out I’ll be moderating a panel talk there. That scores me a discount code to share with my closest friends: you!
The Super Secret Code is: SAVE15-EM
If you use this link to get your tickets, the code should already be applied. And take note of the pricing — there are early bird discounts available only for a limited time.
Who Should Go ?
This event is great for those working in or with hardware startups. Really, though, “hardware” in this context these days, means “any sort of fancy physical product development,” so if that describes your working world, come on over.
What Happened at the 1st Hardware Summit
Last year’s 1st ever Hardware Summit was covered on SolidSmack here. It included a fireside chat with Scott Miller, one of the early engineering leaders at iRobot, maker of the Roomba. (Miller is now helping HW startups at Dragon Innovation.) He shared a bunch of nail-biting horror stories from the startup days of iRobot which included valuable lessons. There were also panel talks regarding scaling production and tools for the operations side of a startup.
For the video of highlights from the 1st Hardware Summit, see below:
Virtually Expand the Combined Knowledge and Experience of Your Startup!
Building a hardware startup comes with plenty of potential landmines. It also usually puts founders and engineers in the position of having to do a lot of things outside their wheelhouse. (P.S. I kind of hate myself for using the buzzword “wheelhouse”.)
This is in part because there usually aren’t a whole lot of people in the organization, so everyone has to wear a lot of hats. (P.S.S. “Wearing hats,” ugh, just shoot me.) Also, not having a lot of other pros at your side means the combined experience of your team is limited. It’s unlikely you’d know of all the landmines to watch out for! That’s why meeting other pros at events like these and soaking up their words of wisdom is especially important for those in hardware startups.
The Agenda for Hardware Summit #2
The agenda for this year’s summit can be found here. As of publishing this article, the special fireside chat speaker is yet to be announced. The first panel talk is all about wise strategies for building both your product and your hardware startup itself. It’s called, “The Strategy – Building the Right Team, the Road Map, and Critical Considerations“. The second panel is about how to execute your wise plans in an organized, systematic way to avoid catastrophe. That one is called, “The Operations – How to Design for Growth and Avoid the Killer Pitfalls“. It’s also the one I’m moderating, so if you plan to heckle me, plan to show up no later than 5 pm.
Hope to See You There!
If you do show up and we haven’t met yet, please say hello! (Um, and also if we have met.) You can let me know if you’re attending by commenting below or shouting out on the Twitters to me here. Feel free to also let me and other readers know what you’re looking to learn or what disciplines you’d especially like to connect with. Let’s help each other make excellent connections!
