Hardware Startup Challenges

I hear hardware startups are hard.

How do people do hardware startups?

Sounds like an opportunity for hardware startups.

Hardware development requires a lot of spare resources, it doesn't pair well with startups.The development cycles are much less predictable compared to software, you never know how many prototypes you have to burn through until you reach the production stage. Small changes become hugely expensive once you've finalized the designs, and even a minuscule error like a tolerance mismatch can cause hundreds of thousands in damage and ruin a startup almost instantly. I'm always wary

Looks like the Lean Startup philosophy doesn't work for hardware.. ;)

You obviously have absolutely no idea what a true startup is. Do you understand the concept of most viable product? How long did you spend collecting all this information? Are you a disgruntled competitor with a bit of jealousy perhaps?The guy is working on physical hardware. Do you know how difficult that is? To ship a device like this? A lot of the issues you mentioned are the last of his worries.

Smart hardware belongs to big players only. A hardware company needs to deal with, Design, Engineering, Marketing, Production, Sales, Customer services, etc... If any of those step is messed up, the product is over. This is why I don't recommend anyone to get involved in this kind of business.

This can't come soon enough. I'm helping out on a hardware 'startup' (though I guess we don't really use that term) - coming from software its an incredibly challenging realm to work in.Simply getting a functional prototype without easy access to a 3d printer, $$$ in compiler licenses for BT stacks, freakin custom batteries, etc etc.Our thing: https://www.fitguard.me/

So... You are a hardware start-up that doesn't actually do any hardware. I recall a guy who got seriously burnt by taking this approach in a kickstarter: he had designed a iPad cover, successfully funded it and then proceed to crash as all his supply chain decided that wanted a bigger slice of that money. He even got sued by some random backer.I think you really need some expertise in what you are trying to build. It has to be really hard doing a decent cost estimation otherwise.

Maybe you should build hardware! There are plenty of businesses built on hardware. What's keeping you from going that route?