7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HARDWARE STARTUPS
It’s hard to understate the difficulty of the v1 launch of a consumer hardware company. I see a ton of new HW startups coming out. Here are some counterintuitive recommendations…
1) Target a small market for v1, not a large market. You need a small number of people to love your product and this will earn you the right to build a v2. You have to understand your v1 will not make you a successful company. Your v1 needs to prove that you deserve to exist in the first place.
In the case of WHOOP, we started with pro athletes who were willing to put up with our v1’s short battery life and flaky Bluetooth connections because they so desperately needed Sleep and Recovery data. A broad consumer base would have rejected it.
2) Be great at no more than 1-3 things. If you try to be great at more than that, you will build a hardware that is mediocre at a wide range of things. You won’t think it’s going to be mediocre, but it will be.
3) You want a small launch. Not because you want small sales but because you want to have a steady ramp. It’s much better to do 100k of sales steadily over 12 months than in 2 months with a huge drop off. Keep in mind you need to manage your manufacturing partner and that there’s nothing better or more efficient than steady and predictable.
4) CAC is your enemy. Referrals are gold. The magic of referrals is that they signal high NPS and they help you grow steadily. Again everything that helps you have a steady HW manufacturing plan is good. Building a referral program for v1 launch is a good use of your time.
5) Be excellent at Software. Turns out being good at both Hardware and Software is a hard thing and something that your BIG COMPANY competitor is actually not great at (excluding Apple here). For some reason, there’s such a magnifying glass on the Hardware development, that Software is then overlooked by consumer startups. Don’t make that mistake. You can be great at both.
6) You should spend an unreasonable amount of time and money on ONE aspect of your Hardware. Could be the design or a technical breakthrough. But something needs to be SPECIAL.
In our case, we designed a modular battery pack that allowed Whoop to be charged without taking it off your body. This made our development timeline much longer, but it allowed us to achieve something that no other wearable has achieved since: 24/7 health data.
7) Finally, have an unrealistic belief in yourself and your team. You are not supposed to succeed and the odds are stacked against you. Building hardware takes confidence and you’re up against big players who will rip you off. We went so far as to leave a message for our competitors on our circuit board (pictured below). In the case of Amazon and others, the prophecy came true.
If you’re building consumer hardware, I wish you nothing but success. It will be super hard, but super rewarding. Good luck 👊🏼
#consumer #hardware #wearable #startup #whoop
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1yI only had one internship. What are your thoughts on seeking internships v. doing the thing you want to do now through any avenue possible? For marketers or those in business, the avenues are evident. I could pick an internship where I'm likely to get some low-value tasks or jump into the game and figure it out on the fly while maybe working at a job that pays my low monthly costs. P.S. My generative AI alarm is going off 🚨Please tell me this wasn't written with ChatGPT...