Sinofsky: Shenzhen hardware entrepreneurs execute fixed production runs without venture capital
Steven Sinofsky · a16z Podcast | Software is What Distinguishes the Hardware Winners · Jan 2, 2019 · at 4:56
Steven Sinofsky, former Microsoft executive, explains how non-VC-backed consumer hardware products are rapidly brought to market using Shenzhen's modular ecosystem.
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“Yeah, it's worth actually just highlighting for folks, like, exactly how that works, because in the startup world, that doesn't often make a lot of sense. You're like, wow, you raise capital, you build a company, but what these people are doing is they're tapping into this whole elaborate ecosystem of manufacturers, and then there's a person who's like, sort of like a, in a positive way, like a hustler. They see an opportunity. Hey, if I can just go buy a production run of, say, 5000 police lapel cams, And then I'll just hustle them out, and I'll get them sold to some distributors, some middle people, and I'm making 10%, and I, it's a business. And then they'll just do that again for hoverboards, or, you know, for whatever, and that's a lot of how it works, and so it doesn't, it's not like they're raising capital to build a factory, and develop the circuit board, and package it. They're doing like a fixed size run, getting them out there, and moving on.”
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