Pebble founder and YC Partner Eric Migicovsky discusses why early-stage hardware startups should avoid outsourcing core engineering to external contractors.
Insight
Migicovsky: Oculus' iterative hardware approach beat Magic Leap's secretive, mega-funded R&D
“Magic Leap raised lots of money and spent just 11 years working on a product, versus Oculus, which raised two million dollars on Kickstarter, shipped a, you know, an early development kit that was not amazing, but they iterated and they got through, and now th…”
Insight
Migicovsky: Pivot to building end products if customers won't buy your technology
“If you're in a situation where you're building something that's, like, mind-blowingly cool and revolutionary, but you're finding that customers don't want to buy it, pivot your company so you're actually doing what your customers would have done, and just use …”
Insight
Migicovsky: Patents are not a critical initial step for startups
“This is, like, one of those things that people who are not in the startup world think is a critical piece of starting a business, because they may have heard of, like, someone else who got screwed out of their idea or something like that. But if you're startin…”
Insight
Graham and Andreessen's product-market fit definitions are lagging indicators
“Paul Graham's definition for product market fit is when you've made something that people want. Marc Andreessen also has an amazing blog post about product market fit where he describes it as when the product is just being pulled out of you, when you no longer…”
Opinion
Migicovsky: Overhyped hardware crowdfunding campaigns usually fail to ship
“Most of those campaigns, even if they do succeed at raising money, usually fail to produce and actually ship their product.”
Insight
Migicovsky: Hardware startups should hack existing products instead of hiring design firms
“Don't hire, like, An industrial design firm to build you some new design. Don't hire, like, an engineering firm that promises to do a custom design for you, because that'll cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it probably will be the wrong product, versu…”