Last year, HWTrek sponsored 30 hardware startups and creators to visit Taiwan and Beijing on the Asia Innovation Tour 2014. We’re doing it again this August. We reached out to Tom Shrive (CEO and co-founder of Arc Wearables and Pop Stick), a participant in the tour last year, to see what he’s been up to during the past year.
HWTrek: We’d love to catch up with what you’ve been doing since you attended Asia Tour last year. What are you working on?
Tom: We’re working on 2 separate projects, Arc Wearables and the Pop Stick – the photo stick that wraps.
What are some of major lessons you learned along your entrepreneurship journey?
When it comes to hardware, choosing your partners is possibly the most important thing. You can’t do everything on your own, so having advice from people like HWTrek is really useful. The other thing is to get out of the office and talk to potential customers – it’s very easy to get protective about your idea or product, but honest feedback is invaluable.
What advice would you give someone who might have an idea, but has yet launch a hardware startup?
Don’t launch too early and be aware of how long and what the steps are. Every new company starting out in hardware has a very rose tinted idea of how long it will take them to get a product to market – anything below a year and a half is impressive. Also don’t get too ambitious. Start small and if your only competitive advantage is that you’re cheaper, you’re screwed.
Looking back a year on now, what are your takeaways from participating in the tour last year?
I met a lot of friends and learned a lot about manufacturing. Crucially, I met some trusted suppliers, and as mentioned, trusted suppliers are the most important thing for a hardware company.
What trend do you see that is changing your sector or what shift would you like to see happen?
I’m hoping that the lumbering manufacturing industry is increasingly able to reduce lead times and accept a much more JIT management approach to capacity going forward.
Do you have any recommendations for a must-read/watch/listen article, book, blog, film, or podcast, etc.?
Not off hand. There are many. The best ones are written by those who have failed – it’ll give you a taste for how hard hardware actually is.
