The hobby electronics industry is really taking off. People from all different geographical locations, all levels of education, and different walks of life are producing electronics at a surprising rate. I’m not talking about big-name manufacturing here, I’m talking about your neighbor doing a small run of 30 custom lighting controllers for his balcony.
One issue that I’ve seen over and over is that people aren’t sure how to host these projects and connect with others about them. You can always just toss them on eBay, but who would know to look for them? What if you want to collaborate? Conversely, you could plop them on something like Instructibles, but what if you wanted to sell some? What if someone wanted to donate to your project? There is an obvious need here, and several sites are rising up to fill this void.
The best way to describe HWtrek is that it is basically a crowdfunding site explicitly for hardware. If you’re familiar with Kickstarter, you can immediately understand how HWtrek works. There are projects with set funding goals and different levels at which you can back them. Each level carries its own reward.
We approached CEO Lucas Wang with a few questions to see how HWTrek sees itself fitting in:
What features do you think really stand out about HWtrek?
What distinguishes HWTrek from other crowdfunding platforms? We’re a matching platform and online community for creators, experts, and backers. HWTrek pairs electronics/ hardware concepts and their project teams with experts in the design and manufacturing world. This expertise will help ensure that projects are designed and delivered at very high quality levels, on time and on budget, overcoming a common issue among hardware innovators on other crowdfunding platforms. We are passionate about fostering a collaborative community on HWTrek to champion creators and their vision, connecting them with seasoned experts to help them to refine and build their projects, and enabling backers, gadget enthusiasts, and early adopters alike, to find and fund interesting projects.
This article by Caleb Kraft was published on EE Times, read more here.
