HWTrek sponsored 30 hardware creators and accelerators to visit Taiwan, Beijing, and Shenzhen on Asia Innovation Tour 2015 in August—and also in April 2014. We’re doing it again this spring. The next Asia Innovation Tour 2016 cohort is destined to meet manufacturing industry experts, see assembly lines, and gain insights about China’s market in April 2016.
Raymond Lo participated in the first HWTrek Asia Innovation Tour, April 2014. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“This trip provide me lots of resource on the manufacturing process…[and access to] billion [dollar]-worth companies; all these companies have provided [us with] some way to engage, which I find very valuable.”
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?
Raymond: Meta is actively developing the next generation of product. Since last year’s Asia Tour visit, we have shipped over a thousand units of our Meta 1 Developer Kit, and grown the team to 70 people.
What are some of major lessons you learned along your entrepreneurship journey?
Ship the product early and and take feedback. All hardware startups shall always use some sort of lean startup method to rapidly get feedback: build, test, and learn!
What advice would you give someone who might have an idea, but has yet launch a hardware startup?
Get in touch with the vendors, manufacturers, and partners as early as possible. Sell your vision to them and try your best to get feedback from users with your early prototype. I definitely lost track of the number of demos I have done to the customers or our partners.
Looking back a year on now, what are your takeaways from participating in the tour last year?
The tour provided me insight into the manufacturing process. Also, it gave me an overview of where things are in this world. It is always a great feeling to see lights at the end of the tunnel as early as possible.
What trend do you see that is changing your sector or what shift would you like to see happen?
A few years ago, only a dozen of companies were working on wearable AR/VR product. However, the release of the Oculus Rift, Google Glass, and Microsoft Hololens has generated tremendous amount of energy in this field. AR is definitely an emerging field and being an early pioneer and part of this is an absolutely fantastic memory in history.
Do you have any recommendations for a must-read/watch/listen article, book, blog, film, or podcast, etc.?
Recommended readings:
- Lean Startup
- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits
