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Kickstarter and its crowdfunding brethren have played a pivotal role in the hardware revolution of the past decade. But even now that developers have a wide range of democratizing tools at their disposal, hardware is, as ever, hard. Today the service launched Hardware Studio<\/a>, a new suite of tools aimed at helping developers navigate the choppy waters of hardware development.<\/p>\n The studio launches with two key partners, component distributor Avnet and Dragon Innovation, which serves as a conduit for startups looking to start the manufacturing process. It\u2019s a PR play, in part \u2014 after all, every time a high-profile project fails to deliver, there\u2019s an immediate deluge of hot takes about the myriad problems of crowdfunding.<\/p>\n Interestingly, however, according to a joint research project<\/a> conducted by Kickstarter and the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Wharton School a few years back, hardware projects apparently have a lower incidence of failure \u2014 at around 7 percent, versus the overall space\u2019s 9 percent. That said, those mess-ups\u00a0tend to be higher profile.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly every time a hardware project fails to deliver, it\u2019s a headline,\u201d Kickstarter CEO\/co-founder Yancey Strickler told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n But even without that added fuel of negative publicity, helping bring projects to life has been an essential strand of Kickstarter\u2019s DNA since the early days, and, as such, the service has long worked alongside creators. Though this new move marks a more formal step in that direction.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done quite a bit informally and behind the scenes over the years,\u201d says Strickler. \u201cWe first connected with Dragon Innovation and Scott Miller, their CEO, back in 2012, when the first Pebble launched. They supported Pebble and helped Eric [Migicovsky] get off the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n As such, Dragon is a bit of a no-brainer as a partner. Interested parties apply for Hardware Studio support ahead of their campaign and the company gets final say over who it opts to partner with. From there, Dragon and Avnet serve an advisory role, helping creators address some of the key questions around launch, including manufacturing partners and pricing.<\/p>\n If things go well, the companies work with campaigns in a more formal (and monetized) capacity. As such, the project is about more than just avoiding failure, it\u2019s about lowering the barrier of entry for prospective hardware developers and removing some of the fear of jumping in with both feet.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s certainly part of that, but we have a mix of veteran hardware creators and people who are doing this for the first time,\u201d says Strickler. \u201cThe dream is that everyone can be on a fairly level playing field, in terms of access to knowledge. We\u2019re definitely trying to stop failure from happening, but if we\u2019re able to build a critical mass of tools here, we can help them get over that hurdle and people will give it a shot and try to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n That sort of ongoing partnership can help empower creators throughout the process, to help prep for the best- and worst-case scenarios.<\/p>\n \u201cSay it\u2019s a Pebble scenario \u2014 with the initial [watch], they were looking to make 1,000. By the end, they had to make 100,000. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s quite a phone call,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThat is the amazing power of Kickstarter that often ends up being quite challenging. It\u2019s the dream challenge, but that doesn\u2019t make it any easier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/05\/hub2.jpg?w=680\")
Kickstarter and its crowdfunding brethren have played a pivotal role in the hardware revolution of the past decade. But even now that developers have a wide range of democratizing tools at their disposal, hardware is, as ever, hard. Today the service launched Hardware Studio, a new suite of tools aimed at helping developers navigate the choppy waters of hardware development. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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