Experts gather to discuss in depth the difficulties in the smart hardware startup journey

Smart hardware startups have few opportunities for trial and error and high costs. There are countless hidden pitfalls in the product principle design process. How to avoid those pitfalls in the R&D stage and how to remedy problems after they occur. An offline event held by IT Ears, "The Pitfalls on the Road to Smart Hardware Startups", may tell you the answer!

The following is the transcript of the speech:

How to survive the cold winter of smart hardware?

Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance) : It should be said that everyone is still very interested in the topic of smart hardware, especially at the current time node, when things are surging. Before the opening, I will briefly introduce Xiaoyang Finance as a product placement advertisement. Xiaoyang Finance is a subsidiary of Xiaoyang Youth Community, and it solves two most important problems for Xiaoyang Youth Community. The first problem is financing for the entrepreneurial team in the early stage.

The second thing is very relevant to today's topic. Our Xiaoyang Youth Community has its own platform for promoting creative products and displaying, experiencing and trading them online and offline, called Sample. The 2.6 version will be completed at the end of this month, which is very relevant to today's topic of smart hardware.

So I am very honored that the guests just now have given us a lot of valuable information. At my age, I can no longer keep up with the CPU. Let's quickly invite all the guests back. We will use a relatively lively form to understand their inner thoughts and accumulation, and try to squeeze them dry before letting them go.

▲Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance)

During our entire speech, I briefly summarized a few popular terms, such as the decline of smart hardware, the winter of capital, and how start-ups, especially smart hardware companies, choose their subsequent paths. Let me first ask you the first question. I don’t know how you big names understand the current environment. Are smart hardware teams gradually disappearing? Or are the number of new people working on smart hardware teams starting to decrease? Let Wang Jisen answer this question first.

Is there any development prospect for smart hardware in this capital winter?

Wang Jisen (CEO of HiMirror) : I have been engaged in hardware for 16 years. I started in 2000 and entered the mobile phone industry in 2003, making mobile phone hardware. In 2003, I started a mobile phone design company and made many products in the industry. Now I am also starting a business in the field of smart hardware to make VR glasses.

Regarding the question just now, I think smart hardware is an industry that will definitely become more and more numerous and will explode more and more. This is also beyond doubt because the trend of the Internet of Things is definitely there. That is to say, from the perspective of the Internet, computers used to connect desks, and mobile phones now connect people. Now it is necessary to allow more objects to enter the Internet. This is a major trend and there is definitely no problem with it.

It's just a question of how to do it. What exactly should smart hardware products be? How to make them smart? This is a problem facing the industry. There are more and more startup teams in this field. There are more and more directions. All IoT products can be smart. Our tables and chairs can be smart. This direction is endless. This must be a big trend. At this stage, many startups have encountered a trough and many startups have died. It's still a model problem.

▲Wang Jisen (CEO of HiMirror)

I think the previous definition of smart hardware with three basic elements is wrong. One is hardware, the second is an APP on the phone, and the third is a cloud server. As long as all three are present, this is the definition of smart hardware. Smart hardware does not have to be related to mobile phones. It is OK as long as it is intelligent. In fact, many industries now have robots, drones, including smartphones and smart TVs, which are all smart hardware.

What is the future development direction of China's smart hardware?

Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance) : According to Wang Jisen, smart hardware is just a phased adjustment. From a development perspective, it does not mean that the wave of the entire industry that has just emerged will recede immediately. There are two teams of guests here who are both engaged in product development. We often say that many high-tech application technologies come from overseas. For example, the AR and VR hardware equipment made by Wang Jisen, in fact, many domestic developments are based on the development of foreign hardware manufacturers.

The United States is the country with the most developed Internet technology, and China is the country with the most developed Internet technology applications. From this perspective, I would like to ask Li Yi and Zhao Ye, from your point of view, China's current technological breakthroughs and technology-based smart hardware products, what is the future development direction? Is it that we use other people's technology better? Or is it that we ourselves will be more helpful to the entrepreneurial team if we are devoted to breaking through the bottleneck from Made in China to Created in China? From the perspective of the two of you,

Zhao Ye (COO of Zhongqing Technology) : Let me talk about my own experience. I am a technical person and have studied technology for more than 6 years. When it comes to our own products, I am very proud that all the Internet of Things technologies and negative ion technologies involved in them were developed by us in three or four years. From my point of view, the more original the product is, the higher the technical barriers are, and the less likely it is that the product will be copied after it is made.

If you make your own products, you have more room for change from the bottom up to the product. There are many successful cases in the technology introduction stage. At least for smart hardware, technology research and development is the first step, and localized technology research and development is more important. This is my opinion.

▲ Zhao Ye (COO of Zhongqing Technology)

Li Yi (CEO of Nuanlan) : Let me talk about my feelings. I think we have more autonomy in our voice. We are the world's first product that cares about women's physiological health. We started PR last April. I just saw that on April 11 this year, there was a product in the United States that was exactly the same as ours, and the solutions used were very old-fashioned.

I am very excited when I see the emergence of competitive products, but there is no market for new players. Second, women in the American market are not as strong as we Chinese think, so there are still these problems. Third, from the perspective of production and manufacturing, everything must be down-to-earth. Even people like Lao Zhou copy it, and they have to be attentive in everything they do. Their understanding of this industry may not be suitable for China's national conditions and user expectations.

Common problems faced by startup teams regarding copycats

Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance) : In fact, it is very important to invest in research and technology when making hardware products in China. So are you worried that your technology or products will be copied? This is a common problem among product teams.

Li Yi (CEO of Nuanlan) : From the very beginning of our business, everyone said that we would meet with VCs to get money. After we had a BP, countless people asked us about our technical barriers, what if someone copied us, and whether a big company would do it, such as Xiaomi. One of the BAT companies said, "I have money and people, so I can copy others." Back to the product itself, I think in the Internet era, pure Internet is a game of big fish eating small fish, but today it is a game of fast fish eating slow fish.

I discussed with Foxconn, how long do you think we can stay ahead of the competition? As of today, there is nothing that cannot be copied by others, including the accumulation of technology, people and technology. The key is whether he has accumulated experience in this industry. This understanding is very important. I research and understand users. I receive three customer service calls every day to check whether the logistics is good and the user experience is good.

You said that people with money make mobile phones. At first, it only cost two or three hundred yuan to copy an Apple phone. We are indeed afraid of copycats, but at the beginning, your accumulation of humanity, technology, and whether your marketing channels are broad enough are more important issues.

▲Li Yi (CEO of Nuanlan)

Zhao Ye (COO of Zhongqing Technology) : I think it is the same as the two points mentioned by Li Yi. The first point is speed. Every time we talk about BP investors, they ask whether it is easy for you to copy it, and what if Xiaomi does it.

CoClean releases a product every two months. We have A series, B series, C series, as well as home version, children's version and so on. We update a series every six months. Now CoClean has become very large, and every classroom in famous campuses is equipped with our products. Simply put, it's fast.

The second point is that when we decided to start a business, we must have had some solid experience to be able to enter this red ocean. Our entire team has more than 30 years of testing experience. CEO Zhao Fei’s company in the United States has built models of several U.S. states. We have tested more than a dozen airports in China, and we have tens of thousands of building models in China and the United States in the database. This is the support behind the CoClean database. Only with these can we dare to say that we can do it quickly and well. This is always how I answer his questions.

Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance) : Judging from the answers of the two founders, they are still insisting on their own breakthroughs in technological routes. By the way, let’s talk about the capital level. I don’t know if Wang Jisen often asks these two questions when he is watching. Especially when it comes to smart hardware products, would you invest? We at Xiaoyang Finance also do investment. We have many projects discussing BPs, but I don’t feel that capital is not that cold.

However, capital is very profit-seeking. Let's ask Wang Yu about this year's hottest AR and VR technologies. He will introduce what the investment institutions stand on when connecting with investors. I often see BP asking what this guy is doing, but after reading it, I still don't know what he does. Where is your product used and for whom? Please ask Wang Yu to analyze it for us and give some guidance to the entrepreneurial teams here.

Wang Yu (Vice President of Origin Capital) : Let me share a little bit. No matter what the project is, whether it is a hardware project or a software project, it basically comes down to three things in the end: your business, your people, and your timing. These three points must be coordinated.

If we don’t know what a BP does after reading it, we won’t talk to it unless the team is particularly outstanding. If you can’t even explain the products and services you provide, you can’t explain them clearly to users and make products that users will like very much.

In addition, whether your team supports it is different for different stages. If it is smart hardware, we hope that if you make smart hardware, you must have people who understand hardware. I don’t like a team that is very outstanding in marketing. We hope to have very professional people when the company is first established.

Whether the smart hardware is good or not, and how the actual shipments are, we always insist that you must have someone who has a hardware background. At another point in time, it often does not matter how much experience you have. If someone makes a mobile phone like Xiaomi or Meizu, but may not be able to make an iOS system, you may be a martyr if you take the lead, but you may have no chance at all if you take the second step. In the hardware field, we first look at the product.

If you use foreign technology and find a particularly good application field to use it, and have a relatively good marketing channel, it is also a good entrepreneurial direction. We do not have to focus on different types, and not one path can only achieve the highest level of technology. You may have relatively poor technology, but if you make the application layer good enough, the experience is good enough, and it is maintained well in the long run, there is also a good chance for this kind of business to run for a while.

▲Wang Yu (Vice President of Origin Capital)

To answer the previous question, the hardware industry is not that cold. Capital will definitely have higher requirements for your profitability. We used to believe in a good dream, but the results of two years have proved that the reality is too bleak. If you talk about big data, you must have a large number of users first. Your user volume is based on your hardware, and your shipment is your first goal.

It's not that we only care about this. Only after you complete this can you have a business foundation. We look at whether you have the manufacturing ability, the shipping ability, and the ability to distribute it. As for some car-mounted, drones, VR, etc., there are actually many things that the entire Internet can do. The long-term industry is that people have been doing it for 5 to 10 years. Whether it is JD crowdfunding or Taobao crowdfunding, products have been emerging in an endless stream. It is not so cold. We pay more attention to your shipping ability and profitability. Now it is not the stage where you can raise money just by telling a story if you have an idea.

How to choose a supply chain partner

Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance) : Finally, let me ask Chen Hongfei a question. You just mentioned a lot of technical aspects. In fact, from my personal understanding, this intelligence is not only tangible at the technical software level, but may be more at the product thinking level, marketing level, and supply chain level. I agree with what you just said that supply chain service providers should be partners of entrepreneurial teams, rather than just manufacturing.

In fact, from a professional perspective, it is difficult for a startup team to have all-round talents. There is also a problem at the selection level. There are many companies that can provide supply chain services now, whether they have their own production or service platform. Can you help the startup platform to make judgments on how to choose supply chain partners?

Frankly speaking, when we were looking for partners for Xiaoyang Finance, we made a display stand. A kid from Tsinghua University helped us design it. When we took it to the production company, they said it couldn’t be done because they had no experience and were immature. The start-up team itself was not clear about many issues. Is this really the case? When I choose a supply chain partner, from which angles do I consider whether this supply chain partner is what I need? I am not talking about a specific production factory or a designer, but a supply chain service provider, or a service department, a department. How do we make this choice when facing such a partner?

Chen Hongfei (CEO of Cloud Intelligence) : This is also a problem we often encounter when selecting customers. Our hardware companies, including smart hardware companies, choose a supply chain service provider as your partner. The word "partner" has many meanings.

It means that you have to disclose all your information to him and work with him for a long time, just like a man and a woman getting married. You have to trust each other and support each other in difficult times. In fact, this is a very important choice. When making this choice, you first need to know what you want? What kind of service do you want? What do you really need? Some of our customers either want the ability to quickly implement products and implement products at a low cost.

Some of our customers want you to be an Apple supplier for them, and they must use Apple suppliers to make this product. They also ask whether you have the service capabilities when I go into mass production. You need to see where your point is and figure it out yourself, otherwise you will choose the wrong direction. After you know this point, I suggest you ask your supply chain service provider to explain these points to you, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the supplier, there is no supplier that is all strong, there must be weaknesses.

Our strengths lie in mold manufacturing, and we do PCDA as a side job. We have strategic cooperation with cooperative suppliers, not many, but enough to support this. It depends on where your strengths and weaknesses are. To match the two, you also need to see whether the founder and the CEO of the partner have similar temperaments. This is very important. If there are any problems in the middle, it is because you two cannot operate and execute this matter by yourself.

▲ Chen Hongfei (CEO of Cloud Intelligence)

Zhang Kai (General Manager of Xiaoyang Finance) : Does your platform have a function that matches functions and personalities?

Chen Hongfei (CEO of Cloud Intelligence) : It is a strategic partner. If it is just a single product, you don’t have to think too much. This kind of partner is indispensable for our ground sales. You have to have no obvious gap between you and the CEO. This is very important.

When you choose a partner, you make all your information transparent to him, you hand over all your business to him, and you become completely dependent on him. If any problems arise at this time and you cannot solve them, then this may have a very significant impact on your company or project. So first of all, you must communicate well with your partner before making a choice. First, he must be willing to communicate with you and share with you. Our smart hardware entrepreneurs have an Internet mindset and a sharing mindset.

Many offline supply chain companies have traditional closed-minded thinking and may not be particularly willing to share these things with you. At this time, you should evaluate how you communicate with them and whether you can communicate? How much can you bear the risk after it occurs? This is the point that everyone should pay attention to.

Source: IT ears erduomi

Global Internet of Things Compilation and Release

Related extended reading:

Who are the players in the popular smart door lock market?

A complete guide to China's smart watch industry (strongly recommended for collection)

ARM chip shipments: next 4 years = past 27 years