Hardware Workshop 2013 Recap - Hardware Workshop

When we started Hardware Workshop we had no idea what would happen. We knew that people wanted to learn about building hardware, but we never would have expected that 25 amazing teachers and over 200 attendees would show up to the first two events!

Our pilot cities, San Francisco and New York, were amazing. The energy was non-stop, the teachers were fantastic, and the discussions were enlightening. We learned an incredible amount about building hardware startups.

Thanks to the engagement of the attendees, we also learned a lot about how to make these events even better. Here are some of the highlights.

ATTENDEE DATA
As part of applying for Hardware Workshop, we had all of the attendees fill out a survey about their companies. Here is the cumulative data from SF and NYC.

Is This Your First Hardware Startup?

Company Stage?

Level of Funding?

What Skills Are On Your Team?

ATTENDEE FEEDBACK
One of our goals with the 2013 events was to learn. We wanted to learn about the attendees, what makes the content relevant and how to make these events even better. Thankfully we had over 25% of the attendees fill out the survey after the event with ideas about how to make the event even better.

How Likely Are You To Recommend Hardware Workshop?
We used an NPS survey to calculate the quality attendee happiness.

Average Score (out of 10) – 9.2
NPS – 72

Length Of Each Session
Each segment was about 45-50 minutes long with a short break in between each speaker. Attendees felt each segment was just about the right time length.

Too Short – 0%
Just Right – 93%
Too Long – 7%

Number Of Topics Per Day
In SF we had seven topics per day and in NYC we had six. The responses in NYC were much more favorable when we only had six topics in a day. This data combines SF and NYC.

Too Many – 20%
Just Right – 80%
Too Few – 0%

Topics We Missed
There are a few topics we will look at how to include at upcoming events.

Legal / IP
Early marketing strategies
Fundraising for hardware startups

What People Said

“I found the event to be interesting and informative, and my network of support has grown dramatically thanks to Hardware Workshop.”

“The Hardware Workshop really took the mystery out of building a hardware startup. The presenters were surprisingly candid about what went wrong for them, and did a great job grounding all of their advice in actual experience.”

“The most valuable workshop I have been to in a long time! All you need to know to start a hardware start up in 2 days.”

“A wealth of information about running a hardware startup, from an all-star lineup of veterans who have been in the trenches. Great talks and great networking!”

PICTURES
You can never post an event re-cap without some photos!