Hardware Workshop - Coming to Toronto

Toronto - Hardware Workshop

We are excited to announce the next stop for Hardware Workshop: Toronto.

Hardware workshop is a two day event for hardware startups. Taught by experienced operators, it’s purpose is simple: Teach important lessons to the next generation of hardware entrepreneurs.

What makes this workshop unique is the quality of the content, the deep operational experience of the teachers, and the long term connections you will make. Hand curated, each teacher covers a unique topic that falls within the startup’s life cycle from an idea to reaching market fit.

WHEN?
Friday, May 2nd – Saturday, May 3rd

Doors open at 9:00am
Sessions run every hour (except for lunch) from 10am – 5pm.
Followed by Happy Hour

WHERE?
366 Adelaide St W, Suite 500, Toronto, ON M5V 1R9

COST?
$75.00

This includes two breakfasts, two lunches, beverages, and happy hour.

Being entrepreneurs we are sensitive to charging for events, but we found a minimum amount enables us to make the events better (good food, audio/video equipment, location, organizer help, etc), while ensuring you are committed to the event.

HOW DO I ATTEND?
First you have to apply. We only have 75 open spots. We are looking for startup teams who are working on a hardware product and who really want to attend. We aren’t judging what people are building, just verifying people are actually building hardware. Otherwise the lessons we’re teaching can’t be applied. If your application is accepted you will get an email to purchase a spot.

APPLY HERE

HOW DO I BUY A TICKET?
Once you are accepted you will be emailed a code to purchase your ticket.

WHAT WILL I LEARN?
Lots. We will have 12 different 60 minute sections, taught be experienced operators. The topics will cover some of the following:

Refining to an MVP
Defining your brand
Navigating patents and IP
Funding your hardware startup
Being retail ready
Building a team
Turning customers into fans
What happens after crowdfunding
Picking the right supplier
Telling your story
Hardware design process
Succeeding at crowdfunding

WHO IS TEACHING?

	Marc Barros – Moment + Contour Marc Barros is the co-founder of Moment, amazing lenses for your mobile phone. Prior to Moment, Marc was a co-founder and former CEO of Contour, a hands-free camera company that makes action video easy to capture and share. Shortly after graduating from the University of Washington, Marc co-founded Contour in 2004 and led the organization from a garage to a multi-million dollar company with hundreds of thousands of customers around the world. @marcbarros
	Ben Einstein – Bolt Ben Einstein is an experienced product designer and investor. Ben is currently the Managing Director of Bolt, a program built from the ground up to help promising early-stage hardware companies develop their products and get to market. Prior to starting Bolt, Ben ran Brainstream Design, a product design and development consultancy in Massachusetts. Ben has been directly responsible for bringing a long list of products to market covering diverse sectors including consumer electronics, high-performance audio, sporting goods and green energy.
	Katherine Hague – ShopLocket Katherine Hague is the Co-Founder of ShopLocket, a platform for hardware entrepreneurs looking to bring innovative products to life and into the hands of visionary consumers. Prior to founding ShopLocket, she worked as an independent digital media consultant and in a variety of marketing positions for Toronto-based startups. In January of 2014, ShopLocket was acquired by PCH International to help make a world where passion is the only requirement to bringing a product to life.
	Zak Homuth- Upverter Zak studied Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo doing his co-op internships at IBM in Germany, Infosys in India, and Sandvine in Waterloo, Ontario. He accepted a full-time job at xSandvine where he was responsible for both designing new hardware and scaling it into manufacturing. In August 2010, he left the company and founded Upverter. He wrote the first lines of code for the platform in Waterloo and now runs Upverter’s business affairs as CEO in Toronto.
	Cindy Soo – Flextronics With over 14 years of professional design experience, consulting for Fortune 500 companies across Asia, the US, and Europe, Cindy’s expertise is in creating engaging and meaningful experiences throughout a product or service’s lifecycle in the ‘Connected Living’ space (Wearables & Spaces). She leads multidisciplinary teams orchestrating creative strategy, with emphasis on user behavior, insight, goals, adaptability, fashion and wearability, and consumer trends.
	Ashish Bidadi – Palette Ashish is a co-founder and chief operating officer at Palette, the world’s first freeform hardware interface that can be built like Lego to control any software. Palette recently completed a successful crowd-funding campaign raising over $158,000 on Kickstarter. Together with his co-founder, Ashish has spent the eight months traveling between San Francisco, Shenzhen and Waterloo, bringing Palette to life.
	Bill Drislane – Dragon Innovation Leads pre-manufacturing strategy for Dragon’s clients. Authority on Quality and Reliability Engineering. Formerly VP of Quality for Euro-Pro and Director Asia Pacific for iRobot, Bill holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Engineering, as well as an MBA, from Cornell University. Little known fact: Bill is a second degree black belt in Taekwondo.
	Andrew Currier – Perry + Currier Andrew Currier is a recognised leader in the Canadian IP field. Mr. Currier is co-author with Stephen Perry of Canadian Patent Law (LexisNexis 2012, 2nd Edition 2014), the first comprehensive text on the subject by a practitioner in over 30 years. Mr. Currier practises as a patent and trademark agent through the firm of Perry + Currier Inc. and as a lawyer through Currier + Kao LLP.
	Andrew Black – Brand Project Andrew Black is the Founder of BrandProject, a company creation studio that builds, buys, and makes seed stage investments in disruptive consumer brands. BrandProject provides both consumer business building expertise and investment equity to its partner companies. Andrew has a wealth of experience helping to build some of the world’s leading consumer products and consumer technology companies, having been Founding CEO at Virgin Mobile Canada, President Americas at LEGO, General Manager for the US Equipment Business at Nike Inc., and VP Marketing-North America at Cadbury Schweppes/Dr Pepper 7UP.
	Jon Lax – Teehan+Lax Jon is the President and Co-Founder of Teehan+Lax. He is responsible for the overall strategic direction and operation of the company. Since starting Teehan+Lax in 2002 Jon has worked with clients like Beatport, Corcoran, Medium, Google, and Bell. He is responsible for establishing TL Labs and making Teehan+Lax one of the most respected companies in the digital industry. Jon can be found on twitter @jlax.
	Oleg Gutsol- 500px Co-founder and CEO of 500px. Envisioning the future of photography. Building amazing teams and great software. Passionate about technology, photography, music, travel and culture. Love meeting people.
	Rami Alhamad- PUSH Rami Alhamad is the co-founder of PUSH, a wearable tech startup that is focussed on improving athletes performance. Prior to PUSH, Rami dabbled in various tech and consulting roles after completing his Masters degree at the University of Guelph in Systems Design Engineering and his undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo in Mechatronics Engineering.

A SPECIAL THANKS
To Zak Homuth and Katherine Hague for helping to organize this event. They are staples in the hardware and Toronto community and this event would not have been possible without their help.

COMMUNITY PARTNER