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Helping hardware founders build better companies.

We are excited to announce that Hardware Workshop is coming back to New York on September 29th and 30th.

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.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This is our Level 1 program, for startups that are going from an idea to successfully shipping their first product. We have 12 different 60 minute sessions, taught by experienced operators, covering a variety of topics from defining your product to picking the right suppliers to successfully launching your company.

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

  • Building press relationships.
  • Launching a product.
  • Product development process.
  • Defining your brand.
  • Prototyping.
  • Selecting a supplier.
  • Building your initial team.
  • Certifications.
  • Funding a hardware startup.
  • IP and patents.
  • B2B Distribution
  • B2C Distribution
  • Hardware founder panel.

WHEN?
Thursday, September 29th – Friday, September 30th.

  • Doors open at 9:00am
  • Sessions run every hour (10am – 1pm, Lunch, 2pm-5pm).
  • Followed by Happy Hour

WHERE?
NewLab, Building 128, Brooklyn Navy Yard, 63 Flushing Ave Brooklyn, NY 

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 100 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.

Who Is Teaching?

Marc Barros – Moment + Contour
Marc Barros is the co-founder of Moment, the best tools in the world for mobile photographers. 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

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Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone – Adafruit
Limor “Ladyada” Fried is founder and engineer of New York based Adafruit Industries. Limor started Adafruit in 2005 while at MIT studying engineering. Her goal was to create the best place online for learning electronics for makers of all ages and skill levels. Adafruit has grown to over 100 employees in the heart of New York City with a 50,000 plus square foot factory. Limor was the first female engineer on the cover of Wired Magazine and was awarded Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Ladyada was on the New York City Industrial Business Advisory Council and Adafruit was ranked Number 11 in the top 20 USA manufacturing companies and number one in New York City by Inc. Magazine’s 5000 fastest growing private companies.

Phillip Torrone is partner at Adafruit, helping to manage the day-to-day challenges of running a factory in New York City. He was previously senior editor at Make Magazine, producing the Make blog, creating the Make video series, and working on the Maker Shed online store and Maker Faire. He was also senior editor at Popular Science, how-to editor at Engadget, and founder of Hackaday.com.

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Ben Einstein – Bolt
Ben Einstein is an experienced product designer and entrepreneur. Ben is currently a partner at Bolt, a seed-stage venture capital fund that invests at the intersection of hardware and software. 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.@BenEinstein

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Joe Brown – Popular Science
Editor-in-chief at Popular Science. Formerly at Wired and Gizmodo.

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Alexandra Fine – Dame
Alexandra Fine is the co-founder of Dame Products, which is devoted to proving that sex can be equally as pleasurable for both men and women and aiding that assertion with creative, well-designed and flawlessly-executed sexual innovations. Eva, the first of these inventions, quickly became the #1 crowdfunded sex toy — catapulting Alex and her business partner, Janet Lieberman, into the spotlight for their uniquely engineered couples’ vibrator aimed at closing the pleasure gap. Having recently hit their $1 million mark in pre-sale revenue, Dame Products is primed for expansion and ready to keep making the world a better place, one vagina at a time.

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Idan Cohen – Grow and Boxee
Idan Cohen is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is the co-founder and CEO of Grow, a company on a mission to change the way we eat and our access to fresh produce through the development of smart and simple solutions that allow families to grow vegetables in their backyard. Prior to Grow, Idan cofounded and was the Chief Product Officer of Boxee, a revolutionary media player device and software. In 2013 Boxee was acquired by Samsung Electronics forming Samsung’s NYC R&D center and leading it’s next generation TV platform design. Idan started his career as an engineer at the Israeli Intelligence Department working building Israel’s reconnaissance satellites.

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Anna Thornton – Dragon Innovation
Anna is a Ph.D. Mechanical Engineer who understands both the technical and business aspects of an organization to balance their often competing needs. Currently, at Dragon Anna supports hardware teams by; defining and managing their quality system implementations, providing expertise in hardware design, product development, production systems, and cost reduction. Anna has also provided distinctive consulting for 100+ global companies in a variety of industries diagnosing, troubleshooting, and improving product design, production, and their bottom line. She received her BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University, and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cambridge. In her spare time, Anna is an avid cyclist and enjoys building furniture in her home workshop.

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Dakota Boin – Highway 1
Dakota Boin is Highway1’s Firmware Engineer. He specializes in embedded computing and helps startups with any computing that happens in their product. Dakota also helps the startups manage the connectivity of their hardware devices to the cloud. After graduating from RIT with a degree in computer engineering technology, Dakota started his career at Lockitron. From there he had a string of oddly-coincidental work with Highway1 alumni Birdi and Ayda before joining the Highway1 team.

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Heather Miles – Foley Hoag
Heather Miles is a partner in Foley Hoag’s New York office, representing a wide variety of technology companies spanning the entire corporate life cycle. She represents emerging growth companies with respect to organization, corporate governance, financings, executive compensation, employment, intellectual property and exit via mergers and acquisition or public offerings.
Heather also has experience in the structuring, formation and representation of venture capital funds. She has advised leading venture capital and private equity funds in connection with investments in over twenty jurisdictions.

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Matt O’Connor – Kinsa
Matt O’Connor is Director of Channels at Kinsa, maker of the world’s first app-enabled smart thermometer, where he leads channel sales and retail relationships. Matt has worked in sales and marketing for several hardware startups, including Pure Digital Technologies, creator of the Flip Video Camera, which was acquired by Cisco Systems. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in History from UC Berkeley. Matt’s also a four-time marathon runner and an avid San Francisco Giants fan.

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Chris Quintero – Bolt
Chris Quintero is an Associate at Bolt where he is a member of the investments team. Bolt is a different kind of venture capital fund, designed from the ground-up to address the needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.  Chris has a mechanical engineering background and previously worked on international development projects in Chile, Vietnam, and Cameroon. He splits his time between the rapidly emerging Boston and NYC hardware startup ecosystems.

Jesse Derris

Jesse Derris – Derris & Company
Jesse Derris is the Founder and CEO of Derris & Company, a brand strategy and public relations firm headquartered in New York, NY. Before founding the firm, he served as Senior Vice President and Partner at Sunshine Sachs, where he led the firm’s work in a variety of verticals, including finance, crisis, digital, sports and real estate. Derris serves as a crisis counselor for major corporations and executives in media, finance, fashion, entertainment and sports, and invests in and advises consumer-facing start-ups at various stages of development. He is also an advisor-in-residence for the Columbia University Entrepreneurship Program.

Jeff Mancini – Advisor
Jeff is an seasoned marketer and entrepreneur who’s serviced brands from early stage to Fortune 100 status. Some of his clients have included Nike, AT&T, GE, Samsung, Google, Philips, 3M, Bosch and J&J. With a diverse background including business strategy, brand development, and product innovation, he helps clients break through in a cluttered technology marketplace. He ran his own agency for 5 years and helped shape the innovation practices at both Interbrand and R/GA, two of the most regarded creative agencies in the world.

Thank You To Our Amazing Partners

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Bolt

Image Credit: Anthony Quintano via Creative Commons