Hardware Workshop Coming To SF On 9/22-23

We are excited to announce that Hardware Workshop is coming back to San Francisco on September 28th and 29th, 2017.

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 for startups that are between an idea to successfully shipping their first product. We will 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 28th – Friday, September 29th.

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

WHERE?
Autodesk Gallery – One Market, Floor 2, San Francisco, CA 94105

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

Tyler Mincey – Independent
Most recently, Tyler was VP of Product at Pearl, a startup developing intelligent camera systems for the automotive aftermarket. Previously Tyler managed iPod product development at Apple and was part of the first-generation iPhone team. He was also a partner at the digital agency Fictive Kin and a teaching assistant at the Smart Product Design Lab at Stanford.

Linda Pouliot – Dishcraft Robotics
Linda Pouliot is a serial entrepreneur specializing in robotics, based in Silicon Valley. In 2004, she co-founded Neato Robotics with the idea that robots can perform household chores as effectively as humans. Linda Pouliot also served as COO of Adiri, Inc., where she worked on the internationally award-winning Adiri Natural Nurser. She has also developed products for retail brands, including Disney, Banana Republic, and QVC, as Director of Operations at Gouda. She has been awarded multiple patents and international awards. She graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a BFA cum laude. Learn more about her at robolinda.com

Alejandro Chavetta – Astro Studios
After earning his degree in Visual Communications and Graphic design from San Francisco State University, Alejandro spent many years in the artistic trenches of publishing including Dwell and SF Magazine. He brings this experience to fortify brand communication and articulate client’s stories, thriving in lacing together brand, product and digital experiences. Alejandro is also an accomplished collage artist whose pieces end up on album covers, gallery walls and in client work.

Megan Mokri – Byte
Megan Mokri is the founder and CEO of Byte, a food company using proprietary IoT technology to offer the highest quality, most affordable fresh food solution. Byte brings the retail experience of Whole Foods grab ‘n go to workplaces, apartments, gyms, and hospitals using smart refrigerators. Prior to Byte, Megan spent eight years in the online ad technology space, leading teams at Yahoo! and Ghostery. Megan studied biological engineering at Cornell University and received an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She lives in Mill Valley, CA with her husband, two kids, two cats and two dogs.

Ben Einstein – Bolt
Ben Einstein is an experienced product designer and entrepreneur. Ben is currently the Managing Director of Bolt, a seed-stage fund that invests capital, personnel, equipment, and expertise in hardware startups. Bolt provides companies with capital, staff, shop equipment, and extensive expertise with manufacturing and commercialization. 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

Eddie Lee – Podo Labs
Eddie Lee is the co-founder and President of Podo Labs, a San Francisco-based company that specializes in Bluetooth-connected consumer products. Eddie has overseen four 6-figure crowdfunding campaigns (raising $2.5MM in total) and the fulfillment of Podo Labs’ products worldwide, including through retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom.

Robin Marich – Astro Studios
Robin is a multi-disciplinary designer with over 10 years of agency and design experience. Graduating from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, her passion for design, technology and creative problem solving has led her to work for studios in both New York and San Francisco. She excels at collaboration between multiple design disciplines and has worked on an array of award-winning projects with clients such as Toyota, Ticketmaster, Lucas Arts, Bose and Genentech.

Chris Quintero – Bolt
Chris Quintero is an Associate at Bolt, a venture capital fund designed to address the unique needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software. At Bolt he handles sourcing new investments and splits his time between the Boston and NYC hardware startup ecosystems. Chris has a mechanical engineering background and previously worked on international development projects in Chile, Vietnam, and Cameroon.

Nate Deschaine – Dragon Innovation
Nate is a Senior Program Manager at Dragon Innovation, a company whose mission is to help hardware entrepreneurs succeed in every phase of the journey from crowdfunding into manufacturing at scale. Prior to Dragon, Nate worked at iRobot for 7 years, helping to design and manufacture products like the Scooba and Roomba. Nate’s has a background in mechanical engineering with a speciality in injection molding and design.

Kate Whitcomb – Hax
Kate runs the HAX Boost accelerator in San Francisco, CA, focused on helping hardware startups excel at retail and distribution. Before HAX, Kate spent four years with Target Corporation, where she was responsible for over $500m in total product spend across the beauty, home goods and baby categories. Most recently, Kate was director of merchandising for Target’s Consumer IoT team in San Francisco, where she focused on preparing Bay Area hardware startups for retail distribution. Kate holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA in Studio Art and Economics from Kenyon College.

Carsten Jensen – Bolt
Carsten is an electrical and embedded engineer at Bolt, a VC firm that invests in startups at the intersection of hardware and software. Carsten has helped dozens of startups with technical challenges, including design, manufacturing, and certification. His previous experience includes bringing a wearable from concept to mass production, working on much of the Google server infrastructure, and designing several key system for the Google self-driving car. Carsten holds a Masters of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.

Vijay Chattha – Wareness
Vijay Chattha is recognized for his aggressive and creative approach. In 2013, Chattha built Wareness.io, a marketing accelerator and seed investment fund for hardware startups that mixes all forms of marketing but is driven by creative storytelling. The results thus far have been historic. Coin, Tile, Moov, Navdy, Vessyl, Osmo, and Ringly have become some of the most successful hardware crowdfunding campaigns of all time.

Avidan Ross – Root Ventures
Avidan is the Founding Partner of Root Ventures, where he focuses his investments on connected devices, engineering tools, and data science. He is a maker / hardware hacker turned investor. Before founding Root, he hosted a Food Network show (which never aired!) called Weapons of Mass Consumption in which he and his team built the ultimate food robots, most notably an arduino-controlled afterburner powered pizza oven. Avidan spent eight years as CTO of CIM Group, a $15 billion investment firm. There he focused on infrastructure investing in vehicle telematics, smart grid, and alternative energy. Avidan has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Columbia University.

Eric Klein – Lemnos Labs
My passion is imagining, engineering, and marketing innovative hardware products. I’ve had the opportunity to found successful startups, manage teams in highly successful, multi-national corporations, and provide capital to early stage startups. I’m a Partner at Lemnos Labs, the San Francisco based hardware accelerator helping lead the worldwide hardware renaissance. I’ve previously enjoyed product roles at Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Real Networks, Palm, and Apple.

Peter Miller – Run8 Patent Group
Peter Miller is a registered Patent Agent and founding partner of Run8 Patent Group, a San Francisco Bay Area patent prosecution firm specializing in building high-value, highly-effective patent portfolios for technology startups. Drawing on his bachelors and masters degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and his backgrounds in mechatronics and manufacturing, he has filed several hundred patent applications on a broad range of hardware and software technologies, including medical devices, manufacturing systems, vehicle technologies, food systems, drones, Internet security, agricultural systems, and wearable devices.