We are excited to announce that Hardware Workshop is coming back to Seattle on April 28th and 29th, 2016.
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 30 or 60 minute sessions.
- Hardware product development process.
- Prototyping
- Building a team
- Defining your brand
- Product launches
- Picking a supplier
- Raising seed funding
- Building press relationships
- IP and patents
- Certifications
- Building initial distribution (Both B2C and B2B sessions)
- Founder panel
When?
Thursday, April 28th – Friday, April 29th
Doors open at 9:00am
Sessions run every hour (except for lunch) from 10am – 5pm.
Followed by Happy Hour
Where?
Synapse Product Development – 1511 6th Ave, 3rd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101
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.
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
Liz Pearce – Liquid Planner
Liz Pearce is Chief Executive Officer at LiquidPlanner, the fast-growing Seattle-based maker of predictive project management technology. Since taking over the CEO position, Liz has bootstrapped LiquidPlanner and grown the team from a handful of developers to a team of sixty-five and growing. Liz is an active member of the Seattle startup and technology community and is passionate about mentoring and advocating for diversity in technology and leadership.
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
Candice Decaire – Kilpatrick Townsend
Candice practices intellectual property law, with particular expertise in patent and trade secret law. She has counseled and represented clients in litigation, arbitration, ITC investigations, and inter partes review proceedings concerning diverse technologies such as mechanical devices, software, medical devices, consumer products, and pharmaceuticals. Candice also advises clients about protecting and profiting from their intellectual property and data; assessing and mitigating risks of infringement or misappropriation; and data privacy and security issues, with a special focus on the Internet of Things and wearable technology.
Kate Richmond – Synapse Product Development
Kate has been with Synapse since 2006, and is the resident guru for electrical engineering of fitness electronic products. She specializes in miniaturized low-power electronic design, including MSP430 and ARM Cortex microcontrollers, Bluetooth Low Energy, lithium polymer batteries, low power display technology, and FPC design. She has extensive experience in design for manufacturing, contract manufacturer ramp up, and production test development. Kate received her BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Olin College, where she was in the first graduating class. Attending a brand new school was in many ways like working for a startup company and it sparked Kate’s interest in fast paced product development and led her to Synapse.
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.
Maren Nelson – M Nelson Consulting
Maren Nelson is a consultant with medical device companies on product development, regulatory strategies and implementation. Prior to this, she led projects to develop and get approval for Class 3 and Class 2 medical devices in the US, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Maren has degrees in electrical engineering and business, and extensive experience in software development. She’s also an advisor to start-up companies.
Martine Stillman – Synapse Product Development
Martine is a Mechanical Engineering Program Lead at Synapse where she has been designing cutting-edge products for Nike, Philips and Airfloss. Her specialties include Solidworks surfacing, ultrasonic welding, miniaturization, waterproof devices, and pushing the boundaries on injection molding and insert molding. She received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bucknell University in 2004 (and got a BA in Art at the same time, just for funsies.) Martine also volunteers extensively in industry. She is the president of the Seattle Public Schools Project Lead the Way Advisory Board, and a panel presenter with IGNITE (Involving Girls Now in Technology Evolution) and EYH (Expanding Your Horizons).
Ryan Vinyard – Highway 1
Ryan is a Mechanical Engineer who currently works at Lime Lab and Highway1, both PCH International companies. At the Highway1 startup incubator, Ryan helps startups navigate through prototyping and manufacturing processes on the way to production. Previous to joining Lime Lab, Ryan was at Motiv Power Systems working on 100%-electric buses where he was responsible for all mechanical design releases, interfacing with vendors, and installing and maintaining modules on the bus.Ryan holds a B.S. in Product Design from Stanford University.
Jenny Hagemann – Amazon
Jenny Hagemann leads Amazon Launchpad’s Business Development strategy with VCs, Incubators and Accelerators vested in bringing new consumer products to market.
Bailey Nelson – Glowforge
Bailey runs Community at Glowforge, the 3D laser printer company that broke crowdfunding records last fall with a 30-day, $27.9 million self-hosted crowdfund (and some great press to boot)! Bailey began her career at a PR agency in San Diego, where she learned to pitch like a pro landing national media coverage for consumer products ranging from scuba diving certifications to GMO-free cereal bars in outlets like The Wall Street Journal and the TODAY Show. Prior to joining the Glowforge team as employee #9, Bailey led social and PR for Seattle healthcare and fitness startup EveryMove.
Ian MacDuff – Product Creation Studio
Ian MacDuff is a wrangler of electrons, weaver of code, and herder of nerds. He has spent his career leading cross-functional hardware teams to deliver consumer electronics and medical devices for startups and Fortune 100 companies alike. He’s currently developing high-performing hardware teams as VP of Client Engagement at Seattle design firm Product Creation Studio.
Michele Mehl – Excy
Michele Mehl is the founder and CEO of Excy, a company she started to take control of her health and help more people conveniently connect exercise to their daily life at home, work, or on the go. Prior to starting Excy, Michele co-founded Buzz Builders, a Seattle startup tech PR firm that helped launch prominent brands like Zulily and OfferUp.
Roger Wylie
Roger is the Managing Partner of Kilpatrick Townsend’s Seattle Office. He focuses his practice on patent prosecution and counseling, and advises start-up and established corporations, venture investors and other intellectual property stakeholders with regard to all aspects of patent prosecution and acquisition, counseling, licensing and litigation. A prior Materials Engineer, Roger brings deep experience with hardware, medical devices, complex machinery, consumer goods, and software
Thank You To Our Amazing Partners
Image Credit: X-Weinzar via Creative Commons