Hasta La Ideas

Images courtesy of Sparse

By Colin Owen, Sparse

Two and a half years ago, three biker/designer/friends sat around a table and discussed designing “something around bikes.” We took a good hard look and decided the industry had largely optimized performance around racing, so we chose to optimize and design for the daily working use of a bike. Two years ago, we incorporated that effort. One year ago, we launched a Kickstarter campaign. This month, we are delivering on Kickstarter promises. In the interim, we have been slaving away on the myriad other things that make our effort a real company and not just (the world’s most infuriating) hobby.

To found a hardware company is to spend your days: need-finding, developing form, developing design, locating and vetting manufacturers, negotiating deals with manufacturers, locating and negotiating financing, setting up a fulfillment network, setting up a sales network, certifying the product, verifying taxation rates, fretting over foreign laws written in foreign tongues, networking, fundraising, project management, (endlessly) monitoring manufacturing, and marketing (whatever that means).

Compare all of that to the list of skills that we, as product designers, attain in school and in consulting: need-finding, form, various types of digital, physical and visual representation, mechanical integration, production processes, the pitch.

There are approximately three things that overlap between the two lists. We, Sparse, have accomplished or at least attempted the rest via: getting it flatly wrong the first time; imperfect iterative efforts; HUGE singular efforts; hiring the person who knows the answer; chatting with a friend who is further along the development curve; pulling favors; borrowing money; traveling to far-away places; befriending reporters; and mainlining black tar… er, coffee.

There are others who write more cogently on startup culture in general, and productivity in specific than I can achieve (which is why I’ve included wonderful references at the bottom of the article). What follows is a handful of insights into the narrow turf of hardware development as a bootstrapped startup.

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