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โFor a hardware startup, a patent serves as a form of insurance.โ โย Vicara Co-Founder Abhishek Satish
Chinese Manufacturers Are Looking to Partner with Maker Pros
The contemporary models for funding and producing a hardware product โ typically, creating a concept and prototype before looking for venture capital or starting a crowdfunding campaign โ are fraught with uncertainty.
But a newย VentureBeatย featureย explores an alternative modelย that could serve maker pros well: startups approaching manufacturers directly to form mutually beneficial relationships for both funding and building a product. The dynamic sometimes hinges on Chinese factories that are eager to become stakeholders in entrepreneurial projects instead of contractors for overseas clients.
Takeย Gi FlyBikeย (@GiFlyBike), a group of Argentinian maker pros who developed the electric bicycle shown above. After building hype with a $400,000ย Kickstarterย campaign, the startup struck a deal withย Yadea Technology Group, a Chinese e-bike maker. Now, FlyBike is entering mass production inside Yadeaโs manufacturing space.
And speaking of overseas manufacturing, famedย Xboxย hackerย Bunnie Huangย (@bunniestudios)ย wrote this weekย about his experiments tracking product shipments and recalls usingย Bitmarksย (@BitmarkUpdates), a system for tracking inventory back to the factory where it was made using a blockchain ledger.
Adafruit Bulks up IoT Subscription Offerings
Open source hardware outfitย Adafruitย (@adafruit)ย launchedย IO Plusย this week, a new subscription service forย Adafruit IOย that costs just $10 per month for 60 data points per minute and 60 days of data storage โ a clear bid for open source oxygen in the crowded IoT space. The company says it already has more than 30,000 feeds online, with some 82.1 million new data inserts in the past week.
Speaking of Adafruit, the company representativeย Phillip Torroneย (@ptorrone) recently made waves byย uploading instructionsย for stampingย Harriet Tubmanโs face onto $20 bills bearing the likeness ofย Andrew Jackson.
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India’s Maker Pros are Using Patents to Protect Their Work
Weโveย written beforeย about Indiaโs burgeoning maker pro scene โ and its struggles with investors who have been reluctant to become involved. But a newย Forbesย reportย points to a heartening trend: patent applications, especially by hardware startups, are on the rise in the subcontinent.
โWhen we created the technology, we knew there would be competition,โ saidย Abhishek Satishย (@Abishake96), a co-founder of Vellore-based wearable technology outfitย Vicara. โIt doesnโt take long for someone to copy your work and pass it off as theirs. For a hardware startup, a patent serves as a form of insurance.โ
Food Maker Frontiers
Make:ย correspondentย Chiara Cecchiniย (@ClaireCecchini) is back this week with two new reports about makers in the vanguard of the culinary world.
First is aย profileย ofย Ben Cowdenย (@twenty7gears), a Massachusetts maker who uses cutting edge automation and design tools to build automated cocktail mixing machines. And the second is aboutย CentriSeed Innovations, an organization thatย creates sustainable open space solutionsย to communities around the world, with the aim of developing studentsโ professional skills.
We also spottedย Finding Farmland, designerย Ben Fry‘s (@ben_fry)ย new websiteย thatย helps young farmersย โ the original food maker pros โ get access to the land and capital necessary to start a new farm.
And one more food story about a whimsical project that reinvents the entrepreneurial icon of the lemonade stand: makerย Rob Adamsย hacked together a mobile lemonade standย โ shaped, naturally, like a giant lemon โ that sits on a go-kart chassis.
Elsewhere on the Maker Pro Web
More details areย now availableย onย Inventablesย (@Inventables) CEOย Zach Kaplanโs (@zkaplan) experimental new book,ย Getting Started with 3D Carving. โYou can participate directly in the process,โ Kaplan said. โYouโll be the maker of knowledge.โ
Make:ย senior editorย Caleb Kraftย (@calebkraft) is back with more information aboutย how makers can helpย areas devastated by hurricanes, this time with a series of challenges to assist communities in desalinating water, cooking sustainably, maintaining the telecommunication grid and more.
Anย intriguing eventย fromย Built In Austinย (@builtinaustin) is scheduled next week in Texas to explore reasons that hardware startups fail โ and offer ways to fight feature creep, keep investors happy, and prototype effectively.
Weโre fans of anything that analyses failures to discover how other maker pros can do better in the future. Case in point,ย this podcastย interviews Japanese maker proย Takuro Yoshidaย (@yoshida_takuro), the founder ofย Logbar(@Logbar), about how he avoided pitfalls that have tripped up other Japanese IoT startups.
Finally, aย heartwarming feature: a decade ago,ย Thomasville Furnitureย (@ThomasvilleFurn), moved its manufacturing to China, snuffing out jobs in the community. But theย Forge Greensboroย (@ForgeGreensboro) makerspace recently organized aย Chaircity MAKERspaceย pop-up in which community members collaborated to once again build bespoke wooden chairs. Weโll be watching to see where this story goes.
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