Courses

Formation and funding of hardware companies have accelerated dramatically over the last few years. You could be the founder of the next Pebble or Tile. This course will give you the tools and knowledge that are unique to hardware. The approach will be interactive with extensive question-and-answer and discussion. We will start by showing how to cost-effectively protect your idea for a product by writing your own provisional patent. We will then dive deeply into how to create a financial model for your hardware venture, emphasizing the impact of inventory and sales model on income and cash flow. We will discuss how to decide whether and when to raise money through crowdfunding (for example, Kickstarter and Indiegogo), and when to use traditional fundraising sources like venture capital. An entire class session will be dedicated to contract manufacturing and logistics. We will also discuss warranty, customer support, and field service.

The course will be helpful if your company will sell to consumers (B2C) or to other companies (B2B), but the emphasis will be on building consumer-facing products. This course is suitable for those who have previously started software or service companies, and for those new to entrepreneurship.