Show HN: New Sub-Reddit for Hardware Startups

http://www.reddit.com/r/hwstartups/

by nickpinkston • 14 years ago

65 20 14 years ago

reddit.com

nickpinkston8• 14 years ago

I'd love to get any feedback you guys have on this!

connorzwick• 14 years ago

This is a terrific idea! Consider me a subscriber already and hopefully a contributor soon too!

nickpinkston8• 14 years ago

Awesome dude - please do contribute! I seeded it and will continue to, but of course it's all about the community we've got to build.

djb_hackernews• 14 years ago

I'm not sure what the needs of the Hardware startup community are but I'm not a fan of the super specific subreddits. /r/startups isn't really that subscribed or busy, why not just post articles there?

nickpinkston8• 14 years ago

Yea, this is fair point, but if you saw what we're seeing in HardwareLand, you'd see that we very underrepresented and feel VERY different from the standard startup crowd.

There's some similarities that HN does very well on - general lean startup stuff, etc., but HN will never be a community that up-votes "How to manufacture in China" type articles more than "How to Deploy X web stack in Y way" ones.

nabilt• 14 years ago

I agree 100%. Here are some other hardware related subreddits I follow.

ECE

-------

http://www.reddit.com/r/electronics

http://www.reddit.com/r/ECE

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics

http://www.reddit.com/r/DSP

http://www.reddit.com/r/ECEComponentExchange

----

http://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR

http://www.reddit.com/r/GNURadio

http://www.reddit.com/r/rfelectronics

Maker

---------

http://www.reddit.com/r/maker

makmanalp• 14 years ago

It's a control issue. If you start a new subreddit, you "own" that subreddit, and can control posts etc. Also, since you're a mod, your posts garner more attention.

callil2• 14 years ago

Exciting! I'm glad you are trying to start something up. Maybe a more dedicated site would foster a stronger community later down the line. Are there any existing places that do this?

nickpinkston8• 14 years ago

Yea, I'm with you. I'm actually an awful web developer, so I figured I'd gauge interest with a sub-Reddit. There's a ton of room for resources (see below).

On July 30th in SF I'm organizing an "Map-a-thon" to put together a hardware resources map (like where to buy electronics, metal, etc. locally) for the SF area using a simple gMaps embed and some KMLs.

There also needs to be a "CrunchBase for hardware" because no one tags things "hardware" - it's always "fitness", "maker" or whatever category they're targeting.

We're also doing a survey soon to get some case studies on how people are building these companies.

Finally, we're looking at putting together a knowledge base for how to make things like "How to Design for Injection Molding" - etc. It's easy to find "How to Build X in Rails" tutorials - we need the same for our community.

nickpinkston8• 14 years ago

Some stuff we've been doing:

- http://www.meetup.com/HardwareStartupSF

- http://hardwareuncon.eventbrite.com

- http://www.meetup.com/Solid-State-Startups

To name very few - look at the side bar on the sub-Reddit to see more.

callil2• 14 years ago

This is super interesting to me as an Industrial design student masquerading as a Web designer. Unfortunately I am on the East Coast, but if there is any way I can help with this idea let me know.

jiakeliu• 14 years ago

Score! Posted mine. http://www.reddit.com/r/hwstartups/comments/x3axm/heres_my_s...

follower• 14 years ago

If you're in San Francisco tonight it looks like there's a hardware meetup at 6:30pm:

"Special Hardware Event: A Night with OpenROV" http://www.meetup.com/HardwareStartupSF/events/72306272/

(via the link from @nickpinkston)

nickpinkston8• 14 years ago

Yea, I'll be there! It's at TechShop San Francisco - so you can check that out as well. Great stuff!

orenmazor• 14 years ago

this is a fantastic idea. I've lived in hardware startup land for a while, and the needs are very specific there :)

halfnelson• 14 years ago

This is a great idea. I grew up around fab-houses in China and I can say it definitely takes much more effort to even get a prototype down in the States. The cost of parts alone is ridiculous and probably off-putting to newcomers.

It's a real shame, since there's so much talent here that could be building amazing new hardware, but we end up just waiting for big companies like Google to tell us what the next platform will be.

I'll definitely be subscribing to this subr and coming to some meetups. Hell, we can organize bulk orders and get cheaper parts from China!

Show HN: New Sub-Reddit for Hardware Startups

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