Many here might have seen my other post about the MorningRod
Well, I've also created the HyperDoor which is an automatic sliding door opener that easily attaches to any sliding door. I made it as a way of easily letting my dogs in and out of the home.
View attachment cyberdoor.mp4
HOWEVER, I think both products are bad business ideas and have decided to not move forward with them.
Why? Almost every single hardware product on Kickstarter has failed to deliver or gone out of business. The only way to survive is to figure out a recurring revenue strategy. Otherwise, each door opener will need to sell for $400-$500 to account for the constant customer acquisition costs.
So unless I can figure out a way to generate recurring revenue with these products, most investors will not want to touch them. The problem is that very few people are willing to pay monthly fees.
Nest products are a good example. I own a Nest Doorbell camera. The camera is could-based and provides me with very basic functionality. If I want the better features, they offer a $4/month subscription to get those. In addition, Nest thermostats sell customer usage data to utility companies to generate additional revenue as well.
As many hardware VC companies put it: Hardware needs to be a trojan horse for software, which is what will generate recurring revenue.
However, I don't see anyone paying a monthly fee to use this even though I have to pay a monthly bill for the cloud infrastructure. I also don't see myself selling any type of useful data as well.
Anyways, I just wanted to share where I'm at in case anyone is building some kind of complicated piece of hardware. Maybe you guys will have a better idea as well.
Well, I've also created the HyperDoor which is an automatic sliding door opener that easily attaches to any sliding door. I made it as a way of easily letting my dogs in and out of the home.
View attachment cyberdoor.mp4
HOWEVER, I think both products are bad business ideas and have decided to not move forward with them.
Why? Almost every single hardware product on Kickstarter has failed to deliver or gone out of business. The only way to survive is to figure out a recurring revenue strategy. Otherwise, each door opener will need to sell for $400-$500 to account for the constant customer acquisition costs.
So unless I can figure out a way to generate recurring revenue with these products, most investors will not want to touch them. The problem is that very few people are willing to pay monthly fees.
Nest products are a good example. I own a Nest Doorbell camera. The camera is could-based and provides me with very basic functionality. If I want the better features, they offer a $4/month subscription to get those. In addition, Nest thermostats sell customer usage data to utility companies to generate additional revenue as well.
As many hardware VC companies put it: Hardware needs to be a trojan horse for software, which is what will generate recurring revenue.
However, I don't see anyone paying a monthly fee to use this even though I have to pay a monthly bill for the cloud infrastructure. I also don't see myself selling any type of useful data as well.
Anyways, I just wanted to share where I'm at in case anyone is building some kind of complicated piece of hardware. Maybe you guys will have a better idea as well.
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