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Gary Burrell, Garmin co-founder, has died
- vasilipupkin 7y agoHe was 51 when he started Garmin. Never too late !
- philshem 7y agoStartup founders, especially for high-performing companies, are older than one may think. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18212409 (Unfortunately the original HBR article is now behind a paywall.)
- HNLurker2 7y agoAnd what does this mean for youngsters in the game?
- jumbopapa 7y agoRay Kroc and Mr. Burrell are great examples of why you should never give up!
- alister 7y agoEven older actually, 52. (He was born Aug. 1937 and Garmin was founded Oct. 1989.) > In 1989, they pooled their savings and persuaded Dr. Kao’s Taiwanese relatives to invest seed money. With $4 million... That's $8.4 million in 2019 dollars. It takes a lot of money to start a hardware company, especially something as complex as a GPS. I'm wondering if Garmin would exist if he didn't have the personal savings and access to family money. One advantage of being older is having more money (usually). It was pretty standard that you used savings and/or relatives' money to do startups in the past. I think that a 20-year-old being about to raise cash from arms-length investors (like VCs) is a recent phenomenon -- only in the last couple decades. Jobs and Wozniak built the Apple I with personal cash, and got Mike Markkula's loan for $250,000 (in 1976) or $1.1 million in 2019 dollars only after getting a large order.
- ryandrake 7y agoIt's probably a good advantage but not as good as all the experience he undoubtedly built up in those years. What about those decades of observing what's worked and not worked? Decades of practice implementing other people's things while watching out for That One Right Thing?
- VolatileVoid 7y agoGarmin is the perfect example of a company that could have been displaced by the advent of smartphones with built in GPS receivers (which probably cannibalized the market for dedicated GPS devices in cars) but has remained relevant due to how they've explored other form factors. My Garmin FR235 is an indispensable part of my running gear, and no mobile phone has come even close to replicating it.
- ansgri 7y agoThey even have a comprehensive line of dog tracking products, best in (surprisingly underrepresented) class. It is sad they've decided to augment them with electric shock correction features, which modern k9 science strongly discourages (acceptable only for e.g. correction of severe aggression cases, and such dogs shouldn't be roaming free with a GPS tracker anyway).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- 5parks 7y agoMore than just form factor, Garmin has done an incredible job of using GPS technology to make products for enthusiasts, rather than the masses. Cycling computers, running watches, golf range finders, marine, aviation, hunting, etc. If you're a nerd for any of those activities there's a good chance you use a Garmin, not an Apple or Android.
- FigBug 7y agoI've bought more Garmins than Smartphones. I think I've purchased: 3x Edge 305, Edge 500, 2x Edge 810, Edge 820. Garmin has the advantage that their products are much more likely to get lost or smashed. So they get to sell a lot of replacements.
- vanadium 7y agoThe customer service is also excellent; my son has a Vívofit Jr, and when the screen went haywire they replaced it—no questions asked. Quite happy with my experiences with Garmin over the years.
- madengr 7y agoIt’s rumored that he asked his (now Honeywell) management at the time for project funding, who’s reply was “There is no future in consumer GPS”.
- zod50 7y ago> which can widely cover areas that Wi-Fi can’t reach. but my smartphone doesn't need WiFi for GPS, works on mobile data.
- maxerickson 7y agoThey sell satellite messengers. GPS should work without any data connection.
- m-p-3 7y agoMy old Garmin car GPS still works, and thanks to people using OpenStreetMap data I still get third-party maps that are up-to-date way beyond the expected lifetime of the device. I don't use it often, but it's nice knowing I have a fallback in case my smartphone dies, etc.