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Because putting the tech together is only a tiny part of building a business. I witnessed a startup disrupt a legacy $40k-a-device business with a raspberry pi

Because putting the tech together is only a tiny part of building a business. I witnessed a startup disrupt a legacy $40k-a-device business with a raspberry pi and some adafruit sensors (eventually building their own boards after proving it worked), 90% of the success was from the founder's relationships and sales skills, not the tech.

jgeada 2y ago
aka aristocracy and not meritocracy
- jvanderbot 2y ago
  Let me expand GP's statement a little to show it's not aristocracy, and is indeed meritocracy. Building a $40k device for cheap is amazing, but only part of the problem. After that, you need to salesmanship to get the device in front of customers, and persuasiveness to get them to try it, and business acumen to scale and provide support like the big kids do. Once you do that, you can disrupt a $40k device with a rasp pi and some adafruit sensors.
  - morkalork 2y ago
    Sales and partnerships can be more about who you know and have access to though.
    - jvanderbot 2y ago
      Even if you take away that one, there's enough left that's skill over connections and "aristocracy". It's easy to split hairs over what background can or cannot give to a company, but one thing is definitely true: An inept salesman from almost any background isn't going to close (by definition of ineptitude). I think at this point it's a matter of opinion, but I suggest it's definitely not "Just" an aristocracy and definitely is enough of a skill-based game that it's fair to call it a meritocracy.
  - TylerE 2y ago
    Those benefit the company, not the customer. Not buying it.
jmward01 2y ago
And yet without the tech the business wouldn't have happened. This is td-lambda credit assignment: the thing closest to the money gets most of the credit even though all the steps mattered. The attitude that xxx is 90% of success is simplistic at best and downplays the immense contributions of the opensource community that fed that easy to build device and the talented builders that put those pieces together in a novel way to solve a real problem. The team matters.
nerdponx 2y ago
Also hardware R&D is actually pretty hard. What happens if the box is dropped? Can it pass international regulations for air travel? What does your manufacturing supply chain look like? What's your acceptable QC failure rate, and how much would it cost to make that go down? How stable is the temperature anyway? Etc. etc. etc.

jgeada 2y ago

aka aristocracy and not meritocracy

jvanderbot 2y ago
Let me expand GP's statement a little to show it's not aristocracy, and is indeed meritocracy. Building a $40k device for cheap is amazing, but only part of the problem. After that, you need to salesmanship to get the device in front of customers, and persuasiveness to get them to try it, and business acumen to scale and provide support like the big kids do. Once you do that, you can disrupt a $40k device with a rasp pi and some adafruit sensors.
- morkalork 2y ago
  Sales and partnerships can be more about who you know and have access to though.
  - jvanderbot 2y ago
    Even if you take away that one, there's enough left that's skill over connections and "aristocracy". It's easy to split hairs over what background can or cannot give to a company, but one thing is definitely true: An inept salesman from almost any background isn't going to close (by definition of ineptitude). I think at this point it's a matter of opinion, but I suggest it's definitely not "Just" an aristocracy and definitely is enough of a skill-based game that it's fair to call it a meritocracy.
- TylerE 2y ago
  Those benefit the company, not the customer. Not buying it.

jmward01 2y ago

And yet without the tech the business wouldn't have happened. This is td-lambda credit assignment: the thing closest to the money gets most of the credit even though all the steps mattered. The attitude that xxx is 90% of success is simplistic at best and downplays the immense contributions of the opensource community that fed that easy to build device and the talented builders that put those pieces together in a novel way to solve a real problem. The team matters.

nerdponx 2y ago

Also hardware R&D is actually pretty hard. What happens if the box is dropped? Can it pass international regulations for air travel? What does your manufacturing supply chain look like? What's your acceptable QC failure rate, and how much would it cost to make that go down? How stable is the temperature anyway? Etc. etc. etc.