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Shipping 100 hardware units in under eight weeks
- M_farhan_h 1y agoHi HN! We built Blue, a voice assistant that can use any app on your phone via a tiny USB-C hardware “hand” we call Bud. Here’s how we went from concept to 100 working units in 55 days for YC Demo Day. About me: I’m a robotics and product design engineer focused on building thoughtful tools for the world. I hold dozens of patents in hardware and manufacturing, and I care deeply about how things are made and who they’re made for. For over a decade, I’ve worked across robotics, wearables, and consumer electronics. As one of the first engineers on the Apple Vision Pro, I took it from concept to mass production.
- pedalpete 1y agoVery well done! Congrats. I'm also in the wearables space, though neurotech/sleeptech. I'm assuming you did 3d printed enclosures, so really board design and was the longest process. What I think is really clever about your design is passthrough USB-C and then not needing your own battery. So essentially you've got a micro, probably with it's own memory? So elegant. Others are saying you must have had your Taiwan contacts beforehand, but even without that, two weeks for board manufacturing isn't unrealistic I'd think, even for a noob, and lucky for you the board design should have been pretty simple. Can I ask what your experience going through YC as a consumer hardware founder was like? If you're curious about what we're building, we're enhancing the restorative function of sleep, without altering sleep time. Check out https://affectablesleep.com https://affectablesleep.com
- M_farhan_h 1y agoI have been a consumer HW founder for years, and I applied to YC eleven times, and just got in this time with Blue. I think for consumer, if you can really simplify the product and solve the absolute basic version, the costs should be low enough to validate the idea. YC will value your skills to create this simple version, and that you are able to actually execute and create something that could be real. The missing link was really showing I could take a prototype and mass produce it (even at a small scale). That was what this whole exercise was about. One additional note that comes to mind, building really great partnerships is essential for hardware to work.
- pedalpete 1y agoI've been a consumer founder for 8 years (I think) and have been in deep-tech for about 14, and neurotech/hardware for the last 5. I applied to YC 16 times!!! My previous start-up was acquired Our technology is in use in clinical trials. We've begun pre-sales, and are in selection of contract manufacturer. I only decided to apply for the next round last night. Would it be ok if I ask to get your opinion on a few of the application questions? When we get to that point? Probably not for a few weeks. We're fortunate that our hardware engineer and industrial engineer both have extensive experience in manufacturing.
- stingrae 1y agoThis is very cool. Will Apple allow this app to be deployed on the app store?
- ddalex 1y agoSuper nice work ! I'm impressed. But it seems like a terrible hack - using the phone through the limited interface designed for humans instead of actually using the proper APIs. Not to say that any effort from Apple to improve Siri will just render this product obsolete instantly.
- Liftyee 1y agoIncredible work! To reach an initial production run in 8 weeks is phenomenal. It sometimes takes me half as long just to make a prototype. Could you identify any specific decisions/guidelines early in your career that led to your success today? I'm currently studying engineering (will likely specialize electronic/embedded) and am always looking for ways to improve.
- xnx 1y agoImpressive. Hardware like this is only necessary on iOS because it doesn't have software accessibility features like Android, right?
- giveita 1y agoWas thinking the same thing. This is a risky ecosystem play where the owners of said ecosystem can (and are motivated to) make you irrelevant. It eventually needs to do something the phone software cant do itself. For example more powerful AI chip than the phone has.
- M_farhan_h 1y agoYeah you got it, this is our way of playing within the rules, but allowing an experience we wish we had with our phones.
- chermanowicz 1y agoHow do you implement the same thing on Android?
- renewiltord 1y agoListen, man, this seems like absolute magic to me. Obviously you already knew your Taiwan team and I'm sure a hard part is getting a good hardware partner, but the execution on this seems nigh godlike to get such a high quality device in the hands of people that fast.
- M_farhan_h 1y agoThank you for such kind words! We needed to prove to ourselves, customers and to investors that Hardware is possible, and not to fear it. I've built it for years, and never understood why people fear it. We live in a physical world, and some of us should build things for it.
- smw 1y agoAny chance you might write a post or two about how to develop those relationships?
- jacquesm 1y agoThis is seriously impressive. You guys did more in 8 weeks than some teams will accomplish in a multiple of that.
- M_farhan_h 1y agoReally appreciate the kind words, and I mean it sincerely, it's only possible because of my incredible Taiwan partners, my Industrial Designer Tomas(who I am lucky to call my friend), the other founders, and being razor focused on our goal. Joyce flew from Taiwan to make sure I had them in my hands, folded boxes with me in the office, and just as she got over her jet lag and went back to Taiwan.
- jacquesm 1y agoI've invested in a couple of hardware start-ups, some of their products were not even close to what you guys are doing complexity wise. I will forward your post to them as a nice example of how it is done. My career has moved in-and-out of the crossroads between hardware, software, mechanics and other applications of technology and I suspect that you've aged a year in those 8 weeks on account of all of the setbacks and restarts. And yet, you pulled it off. I hope your demo day demo went well and that your round ended up oversubscribed, you've certainly deserved it.
- smattiso 1y agoWhat was the company in taiwan you partnered with?
- schmichael 1y agoPlease stop multitasking while driving. The tech seems neat and all but please stop multitasking while driving, encouraging others to multitask while driving, and building products specifically designed to encourage multitasking while driving. If you want to work while you're in transit: take public transit.
- giveita 1y agoI agree. For safety mostly but even for "fuck cant we just drive somewhere and that be considered enough achievement, like it is 1989"
- bombcar 1y agoIn 1825 people would stare at an ox’s ass for days straight thinking about nothing much. In 2025 we can’t spend 10 minutes without doing something else while traveling at speeds that would make a sailor blush.
- aleph_minus_one 1y agoYou make a wrong comparison: you can easily stare at a 3D printer for hours how it prints the object layer by layer. Try it out - watching this is sooo soothing and relaxing. :-)
- varispeed 1y agoIf it proves popular, how do you protect yourself from Google or Apple eating your breakfast by simply implementing this in the OS itself?
- M_farhan_h 1y agoPlease don't tell them about us... In some ways, if this instigates them implement it in their OS, we are doing our job, and then we can pivot and keep working on ideas that we hope will serve others.
- doctorpangloss 1y agoWell anything that could defeat integrity is on their radar.
- chis 1y agoI seriously doubt apple will ever have the level of voice control that this would provide. It's a great idea for a product! One obvious dumb question is is there a video input for the device? I mean how does it know what screen it's on, where to find the buttons to click. It seems like the next level would be to add a video capture device too
- IncreasePosts 1y agoProbably - keep your costs low and try to sell a bunch before these features are baked into the OS, which is almost certainly coming soon with the current "AI in everything". For example, if you're old enough, do you remember those devices that were all about getting your phone/ipod with a 3.5mm jack to interface with your car audio system? There were 3.5mm -> cassette adapters, and bluetooth -> 3.5mm dongles abound before bluetooth became commonplace in cars and phones.
- yujonglee 1y agoSuper impressed and inspired!
- KuriousCat 1y agoIt’s baffling that on one hand we suspend in‑drive app interactions for safety, yet on the other, a product built to sidestep those safeguards and promote driver multitasking still attracts funding. I’m a little sorry to say it, but celebrating ‘move fast’ execution without deeper safety thinking is genuinely disturbing.
- chis 1y agoI guess I read it as the opposite. This would allow someone to use purely voice control to interact with maps, podcasts, etc since iphones have pretty limited voice controls built in. Plus obviously accessibility use cases.
- actionfromafar 1y agoI'm not convinced this tech is really such a good idea. If all you are trying to do is finding the right podcast episode, it might be quite a bit better than fiddling with a screen. But... cognitive load is a thing. https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-07/05-car_telephone_use_while_driving_en.pdf https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021... The reason conversations can be held safely between the driver and with (some! people are different) other occupants in the same car, is that all occupants can asses what is happening and react to microcues from the driver in realtime. (Phone calls add many milliseconds in reaction time, plus the other person is not situationally aware.) I do think an AI could help here though. This app isn't quite that. The AI would have to be very fast and responsive, notice with cameras and microphones when the driver needs a microbreak in the conversation, seamlessly continue when appropriate, perhaps be plugged in to the car radar and so on. Really be a polite and attentive passenger.
- jcmontx 1y agoIt's amazing, congrats!! What's the expected price for the general public?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- cushychicken 1y agoThis is cool. A hundred prototypes in eight weeks is no mean feat. Y’all made a lot of smart choices to keep your timetable. Not least of which was finding - and listening to - a good CM partner.
- turtlebits 1y agoMost people I know use a case with their phone. How do you get around that problem?
- YeahThisIsMe 1y agoIt's not their problem to get around.
- yonatan8070 1y agoIf their product needs to interface with the average iPhone, I think it does need to be compatible with at least some cases
- chermanowicz 1y agoIt looks like there are spacers that might fill in different gaps depending on a case - the whole usb plug looks a bit long to suit different cases
- chermanowicz 1y agoWill you offer this without a subscription fee? I like it but for this it should just be a small voice model running on device, not cloud - especially given you don't use APIs. I think you'll get a lot of adoption if it doesn't have a subscription or cloud requirement.
- aftbit 1y agoThe fact that you need to install a hardware device to fake tap inputs is really sad. It should just be possible to install an app on your phone and check a box that says "let this app pretend to be me in a way that is indistinguishable for all other apps". Of course, users must be protected from malware, and app publishers must be protected from users who want to interact with their apps in an automated way. Somehow that all overrides the underlying truth that users should be in control of their own systems, and leads to hacks like this to bypass it.
- UltraSane 1y agoAndroid supports this functionality with the name of Accessibility.
- soared 1y agoId prefer the world we have currently - apple is generally good at security for most people who never even want to think about. IMO it’s like seatbelts, maybe mildly annoying but bet a huge positive. If we sold cars without seatbelts, people would definitely buy them without realizing the costs.
- aprilnya 1y agoClearly you haven’t seen an older person’s Android phone. One time had someone come to me with an Android phone that played forced fullscreen unexitable ads every few seconds through some obscure permission that you can’t even prompt for (i.e. user has to go to settings and enable it in an unusual spot). I get why the overlay permission would exist but honestly it’s not worth it. I can’t imagine what would be done by even a single malicious app slipping through with a “literally see and control your entire phone” permission
- aftbit 1y agoI have, I just don't understand why we need to develop for the lowest common denominator, nor why users reliably fail in that particular way. These same people are perfectly capable of driving their cars and stopping when the low oil light comes on, without randomly resetting their radio settings trying to fix it. What is it about cell phones that breaks their brains?
- rgovostes 1y agoYou mention that this is a USB HID device a few times but how are you capturing the display? Does ReplayKit broadcasting give you access? Or is the hardware also acting as an HDMI capture card or something?
- mrlambchop 1y agoPoking around at this product, it looks from the rendering like (a) USB-C based power pass through (unclear if its 2.0 BC etc... or true PD with CC pins - doesn't matter that much however if the phone range is small enough) (b) USB 2.0 device IC (STM32 or similar?) that connects to the phone over D+/D- pins. (c) power is being taken from the USB internal or external depending on what is plugged in. I was confused by how CarPlay was working, as this requires the vehicle to be a host and the phone a device, but I'll assume it means wireless CarPlay (vs USB 2.0 CarPlay). For the display, I wonder if the device is mimicking the assistive touch inputs via external USB PID (per the note) and using a mouse/trackpad HID can take a screenshot via assistive framework - I guess the app could see this arriving, process it and then delete? Also figure out what is being shown? would explain why the video is sped up a little, but YIKES. Also good luck stopping the app being killed in the background. All direct USB streams require MFI auth, which might work for exactly 100 devices and could be an alternative, but requires Apple cert for bulk quantities. I think ReplayKit can only work within an app and can't see the general output stream. Cool use of tech and curious to see how it actually works :)
- asadm 1y agoThis is insanely good work and timeline. Kudos there! BUT, this will soon be a dead thing once these agents land in devices natively (like in <1year or so). So use this expertise you gained at creating a hardware and redirect it elsewhere instead of doubling down.
- nullhole 1y ago'Sophies Choice(s)' is an inappropriate reference to throw around for cell phone hardware decisions imho.
- pharrington 1y agoDo we just believe anything we see on the internet now? I don't believe there's any useful product here.
- amelius 1y agoWhy would you not believe it? The tech is here. The device is just a piece of plumbing to get your screen and voice input to OpenAI (or similar), and send mouse actions back.
- drooby 1y agoI really like this. But yes, don't promote using this while driving for anything other than navigation, weather, music, etc. But, this is one step closer to my dream of being able to do my software engineer job while on walk through a park. Chatting async with an AI coding agent. Sitting on bench to review the changes. Repeat.
- amelius 1y agoArticle is light on technical details. I'm guessing that it works by grabbing the screen over USB and sending it back to an app that is running in the background on the phone, which communicates with an AI service. So if this guess is correct then if android allowed screengrabbing and sending mouse events, the hardware would not be necessary.
- lofaszvanitt 1y agoVoice is very slow. I personally never ever used siri or any other voice tools. What for? There are much better ways to interface with the device.
- avipars 1y agoDistracted driving is dangerous driving