There's a lot of hardware startups you don't hear about. HN has its roots in web apps, so inevitably you hear a lot about web apps on HN. I think if you look in

There's a lot of hardware startups you don't hear about. HN has its roots in web apps, so inevitably you hear a lot about web apps on HN. I think if you look in a particular niche you'll find there's a lot of fairly young companies building interesting hardware in a whole range of fields. Kickstarter's awash with hardware funding drives.