#056 - Not too early, not too late - how to get the timing right for your innovation, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

The Hardware Entrepreneur · 6 Jun 2018 · 10m

What this episode covers

Host Balint Horvath discusses the critical importance of timing in hardware innovation, arguing that ecosystem maturity is often more decisive than product quality. He cites Pebble as a company that failed because it was too early, while Kodak missed the digital photography revolution due to internal inertia. Horvath uses the S-curve model to explain how technologies like HDTV required decades to mature alongside their supporting ecosystems before achieving mainstream adoption.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Oxide and Friends · 1h 08m

    Breakthroughs Delayed

    Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal of Oxide Computer Company discuss the concept of 'breakthroughs delayed' using Steven Johnson's book Extra Life as a framework. They analyze historical examples like pasteurization, safety glass, and the three-point seat belt, arguing that some innovations were delayed not by technical impossibility but by a lack of societal readiness or infrastructure. The conversation extends to computing, debating whether technologies like DTrace, Docker, and Wikipedia could have been invented earlier, concluding that while the underlying components existed, the specific user experience and ecosystem required to make them mainstream were missing at the time.

  • Predictable Designs Podcast · 14m

    13 Reasons Why New Hardware Products Fail

    Host John Teal outlines 13 common reasons why new hardware products fail, categorized into technical, financial, and sales/marketing challenges. He emphasizes critical pitfalls such as underestimating development time, neglecting design for manufacturing (DFM), and running out of cash flow due to inventory costs. Teal also highlights the importance of validating customer demand early through crowdfunding and building an audience before launch.

  • Coredump Sessions · 57m

    #014: Why Your IoT Project Still Hasn’t Taken Off — And How to Fix It

    Chris Coleman and Tyler from Memfault host Afzal Saleem, an IoT entrepreneur and former T-Mobile Netherlands startup lead, to discuss why IoT projects stall despite technical viability. They analyze organizational resistance, such as the Dutch railway case where internal job security fears blocked adoption, and the '500K SIM card' phenomenon where pilots fail to scale due to slow enterprise processes. The conversation highlights how giants like Google, Ericsson, and Cisco waste millions by skipping niche validation, contrasting this with successful niche strategies from companies like Golioth and Nordic Semiconductor. They argue that IoT must learn from AI's community-driven, fast-iteration go-to-market playbook to overcome fragmentation and e-waste risks from deprecated cloud services.

  • How I Built This · 42m

    Live From HIBT Summit: Payal Kadakia, Tristan Walker, and Perry Chen on Innovation

    In a panel discussion from the 2021 How I Built This Virtual Summit, Guy Raz speaks with Payal Kadakia of ClassPass, Tristan Walker of Walker and Company, and Perry Chen of Kickstarter about the nature of innovation. The founders argue that innovation does not require newness but rather authenticity, soul, and solving personal frustrations, such as Walker’s experience with razor bumps or Kadakia’s difficulty finding dance classes. They discuss their early struggles, including ClassPass’s initial product failure and Kickstarter’s long development cycle, emphasizing the importance of resilience, specific metrics like ClassPass’s reservation count, and the value of continuous improvement in hardware.

  • IoT For All Podcast · 35m

    Maturity and Adoption in the IoT Space | Avnet's Mike Powell & Avnet Abacus' Martin Keenan

    Mike Powell of Avnet Global IoT and Martin Keenan of Avnet Abacus discuss the maturity of the IoT industry, noting that while hardware is mature, adoption is still in early stages due to fragmentation and business model challenges. They highlight key obstacles such as the need for clear business objectives, C-suite involvement, and security, explaining how Avnet addresses these by acquiring software and cloud capabilities to offer end-to-end solutions. The conversation covers specific use cases like predictive maintenance in public utilities and the shift from selling hardware to selling services, similar to Rolls-Royce's model.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Hardware Entrepreneur. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.