How many pitfalls do hardware have?

(1) It starts with the entrepreneurial dream:

1. If you have 100,000 yuan, it will depreciate in value soon, and If you are in the mood of spring, you can try the wonderful first entrepreneurial venture in your life;

2. If you are obsessed with the combination of software and hardware and want to make some noise, then first raise 1 million with your partners. It would be more practical to start working again.

3. Have a good business idea and plan before starting. You cannot just rely on passion, have goals, and then implement them.

4. If this idea can be easily realized by yourself and a few friends, then reduce hiring personnel, equipment, rent management expenses, etc. as much as possible to reduce waste of funds.

5. Timing is very important. If you think of a great idea comparable to iWatch just today, then first sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight (ligers and tigers fight in groups, and not even a blade of grass can grow, so friends, please stay away) .

6. If a married female compatriot comes to start a hardware business, her husband must support and participate in it, and she can also be tested again through hardships and passion. Of course, a single female diaosi hardware entrepreneur is more worthy of respect and worship.

7. Before resigning to start a business, you must have some personal information in your brain and computer. Electronic data chip guidelines, design specifications, supplier catalogs, contact information, etc., be careful to accumulate them by yourself, but never use company confidential documents. Save it to avoid future trouble.

8. Find target customers and conduct product demand and market research. Don’t go swimming naked in the sea and then find yourself alone. For your own entertainment, hide under the quilt.

9. Then, before leaving your job to start a business, say hello to your colleagues and leaders and have a romantic meal. Maybe when you are in trouble, your boss brothers will often help you, or if you are doing well, you will be fine. Pull the host's people into the water together.

10. When you go to sea, roll up your sleeves, open your arms, open your heart, embrace everyone, and do everything right from the beginning. A good start can avoid detours.

(2) Hardware design:

11. A complete project design plan, including: total requirements, (alternative) solutions, input and output, etc., think about it while doing it One-sided change brings about never-ending iterations.

12. It is best to complete the schematic diagram and PCB by one person to reduce wiring errors and misunderstandings, except for large projects that require division of labor.

13. If the chip information is in Chinese, don’t be lazy and find an English version for comparison. Translators often drive cars.

14. The rated value of all passive components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, power chips, etc.) is reserved for redundancy of more than 50%. The error of these components under harsh conditions is scary.

15. Comparing the PCB packaging, drawings and actual objects of components one by one, the proportion of design errors in this part always ranks first. In the industry, it is generally above 75, which means that most projects have to undergo secondary modifications. Board modification error.

16. When selecting core and relatively new components, communicate sincerely with the supplier face to face, including price, supply, business and other details. Don’t make it and find that it is out of stock, which will make you feel depressed. .

17. The bill of materials BOM should be rigorously standardized, with one more letter and one less number. The performance specifications vary widely to reduce waste of time and money, but the first-time error rate is still above 50.

18. Keep communicating with the software and don’t be stubborn. The more advanced the hardware, the more software is needed to drive it.

19. Learn to do subtraction and resolutely cut off completely redundant functions. Only streamlined ones are efficient and reliable. It is better not to use unreliable hardware, otherwise it will be the beginning of a nightmare.

(3) Hardware is indispensable for structural appearance design:

20. Make sure that the previous hardware circuit can be put into the final product you want to make.

21. Consider the battery capacity at the beginning of the design. It is very important to choose the battery size that the supplier can supply. Do not invent new batteries.

22. If the product structure and assembly are complex, don’t be lazy and not make 3D models and structural assembly drawings. There are really no experts who can design and assemble 20 large and small parts by relying on 2D three-dimensional imagination.

23. MD structure and ID appearance are always twin brothers. They will often PK and promote each other. In the end, they must compromise and balance just for *** to win.

24. "Design is everything", Qiao Qiao said, product design (generally refers to the appearance design ID) is very important!

25. Simplicity and reliability are the first importance of design. Too many flashy designs are like graffiti.

26. A designer who understands raw materials and processing technology is a truly qualified designer.

27. In an era when disassembly testing is popular, the beauty of the internal structure is also a kind of user experience.

28. Maintain sufficient communication with the mold factory to ensure that what you design can be manufactured, even if it is just a structural and appearance prototype.

29. Generally speaking, a set of low-key and luxurious packaging not only reflects the design level, but also has the spirit of user first. Most users resent spending money on exquisite packaging, which can easily leave a bad brand image.

(4) Hardware and software driver design:

30. Most hardware products have a matching heart. If the single-chip microcomputer is enough, don’t use ARM, and if the single-core is enough, don’t use it. Dual core is enough, unless you want to join the nuclear race.

31. The driver design in the heart is best carried out under the guidance of the hardware chip manufacturer. Fully understanding the characteristics of the hardware is the first step to making a good software driver.

32. Low-power energy control should be considered from the bottom driver level. The ports that should be closed are closed, and the ports that need to be closed are immediately put into sleep mode.

33. At extremely low temperatures, high temperatures, and external electromagnetic interference, some components will work abnormally. It is necessary to set the program to restart or automatically reset, and give full consideration to error correction and time redundancy.

34. Make the driver a standard upper-layer calling interface, so that when the underlying hardware and driver are replaced, there is no need to upgrade the upper-layer program.

Part 2: Application and Operation

(5) Software application design:

35. The design freedom of application software is relatively high, but there is one most important The basic theory "experience is king" must be followed.

36. In software and hardware integration projects, the design of the application also needs to consider the interaction with the hardware, delays, disconnections and other abnormal problems caused by communication, especially in the environment where the domestic 3G network is not in good condition. .

37. If you are still working on PC applications, it’s a bit too much. Concentrate on making the mobile client first, and then work on the PC side if necessary.

38. Many people are confused between iOS and Andriod. If it is a mass or diaosi-level application, it is recommended that Andriod be developed first. If it is a high-end fashion product, it is enough to make iOS first.

39. Don’t take up too much memory. The configuration will never keep up with the growth rate of the application. When it runs slower and slower, the user will think that there is a problem with your product, not that his phone is getting slower and slower. It's getting slower and slower, and the configuration is out of date.

40. If it is not a resounding brand or unnecessary, new applications must not ask for too many permissions from the beginning. Users will resent having to hand over so many permissions to install a new software, and many people will give up on the experience. product opportunities.

41. Make application software right and good as soon as possible. Believing in iterative development of App is deceiving yourself and others. For products that combine software and hardware, users don’t know whether the software or the hardware is weak, so the rate of returns is high.

(6) Product production and verification:

42. Find a suitable processing factory to produce samples instead of installing them in the laboratory yourself. The factory will help you find problems.

43. Designers and engineers absolutely need to visit the factory in person to complete pre-production with workers.

44. Ask the master worker humbly why it doesn’t work and how it works.

Don't just accuse others of being stupid and ignore the various irrationalities in your own design.

45. Focus on the defective products in the early production and analyze them one by one. Don’t be happy just because 99% of them are good products. Maybe this 1 defective cause will become 100 defects in the next production.

46. Products must undergo basic high and low temperature, vibration and drop, and static electricity tests, unless they are only sold to the local market.

47. Fatigue testing is to let a product work at maximum performance for 1 to 10 days to calculate the probability of various crashes and errors.

48. The last step is product trial testing, where dozens of products are prepared for different target groups and used in various states to verify the adaptability and reliability of the product, and to collect user experience feedback.

(7) Business operations:

49. Register the company as early as possible to facilitate all business negotiations. In many places, you can register for 0 yuan, which is good news for entrepreneurial diaosi.

50. Find a financial agency to help you complete registration and accounting and tax issues, unless you want to experience the fun of queuing up for stamps.

51. Register as few company shareholders as possible (minimum 1 for a limited company), and hold the rest through agreements to reduce various cumbersome procedures for subsequent shareholder changes.

52. Choose a good name as early as possible. This is the label of the brand, which is convenient for memory and communication. It also needs to be checked through industrial and commercial registration. It is said that Xiaomi registered it after thinking hundreds of times.

53. Since you are starting a business, don’t worry about the office space. Steve Jobs negotiated the first financing in the garage, so you must use all that good steel on the cutting edge.

(8) Legal and financial matters:

54. Hire an inexpensive legal advisor who is willing to assist, so that shareholders can focus on legal constraints rather than fair-weather alliances.

55. Contractual agreements with key partners and their execution are best endorsed by corporate legal counsel.

56. If you have creative technology, you should promptly protect it through intellectual property rights such as patents and copyrights. It may also help you apply for government subsidies.

57. If the company's business scope involves the interests of a franchise or monopoly enterprise, it is very necessary to make a comprehensive diagnosis of legal and regulatory issues, such as whether a health license/medical device certification/qualification recognition is required, etc. Avoid in time.

58. It is better for the founder to handle the finance in the early stage of starting a business. There is not much work and there is no income. All he has to do is turn on the computer and transfer money from his own account to record the flow. If the company is registered, let the agency help make external accounts.

59. Founders must have a financial concept from the beginning, learn basic financial knowledge, and be able to independently conduct simple financial control under the guidance of others.

60. If you want to raise funds, it is necessary to hire a more professional finance person, and investors will generally ask for this.

(9) Batch and supply chain management:

61. Make friends with the supply chain, no matter he is a rich boss or not, don’t take it for granted that you are a customer, you must treat him as a customer Uncle, sometimes you may have to call them uncle, so it’s fairer to be friends.

62. If you want to make large quantities, you have to face each supplier directly. You can’t do it for convenience and fun. If you search for a bunch of cheap parts on Taobao, you will often find the specifications are wrong, or you won’t find them when you want them again. Out of stock, even the store is closed.

63. The suppliers of each part are in a circle. If it is an important part, you need to break into the circle to obtain resource support. Don’t you see that Master Lei often hangs out with Qualcomm executives?

64. Make sure your market plan matches the supply chain plan, otherwise you will often sell futures and the chain will be easily broken.

65. If you have good credit, you can also let the supplier pay on credit for a period of time, so that you can keep the money in your company and then give it to the supplier. This is a big step in selling hardware products. Charm, many times cash flow is not an issue.

66. Of course, when you encounter a dominant player like Qualcomm, you may have to bring your money bag to their house for registration a few months in advance, and then ask them for some food at the end of the month. .

67. Software companies all like light-asset operations, so it’s not bad to find a supply chain management company to help you take care of it, but you just need to find the right person to help you take care of it.

Part Three: Development and Improvement

(10) Brand, Marketing, Sales, Market

68. Brand is the embodiment of a company’s image and value. As long as you tell people who you are and what you want to do, you have already initially established the prototype of your brand.

69. The secret of branding is not to apply for many trademarks, but to figure out what you do, what value it has, why users need you, and how you are different from others. This is the key to brand—— Brand positioning.

70. Without a brand, it will automatically be classified as a nameless copycat. Users will not be able to distinguish it and will not take the time to distinguish it.

71. Marketing is to sell your brand through various means and let users know about you. Use all means, just pay attention to the appropriateness.

72. Reposting with prizes and reposting from big Vs no longer works, and I’m tired of seeing funny things that make me laugh. Marketing needs to constantly introduce new innovations, but good “word of mouth” is the best marketing. It seems that it has not changed for thousands of years, and it is most worthy of inheritance and development.

73. For software and hardware products, the differences between online and offline marketing and sales need to be considered at the same time, and they should be combined beneficially. Do not start a fight first and get into chaos.

74. Market research is a very critical job. Only by understanding the users and the market can we make the best decisions. Market research runs through all aspects of a product’s birth, growth, and death.

75. The founder does not necessarily need to understand the market, but he must find someone who understands the market.

(11) Brief analysis of business model:

76. What Master Zhou said makes sense: “The business model includes four aspects: product model, user model, and promotion model. The last thing is the revenue model, how to make money." Software and hardware products must also consider making money, because there are hard costs that cannot be erased.

77. The business model must be simple, feasible, and realistic. It is best to refer to successful cases, rather than the kind of whimsical ideas that can change the world with just one golden idea. "This type is limited to apps, and it is rare for hardware products to succeed so easily.

78. Business models include good operating ideas and methods. If you don’t understand operations, no matter how good the business model is, it will be a death mode, and financing will only accelerate death, or die louder.

79. Business models require innovative "Internet thinking". Even with the recent "severe crackdowns", the principle remains the same as it was many years ago.

80. You must create a business model that you and your team feel is reliable and feasible, rather than a fake and short-term strategy customized to please investors. Although the investment world is a mixed bag, "people are stupid and make money." Things will never happen to you.

81. Before the business model is determined, it can be tested first like setting up a special zone. After it is determined, it must be adjusted in time according to changes in the market environment to ensure that it is alive and not dead.

82. Some prophets like to brag about free hardware. Of course it will come true, but there is no need to worry. At least in the current lack of good hardware products, users will pay for good products and not for software services. We have the habit of paying, so it is the right way to sacrifice some costs first to make a good product.

(12) Talk about financing:

83. If you have money first and then start a business, this is the dream of an entrepreneur. No one would give an egg to a rooster to hatch. You have to make yourself a hen that can lay eggs, and you have both eggs and chicks.

84. The process of financing will be long and tortuous, with ups and downs. You must have a calm mind, otherwise it will be easy to fall into a diamond pit with good investors and you will not be able to get out.

85. You must first do enough self-evaluation and be confident enough, and then you can go on the stage.

86. In addition to raising funds, the investor’s background and resources are factors that cannot be ignored.

87. The money raised should be used where it is most needed. Financing only makes sense when hens turn into turkeys.

88. If survival becomes a problem and you face bankruptcy, don’t waste time raising money. Hurry up and admit failure or change careers or go to work. The investor is not One Fund. From a purely commercial perspective, it will be better to near.

(13) Pay enough attention to team and management:

89. If you are a geek who knows both soft and hard skills, then congratulations, it is best to be a lone ranger. This way No more communication worries.

90. The team includes the brothers who follow you barefoot in the field, and there should also be a group of friends who support you behind the scenes. You can also pull them into the water when necessary.

91. If you are starting a business for the first time, it is recommended to find an entrepreneurial mentor who can give you experience in team building and running-in, and sometimes even be the peacemaker within the team.

92. Don’t just look for colleagues and acquaintances to start a business. A diversified and multi-level structure is easy to coordinate and reduce some of the original shortcomings, which is conducive to long-term development.

93. According to most experiences, an equally divided shareholding structure is the easiest to break up. There is no absolute fairness. The best structure is a pyramid. Relative concentration can improve management efficiency.

94. If both technical and business partners start a business, the best way to allocate early-stage equity is based on the amount of investment and necessary resource contribution. Those who do not invest funds and resources, but only have technical shares, should Possibly through option incentives, especially when the capital required for software and hardware entrepreneurship is not small, it will test determination and perseverance.

95. A company should have various voices and diverse thinking, but there is only one main theme, and that is the founder or major shareholder. If there is no such soul or leader, then purely democratic decision-making can only It's full of crises.

96. Allocate early equity and reserve options. The team needs to continue to grow, leaving some room for imagination in the future.

97. In the early stage, it is better to be deficient than over-staffed. If one person is missing, someone can be found to take over. If one more person is left, the team will easily become disloyal.

98. For some technical positions, it is good to find a reliable person to work part-time first and then join the team. During the part-time period, you can get along with each other for a period of time, and then partner full-time when the time is right.

99. If you think you don’t have enough experience, the best way is to participate in entrepreneurship led by others. Most entrepreneurial experience is learned from partnership entrepreneurship. After all, it is only a minority who succeed as soon as they go overseas. .