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Idea Overview:
Embedded systems are custom hardware running custom software, like smart home appliances or industrial robots. Basically, anything with a circuit board and chips, excluding a complete computer.
Companies designing embedded systems are competing in time-to-market. They build prototypes of their ideas. To build prototypes, they curate components. This involves spreadsheets and lots of manual document searching, which can take several days, slowing the process down.
Using our search tool, they will only need to fill out one form. Schematics and all the necessary components with purchase links will be curated in seconds, making their prototyping process drastically faster.
Who might use it/where it might be used?:
Anyone can be our user (even a hobbyist), who is looking for components to build an embedded system.
Our paying business partners would be electronics component distributors with web shops. We would be in an affiliate model, so they would be paying for our forwarded users who make purchases on their sites.
The Market (B2B, B2C or Both):
Business to Business (B2B)
Sector the idea belongs to:
Information technology
Is there a similar idea to be found?:
Component search tools can be categorised as:
MANUFACTURERS: They have good search tools, but they only list their own parts. These search tools usually do not have purchase links. They often have their own nomenclature. To compare parts from two different manufacturers, you must be familiar with both manufacturers’ naming conventions.
Examples: st.com , microchip.com
INDEPENDENT: My idea belongs here. They list parts from different manufacturers and from different distributors. Their search features are not as rich as of the manufacturers. Their user interfaces usually leave a lot to be desired.
Examples: findchips.com , octopart.com
DISTRIBUTORS: They only list their own stock. They have the worst search tools. Sometimes they have features that do not even work.
Examples: digikey.com , mouser.com , arrow.com
All the competitors follow the traditional approach of having to perform multiple searches, one search for one component in one category.
Why you think there is a demand for your idea?:
I think component curation is just a hassle that is currently unavoidable. Most of the process is based on rational decisions, which could be easily automated. If we can settle for an affiliate model, our time saving features would be seemingly free of charge for the user. From the point of distributors, we could bring them orders with more items, and that is probably better financially and from the point of shipping.
Who would be the ideal customers?:
Anyone who is developing embedded hardware and who is looking to find components for their system. This may seem broad at first, but it is actually a niche.
What ideas do you have to reach these customers?:
Someone designing embedded hardware is browsing a lot, mainly searching for components, datasheets, distributors and recommendations. This is confirmed by the fact that our competitors receive at least half of their views from such keywords. So, our focus would be on SEO.
We could also license our labelled search engine to distributors, have a blog and a forum.
How far have you developed this idea?:
I haven't managed yet to talk to people who are deep in this business, and that's something I must do.
What – if any – feedback have you had for this idea so far?:
People who heard my idea said that it makes sense. I don't have more feedback.
What supporting material – if any - would you like to add to your proposal?:
I have a clear vision for this idea, but I have not validated it yet. Also, I have not looked into implementation details yet.
5 comments to “Hawagen (before zoom-in pivot: DevOps for embedded)”
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Peter Illes - August 3, 2022 at 7:47 pm
Great seeing you posted your idea here Gergő. Although we spoke in-person , I needed this to be written down to fully understand it. I still don’t understand how the product would function (this just shows how broad IT is, as someone with a dev background, I have no idea on how embedded works), but the problem definition is crystal clear now! And that’s the important part.
I suggest you start with personas, interviews and value proposition. Your persona is pretty much known to you, but nevertheless, create a persona, print it out, stick it on your wall. It will help you keep their needs in sight. Bear in mind, you’ll most probably have a separate user persona (devs) and buyer persona (decision makers who might buy the solution). Then create a shortlist of devs and decision makers at companies who fit your persona. Since this is a heavily B2B product, LinkedIn outreach may be the best way to go. Try to schedule 5-6 interviews with both. This will provide you with an enormous amount of qualitative data which will then help formulate you value prop and solution offering,
Gergő Szathmáry - August 10, 2022 at 7:26 pm
My idea had gone through a zoom in pivot. In this comment I wanted to document the previous, broader vision, which I still want to be working towards, but it will take decades.
IDEA OVERVIEW:
Embedded systems are basically electronics hardware running custom software. For example, a digital watch, smart home appliances, or basically anything that has a circuit board with programmable chips (but isn’t a full-fledged computer). Embedded developers are facing issues related to software and hardware simultaneously. But they cannot find a single tool that is tailored to both. If such existed, software and hardware teams could collaborate and parallelise their workflows, which would reduce development times and costs. If such a tool would be usable by chip designers too, it could become the development platform for the entire embedded domain.
WHO MIGHT USE IT/WHERE IT MIGHT BE USED?:
The main focus is on hardware and software designers for embedded systems. Sometimes the two teams are in the same company, sometimes one of them is involved as an agency. Embedded systems are either built from scratch or from already available modules. My idea is more suitable for the first case.
THE MARKET (B2B, B2C OR BOTH):
Business to Business (B2B)
SECTOR THE IDEA BELONGS TO:
Technology/IP-based businesses
IS THERE A SIMILAR IDEA TO BE FOUND?:
I’ve found that people are looking into optimising embedded development. But the only major competitor I found was Wind River (windriver.com). They have tools for embedded DevOps, including a tool that lets a computer simulate both the software and the hardware, but it seems to be tuned mainly for complex systems and for enterprise clients. The solution I envisioned should be built up very differently, thus, it will be more adaptable to specific needs and it will be more modular overall.
WHY YOU THINK THERE IS A DEMAND FOR YOUR IDEA?:
I believe that embedded developers want to optimise their workflows. They are competing in time-to-market. They’re already adapting methods to shorten software development time. But currently, hardware has to be somewhat finalised before software can be written. It’s like the waterfall model in software-only development. It’s this way because porting code from one chip to a different one is not aided as much as it could be. Also, software developers are involved late and their work doesn’t influence hardware decisions.
WHO WOULD BE THE IDEAL CUSTOMERS?:
Small businesses that develop embedded systems and have both the hardware and the software teams in house.
WHAT IDEAS DO YOU HAVE TO REACH THESE CUSTOMERS?:
Inbound marketing came to my mind first. Also, part of my vision is to launch an electronics part finder website first (that’s simpler than the whole vision and extends our runway). A well-built website like that easily attracts a lot of visitors, that could become customers of the whole product.
HOW FAR HAVE YOU DEVELOPED THIS IDEA?:
I haven’t managed yet to talk to people who are deep in this business, and that’s something I must do.
WHAT – IF ANY – FEEDBACK HAVE YOU HAD FOR THIS IDEA SO FAR?:
People who heard my idea said that it’s good and makes sense. I don’t have more feedback.
WHAT SUPPORTING MATERIAL – IF ANY – WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD TO YOUR PROPOSAL?:
Wind River had some brochures. Those suggest that I’m not the only one who thinks hw and sw teams should be enabled to work simultaneously on the same project.
Mario L Castellanos - August 21, 2022 at 1:06 pm
This is a very good idea.. I see this as a self contained, ecommerce website with a directed, built-in search engine and payment system. And I agree, it is a niche market but a huge one where your customers are hobbyists, manufacturing and assembly enterprise of every size but particularly the mid to large, and government. I see this as an arduous endeavor but your cost to build at least an MVP is minimal if you are software engineering savvy. Once done however, your next hurdle would be to stealthy get it out to market because your immediate competition would come from China, India and your backyard, east Europe. Here in the US, our government provides grant funding and loan guarantees for certain types of ideas. You should investigate if Hungry does the same. It’s worth the effort
If the old Radio Shack company was still around, they would have been your first customer!
Mark Cardwell - September 1, 2022 at 4:43 pm
Looks like a challenging market – your research has shown there are established companies using a range of business models – manufacturers, distributors such as Digi-Key (who have ambitions to be an Amazon-like marketplace, with third-party listings as well as “fulfilled by Digi-Key), and then the independent comparison engines such as Octopart, who would be your closest competitor.
It’s worth having a close look at Octopart, and thinking how you would compete. According to https://octopart.com/faq they have business relationships with all the distributors they list, so they get regular data and price updates, and the distributor pays a small fee for each referral.
You need to find out what it would take to get buyers to start using your tool instead of Octopart, and what it would take to get sellers to affiliate with you instead of Octopart. (And I suspect sellers won’t move until there are enough buyers, and buyers won’t start searching until you list a lot of sellers, so there’s also a chicken-and-egg challenge to get started.)
Mark Cardwell - September 2, 2022 at 3:35 pm
Founders&Mentors emphasises experimenting with demand as a first step, but I’m not actually sure how you would do that. I guess you could put an offer to a number of sellers, to see if they “bite”. Testing buyer demand is harder, since you want people to try your better-than-the-competition search experience, like it, and keep searching. Has anyone any ideas for experiments?