THIS is why hardware is HARD!
The graveyard of failed startups is a fascinating place to visit.
In the news this week is Ready Robotics collapse, Soft Robotics transition away from grippers, and the general decrying of “hardware is hard!”.
This is not unique to hardware, and it’s lazy thinking to focus on purely hardware and ‘higher capital requirements’ as the reasons for company collapse. Frequently the financial constraints on hardware companies can be avoided if you have experienced people on board (including ON your board - do your investors have the experience you need???).
Payroll is the other significant cost that often brings startups undone, and the inability to hit the right scaling metrics vs funding. Startups with seed rounds and good traction were particularly unlucky in the last two years as the financial downturn killed a lot of Series A funding, or delayed it for a much longer period than expected.
The art of the hardware startup is in carefully balancing incoming finance with product expenses and minimizing the risk of getting overextended in any area, which can include supply chain bottle necks, inventory storage, dependency on one large customer, predatory lending practices and investor/advisors who are looking for a fast exit not a sustainable business.
One of the clear and present dangers to robotics startups is lack of experience in the founding teams. One of the reasons that robotics is succeeding and growing is that many founders now have two, three or four hardware startups under their belts, whether it’s robotics or consumer products or manufacturing machinery.
Startup Failure Statistics
The failure rate for new startups is currently 90%.
10% of new businesses don’t survive the first year.
First-time startup founders have a success rate of 18%.
The average cost of launching a startup is $3,000.
Payroll is one of the highest costs a business incurs.
34% of small businesses that fail lack the proper product-market fit.
22% of startups that fail don’t have a sound marketing strategy.
The average venture capital firm receives more than 1,000 proposals per year.
Approximately 30% of startups with venture backing end up failing.
Around 75% of all fintech startups crash within two decades.
Startups in the technology industry have the highest failure rate in the United States.
Stats derived from Department of Labor Statistics.
Nearly 30,000 new products are introduced each year, and 95% of them fail according to Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School. And no business is immune to this harrowing statistic, which includes misfires from companies like Google and Amazon. The tech giant’s Google Glass project received millions in investment but quickly disappeared from view. And Amazon has quietly closed all of their checkout-less shops in the last few months.
These large organizations can afford the luxury of a multimillion-dollar misstep in their product development. Ultimately, any innovation roadmap consists of a long trail of trial and error. However, for startups or small businesses that offer just one unique product, this type of error can be lethal. If the product fails, so does the company. In fact, 92% of startups fold in their first three years for that same reason.
Some of the reasons for product failure
Late entry to market
Rapidly changing customer Preferences
Lack of Innovation
Bugs and Glitches
Overemphasizing on originality while ignoring improvements
Lack of constant iteration
Poor product promotion and positioning
Robot Expo Opportunities through SVR
2024 Robotics Invest West - Oct/Nov tbc - startup showcase and 1:1 investor matchmaking
2025 & 2026 CES Eureka Park pavilion - for startups <5yrs - interested?
2025 Turkey Poland tour for manufacturing startups with DOC
TLDR covers the most interesting tech, science, and coding news in just 5 minutes.
The story of Dextrous Robotics
Dextrous Robotics, a Memphis-based startup that developed a chopstick-like robot to unload boxes from trailers, has shut down. Evan Drumwright and Sam Zapolsky founded Dextrous in 2019, and the company dissolved in late December 2023.
Dextrous had raised about $8 million in funding since its inception. However, the company was unable to close another round of funding to start production on the commercial version of its DX-1 robot.
“There are so many things that have to go right for a startup to succeed,” Evan Drumwright told The Robot Report. “We knew that going into it. Not that it makes this any easier.”
“If I had to point to one thing, I would point to the venture markets,” he added. “COVID warped investing into startups. When interest rates are low, people have to look for longer-term investments that can pay them better than what they can get through traditional instruments. When interest rates are high, a startup’s short-term profitability has to be higher. It was going to take us a while to build up to profitability.” an excerpt from The Robot Report by Steve Crowe, Jan 11 2024
How do you avoid products that fail?
We can’t do much about Covid and federal interest rates, but we can design the critically important initial customer experience, boosting both sales and loyalty. These tips come from chapter 5 from Chris Matthew’s book, Start Telling People, all about marketing and brand building for early stage startups, and overflowing with real-world examples of how this framework has helped an array of brands.
Chris Matthews has been one of our wonderful speakers and mentors in the Silicon Valley Robotics and IEEE RAS Startup Workshops, and he’s worked with both robotics and consumer product companies.
Letter to Congress: Refuse to authorize NASA’s cancellation of the VIPER Moon mission
On July 17, NASA announced the cancellation of the VIPER lunar rover after many years and nearly $500M of development. We, as the wider scientific community and members of the public, have organized this open letter to relevant US Representatives and Senators to ask them to oppose NASA's cancellation of the mission.
The text of the letter is here. By signing, you agree that your name, affiliation (optional), and district will be shared with the recipients of the letter. We may contact you via email with updates about the campaign. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the letter's organizers, Dr Benjamin Fernando (bfernan9@jh.edu) or Dr Parvathy Prem (parvathy.prem@gmail.com) who have organized this letter in a personal capacity.
Robot News
I spent a day being pampered by robots. I still had to tip. Jillian D’Onfro in The San Francisco Standard
30 Minutes With the ‘World’s Most Advanced Massage Robot’ NYTimes
Dentists and the New Robot: first automated dental procedure - Nasdaq
Robot manufacturers intensify focus on Australian vegetable market - Future Farming
Symbotic acquires Veo Robotics for $8.7M - The Robot Report
Figure unveils next-gen conversational humanoid robot with 3x AI computing for fully autonomous tasks - NVIDIA
Successful test of humanoid robots at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg - PressClub USA
Rodney Brooks’s Three Laws of Robotics: What to know about real robots deployed in the real world - IEEE Spectrum
Robots reinvent real estate at world’s largest 3D-Printed neighborhood - Forbes
Elon Musk’s Tesla is promising to sell a humanoid robot. It could be the first of many - The Conversation
AI could be the breakthrough that allows humanoid robots to jump from science fiction to reality - The Conversation
Self-driving labs are the new AI asset - Axios
Robots cut strawberries at exact ripeness - VOA
Vayu Robotics Builds a ‘Human’ - Food on Demand
Ready Robotics maker of ForgeOS shuts down - The Robot Report
Soft Robotics divests hardware business to Schmalz, rebrands as Oxipital AI - Robotics 24/7
Ecovacs home robots can be hacked to spy on their owners, researchers say - TechCrunch
Ransomware attack paralyzes milking robots - cow dead - CSO
What Is Physical AI, And Why It Could Change The World - Forbes
Reshaping the future of space robotics - Aerospace
Kodiak Robotics: Revolutionizing trucking with driverless semi-trucks in the Permian Basin - CBS7
unspun Raises $32M in Oversubscribed Series B Funding to Transform Fashion Supply Chains with Groundbreaking 3D Weaving Technology - PR Newswire
AES debuts Maximo, the solar installation robot - Solar Builder
Bengaluru Startup Control One Debuts Advanced Physical AI Agent in a Forklift - Analytics India Mag
AI Autonomous Manufacturing Alliance Launched to Tranform Manufacturing Landscape - Business Korea
Komatsu achieves major autonomous milestones - Komatsu
Pyka announces Heinen Brothers Agra Services as first US customer for autonomous electric crop protection aircraft - SUAS News
Holman Logistics announces autonomous forklift initiative with Third Wave Automation - Robotics 24/7
San Jose researcher designs robot to help children cross streets safely - SiliconValley.com
Robot Software Maker Covariant Gets Takeover Inquiry From Amazon - Bloomberg
2024 Best of Sensors winners revealed at Sensors Converge - Fierce Electronics
Robot Events
FIRA is back! October 22-24 Woodland CA
With AG ROBOTICS DISCOVERY TOUR Oct 17-21
🚀 hashtag#FIRAUSA24: Unveiling the Future of AgTech!
🧑🌾 FIRA USA event: October 22-24
🌟 Highlights:
• Unparalleled networking for farmers, manufacturers, and scientists
• In-field demos of cutting-edge autonomous solutions
• Business meetings and research discussions
• Focus on specialty crops: vegetables, vines, fruit, and nut trees
Don't miss this opportunity to shape the future of agriculture!
🔗 Register now: https://lnkd.in/eHJDFK3F
And some more robotics conferences:
Humanoid Robotics Festival Lima Peru Aug 14-15-16
CASE 2024 Puglia Italy 28 Aug - 1 Sep 2024
BioRob Heidelberg DE 1 Sep-Sep 4
Commercial UAV Expo : Sep 03 - Sep 05, 2024 . Las Vegas, United States of America
CLAWAR 2024 Kaiserslauten DE Sep 4 - Sep 6
IMTS Chicago IL Sep 9 - Sep 14
ACTUATE Summit : Sep 18, 2024 . San Francisco - use SVROBO for 25% off
ICRA@40 Rotterdam NL 23 Sep - 26 Sep
International Robot Safety Conference Cincinnati OH Oct 1 - Oct 3
A3’s Humanoids Memphis TN Oct 7
Autonomous Mobile Logistics Memphis TN Oct 8 - Oct 10
ANTS (Swarm robotics) 2024 : Oct 09 - Oct 11, 2024 . Konstanz, Germany
IROS 2024 AbuDhabi Oct 14 - Oct 18
RobOpsCon 2024 - Mountain View - Oct 15
ROSCon Odense DK Oct 21 - Oct 23
ROS Industrial Odense DK Oct 24 - Oct 25
ICSR+AI Odense DK Oct 24 - Oct 26
CORL Munich DE Nov 6 - Nov 9
IEEE Future of Telepresence Pasadena CA Nov 16 - Nov 17
Humanoids 2024 Nancy FR Nov 26 - Nov 28
IFRR - 40th - Long Beach CA Dec
2025
HRI 2025 Melbourne Australia March 4 - March 6
ProMat 2025 Chicago IL Mar 17 - Mar 20
ICRA 2025 Atlanta Georgia May 17 - May 23
Sensors Converge 2025 Santa Clara CA Jun 24 - Jun 26
Robot eyelash extensions look terrifying!