Nine hardware pitches at San Francisco ‘Maker’ Startup Weekend
Startup Weekend is an entrepreneur bootcamp that takes place over the course of a single weekend. The events are hosted in various locations around the world yet they connect local communities of investors, coaches, sponsoring businesses, and of course…seasoned and wanna-be entrepreneurs.
In 54-hours the entrepreneurial participants form teams and develop ideas from concept to pitch with many of them developing prototypes with the help of 3D printing, plug-in-play website builders, and electronics kits. Team members range from students to professionals who have various talents like technical, sales, and marketing. At the end of the fast-paced weekend, three teams win in-kind services and other prizes to help advance their newly formed business.
I have frequented these Startup Weekends as an observer before, but usually these events showcase pitches for website or app ideas that offer services. Earlier this year I attended a Startup Weekend in Chicago and heard just a few pitches that incorporated hardware or Internet-of-Things ideas.
This June in San Francisco, I stumbled upon a Startup Weekend that was marketed with the word ‘Maker’. Finally, some hardgood product development! There was an impressive lineup of sponsors like Autodesk, Intel, and many more. And, almost all of the hardgoods had a feature that connected to the cloud or to an app with a service. (Hence, why the products are also called hardware.)
Here is an overview of the pitches with the placing winners first.
Winners:
Sutro - 1st Place
Sutro is a system that reads the chemistry of a pool and then lets the owner know how to fix the pH balance. It reads the water and then signals to an app which chemicals and in what amounts are needed to fix the pH balance. The team also showed a feature to roll out in the future that would dispense the chemicals for the owner.
Their app not only showed which chemicals to use, but also gave the owner an option to order the chemicals to be shipped to your pool location.
June - 2nd Place
June is an ergonomic breast-pump design. It will satisfy the large percentage of mothers who pump. The team’s design solves problems associated with current breast pumps like the loud noise (to be fixed with a brushless motor) and the time it takes to setup the pump (current models take seven minutes to setup).
One of the startup's revenue streams touched on breast milk sharing. And, while the whole crowd cringed at the thought of a baby consuming another mother’s milk, the woman next to me said these places already exist and are needed for those who are malnourished or can't breastfeed.
Duo - 3rd Place
Like the popular crowd-funded personal vibrator, Vibease, Duo seeks to help those who are in long-distance relationships. Unlike Vibease, Duo touted their product to work for both partners at the same time. The product will include heat sensors and a variety of other features to suit any gender and will fulfill a variety of ‘needs’.
Other pitches:
Inven-Tell
An inventory system developed initially for the restaurant and bar industry. This system connects the liqour or drink manufacturer directly to the selling establishment. It works by signalling the weight of stocked inventory pallets found in the back of bars.
The team says it normally takes 12 weeks to track inventory back to a manufacturer. Inven-Tell would help with production planning and give better insight into the ROI of local advertisements. While POS systems are supposed to measure the consumption of liquor, the team says they are inaccurate because of human error in entering the correct drink.
Luxelite
The current manicure market is hot for gel manicures. LEDs are used to cure the gel, which makes the manicure last longer than typical polish. The Luxelite team wants to take an industrial method, like creating an oxygen-free environment, and apply it to this market to build new manicure machines. Oxygen-free environments in the coatings world use CO2 to deplete the oxygen, which would make for a longer lasting cure.
Provision Trail
Smart containers with an “easy button”. When the container is almost empty, the user hits a button that signals to an app that lets owners order the substance, food, or product that was stored in the container.
Call Valet
Instead of waiting on the phone for customer service reps to pick up your call, this service calls you back. This service may not seem new but the team claims it will work with most call centers.
Omometer
This product is a wearable device that measures stress from sweat and other factors that can be picked up by skin conductance sensors. When stress levels are too high, a connected app then messages the owner with the appropriate calming techniques like music or words to repeat.
Wink
This security device uses iris-scanning technology. The system incorporates infrared, which scans blood flow, and a camera. To use it, a person simply holds the device up to their eye.