8 lessons from 10 years of iot startups - alex deschamps sonsino, good night lamp at iot14

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Lessons from 10 years of #iot

@iotwatch / @GNLteam designswarm.com / goodnightlamp.com

CEO of Tinker London 2007-2010

Good Night Lamp 2012-

designswarm 2011-

Don’t waste time with definitions Human-Computer Interaction Ubiquitous computing / ubicomp blogjects Internet of things Smart (insert noun) Internet of Everything Industrial Internet Wearables Connected products

Lesson 1

Litmus test?

The forbidden apple of crowd-funding A convenient way for investors to ignore you early on (you may not need them anyway) A quick way to do market research. Not a replacement for real PR. You become part of a market, people want to make money from you as an entrepreneur.

Lesson 2

You are educating investors. Early days for investors who have been investing in web for over 15 years. Most tech investors focusing on industrial / B2B Consumer-focused investments are led by US (Foundry Group/Tech Stars)

Lesson 3

Aqui-hires are a trend Nest & OR make for poor examples of success in #iot Larger problems such as distribution & retailing of smart products will need to be solved by companies who stick at it. 2 years developing a product isn’t long enough.

Lesson 4

Surround yourself with experts Supply chain & retail are known skillsets but are different communities Electronics engineering isn’t easy to find & is expensive but will help design something scalable A 20 something or a graduate can’t help you with either.

Lesson 5

Pace yourself

Incubators & accelerators are often too short & shouldn’t put you off your course. It takes 3 years to really be known in all markets but also be boring to some. Decide if you’re a one product company or a products company. (Lava Lamp vs Apple)

Lesson 6

Try not to move to Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley doesn’t have as much engineering & marketing as the UK but it has some money. Open a sales office there. Go to CES / SXSW / XOYO / FooCamp

Lesson 7

You’re not alone.

#iotlondon has 2.7K members meetup.com/iotlondon Retailers interested in new ideas (JLab) Angel funding will catch up meetup.com/iotangels

Lesson 8

Good luck.

Lessons from 10 years of #iot

@iotwatch / @GNLteam designswarm.com / goodnightlamp.com