FREE UNIVERSITY OF BOZEN-BOLZANO FACULTY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Summary of "Why Hardware Startups Fail" by Heider Jeffer

• Gilgamesh Master Thesis Project
• RQ: Why Hardware Startups Fail
• Heider Jeffer hjeffer@unibz.it , hheider.jeffer@gmail.com.
• Supervisor Professor Xiaofeng Wang xiaofeng.wang@unibz.it.
• February 2022

PowerPoint: Why Hardware Startups Fail.pptx

PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bZvNbYk2SI09rM9WKZpv-oSZDr06BuSe/view?usp=sharing

Abstract

This thesis addresses the high failure rate of hardware startups, which is often driven by trial-and-error methods and lacks a solid theoretical foundation. The primary research question is: Why do hardware startups fail? The study aims to identify the factors contributing to the failure of hardware startups through a systematic data collection and analysis process.

Research Objective

The main goal is to develop a strategy to extract failure factors from various data sources. The study focuses on analyzing secondary data from CB-Insights and gray literature to identify and categorize these factors.

Methodology

The research process involves three phases:

1. Data Collection: Using predefined keywords to search and gather data from Google and CB-Insights.
2. Data Analysis: Coding and categorizing the collected data to identify failure factors.
3. Data Storage: Storing the research material in an open-source repository named Gilgamesh on GitHub.

Key Findings

The study identifies 17 major failure factors, which are grouped into five categories:

1. Customer & Market
2. Hardware Product & Experts
3. Financial Issues
4. Lack of Business Model
5. Legal Issues

Critical factors include product strategy mistakes, pricing issues, and poor product quality.

Contributions

• The study highlights the need for further research in the field of hardware startup failures.
• Provides a systematic approach for data collection and analysis that can benefit future research.
• Suggests guidelines for improving the depth and width of research by including video and audio data and adjusting search keywords.

Limitations

• The study relies on secondary data from gray literature and self-reported sources, which may limit the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the findings.
• There is a lack of previous research on hardware startup failures, making this an exploratory study.

Future Work

• Expand data collection to include video and audio formats.
• Adjust search keywords to encompass a broader range of hardware startups, including IoT devices.

Thesis Structure

1. Introduction: Discusses the problem, motivation, research process, and results.
2. Background and Related Work: Provides definitions and context for hardware startups and their failures.
3. Research Approach: Details the data collection, analysis methods, and the Gilgamesh repository.
4. Research Findings: Presents the identified failure factors and categorizes them.
5. Discussion: Analyzes the most critical failure factors and the limitations of the study.
6. Conclusions and Implications for Future Research: Summarizes the findings and suggests directions for further research.

Conclusion

This thesis contributes to understanding why hardware startups fail by identifying key failure factors and providing a methodological approach for future research. It emphasizes the importance of a structured data collection and analysis process and suggests potential improvements for future studies.