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TRANSCRIPT
FLIGHTPLAN
ABOUT FLIGHTPLAN The allure is obvious. Hardware wins can be gigantic. IOT will push $250B, robotics $135B, and drones $100B. While the cost of prototyping and iterative design has fallen dramatically, the necessary cost and requisite investment for hardware startups still far exceeds software startups. The added complexity of physical products with respect to design, research, engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain only adds to the risk for investors.
You don’t know what you don’t know.
We are Gossamer, a product development firm with a serious amount of design and engineering background. We are offering a free technical due diligence service for select investors. We call it Gossamer FlightPlan.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE INVESTOR? Gossamer will review pitch decks and interview potential investments on their technical knowledge at no cost. We will then present the investor with a tailored report and roadmap of the potential investment. This benefits the investor as we disclose potential pitfalls and shortcomings the startup may not have thought of or planned for. Again, you don’t know what you don’t know.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR GOSSAMER? Transparently, deal flow. This product puts Gossamer in front of funded hardware startups with opportunities to contribute to their success. In the end, we believe that FlightPlan will get products to market faster, more efficiently, and provide a quicker ROI for investors.
HOW DOES FLIGHTPLAN WORK? FlightPlan is both low tech and high tech. The investor will fill out the FlightPlan form (flightplan.gossmr.com) and submit the hardware startup pitch deck to Gossamer. We will conduct a technical interview to gain an understanding of each founder’s strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities while feeding into our data matrix. The result will be a customized report and timeline outlining the profile of the hardware startup. The long term goal is to generate enough data points to highlight commonalities and trends between hardware startup failures and successes.
GOSSAMER
PRNTR - Smart Home Printers Prepared for: William Iha, General Partner at 33Ventures Presented by: Chris Hsiao, Principal at Gossamer September 27, 2017
GOSSAMER
Photo Credit: H. Kogje
ABOUT PRNTR Sandra is a MICA graduate and designer at a Tier 1 design firm. She has 3 years of professional experience. Her co-founder, Manny, is a supply chain specialist at Canon in the printer division, and has 6 years of experience there. The two of them have created a simple, connected home printer (B2C) that has toner monitoring and auto-replenish (recurring revenue model). They are aiming for an Apple/Nest aesthetic, are aiming for a $299 MSRP for product and a $19 replenishment fee for toners (four toner cartridges per printer - black, cyan, magenta, and yellow). The goal is to enter the market with a connected printer, then grow to the B2B market.
INTERVIEW PROCESS
Gossamer was tasked by 33Ventures to perform a due diligence research with PRNTR, and to concentrate specifically on the physical product development. Gossamer interviewed Sandra and Manny together through Skype on Tuesday, April 14, 2017. The call lasted two hours, and they were interviewed on the following topics:
• Strategy/Research • Conceptual Design • Technical Feasibility • Embedded/System R+D • PCB Design • Material Selection • Mechanical Engineering • Structural Analysis • DFM Analysis
Both founders were given ample time to explain their background, knowledge base, and vision for their company.
GOSSAMER
INTERVIEW SUMMARY Sandra lead most of the call and lived up to her design background and exhibited great competency in strategy, UX, and design. She had minimal experience with direct client interaction, and was a bit unfamiliar with originating redlines. Even though she often worked with material selection in terms of feel and manufacturability, she lacked understanding in designing and choose material for strength and durability. Sandra did have a strong competency in IP and patent research. Sandra has a great eye for app design and UX.
Manny filled in with a surprisingly strong competency in embedded systems as they pertain to printers. Working in supply chain for Canon, Manny also had strong insider knowledge on which sensors and systems vendors were stronger in terms of reliability and pricing. Manny did not work with the PCB side at Canon, and possesses no knowledge of that field. Neither Sandra nor Manny have experience with app development (backend).
WHAT WE LIKED We loved Sandra’s design aesthetic. The product’s industrial design and app’s UX were world class. We strongly believe that this design language will speak strongly to the intended audience and that PRNTR will be able to be ahead of design trends. Manny also instilled a lot of confidence in understanding the system and sensor design of the printer. His ability to expose inefficiencies in printer supply chain management will be useful in the manufacturing stage.
WHAT WE DISLIKED While the design was fantastic, the manufacturing feasibility of their early sketches were problematic. Much of the product’s geometry would result in a higher manufacturing cost. Their initial carriage belt design, while mechanically advantageous in reducing vibration and sound, requires 3D printing or advanced additive manufacturing - supply chain logistics and scalability become problematic. We believe the team will struggle when it comes to translating their initial industrial design into manufacturable and scaleable engineering.
GOSSAMER
INTERVIEW SUMMARY (CONT.)
The following chart lays out design and engineering competency. It is worth noting that we expect a startup to score poorly on most of this, but it should help them know where the pain points might lie in the development cycle. A low score isn’t meant to discourage an investment - conversely, a high score isn’t meant to endorse an investment.
We are scoring them on knowledge and readiness of development fields (average score derived from competency and resources that make up each process). Scores are assigned as:
1 - not aware of the subject and having no knowledge of this field3 - aware of this subject matter and/or having a plan or team member who can solve this5 - something that is either finished, or a core strength of the team
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GOSSAMER
INTERVIEW SUMMARY (CONT.)
Based on the complexity of the physical product assembly and the level of technical competency of the team as currently assembled, we are providing a rough estimate for the PRNTR physical product development schedule. This schedule is merely for product development and finishes at a point where it is ready for manufacturing. The schedule does not take into account tooling, manufacturing, assembly, or shipping.
We believe that the risk level for developing this product to be high, and the estimated timeline reflects our assessment of the process.
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GOSSAMER
