Can we scale hardware first companies without defying the Commandment of Time?

[Dhabalu]

After reading a few of the threads and topics, and having a hardware based business myself, I was curious to know how easily can you scale such a business without not giving it time(like being married to the business). Scaling means more inventory, more space, more capital and ofcourse more HR. Seems like a software based business is easier (but maybe Entry is easier too) to scale.

Ofcourse, theres eCommerce route, but except FMCG, is it really scalable?

Anyone done this? Advise? Thoughts?


TL;DR: Is it easier to achieve your dream figure by a software business than a hardware business?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kevin88660]

After reading a few of the threads and topics, and having a hardware based business myself, I was curious to know how easily can you scale such a business without not giving it time(like being married to the business). Scaling means more inventory, more space, more capital and ofcourse more HR. Seems like a software based business is easier (but maybe Entry is easier too) to scale.

Ofcourse, theres eCommerce route, but except FMCG, is it really scalable?

Anyone done this? Advise? Thoughts?


TL;DR: Is it easier to achieve your dream figure by a software business than a hardware business?

Time isn’t the distinction.

You still need human resource to fix bugs and answer customer for saas.

You either use your own time or hire someone.

 

[Prdgy]

On top of what @Kevin88660 said, the commandment of Time isn't about spending 0 time on the business at all. On the contrary, you should spend as much time on the business as you can at the start. Scale your operations until they almost don't need you first, that's how you build the money machine. Then, you can scale up in quantity et al. You'd eventually want to reach a point where your HR/automation deals with almost everything, you do some executive stuff, and order some things to continuously build up the business.

Software and Hardware are 2 different racehorses, with different circumstances.

 

[Dhabalu]

Time isn’t the distinction.

You still need human resource to fix bugs and answer customer for saas.

You either use your own time or hire someone.

Thats like saying you need someone for QA(Quality Assurance) and after sales service for hardware business. Dont you think the inventory cost and space is a typical overhead, making you sort of slower in the Fastlane?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kevin88660]

Thats like saying you need someone for QA(Quality Assurance) and after sales service for hardware business. Dont you think the inventory cost and space is a typical overhead, making you sort of slower in the Fastlane?

Yes. But that falls under S (scale) not T (time).

Time in CENTS refers to things like digit assets on sale through automated systems.

 

[Dhabalu]

On top of what @Kevin88660 said, the commandment of Time isn't about spending 0 time on the business at all. On the contrary, you should spend as much time on the business as you can at the start. Scale your operations until they almost don't need you first, that's how you build the money machine. Then, you can scale up in quantity et al. You'd eventually want to reach a point where your HR/automation deals with almost everything, you do some executive stuff, and order some things to continuously build up the business.

Software and Hardware are 2 different racehorses, with different circumstances.

Agreed thats its not 0 time and investing as much as possible time at the start is crucial, but think about it, its easier to develop and produce a software product than a hardware product. The dev cycle is agile and thus more experimentation s can be done in software, without much of the costs.

Which racehorse would you rather bet on?

 

[Dhabalu]

Yes. But that falls under S (scale) not T (time).

Time in CENTS refers to things like digit assets on sale through automated systems.

Time of estimating and optimizing Inventory days of products vs Time of estimating and optimizing man-hours for building a feature.

I still do feel that a hardware company, like lets say manufacturing, takes up a lot of time even after company is scaled. Automating manufacturing systems is much harder than automating software systems.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Prdgy]

Agreed thats its not 0 time and investing as much as possible time at the start is crucial, but think about it, its easier to develop and produce a software product than a hardware product. The dev cycle is agile and thus more experimentation s can be done in software, without much of the costs.

Which racehorse would you rather bet on?

Software, but for totally different reasons (i.e. world is becoming more cloud-based and less hardware based), and only as an investor. As an entrepreneur, I'm not informed enough on future prospects to form a genuine opinion.

But the problem is that software and hardware are such big categories that nicheing down is not only recommended, but mandatory. Hardware does have one advantage I can think of though: It can very easily transpose into software. Example: Apple, Samsung, HP, insert any phone company here.

The dev cycle is unimportant imo, unless your productivity is abysmal. Apple only really releases a phone once a year and even then it's just a rehash of the old ones with slightly better specs, you don't have to reinvent the wheel with hardware, because you're reinventing non-Euclidean 4D shapes in the software. That's why they're two different racehorses. The age of hardware primacy is gone and the age of software primacy is here. Apple gets away with having 12mp cameras on their phones still because their software is just THAT good.

And you're going to have to dabble in software anyways, unless you're going to run on proprietary/open-source (which, depending on your answer, may or may not break the commandment of control). But I digress, because I wasn't making the point that software is superior or inferior to hardware, just that they're different.

What you said in the thread opening is correct. Software is ultimately easier to scale, but easier to enter. Which gives you much more competition that can build off of your successes much faster. Whether or not your fastlane is faster due to scalability factors is not the determining factor here.

At least in my head, scaling hardware is pretty straightforward. (do take the next phrases with a grain of salt) More capital = More money for inventory = More capital = More money for HR = More automation. Of course, leaving the odd expenditures aside and such and the weird events that are characteristic of free markets.

Oh, and yes eCommerce is scalable, (see Amazon, Alibaba, Shopify, Ebay, hell, even Zappos) you just need to be better than your competition (that you will have a lot of); MJ talks about SUCS (Superior Unexpected Customer Service) which can play an integral part, because eCom stores are notorious for their bad customer service and horrendous appeal processes. Just find any way to break the storm by exceeding the expectations of customers in a way they never realised was possible. (after having been so used to some things that the industry lacks, aka the pain points)

 

[Dhabalu]

Software, but for totally different reasons (i.e. world is becoming more cloud-based and less hardware based), and only as an investor. As an entrepreneur, I'm not informed enough on future prospects to form a genuine opinion.

But the problem is that software and hardware are such big categories that nicheing down is not only recommended, but mandatory. Hardware does have one advantage I can think of though: It can very easily transpose into software. Example: Apple, Samsung, HP, insert any phone company here.

The dev cycle is unimportant imo, unless your productivity is abysmal. Apple only really releases a phone once a year and even then it's just a rehash of the old ones with slightly better specs, you don't have to reinvent the wheel with hardware, because you're reinventing non-Euclidean 4D shapes in the software. That's why they're two different racehorses. The age of hardware primacy is gone and the age of software primacy is here. Apple gets away with having 12mp cameras on their phones still because their software is just THAT good.

And you're going to have to dabble in software anyways, unless you're going to run on proprietary/open-source (which, depending on your answer, may or may not break the commandment of control). But I digress, because I wasn't making the point that software is superior or inferior to hardware, just that they're different.

What you said in the thread opening is correct. Software is ultimately easier to scale, but easier to enter. Which gives you much more competition that can build off of your successes much faster. Whether or not your fastlane is faster due to scalability factors is not the determining factor here.

At least in my head, scaling hardware is pretty straightforward. (do take the next phrases with a grain of salt) More capital = More money for inventory = More capital = More money for HR = More automation. Of course, leaving the odd expenditures aside and such and the weird events that are characteristic of free markets.

Oh, and yes eCommerce is scalable, (see Amazon, Alibaba, Shopify, Ebay, hell, even Zappos) you just need to be better than your competition (that you will have a lot of); MJ talks about SUCS (Superior Unexpected Customer Service) which can play an integral part, because eCom stores are notorious for their bad customer service and horrendous appeal processes. Just find any way to break the storm by exceeding the expectations of customers in a way they never realised was possible. (after having been so used to some things that the industry lacks, aka the pain points)

Thanks for this detailed answer, strengthens my conviction that software has to be a differentiating factor and value skewer, even in hardware companies. Agreed with everything you said including SUCS.

I am just looking for answers in my industry and not able to see how to skew value and follow the law of effection, sort of being stuck. Thanks again though, meant a lot.