Comments - Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev

After the exit: GrabCAD founder Hardi Meybaum reflects on his sale, Estonia and over-hyped accelerators

28 May 2015

I first met Hardi during a mentoring session at the Buildit hardware accelerator in Estonia last summer and I must say, the man is a 200% hustler and a really smart dude.

He told us his story and how he initially made his friends upload their 3D models to GC, where no one was willing to and how he moved his entire family to the US in shitty conditions, just to make GrabCAD happen.

Respect.

Kolossal failure: 10 lessons I learned from burning through $50,000 on a hardware project that bombed

23 April 2015

Earl Brown

23 April 2015

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Hi Ivaylo - great article, and thanks for being so candid. First all. may I say that I'm not so sure coming up with a completely new product is such a good idea. There are plenty of almost-great products out there that the market is buying that can be improved upon. Why re-invent the wheel when it's selling now in spite of the fact that it's a bit out of round? Make it a bit better, come up with a slick new image and make the current model obsolete. Hey! Google did it to Explorer! Believe it or not, Microsoft Explorer once had _92%_ of the search market! As Marc Andreesen says 'The market is the only thing that matters,' and how right he is. Everything else is feel-good BS.

One of the main problems we entrepreneurs have is getting honest _candid_ feedback. I don't want friends, associates and reviewers telling me my product / concept / idea is 'great'. I also don't want PC pablum: "Well, it's an interesting idea, and there's probably a nice market for it . . ." I want - 'Are you out of your cotton-picking mind? ? That's THE worst idea / product / website / crowfdunding campaign I ever saw !", then give me a few thoughtful details to justify their 'analysis.

Ryan Hoover's comment: “When you look back at yourself six months from today and don’t feel embarrassed by your naiveté, there’s a problem. That means you’re not learning, growing.” is also right on. The only part of this comment I disagree with is the 'embarrassed' part. Embarrassed to whom? I don't give one hoot if others rail me for failing - at least I'm out there in the trenches, and I defy any successful entrepreneur to tell me that their first time at bat was a home run.

Here's a draft of my new campaign I'm launching the end of May after generating as much pre-launch buzz as possible: http://goo.gl/XuoNAW Will it blow the doors off? I don't know, but I'm giving it a shot!

Earl Brown

ebrown [at] jumpercard.com

24 April 2015

Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev

24 April 2015

Earl, thanks for writing in.
Agree with re-inventing the (KOLOS) wheel. Simply take a working concept and improve it drastically. But first, make sure it's really selling - our competitor is "still available", but they are actually full of stock and hence dropped the price from $55 to $19.
One can start with Amazon reviews (the perfect crowdsourced place) on best-selling products and see where people are most frustrated.
Regarding the feedback, if you don't want a biased opinion like "Great idea!", don't pitch the idea at all :) just talk about their life / experiences / pains.
Also, thanks for filling in the crowdfunding survey I posted https://docs.google.com/forms/d/194sPA765oHzaC4JrLyKk32V4ZBiY8PiNpodj2U7qKKA/viewform

Kolossal failure: 10 lessons I learned from burning through $50,000 on a hardware project that bombed

20 April 2015

Thierry Logiest

20 April 2015

Hi Ivaylo, if I remember well you almost pivoted to this new design ( http://www.in-equip.de ) but then abstained as you didn’t want to alienate the Android crowd ( if I remember well ). With hindsight it seems that such an item also plays a decorative role ( sitting on a desk for example ) as well as a gaming/functional role. The more streamlined Apple design may have catered better for this.

20 April 2015

Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev

20 April 2015

Thierry, thanks for joining the conversation! At some point we were considering this minimal design https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ssz66qbzuqb9nhl/AACATsRPwrE0n8UEBt_vzszWa?dl=0 (credit to Ragnar Plinkner https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=288106895) - we called it the "iWheel". Both concepts (KOLOS and iWheel) were always intended for Apple users (and never Android). With the iWheel we invalidated the assumption that Apple users would prefer a minimal design - everyone picked the aggresive one, that resembles the sports cars from racing games. At the end however, none of this ACTUALLY mattered :)

Kolossal failure: 10 lessons I learned from burning through $50,000 on a hardware project that bombed

19 April 2015

Violeta Nedkova

19 April 2015

Sorry it didn't work out, Ivo, but I'm glad you took away so much from this. We all get carried away in our grand ideas, but a good old reality check brings us back down. I believe we have to work really hard for the things we want and this journey was just one step toward the end goal.

19 April 2015

Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev

19 April 2015

Appreciate it :) and thanks for your help along the journey.

Kolossal failure: 10 lessons I learned from burning through $50,000 on a hardware project that bombed

17 April 2015

Teofil Shikov

17 April 2015

Great article! Went through the hard way to learn the best way! Im just curious - are you planning something else now, after all these lessons learned?

17 April 2015

Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev

17 April 2015

Thanks Teofil, hope it helps. And yes, planning new stuff :)

Kolossal failure: 10 lessons I learned from burning through $50,000 on a hardware project that bombed

16 April 2015

Cristian Iosub

16 April 2015

He wasn't the first or the only one with this idea. At least 3 years back I saw this http://www.in-equip.de

16 April 2015

Ivaylo Kalburdzhiev

16 April 2015

Cristian, actually :) when I started out back then (end of 2011), this particular one wasn't available. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009OZUO3U (added to Amazon November, 2012). Cideko first debuted this http://www.crowdedbrain.co.uk/ces/cideko-air-racer-multi-functional-driving-wheel.html at CES12 and then morphed into the one you are sharing.