Talk given at Fund Forum in Berlin on June 14th 2017.

1. The next big thing
that’s still very small
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
@iotwatch

2. About me
First UK distributor of electronics education tool Arduino
London Internet of Things meetup organiser since 2011
#iot strategy consultant
Writing a book on smart homes for Apress
Founder of Good Night Lamp

3. Clients

4. The internet of things
Embedding cheap hardware onto a ‘thing’.
Making sure that the hardware can connect to a network.
Make sure the network can collect the data and lead to actionable
information for the user and the business.

5. Invention
Extending the unique properties of an existing thing.
Creating a whole new thing.
Creating a whole new behaviour around a thing.

6. There are as many potential applications as there are things

7. Examples: Home autonomy
Lively! (US) Glowcaps (US)Kemuri (UK)

8. Ignius (UK)
Olitool (UK)
Smart sole (US)
Examples: Health & Safety wearables

9. Examples: Small Infrastructure
Buffalogrid (UK) Hello Tracker (Kenya)Farmbot (US)

10. Examples: Waste management
Winnow (UK) CupClub (UK)

11. Examples: Home
British Gas Hive (UK) Ding doorbell (UK) Bleep Bleeps (UK)

12. Health
& Safety
Home
Ed Tech
Work
Transport
Industrial
Elderly
care
Environment
Environment
Conservation
Independent
Living
Food Safety
& Security
We could be here all day…

13. Software platform
Software platform
with hardware partner
Own hardware and
software platform
What do most people build?
Ambition
for innovation

14. Software platform
6mo-1year
Software platform
with hardware partner
1-2 year
Own hardware and
software platform
2-5 years
Time &
money
Time to launch

15. The financial environment
No larger seed funds dedicated to internet of things
Minimum viable investment in hardware: £150K
There are no incubators or accelerators that support that initial investment
Crowdfunding is a terrible early stage financial mechanism
Government grants don’t like micro-SMEs

16. Making things is much easier
Designing a supply chain in Europe or Asia is much easier.
There are yearly trips for entrepreneurs to China to build relationships.
Manufacturing in Europe can be cost effective too.
Usine.io
Koobe Global
Brinc.io
Bolt
Highway1 by PCH

17. What £150K should buy you
A reasonable tech & marketing team (4-5 people)
A small supply chain
A small batch of production ready
products to test with customers and validate the idea.
Something to put in front of retail buyers to place orders.

18. Yes that’s probably more than you want to invest
Invention has always come at a cost that was higher than software.
Investing less than £150K won’t even get the team to get started.
Look at crowdfunding horror stories as an example of what happens
when you have too many customers and too little funding.

19. What an exit looks like?
Selling to a large industrial player who wants the team
Selling to a large FMG company who doesn’t have the innovation
Selling to a large tech company who don’t know how to make things.

20. The right questions to ask the teams you meet?
Where do you want to sell the product?
Who is missing on your team?
Who do you think are your customers?
Who do you wish were your customers?
How would you spend the money?

21. What lies you will always be told
We have other product ideas in the pipeline (but they haven’t been
selling their first one yet)
We know exactly what it’s going to cost (but they haven’t made one)
Marketing will sort itself out, we’re trying to fix the tech first.
We’re planning on crowdfunding soon

22. Be forgiving.
There is no easy seed money in this space apart from
incubators (10-15K for 3-4 months).
So they’re super excited to be meeting with you.
They think that crowdfunding will make you happy, it’ll mostly kill them.

23. A checklist for their first year (bootstrapping)
A mix of tech & marketing team (2-3 people is ok)
Good PR lists or links
Functional if crappy looking prototype
Lots of user stories / newsletter signups (1-4K)

24. A checklist for their 2-3rd year (post £150K)
Pre-production samples being tested with customers
More PR
Small supply chain already tested
Relationships w retailers or wholesalers established
MOUs w potential customers
RRP decided.

25. A checklist for year 4: Go!
Crowdfunding (May-June)
Pre-orders throughout the year
A promising Christmas (if consumer)

26. Where do you find them?
Attend a local #iot meetup or subscribe to their newsletters
(iot.london/meetup.com)
Talk to the meetup organiser about making introductions
Tech conferences always have a startup showcase space
Angelist.co
Crowdfunding or Equity seed funding (it may be too late though)

27. Changing the physical world takes time.

28. Get involved!
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
alex@designswarm.com / @iotwatch on twitter & instagram