"Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains."
- Bill Gates, Chairman at Microsoft
We’ve got some awesome news to announce: we’re going to San Francisco! Robolink has been accepted into HAX Boost’s next cohort of startups! That means Hansol, our CEO, and myself will be going to San Francisco to participate in the 42-day startup accelerator program.
I’ve long loved the Bay Area, everything from the tech scene to the great food to the beautiful landscapes to the bustling cityscape. So I’m personally pretty excited to be able to spend some time up in the tech mecca of the world. Hansol and I will be spending the next 6 weeks in downtown San Francisco, where HAX’s San Francisco office is located.
Before we get into what we’ll be up to, you might be wondering what HAX Boost is.
What is HAX Boost?
HAX Boost is part of the larger HAX program, formerly HAXLR8R. HAX is an accelerator program specifically geared towards hardware startups. You might even call it the hardware accelerator. They started in Shenzhen, China, which some people call the ”Silicon Valley of Hardware”, because of how many hardware manufacturers are located there. There’s even a whole documentary about it from WIRED, if you’re interested. (Guess who’s featured in it: HAX!). Its alumni include the likes of Makeblock, Dispatch, and Voltera. They’re pretty awesome, you should check them out.
HAX Boost started in San Francisco in 2015 as a US branch of their accelerator, focusing more on later-stage startups that are retail-ready—they’ve got a product, it’s selling, and now they want to ramp up distribution. They mentor these startups in areas such as marketing, going to retail, managing inventory, among others. Having just launched our successful CoDrone Kickstarter campaign earlier this year and last year’s successful Rokit Smart Kickstarter campaign, we’re in a great spot to be joining HAX Boost.
So what are we going to be up to?
HAX Boost has a pretty specific itinerary for the 6-week program, but I won’t bore you with all the details. Essentially, we’ll be going through the program to learn the ins and outs of going from having a product that sells primarily in an online store to showing up in retail stores around the country and world. We will get mentorship in areas such as how to manage retail, how to run operations, how to market our product online and in-store, and even get opportunities to pitch to potential investors and distribution partners.
The exciting thing, too, is that we are in this program with a cohort of about 10 other exciting up-and-coming hardware startups. So we get to learn from others as well as share what we’ve learned in the course of our business’s lifetime. We are definitely excited to get to know what other neat things folks out there are working on and gain wisdom from those who are going through similar challenges.
Our hope is that once we graduate from the program, we will have the tools and resources necessary to take Robolink to the next level, and hopefully make some good friends along the way too.
Keep up with our adventures
As part of the curriculum, every week, there will be a different focus on what we’ll be covering. Since this is a weekly blog, we’re going to be posting weekly updates on what we’ve learned over the course of the week, as well as quick video updates here and there on our Facebook page. Hansol and I will be getting all kinds of knowledge, and we will likely be getting into some adventures up in San Francisco. So like us on Facebook to keep up with what’s going on.
So stay tuned for our series: Robolink goes to SF! Episode 1 will be next week!
