7 Resources for Hardware Entrepreneurs in the SF Bay Area

Posted By Sculpteo on Nov 18, 2011 | 0 comments

Last time we talked about the emerging hardware startup ecosystem.This tim we would like to share with you some useful tools and online resources for hardware entrepreneurs.

Meet the Hardware Start-up Community

SF Hardware Startup Meet-up

Hardware Startups now have their San Francisco meet-up thanks to Nick Pinkston, founder & CEO of Cloudfab, a Pittsburgh-based software company that connects entrepreneurs and 3D printing manufacturers. Nick recently moved to the city and now spends most of his time meeting and gathering the fast-growing hardware startup community.

Last week’s event was a big success! More than 130 attendees for the second edition. We presented Sculpteo to the audience (most of you never heard of us but were interested in 3D printing) and discovered exciting projects: from an innovative bike brake to a promising coffee brewing machine, from electronic fabric to 3D printed customized glasses. Michael Righi, co-founder of OYOglasses was nice enough to accept an interview with us today… article coming soon!

We encourage anyone interested in hardware startups to join the Meet-up page and come to the next event.

Solid State Startups

Solid State Startups is a regular meeting held at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. It gathers hardware startup entrepreneurs and makers as well. We haven’t been there yet but it seems promising. The Hacker Dojo is definitively a place to check if you are nearby and want to meet peers.

Lemnos Labs’ Hardware Events Newsletter

Every week, co-founders of hardware startup incubator Lemnos Labs reviews a list of main hardware entrepreneur events in the Bay Area and features the most interesting one.

Angel.co

If you’re not familiar with Angel.co, we invite you to take a look at it! Created a few months ago by Nivi and Naval, the two behind Venture Hacks, Angel.co is a social network for connecting entrepreneurs and investors. The 3D printing list is worth following.

Learn to Prototype and Make Things

The Crucible

The Crucible is a non-profit organization based in Oakland that provides industrial art classes and workshops. From moldmaking to woodworking, milling machine to blacksmithing or jewelry making, The Crucible is a great resource for makers located in the Bay Area needing to learn how to build a prototype.

Techshop

We took a tour at Techshop for Sculpteo by the Bay a few weeks ago and keep spending time here. Members are working on all kinds of hardware projects. A great place to learn, make and meet makers/entrepreneurs.

Workshop Weekends

Workshop Weekends was created a few months ago. The idea: a week-end to learn how to make things. Classes can be attended by anyone interested by electronics (Arduino, soldering, EL Wire), programming (webdevelopment), music instruments, games. We were surprised to not see any 3D printing classes at the upcoming event!

Do you know of other places or resources that can be useful for hardware entrepreneurs? Feel free to comment to improve this list!