Tag Archives: GABA
Aug. 15, 2013 GABA Hardware Startups
On Thursday, Aug 15, 2013 in Palo Alto at WilmerHale, GABA presented “The Rise of the Hardware Startup.” Steffen Bartschat of Hill88 moderated panelists Scott Bowie of Zao Technology Innovations, Mike Pierce of LUMO BodyTech, Ken Raab of Sonic Manufacturing and Sven Strohband of Khosla Ventures. They discussed KPCB technology expert Mary Meeker’s recognition of the Wearable/Everywhere Computing trend. After years of startups focusing on software they are now developing devices to run it on. Many of these devices are plastic boxes with batteries powering sensing and networking technology. The rise of additive manufacturing and 3D printing helps lower the barrier of entry, but designing and getting these devices to market is much more complicated than uploading an app. There are financial, physical, chemical, mechanical, electrical, logistical, legal and retail hurdles to overcome. Startups turn to experienced manufacturing contractors to get them through the prototyping and early manufacturing process. While making something in China seems like a foregone conclusion, there are capable contract manufacturing contractors in Silicon Valley who can work closely and quickly with a startup to get them to customers without a copy going out the back door. Making hardware is hard, but for a growing number if startups it is worth the risk.
Copyright 2013 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Mar. 1, 2011 GABA Social Media
On Tuesday, March 1, 2011 in Palo Alto at SNR Denton, GABA hosted a presentation on social media. Jennifer Vessels of Next Step moderated panelists Sandra McCandless of SNR Denton, Neale Mulligan of Equinix, Vicente Silveira of LinkedIn, Chris Tracy of One True Fan and Sam Weller of Reputation.com. They discussed the challenges of using social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in a WikiLeaks world.
Copyright 2011 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Apr. 7, 2010 GABA Phone Wars II
On Wednesday, April 7, 2010 in Palo Alto at the offices of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, the German American Business Association of California (GABA) presented “Phone Wars II: The Software. †Steffen Bartschat of Hill88 Consulting moderated panelists Daniel Kellmereit of Detecon, Angela Nicoara of Deutsche Telekom Inc., Ray Milhem of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority and Christof Wittig of Servo Software. The panel gave measured reasonable assessments of the current and possible future situations. Bartschat put together a splendid slide show and the event was captured on video so contact GABA for details. Text from DJCline.com
From my viewpoint, mobile phones are now much more than their hardware. Soon all mobile phones will have internet capabilities but they will all give different experiences. Like the the personal computer industry in the 1980s two different strategies predominate. Some say Apple iPhone has a closed system and Google Android has an open one, but both have large communities of developers building and selling applications. It is not clear who will win. Text from DJCline.com
Most consumers do not care about the specifics behind the devices. They want the phone to perform certain tasks without a lot of hassle or cost. Ideally it should be a mobile device that does not require a service contract with a manufacturer or carrier, good reliable power and easy access to the web. Ultimately hardware or the software that runs on it will be irrelevant to running web applications on the cloud. Anything that interferes with that will drive consumers away. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2010 DJ Cline All rights reserved.