Innovation Series Part I: Future of Product Design and Hardware Manufacturing

Agenda:
7:00 pm Networking
7:10 pm MC Introduction
7:15 pm Speaker Presentation
8:00 pm Fireside Chat
8:20 pm Q&A
8:40 pm Ending

Innovation Event Series:
Part I: Future of Product Design and Hardware Manufacturing
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleybuilder/events/276240780/
Part II: Hardware Founder Discussion
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleybuilder/events/276275120/
Part III: Hardware Investor Discussion
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleybuilder/events/276275138/
Part IV: Startup Pitching Competition
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleybuilder/events/276275147/
Part V: Startup Pitching Competition & Winner Announcement
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleybuilder/events/276275157/

Event Summary:
The COVID-19 pandemics have changed the way we do business and handle product design and manufacturing. Before the pandemics, business travel to China was a common practice. Teams would spend a few weeks to a few months working next to the Prototyping factories or Manufacturing factories. That was the most efficient way to shorten the product development cycle. It involved person-to-person, many overseas phone calls, and in-person meetings to place a circuit board order. Currently, many hardware businesses are facing painful and costly extended delays due to multiple shut down and lockdown of facilities and broken supply chains. The lead time of parts can go from 2-6 weeks to 40 weeks and prices to 2-3x higher, or even sold out inventories.

Our speaker would be explaining what the challenges were in the past and present. Innovation Disruption on the business model (MaaS) is necessary to deal with the 2nd year of pandemics and post-pandemic days. The disruptive MaaS model is using a fixed cost subscription plan to finish a prototype and launch a new product. An innovative US and China cross-border model is giving subscriptive members access to product design reviews as well as potentially co-working spaces, SMT machinery, and 3D Printing.

Benefits:
Learn the traditional prototyping process
Understand the current product launch workflow
Gain insight of potential manufacturing problems
Discover a new MaaS model for manufacturing

Target Audience:
Hardware Startup founders
Product Executives
Electrical, Mechanical and Computer Engineers
Industrial Designers

Speaker
Jacky Chen, CEO & Founder of Alphataba
Jacky Chen is a 2x founder and experienced product manager in manufacturing with over 8 years of deep expertise across different industries, such as healthcare, AR/VR, consumer electronics, and robotics. He joined Meritronics in 2013 and has led a combined portfolio worth over 70 million, inclusive of successful companies that have since IPO. With a great understanding of the challenges startups face, Jacky co-founded Paritron in 2015 to help hardware startups handle manufacturing operations. Jacky also co-founded Alphataba in 2020 with the goal to disrupt traditional manufacturing through a manufacturing-as-a-service model as well as launching a compact factory in Silicon Valley with SMT machineries and 3D printing for subscribed members.

Alphataba
In the past decade, hardware manufacturers are adapting digitalization to be more efficient, yet there is still a blank space to connect and cultivate hardware startups with direct manufacturing and innovative production. Alphataba CEO Jacky Chen observed the opportunity after working in PCB manufacturing for seven years. In 2020, he started Alphataba with two other manufacturing experts. They identified the opportunities between substantial upfront costs, confusing distribution channels, and a lack of network for specialists (engineering talent and access to decision-makers for driving revenue). They set out to build a systematic platform to support hardware startups to complete impossible tasks.

Supporting Organizations:
IEEE Silico Valley Consumer Electronics
IEEE Silicon Valley Startup SIG
Silicon Valley China Wireless