[aconsult1]

I'm a co-founder of a niche multi-effect pedalboard company and we're filing for bankruptcy in Germany this very week.

It's not only the crazy price changes and random stocking issues. Small players have zero leverage with suppliers and are a much weaker link in this whole chaos. Good luck trying to find investors willing to put money to drive growth.

Hardware startups is absolutely brutal. No surprise so many fail after a "successful" Kickstarter campaign.

I'm actually surprised we're only going under nearly 30 months after the pandemic started. I would bet that millions of people will be unemployed because a gazillion of small companies will shut off in the next 18 months.

I'll never start (or work for) a hardware company for the rest of my life. Software is so much a better business to invest that makes me cry just thinking how much money and years I lost of my life.

[epups]

Every big fall I had ended up being a huge improvement in my life in hindsight, after a year or two. You couldn't have foreseen these issues and should feel proud of the experience you had. I hope everything works out well for you.

[aconsult1]

I appreciate the sympathy, really. The thing that I probably regret the most is really the time invested. That's the only thing I can't make up for. Even if I try to look back fondly of the learning experience I'm still severely burnt by it.

What I did in fact learn was to give absolutely tons of respect for people who pull this off. There's a lot of trash talk articles about Peloton and other struggling hardware companies but they have no clue how freaking difficult it is. Now at least I can say I do.

-- Edited for clarity

[aconsult1]

The future is still bright. I was lucky enough to have two business going and the second one is a thriving consulting software company. Sorry if it looked like I was in a dire situation personally. Not really the case.

[lnsru]

I fell you! I am thinking about nice 3D sensor for robotic applications. I have hardware prototype and rudimentary software. However no parts are available for sale, so I am not able to advance to production ready version. Very frustrating! Happily I can fund my development from other sources and have long runway. I dodged a large caliber bullet not going all in with this single project 18 months ago.

[aconsult1]

I don't want to deposit fear into your dreams. You should follow what your heart tells you. But not going all in was probably the smartest decision you've made. Good luck!

[rPlayer6554]

I'm so sorry to hear about that, it seems really frustrating. I hope things work out for you.

[webspaceadam]

das tut mir wirklich leid. nur das beste für die zukunft. manchmal wird mut nicht belohnt :(