Jayesh, an Engineering student at Olin College in Needham, MA contacted RobotShop via the Support Center with some general questions about the RobotShop Accelerator for Inventors and Developers. We thought this would start off any questions the community may have about the Accelerator program.
- My first question is what was the driver for RobotShop to pursue this idea? Was it driven by customers or did RobotShop sense a niche that it could move into?
Both; RobotShop knew there was a potential market for such a system and we had regularly been receiving inquiries for quite some time. We believe in innovation and we don’t like to see good ideas remain as prototypes because of the many hurdles involved in commercialization.
- Secondly, does RobotShop plan to offer physical space and mentorship for inventors? Many inventors may not have the resources to prototype ideas by themselves and a workshop with equipment could be useful to them.
RobotShop has a global reach and, at this time, there is no way we could offer a “fab-lab” or a “hacker-space” globally; that would imply having to open such facilities all over the world.
Also, you need more than an idea in order to create a product, you need a design and ideally a functional prototype. In order for a design to be viable, it needs to be manufacturable and functional. We believe it is the creators’ responsibility to go through all the designing steps (including prototyping) in order to make sure their product is actually possible. This having been said, RobotShop does work with the inventor in order to improve / simplify the product to help give it the best possible chance when it hits the market.
- Is RobotShop’s vision to help inventors develop products through the resources provided by RobotShop, or is it to develop companies? These are not mutually exclusive, but may change the approach inventors have. If it is to develop companies, larger ideas could be developed through the accelerator. For instance, the Kiva System robots exist within an ecosystem of inventory control and warehousing. It could be useful for them to develop their robots through the accelerator and then move on to develop the rest of their business. Alternatively, there is the model that Sparkfun uses, where it sources designs from a community and handles all the manufacturing and distribution.
At this time, RobotShop’s focus is to develop creative, new robotic products, not companies. If the creators want to make their own company, that is perfectly fine, but we cannot assist them in this process. The main idea behind the accelerator is to avoid the hassle of creating a company (along with everything it implies) in order to focus on the products themselves.
- Finally, what are the kinds of inventors that RobotShop is targeting? Robotics is huge, and I am unsure if RobotShop has a specific niche that it is trying to exploit.
We are prepared to help develop robotic parts as well as personal, domestic or professional robots. We are open to all good ideas. Robotics is indeed huge and as a leading distributor, we are interested in all of its branches.
Sincerely,