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Re:The Hardware Renaissance by tptacek on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @01:32PM (#4689155)
I have a passing familiarity with some well-regarded MBA curricula and disagree that these problems are things that b-school grads leave school equipped to handle.

Here's a Slate story about a Kickstarter hardware project that failed spectacularly. The income Kickstarter generated was counterfeit, because the guy running the business was swamped by expenses he hadn't predicted out the outset and would only learn when he needed to ship in volume. Spoiler: all he was trying to sell was lockpicks, little shims of metal.

http://hive.slate.com/hive/made-america-how-reinvent-america...

Want another example? How about Wakemate?

Re:The Hardware Renaissance by mixmax on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @01:45PM (#4689218)
This is where good business people shine - whether you call them MBA's or not. Often they're not.

Good business people will anticipate the expenses needed and make sure there's a way to pay them (or delay payments and make sure everything is in a company with limited liability), borrow money in the bank with collateral in your inventory, get good deals with suppliers (If you do it right you'll get a 90 days credit line thus nullifying much of your cashflow problem), etc. etc.

Re:The Hardware Renaissance by stephengillie on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @02:06PM (#4689319)
That article is a blurb, when compared to the length and detail I've come to expect from Slate articles. Really, it starts by telling how a bunch of lockpicks broke at a lockpick convention, then jumps into the excitement of Kickstarter.

The article discusses how this guy abandoned his friends, launched their project without them, then went money-crazy when the project was funded. This guy is spending on conferences, unlimited air passes, and $24,000 worth of locks and Open Locksport swag, but doesn't even have a source for the lock picks he's "sold" to people.

Maybe the best part is where he has to spend $2000 to hire a go-between to talk to lockpick suppliers, as he was too insecure to do so himself. Maybe one of his friends could have done that, if he hadn't abandoned them. No...the best part is where all the conferences and flying and vacations has caused him to become depressed, so he checks himself into a hospital. sigh

Oh, and I think the friends he abandoned came back to sell his locks and sell this story. I'm not completely sure if they're his friends, because the Slate article is very unclear about this.