SMT007 Magazine

SMT007-Feb2019

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58 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2019 while at CES, "we're always open to talking to any possible people who want to collaborate." I asked if Matei had been approached by any manufacturers looking to partner, and his re- sponse was more circumspect. He explained, "I don't know exactly who these partners are yet; they gave me a brief spiel about what they do and leave me their contact information. That's something for me to go back to the of- fice and research, but we have met a few." Matei wrapped up that thought with, "We'll see where that takes us from here." And, as if on cue, just at that moment, I was courteously shouldered aside by a tour guide with a group of 10–15 people following him, all wearing headphone receivers tuned to the tour guide's microphone. The guide identified his group as representatives from United Rentals, a U.S.- based national commercial equipment rental company. The likely conclusion is that United Rentals is looking for new products to add to their inventory. All of this begged the question: Why wouldn't manufacturers be looking for this kind of rela- tionship? Become a Market-maker Admittedly, a four-conversation sample size out of 1,250 exhibitors is not statistically valid, but statisticians will tell you that overwhelm- ing trends become visible very early in the data set. If that's the case, then it seems quite feasible that most Eureka Park exhibitors with a hardware product 1) have a prototype that is demonstrable, 2) are looking to move into production, 3) do not yet have a manufactur- ing chain established, and 4) could use all the partnership help and mentoring they can find. In fact, Robbox seems to be an ideal candi- date at exactly the right time. Their product is beyond prototype and ready for production, the company is building out the manufactur- ing supply chain right now, and customers interested in quantity purchases are lining up at their booth to learn the latest. Especially in Robbox's case, the risk seems pretty minimal. Nate Ramanathan's proposal that a manufac- turing partner should consider investing in a startup company considered to be a promising prospect seems to hold water in this sample size. Three of four would have welcomed manufac - turing help, including the prospect that it came with an investment in the company as well. There is risk involved investing in a startup, but the relationship between startup and ven- dor, structured as a partnership, creates more commitment—skin in the game, if you will— than a simple transactional arrangement. When I followed up with AEye on this story, they observed, "The investment of dollars and expertise [from a manufacturing partner, in this case] accelerates an early-stage growth compa- ny's ability to succeed and beat its competitors on quality and velocity versus merely trying to beat them on cost." This could be the differ- ence between the startups' success or failure, and a long-term manufacturing customer or a handful of prototype orders. By targeting a densely-packed, target-rich environment like Eureka Park, sales teams could make effective use of their prospecting time. Yes, it would seem that Ramanathan may be onto something: Manufacturers as market- makers. SMT007 Andrei Matei with the Robbox Robotic Drill. The drill includes a wide range of built-in features including laser measurement, leveler guides and drill speed based on selected material.

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