**Want to start a startup?** Get funded by [Y
Combinator](http://ycombinator.com/apply.html).  
  
  
October 2012  
  
One advantage of Y Combinator's early, broad focus is that we see trends
before most other people. And one of the most conspicuous trends in the last
batch was the large number of hardware startups. Out of 84 companies, 7 were
making hardware. On the whole they've done better than the companies that
weren't.  
  
They've faced resistance from investors of course. Investors have a deep-
seated bias against hardware. But investors' opinions are a trailing
indicator. The best founders are better at seeing the future than the best
investors, because the best founders are making it.  
  
There is no one single force driving this trend. Hardware [does
well](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/pebble-smartwatch-tops-out-
at-10-million-on-kickstarter/) on crowdfunding sites. The spread of
[tablets](http://paulgraham.com/tablets.html) makes it possible to build new
things [controlled by](http://lockitron.com) and even
[incorporating](http://doublerobotics.com) them. [Electric
motors](http://www.boostedboards.com/) have improved. Wireless connectivity of
various types can now be taken for granted. It's getting more straightforward
to get things manufactured. Arduinos, 3D printing, laser cutters, and more
accessible CNC milling are making hardware easier to prototype. Retailers are
less of a bottleneck as customers increasingly buy online.  
  
One question I can answer is why hardware is suddenly cool. It always was
cool. Physical things are great. They just haven't been as great a way to
start a [rapidly growing](growth.html) business as software. But that rule may
not be permanent. It's not even that old; it only dates from about 1990. Maybe
the advantage of software will turn out to have been temporary. Hackers love
to build hardware, and customers love to buy it. So if the ease of shipping
hardware even approached the ease of shipping software, we'd see a lot more
hardware startups.  
  
It wouldn't be the first time something was a bad idea till it wasn't. And it
wouldn't be the first time investors learned that lesson from founders.  
  
So if you want to work on hardware, don't be deterred from doing it because
you worry investors will discriminate against you. And in particular, don't be
deterred from [applying](http://ycombinator.com/apply.html) to Y Combinator
with a hardware idea, because we're especially interested in hardware
startups.  
  
We know there's room for the [next Steve Jobs](ambitious.html). But there's
almost certainly also room for the first <Your Name Here>.  
  
  
  
  
  
**Thanks** to Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, David Cann, Sanjay Dastoor, Paul
Gerhardt, Cameron Robertson, Harj Taggar, and Garry Tan for reading drafts of
this.  
  

