2-min Read

By Rich Mokuolu, Cofounder and CEO of Partsimony

The COVID-19 outbreak has sent shock waves through our global economy and continues to make doing business in the hardware space particularly challenging. As many of you already know, the paradigm for hardware is changing. The Coronavirus and tariff wars have made operating a hardware company even harder. Hardware founders have never faced a more serious threat to their business operations in modern history.

Hardware companies now face a new reality; they must adapt to events caused by forces outside of their control, in addition to dealing with product quality and fulfillment challenges. A recent industry article highlights the urgency around companies having a dynamic network of suppliers to address unpredictable events, such as tariff increases or global pandemics.

As we enter a new era for manufacturing supply chains, we see that few hardware companies are positioned to be competitive — only 12% of supply chain professionals are currently using artificial intelligence (AI) in their operations. Over the years, ML/AI has become a buzzword, and sometimes has been applied to areas where it might be perceived as overkill/not solving a real problem. However, when it comes to the multi-faceted challenges of managing the complexities of hardware supply chains, ML/AI will be a key advantage for hardware companies in this new world.

As 2018 alumni of the STANLEY + Techstars Accelerator, we want to help hardware startups succeed, so we’re partnering with Techstars to share our expertise in the manufacturing supply chain space. Watch for our upcoming articles on The Line, coming soon. 

Why should you take our advice? Partsimony is a platform that makes hardware easy by leveraging design intent and machine learning to enhance collaboration between hardware companies and manufacturers, from prototype to production. We’ve served as advisors and mentors to hardware companies within NYSERDA’s M-Corps program, and beyond. Most recently, Partsimony was selected to work with other community leaders in New York City as part of a COVID-19 Task Force to address medical supply shortages and lead the manufacturing supply chain for FDA EUA approved ventilators to address hospital shortages. You can find a NY Times article on our efforts here.

Techstars partner Partsimony offers portfolio companies a 33% discount on the Partsimony platform. They will also be hosting regular mentorship sessions on important manufacturing supply chain topics.

Learn more about how to be a great mentor: read the Techstars Mentor Manifesto.

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