The day started with the visit of PCH, a company that fully integrates activities from the design of a product to its distribution worldwide. Niamh Given gave us a short but very thorough introduction to the various programs PCH runs in terms of incubation.
The first one is Highway 1 and it aims at something quite similar to CHIC, except that it is a commercial endeavour. In a nutshell it is a 4 months program which ends with a demo day in front of potential investors. The second one is PCH access: the idea there is to take projects to the market by supplying them with knowledge in terms of product and supply chain management. PCH actually started as a sourcing company and has slowly but surely integrated more elements of the value chain. Niamh also shared some of her learnings from crowdfunding “disasters”: incorrect pricing, weak DFM, poor component sourcing, lack of planning and over promising while under delivering.
The three teams had a last chance to pitch their projects in front of a group of PCH managers. As usual they received valuable feedback while exercising their delivery skills.
After a quick lunch in a Taiwanese self-service canteen we headed to our last visit of the program: DJI. We made a short stop “en route” to visit Seeed’s new HQ
As one can imagine, the DJI visit aroused quite some interest from the engineers. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by Michael, Lexie, Jack and Yangshuo. The corporate presentation was followed by a Q&A session. On the way we passed the DJI showroom.
We were then taken to another floor for a flight demonstration of two of their products (sorry, no pictures…).
We headed back to Seeed for some additional fine turning of the projects before going out with the GREAT Seeed team and celebrate the end of the Shenzhen part of CHIC 2015.
Picture of teams + Seeed group
Stay tuned for the announcement of the showcasing of the products (mid-September) in Switzerland.
Quote of the day: “3 hours from the factory, 3 days away from 90% of customers”
Niamh Given, PCH, Shenzhen 21 July