My First Hardware Startup: Rimo (5)

Rimo promotional video

[ This series of articles is about my startup company, Rimo, from the conception of the idea, recruiting a team, producing prototypes, to fundraising. ]

The first version of Rimo was very simple with very few parts. It was mainly a phone holder that could only hold an iPhone X. The arms of the phone holder and the part with the sensors at the bottom were not spring-loaded and were fixed. There was also no charging port because I hadn't figured out how to design the circuit board for charging yet. Fortunately, the structure of Rimo was simple, so it was easy to disassemble and replace the battery. There were two motors inside the main body, one responsible for 360-degree rotation and the other for about 30-degree up and down movement. We also spent some money to hire a professional team to take photos and videos. The first time we met, they kept praising us, saying "What a great design!" and "You're going to make a big fortune!" We were so pleased with these compliments and signed the contract with them soon after. In retrospect, our decision was probably influenced by those compliments and we probably signed the contract too fast without much negotiation. But hey, we were just students and didn’t have much experience in the real world. In the end, we spent $15,000 on the production, hired ten actors, a dog, and a large group of crew members, and shot a four-minute video of quite high quality. After this experience, I have learned to take any praise with a grain of salt, especially when there is a conflict of interest. I remind myself not to let these interactions influence my future decisions.

The first version of Rimo

Rimo promotional video

Rimo promotional video. The dog is also one of the actors.