Start-up Life
Posted by Chris Schalick on Fri, Jan 25, 2008 @ 08:45 PM
Working at a start-up is a unique experience. There is a constant thrum of finding ways to do more with less. At its best, time seems to slow down - something like living "dog years", every day feels like a week, a week feels like a month, etc. If you look at the size of the mountain and the shovel, it feels like the mountain won't move in the moment. After a few "dog years", you find the mountain has moved cross country.
I'm sharing this because start-ups that work on custom hardware have the same resource constraints as any other start-up - you have to make up with energy and desire what you don't have in dollars or people. In those environments, you don't have time to do it twice, you have time to do it right.
Getting an early look at implemented hardware before you commit to build it can make the difference between success and failure of a new design, and in a start-up the product itself. The start-up guys I talk to all recognize this from the school of hard knocks.
Now for the shameless plug - GateRocket makes product that puts hardware debug in the hands of software simulation pilots.