The organisation chart generally reflects the value that they bring to the startup. The higher you are the greater you are expected to add value.
But, if you have a star developer, then yes, you could allocate more share to that individual.
I have found the lack of cash means businesses are more likely to offer equity. Again, it depends on the ability, the trustworthiness of the employee and, of course, whether they believe in the business in the first place.
Depending on the age I would recommend Lego MindStorm. Not only does it develop 3D spatial skills (the robot) but it has a graphic user interface for programming it to move.
It covers basics of if-then-else and loop logic.
As they get more experienced they can program using the Visual Studio .NET toolbox kit
The major costs would be the assorted tooling charges:
- plastic moulds: for a tablet size probably $50-70k. I would recommend you get an experienced industrial designer to guide you through this process. Make sure if you get quotes from China that you don't give the 3D model for the quote - give 2D technical drawings with enough information for a quote but not for full production (your industrial designer should know this).
- PCB boards: nowadays tooling charges are quite low. We use OurPCB.com for a smallest circuit board and the tooling charge is in the low hundreds. We source the important components and get them to ship it to the PCB makers. they then send the completed PCB's to us.
- packaging: allocatae a few thousand to set up your box or plastic packaging.
Stage your production:
- pilot run (say 10 PCB boards to get all of your component logistics sorted out).
- 1st run (100 PCB's with 100 plastic shells and packaging)
- production run (1000 PCBs, 1000 plastic shells and packaging)
Assemble, program and test your devices close to you (ie. your garage :). This allows you a) to keep your IP close to you and b) iron out any production bugs, processes etc. so you are ready to outsource the whole production and assembly (if you so wish).
We are expecting our first child in April - so this hits home hard.
If the unthinkable did happen to our child, I think that I would definetely love to have photos to capture those few precious moments.
I am making a USB device for my start-up and the top comment is pretty much sums it up.
Other tips:
1. For low volume PCB protos (even 3 boards) you can't go past http://www.ourpcb.com for value for money. They have been awesome and very helpful. Ask for John. They can also solder those hard SMD chips and source components from your BOM.
2. For supply chain post your requirements at www.hkinventory.com - make sure you use a temporary email as you may get spammed. Usually it's a hard struggle to get a handful of components (they usually deal in thousands) but in this economic climate I think they will get what they can!
3. Plastic moulds is expensive, but again try posting your requirements at alibaba or something similar. In my experience, get a professional mechanial eng / industrial engineer to design the CAD. This may be 8k to 15k. Again I did a mini tender to three firms and got their responses and then chose one.
Good luck. Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
I think it is possible to have a full-time job in the early stage of the venture, IF you have no partner or family. I have decided to go part time to devote to my venture, which allows me time for my family.
Keeping it simple is actually quite hard. As an engineer, almost every impulse of mine is to add more, more, more! I'm designing a consumer electronic device and the trick is to make it look simple to the user by making it quite complex inside.
I am planning to implement some sort of open standard for a social network - however mine is targeted towards kids so will have to see how OpenID will help or hinder our protection mechanisms.
The link is dead but have read a few articles and commentary on it. I think that Microsoft is not only buying "product" but Yahoo!'s talent pool (eg. I am pretty impressed with the new Yahoo! mail). I remember that was one of the main reasons why Microsoft bought Groove.
I agree with ekanes that you may see a few people leaves after the acquisition to start their ventures. Tech nowadays is so fluid and dynamic that new ideas and ventures will always flourish.