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1071 points mtlynch | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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ilaksh ◴[] No.39404955[source]
I looked up the CPU for one of the devices. It's the same one used in Raspberry Pi 4.

So I think I figured out the secret to him making almost a million dollars a year: he has a privileged background (worked at Google) and somehow that helped him tap into a market of people who don't know that a good price for a Raspberry Pi 4 is $35, not $350 or $400. I can see $65 with a nice case and shipping. Maybe up to $100? But $400 is ridiculous.

replies(2): >>39405536 #>>39405796 #
1. mtlynch ◴[] No.39405796[source]
>I looked up the CPU for one of the devices. It's the same one used in Raspberry Pi 4.

It's the same CPU because inside it is a Raspberry Pi 4. We publish instructions for people to build their own.[0]

>he has a privileged background (worked at Google) and somehow that helped him tap into a market of people who don't know that a good price for a Raspberry Pi 4 is $35, not $350 or $400. I can see $65 with a nice case and shipping. Maybe up to $100? But $400 is ridiculous.

$65 isn't even enough to pay for the raw materials. If I sold for $100, I'd barely cover the cost of raw materials and the labor to assemble devices, test them, and fulfill the order.

There are a lot of expenses to running a hardware business, and I listed them in the post. How do I pay software engineers, hardware engineers, support engineers, and customer service staff if I'm selling a product whose profit margins are only a few percent?

[0] https://tinypilotkvm.com/blog/build-a-kvm-over-ip-under-100