Looking for mentors / early-stage hardware startuphttps://mean-bean.com/

Hello everyone! I am working on a pretty ambitious hardware startup, as a solo female founder, and I thought I would reach out to the amazing professional community on Elpha in my quest of finding mentors to advise me on a more consistent basis as I am building this. My startup is mean-bean, we are building AR pocket projectors to enable wearable and screen-free remote interactions. The overarching goal is to democratize AR, and co-build the future (that we all share) of augmented, modified realities with the community. We want to make remote interactions human and genuine, whilst allowing humanity to progress towards less location-dependent scenarios. Therefore, our business model is much more similar to what Prusa did for 3D printing- we're going to open source our first prototype, and afterwards enable communities to build their own AR apps to be running on the BEAN. I am now reaching a stage where I need mentors to advise me on: > Software (the most burning matter are building an Android platform, and the overall projection intelligence system on this OS, as I am not an expert in this field) + building an early tech team > Community building + crowdfunding campaigns (as my goal is to gather most of the funds I need through Indiegogo or Kickstarter)> Hardware: sourcing components and shipping hardware I definitely appreciate any help/ advice I can get at this stage- as a first time founder, having the insights of people that have gone through and done it is invaluable.

DianePrince·Oct 16·1 reply

Hey Andrea. mean-bean sounds really cool and very needed! I recently connected with @ybai1719 on here, who is a wizard at sourcing/supply chain. I have a client who build tech for startups and I could introduce you to him if you think he'd be a fit. If you need overall strategy/coaching, I'd love to have a chat with you to see if I'd be a good fit. I look forward to connecting more, Diane

AndreeaBunica·Oct 17·1 reply

Hi Diane, thank you for the reply! I am open to introductions at this point, as I am looking both for mentors / collaborators to form a first team for mean-bean, as until now I've been doing everything myself, and it is time that I apply for some pre-seed funding and get some people around. I would love chatting with you- you can email me at andreea@mean-bean.com any time to set something up!

DianePrince·Oct 18

Sounds good, Andrea! I emailed you.