Hey everyone,
I was thrilled back in 2021 when it was announced that Carlâs next venture would be based out of the UK. Nothing was said to be âLondon based consumer technology companyâ - it made me curious, London isnât particularly well-known for tech hardware, so what was the logic behind the decision to HQ here?
You may have seen a recent short form video from Carl where he explains a little about the âwhyâ. It all comes down to the availability of creative talent in Europe.
Carl gave even more detail on this back in July 2023 during in an interview with Business Today, India - Carl explained:
âShenzhen is very good at hardware so we built our hardware team thereâŚso what Shenzhen doesnât have I think is the creativity, if you wanna create things that are different, if you wanna have new and more visionary ideas it doesnât really come from that part of the world, thatâs why we headquartered ourselves in London so we could tap into all the creative talent in that region so our product design, our marketing, our branding our finance is all based out of there.â
With that insight - I thought it would be interesting to reach out to a few of Nothingâs tech neighbours, consumer hardware companies that are also headquartered here in London. I wanted to learn about their reasons for rooting themselves here and maybe a few lessons they have learnt about what the city offers. I specifically reached out to those who have a focus on a design, hereâs who youâll be hearing from:
𦷠Suri - Gyve Safavi - Co-Founder and CEO
đš Roli - Corey Harrower - Co-founder and CPO
â¨ď¸ Electronic Materials Office - Andrew Emerson - Founder
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So, into the questionsâŚ
Q1: What led you to headquarter your company in London, especially given your focus on creating beautiful hardware?
The UK is synonymous with great design, with some of the worldâs leading hardware companies founded with British talent. Whether itâs James Dyson or the former Chief Design Officer at Apple, Jony Ive. You only need to look at the hi-fi world of exceptional audio, where early on the likes of Bowers & Wilkins and Cambridge Audio combined sophisticated design with high precision audio acoustics. This rich design heritage is still present today, with London now teeming with brilliant agencies, and bold independent designers. - 𦷠Gyve
Our first invention, the Seaboard GRAND, was an evolution of the piano keyboard and a product of Roland Lambâs design degree at the Royal College of Art. While there, Roland met numerous world-class designers and engineers who, inspired by the vision of a new way to make more expressive music, joined our team in its earliest days. Because of its exceptional schools and rich culture, London struck us as the perfect place to source talent that understood the importance of design to creating innovative, beautiful hardware. - đš Corey
There was no masterplan â Electronic Materials Office is in London because I live in London and I had nowhere to go during the pandemic. I was broke and I was already here. London is an amazing and terrible place to be a hardware startup. On the other hand London has a rich counter cultural history. Think of the towering figures in music, fashion, art, architecture that have called London home. - â¨ď¸ Andrew
Nothing Store Soho - London Design Festival 2023
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Q2: Is it easy to attract top tech and design talent in London compared to other cities?
London is a brilliant place to attract great talent, at reasonable rates, meaning people arenât extremely overpriced as they may be in some other parts of the world. Weâve found that when it comes to attracting top talent, what resonates most is having a mission and a purpose where people feel like they can add value and change something beyond creating an enjoyable product, but better for the planet and future generations. - 𦷠Gyve
London is a terrific place to source exceptional talent. We believe the best teams are the most diverse ones and London is full of world-class technologists and designers from all walks of life and all parts of the globe. - đš Corey
The Sex Pistols, Alexander McQueen, David Hockney. Their rebel attitude has filtered down through to today: There are amazing designers, architects, musicians, actors, all channeling this â**** youâ attitude, grinding to make it. If youâre a person trying to challenge the status quo, itâs inspiring. - â¨ď¸ Andrew
Altar I - Electronic Materials Office
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Q3: What have been the biggest challenges in operating here?
It can be hard to move fast and iterate your products when your designers and manufacturers are in different time zones â there have been a lot of long, late-night WeChat conversations with our factory. Since expanding our team we now have âboots on the groundâ so lines of communication and feedback have vastly improved. - 𦷠Gyve
As a hardware startup, we deal in physical objects. As such, we need easy access to a wide range of materials and prototyping facilities. When we began 10+ years ago, there were not enough options regarding prototyping and physical hardware development that we could afford. As a result, we decided to invest in the development of our own prototyping shop and facilities. This investment has paid itself back ten fold since then and we now have the capability to quickly prototype our early stage product development. This is vital for us and, although London now has many more hardware prototyping options, we continue to conduct many aspects of our hardware prototype development fully in-house. - đš Corey
Itâs difficult to attract investment, many have a conservative attitude when it comes to business, and generally itâs more risk averse than, say, the Bay Area. It can make it a tough environment to operate in. - â¨ď¸ Andrew
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Piano M - Roli
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Q4: Reflecting on your experience, what key lessons have you learned?
It takes time to find good talent, so donât rush into it. If youâre early in your companyâs journey, youâre already trying to do everything, so make sure you lean on recruiters to help. As you grow bigger, youâll find that talent naturally gravitates towards you. But it still pays to keep your ear to the ground, whether thatâs attending events or reading the news. For example, Dyson recently let a whole host of talented individuals go, and we didnât waste any time engaging with them, and hiring quite a few. - 𦷠Gyve
With regards to being a hardware start up, we have learned time and again that hardware is, indeed, hard! It takes significant time and ample capital and this means programmatic multi-stage planning is a key skill set that we have had to build a deep expertise in. We also have learned that, as a company focused on inventing the new, creating demo experiences that help potential customers, partners, and investors to better understand what you propose to build is an essential part of a successful process. Investing time and energy into the ways in which we can ensure that we communicate the vision of our products has been a fundamental part of our journey. - đš Corey
The key lesson Iâve learned is to not overanalyse things, because then you can come up with excuses not to act. You have to put your ideas out there, if they only exist in your head they are nothing. âMake something wonderful and put it out thereâ as Jobs said. Done is better than perfect â you must start. - â¨ď¸ Andrew
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Sustainable Electric Toothbrush - Suri
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Q5: What advice would you give to other hardware companies considering London as a base?
Donât think twice. Itâs home to an extremely talented pool of designers â with a real appreciation for creating best-in-class products that deliver amazing user experiences without compromising on high quality or beautiful design. - 𦷠Gyve
Come on overâand welcome! London has fantastic talent, captivating culture, wonderful diversity, and access to capital via a robust funding ecosystem of investors and partners. Whether you scale to mass production in London or decide to scale up elsewhere, London is an ideal place to build a hardware startup. - đš Corey
If youâre a rebellious type looking to tap into what is arguably the fashion/music/arts/design capital of the world, London is the place for you. It also presents a good counter point to the Bay Area, where a lot of hardware is coming from right now. Compared to the Californian beautiful weather, minimalist aesthetics gleaming surfaces, London is a bit grimy, and the weatherâs a bit ****. So the products that come out of London are different to those coming from California. Iâm not saying one is better than the other but itâs important to have products with different perspectives. - â¨ď¸ Andrew
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There we have it!
A big thank you to Gyve, Corey and Andrew for taking the time to respond to these questions - fascinating insights and itâs a pleasure to be your business neighbours!
