Pasha Khordorkovskiy wanted to get his hardware business off the ground a few years ago, but the timing was wrong. The financial downturn made hardware unattractive to investors, the path to market unreachable. Fast-forward to four years later, and he and his cofounder have found themselves embraced by a vibrant hardware startup community, ready to launch their product.
“Hardware is sexy again.” Khordorkovskiy says.
Khordorkovskiy’s startup, Enertiv, was part of the first class of the New York-based R/GA Accelerator this past year, along with nine other hardware startups. All of the companies that presented at the accelerator’s demo days at SXSW this spring met or exceeded their funding goals. One participant, Grove Labs, secured $2 million and the first versions of its hydroponic grove are already operating in users’ homes.