MEET THE HARDTECH INNOVATION MENTORS - PART 3
STARTUP MENTORING IN FOCUS -
DANIEL FLYNN
We are continuing our mentor series and are excited to introduce our next mentor, Daniel Flynn. As a mentor in the Hardtech Innovation Accelerator, Daniel brings valuable experience in problem identification, customer validation, and fundraising, helping founders refine their solutions and navigate the path to market success.
Being a mentor involves a mix of rewarding and challenging moments. At the Hardtech Innovation Accelerator, mentors provide support, guidance, feedback, and honest advice to help startups as they progress through the program, even when that includes sharing some difficult but necessary insights.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to have difficult conversations about a team’s situation. “It’s about providing honest assessments of the risks when things might not go as planned,” says Daniel Flynn, reflecting on his mentoring experience in the Hardtech Innovation Accelerator Program. He acknowledges that these conversations can be tense, especially if the feedback is initially met with resistance. However, teams often come back later and say, “You were the only one who was truly honest with us — someone who genuinely wanted to help.”
These moments make Daniel proud. “When that happens, I feel proud knowing that my advice came from a place of genuine helpfulness. It’s not about being right or telling them what they want to hear, but about giving them what they need to succeed.”
Meet Daniel Flynn, Co-Founder & CEO of Bearcover
Daniel Flynn, originally from Ireland, has spent the past 10 years working with early-stage companies across Europe, primarily in product and business development roles. Today, as the co-founder and CEO of Bearcover, he leads a team developing Oscar, a robot designed for nursing homes. This year, Daniel is also one of the mentors for the Hardtech Innovation Accelerator Program.
“Helping teams work through problems I’ve encountered before allows me to solidify and expand my understanding of the common challenges early-stage companies face. Plus, selfishly, I gain exposure to new challenges I haven’t encountered before, which helps broaden my knowledge for my own business.”
This year is the first time Fernando and Daniel have taken on the role of head coaches, helping to shape the core syllabus for the teams. Over the years, the program has evolved significantly, aiming higher and focusing on the bigger picture. “We prioritize building companies over simply creating prototypes. By moving customer validation to the forefront and viewing hardware as a tool to deliver value after validation, we’ve created a more effective approach.”
“Don’t build something useless”
“All startups are tough and chaotic in the beginning,” says Daniel. Additionally, hardware startups come with their own unique challenges. These businesses often face longer, less flexible delivery timelines, making changes and iterations more difficult. This limits their ability to adapt quickly and increases the risk of launching without well-validated user pain points. Unlike software, which can be adjusted relatively easily and cost-effectively, hardware development is harder to pivot. Once you commit to a hardware design, making significant changes becomes much more complex and expensive.
Daniel’s key advice is to focus on the basics before moving forward. It’s crucial for Hardtech Innovation Accelerator startups to prove from the start that customers are actually willing to pay for what they’re building:
- What problem are you solving, and for whom?
- Are customers willing to pay for this solution, and if so, how much?
- Will they commit money upfront to solve this problem?
- Is your proposed solution the best approach for your customers?
- How will you fund your business to maximize your chances of success?
- What strategies are most effective for your sector, market, and goals?
In addition to strong customer validation, Daniel stresses the importance of building a company with solid foundations: “As founders, your job is to build a great team that can solve real, pressing problems for your customers.” Focus on assembling your team first, then validate your product and engage with customers. When it comes to investors and sales, Daniel advises, “Sell a lot and sell early. Prioritize selling before you build anything.”
Daniel’s Framework for Startup Success: Validation, Customer Acquisition, and Funding
In the program, Daniel follows a structured approach shaped by his extensive experience in previous business roles. He begins by helping teams identify problems and validate their Minimum Viable Product (MVP), guiding them toward the right problem-solution fit. “Next, I emphasize early customer acquisition as a key method for strong customer validation. Finally, we dive into fundraising strategies, covering options like bootstrapping, angel investors, venture capital, and grants.”
Daniel highlights the importance of understanding key milestones when building a business and launching a product. This often requires several iterations and multiple launches to refine the offering. “We support these efforts with regular office hours, where we assist teams in addressing the challenges they encounter along the way.”
In summary, the Hardtech Innovation Accelerator Program focuses on the essential drivers of early-stage company building: identifying problems, acquiring customers, and iterating toward valuable solutions. By combining best practices with expertise tailored to hardware and deeptech startups, we help founders navigate the unique challenges these ventures face.
A memorable moment was when Daniel advised a group of hardware founders to delay product development until they had confirmed customer willingness to pay. While this advice might seem counterintuitive to first-time founders, it proved invaluable in their learning process. “Great teams listen to feedback but also critically evaluate the advice they receive. They constantly experiment and learn from their experiences.” As Daniel puts it, “Talk to your users obsessively. Your actions generate information, and great teams turn that information into experiments that drive their success.”
APPLY TO JOIN THE
HARDTECH INNOVATION ACCELERATOR
Applications for the Hardtech Innovation Accelerator are now open, and we’re on the lookout for early-stage, climate-driven hardware startups eager to tackle the toughest challenges on the road to net-zero emissions. Apply here today and take your place in our mission to build a greener, more sustainable future.
The Hardtech Innovation program is supported by funds from the European Union (European Social Fund) and the State of Berlin.
