2024 11 24

Manufacturing in India is pretty hard. The access to a makerspace is pretty limited. Recently the Telengana government announced a makerspace in the state. I am not sure how good it is, but it is a good start. Having access to a prototyping lab is a game changer.

While setting up Tenx Farm we had to make a lot of things from scratch. We would get the raw materials like sheet plywood, aluminium, galvanised steel, etc. and then we would cut them, drill them, weld them etc. It was a fun learning experience. But making things for the farm had the luxury of being able to make mistakes and a high tolerance for errors in design. We would often do what in India is called "jugaad" to make things work.

But when it comes to manufacturing products for a B2C market, the tolerance for errors is much lower. And the cost of making a mistake is much higher. So we need to be much more careful with our design.

These days I think a lot about getting into the manufacturing space. I want my next startup to be making some physical product. I am kind of sure on the idea: a product that makes it easier to grow plants in the outdoor garden of a villa. The product should take care of the water and fertiliser needs of the plants. It should be able to sense the moisture of the soil and the moisture and temperature of the air and then decide how much water and fertiliser to give to the plant. It should also be able to alert the owner if it detects that the plant is not doing well.

I believe growing food will get more local and with the suburbs expanding like they are and the villa culture catching on in metros, there should be a market for such a product.