“Hardware is a multi-disciplinary challenge that requires multi-disciplinary talent.///
The interest in both hardware, and software’s role in differentiating it, has given rise to a new technical skill set that MacBeth says is becoming one of the most powerful combinations in the industry: “It’s the systems-oriented software engineer who understands concepts like power management, radio signals, network communication for small devices.” The problem is, right now, this is a very difficult person to recruit.
“My advice for startup founders is that you need to hire generalists,” says MacBeth. “This applies equally to hardware startups. It’s easier for those people to have perspective on how entire systems work together. People who are generalists with deep computer science backgrounds can be placed on any kind of software problem.”
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