Startup Guide, 2nd Edition

2021-05-28 | By David Sandys

You have ideas. We have solutions. We are proud to announce the second edition of our Startups Survival Guide. Welcome to the second edition of the Startups Magazine Survival Guide. At DigiKey we were so astounded by the amazing reception our first edition received that we again reached out to our friends at Startups Magazine and asked: "How can we make version two even better?"

We weren’t sure if that was possible, but we were amazed at what the team came up with. DigiKey was born as an electronics startup focused on creating a digital keyer for ham radio enthusiasts. Supporting startups is part of our DNA and each year we help thousands of them bring their dreams to reality. We know the journey is difficult but using the information in this guide will help pave the way forward. Of course, the guide includes an incredible number of tools and resources created specifically for startups, but it is leveraging the learning from successes and failures via the stories inside where it sets itself apart.

The path from ideation through production and beyond is not simple but we want to take that journey with you. We want to support you completely along the way. Some distributors only focus on inventory. No one stocks a wider inventory than DigiKey and we ship it to startups in over 200 countries every day. We will continue to offer the broadest inventory, and while inventory is critical, there is no other distributor that offers the startup specific tools and resources that we do and that will help make sure your dreams become reality.

All of our startup specific tools and resources can be found on our new startup web destination at www.digikey.com/startup. Here each item is tailor-made to meet the specific challenges that pertain to startups. We start with our Startup Roadmap. A complete overview of the startup journey with resources and tools that are aligned to each step along the way: Concept/Ideation, Research, Evaluation, Design, Prototyping, Funding, Marketing, Production, Distribution and Support. You will also find our Roadmap Dashboard designed to help you with tasks, resources and a checklist for each of these stages.

This year we are pleased to announce additional tools like our PCB Builder which allows you to order bare PCBs as well as its low-cost DK Red option. We also have our new DK+ marketplace which, in some cases, may be an ideal method for marketing and selling your products on the digikey.com website.

These join other amazing tools like our TechForum, Reference Design Library, BOM management tools, EDA tools, Design Service Providers and a host of others all designed to help remove barriers to your success. Don’t forget to visit www.digikey.com/startup to see all that we have to offer.

Please let us know if there are other tools you would like to see DigiKey create as well as provide any feedback to help us improve the value of this guide in future iterations. You can reach us at support@maker.io and remember, Digi- Key is always available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year at www.digikey.com.

Don’t forget to check out the 1st Edition Startups Survival Guide. It is full of additional great articles and content.