How I hacked my way into CES | Hacker News Reader

How I hacked my way into CES

touchonomics.com

25 pointsbevenky20 comments

Open articleView on HN

Another typical story of hard work and persistence with the word "hack" thrown into the title for linkbait.

Congrats on making it to CES, but this is not news, nor is it relevant or interesting.

Thank you for pointing out the hard-work and persistence part. I had to do day and nighters to pull this one.

IMHO, this is a hack. May not be in the truest sense of the word. Your comment is well-taken.

> IMHO, this is a hack. May not be in the truest sense of the word.

If not in the truest sense of the world, then in what sense does this come under the term hack?

Well, what I meant is - this is not like I was sitting and hacking a network or something. This qualifies as a hack because I had to overcome a significant hurdle.

If you continue to imagine that hacks can be performed only on computers and networks. Then this may not make sense as a hack. Hacks can be social and/or real-world hacks too.

Well, hacks can be social too. I know quite a few social engineers, in fact I've had them speak at my security conference[1]. However, it seems that overcoming a significant hurdle (which isn't something to be sniffed at) isn't really a hack in the grand scheme of things. To put things into perspective, you've faced a pretty big challenge, but that's what it is - a challenge, not a hack. In fact I'd say to call it a hack is to undersell what you've overcome. I think some might underestimate how hard it is to get into CES. I understand that. I also think you calling getting in a hack demeans the concept of hacking not because it wasn't 'good enough' to qualify, but because your situation was so displaced from what would normally qualify as a hack. It doesn't mean you haven't made an effort - clearly a herculean effort was made, but does that constitute a hack? I'm not convinced.

I do think, "How I shipped a product from the far far FAR east of the (indus, not silicon) valley to CES for a demo" would've been a better title, but that's a job for marketing people IMHO. Hack, it is not, it underplays the effort you put in. Effort, it certainly is, for that you've given in spades and more.

[1] - http://www.44con.com/

So, perhaps I'm spoiled: I was born and raised in Las Vegas. and CES is just another expo. Heck, this year I made it down to the actual show floor once for a few hours max. Yet I also feel the pain of spending a ton of effort in trying to get a startup to pitch at a show; my first startup was in a niche industry that held its largest major convention in a major US city nowhere near where I was bootstrapping at the time. Just like OP, I also convinced myself that it was absolutely necessary to attend said conference and be on the show floor with a booth when in reality in most cases it's a waste of resources better allocated elsewhere.

I won't claim to understand the difficulties of the immigration system, nor the intricacies of running a hardware startup in India. But I do know what's going on at CES, and it's not a massive hack to get in and have your wares displayed on the floor. As the article points out, business is often built on hustle, networking, relationships and the like. Heck, my friend socially conditioned (hustled?) his way into a badge in about 30 seconds at registration desk.

Yet this same hustle and networking focus means that the deals at CES are often setup months before, usually between buyers and sellers who have worked together or in the industry for years. Tough sales are worked over dinner at a strip restaurant or at that industry heavyweight party at some great club. Execs take a look at products in their hotel penthouse suite. None of this world really fits the bill for a lean startup attempting to truly validate that their product makes sense for their customers.

Best of luck to OP, as it seems he really wanted to focus on being at CES and overcame some obstacles when that wasn't able to take place. But I'd warn away other startups considering whether big industry expos are worth it: It kinda becomes clear once you're there that it's not.

I think this is inspiring in the sense that being in India, and a startup, it's actually a dream to hack your way into CES. With no direct connections or a million dollar funding this is good to know the amount of hard work that has been put in. Best of luck!

Thank you. CES was a dream come true!

The section on your website doesn't mention much about the OS. More details would be great.

Sorry, CES took up all the bandwidth. Got some time now. Will be making a new video of the OS. Will post it on HN soon.

Great stuff. That is some amazing social engineering at work, right there :)

Social Engineering - wow. Should have used that in the title of the blog post.

I think I've seen that 'O' logo somewhere...?

Well not as far as I can tell. We thought it was quiet original.

Awesome Read .. The video looks great ..

Thank you. Glad you liked the video.

Seems interesting

Please checkout emo2.com - our product website if you like.

I've got several acquaintances who go to the CES but I never realized it was hard to go there.

I don't live in the U.S. so could someone explain at a glance so we better understand the article what exactly you need to do to be able to go there?

You need to have your own company and get a booth or you can just go check all the booths?

1. The biggest hurdle is to get a visa to get to the US. Yes it is a big deal these days. Especially for people going from India. In the article if you noticed, I could not get a visa. SO I had to get everything done remotely, which was a challenge. 2. As a startup it is not possible to get a booth. There are costs involved and money is better spent elsewhere. Instead of getting a booth, I convinced another booth owner to let me use his booth the showcase our product.

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