Trouble Maker solves trouble for makers

Zhang Yang

Robert Mevatne took out several circuit boards from a sealed plastic bag, and placed them on a table in his work space in Futian District. The circuit boards are components of an industrial sensor he helped a Norway-based startup develop over the past two years. “This is one of my babies,” he said.

The 49-year-old from Norway is the CEO of Trouble Maker, a hardware accelerator based in the Huaqiangbei International Maker Center in Futian District. Mevatne and his three partners — each of them specializes in different fields such as engineering, software and design — co-founded Trouble Maker over two months ago.

“Trouble Maker has skilled people with experience, so you just show up with your idea and we have a fully equipped lab with co-working space,” Mevatne said. His accelerator has recruited 12 gurus with experience in specific fields to offer makers and startups expert help and advice.

According to Mevatne, Trouble Maker rejects no one and his team doesn’t evaluate if an idea would be practical. “We believe that if you start up with a project, and the project is a bad idea... then you can shift, and change it a little bit,” he said.

“There has to be a market for the product, but you don’t know that at such an early stage,” Mevatne said. Instead of telling anyone there’s no market for a product, Trouble Maker helps startups develop their ideas and tailor their products for the market.

Currently, Trouble Maker has offered support to nine startups, including two Chinese startups, and others from Australia, Norway, the Netherlands and England. “We would like to have both Chinese and Western startups so they can exchange ideas, cultures and networks,” Mevatne said.

According to Mevatne, Trouble Maker makes a profit by selling expert help, know-how and networks, but they don’t take a share of a startup. “We help them to reach a level where they can speak to angel capitalists, seed capitalists or venture capitalists, or we help them get governmental funding,” he said.

Foreign startups always face language and cultural barriers when they try to set foot in the Chinese market. Mevatne said many people feel lost at the beginning, and they don’t know how to enter the market, which is why they need advice and help from the more skilled and experienced.

Trouble Maker has set up a lab in the Huaqiangbei International Maker Center for research, development and prototyping. Mevatne said the maker center has all the co-working space they need along with well-equipped facilities. Also, it’s a good place to do hardware development because it is located in Huaqiangbei, a renowned hardware hub in Shenzhen.

Mevatne has lived in Shenzhen for four and a half years. The city in his eyes is vibrant and young, and it represents the future of China. “Young people in Shenzhen have the future ahead of them, not the future behind them,” he said.

He said the maker culture in China is in its infancy, but it has a large-scale eco-system. “The amount of services and products you can access to build your own projects is enormous. If you look at all the manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta, you have half a million factories producing parts for actually the whole world,” he said.

Mevatne said incubators, maker spaces and technology parks will be better locations to open hardware accelerators, and the next step for his team is to set up more Trouble Makers in other places around the world such as Berlin, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Miami and London.

Mevatne majored in business and administration in college, but he has been doing engineering since 1997. “I have interest in mechanical things and electronic things. I’ve always been making things my whole life,” he said, adding that his brother is also an inventor who has worked in the engineering industry for 20 years.

According to Mevatne, 80 percent of startups are going to fail within five years, and only 5 percent are going to be really successful. “Failing is part of the process. You fail until you succeed... but we can help, and make it a little less-painful for you, and avoid some of the pitfalls,” he said.

His advice for startups is to never give up. “You will fail many times, but you have to get up, and you have to do it again — do it again until you succeed,” Mevatne said.