Zhang Yang

nicolezyyy@163.com

A FLEDGLING startup might face countless pitfalls before it becomes fully grown and successful. Trouble Maker, a hardware accelerator based in Futian District, is aimed at avoiding some of the pitfalls for startups by offering them expert help, according to Robert Mevatne, CEO of Trouble Maker.

The 50-year-old from Norway co-founded Trouble Maker in the Huaqiangbei International Maker Center a year ago with his three partners. Each of them specializes in different fields such as engineering, software and design.

“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 15 gurus in Shenzhen and 30 gurus globally to offer makers and startups 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.

Trouble Maker offered support to nearly 30 startups in Shenzhen last year, including startups from China and other countries. “We would like to have both Chinese and Western startups so they can exchange ideas, cultures and networks,” Mevatne said.

Currently, Trouble Maker has launched offices in Germany, Norway, Myanmar, Switzerland and Australia, while another two locations in Futian and Longgang in Shenzhen will be put into operation soon.

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.

Mevatne has lived in Shenzhen for five 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.

According to Mevatne, 80 percent of startups are going to fail within five years, and only 5 percent are going to be really successful. 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.