Bacota - My Most Personal Project

Long Story Short

My journey into hardware started with IoT home automation. Frustrated with existing smart home solutions, I began building my own devices, starting with simple fan and light controls.

Bacota was born.

When hardware miniaturization proved challenging, I pivoted to vertical garden irrigation systems. I built sensors and dashboards to help installers identify dry spots and maintenance issues remotely. The project grew complex with multiple components as I explored the technical possibilities.

However, I made the mistake of building without customer feedback. When a friend needed improved software for garage door hardware from China, I realized I wasn't equipped for hardware manufacturing at scale.

This led to my final approach - modifying existing Chinese hardware with custom firmware. This leveraged my software strengths while applying everything I'd learned about hardware. It was the perfect balance of practicality and innovation.

Why I Built This

This project was deeply personal. After losing a friend who worked in electronics, someone important to me, told me I could never work with electronics without going to university. Her dismissive comment sparked my determination to prove her wrong.

I started learning Arduino development to honor my friend's memory. What began as defiance became a journey of discovery, where I found magic in combining software and hardware to create something meaningful ✨

Learnings

1. Looking back, I realize I didn't truly tried to the Bacota company - my focus was entirely on learning and proving myself. I neglected crucial business aspects like customer development, seeking funding, or building a team. My passion for mastering electronics overshadowed the practical steps needed for a successful hardware startup.

2. I invested more than €10,000 thinking I failed at building a company. The reality is that I invested in myself to demonstrate I could do it, not in the company.

3. I discovered I'm capable of anything I set my mind to - from building electronic devices from scratch and understanding the physics behind them, to developing full-stack software solutions, hacking hardware bypasing my firmware, creating 3D objects and more.

4. I did everything myself, I didn't try to build a team or delegate anything - it was all ego-driven.

5. All this journey was about my EGO and me.

6. Work-life balance is crucial for the long term, burnout is real. For 4 years, I juggled this project alongside a full-time job, sacrificing nearly every weekend, working late into the night, and getting minimal sleep. Looking back, I should have taken more time to rest and recharge.

7. Don't dismiss companies making seemingly poor features or products, there's likely a good reason. Being both a hardware and software company is incredibly challenging, even more if you are going solo.

8. I mistakenly believed I could handle large projects better on my own.