editor&rsquos note ben einstein is a founder and general partner at bolt, a seedstage fund that invests capital, staff, prototyping facilities and expertise in startups at the intersection of hardware and software.few people hate packaging more than i do. there are the obvious reasons environmental unfriendliness, messy cleanup, and the sometimes unfathomable difficulty of opening the thing. these are mere tactical annoyances. something much scarier has been happening to packaging over the past few years it&rsquos gotten really nice. this is bad, especially for small companies shipping their first product, and we have apple to thank.in the early 2000&rsquos, apple started spending huge amounts of time and money on packaging that mimics the product it contains even building a &ldquopackaging lab&rdquo. this is a neat idea. after all, if a product is carefully designed, why shouldn&rsquot its packaging reflect that same attention to detail and designthe problem is, building nice packaging is exponentially more difficult than using standard packaging. nice packaging has to go through the same process of design, prototyping and manufacturing as the product itself &mdash with equal time constraints and difficulties. let&rsquos compare&ldquostandard&rdquo packaginga typical box more precisely called a gift box is made up ofa corrugated, diecut cardboard boxsingle color printing on the outsidefoam inserts and glue to hold them downinstruction manualthese usually cost between 0.35 to 1.50. they are typically designed in a day and cutprintedfolded in a week. there&rsquos no custom tooling, minimal proofs, and rarely are boxes rejected due to quality.&ldquonice&rdquo packagingon the other hand, a highend gift box is made up ofa cardboard box that is doublewalled or chipboard and paper coated, often on both sides4 color offset printing, usually with foil andor embossing andor uv coatingscustom injection molded accessory tray or other organizersoften other small molded parts to hold cordsbatteriesaccessoriesetc.clear vinyl stickers on most highgloss surfaces for scratch resistancethese kinds of boxes can cost upwards of 15 each. it can take months of development time to get every part, surface, finish and color just right. plus, if the product changes, the packaging has to be redesigned, as well. due to complexity, a misprinted color or other quality issue can result in millions of dollars in wasted parts.i have a seething hatred for this kind of packaging. it makes my blood boil. why all the rageno. 1 focusyoung hardware companies have their hair on fire trying to build a great product. product development, hiring, manufacturing, retail and a million other things are all priority no.1. packaging is a nuisance and a distraction compared to &ldquodoes the product work&rdquo and &ldquowill my business be operating tomorrow&rdquocompanies that focus on a great product experience usually succeed. taking a product out of its box is a tiny fraction of that experience. plus, most earlystage hardware companies start with direct distribution either through crowdfunding, their website, or etailers. why spend extra money on a fancy gift box when the product has already been purchasedyou can only do so many things at once focus on the things that matter. packaging isn&rsquot one of those things.no. 2 costi&rsquove seen companies that spend more capital on their product&rsquos packaging than on the entire product. how does this not throw up the red flag of &ldquomaybe i shouldn&rsquot be doing this&rdquo expensive packaging screams wasteful consumerism even more than the 99 fitness tracker inside of it.hardware startups need every penny of margin they can get, especially for the first production run. don&rsquot spend 15 on packaging when you can spend 0.50.no. 3 what consumers actually care aboutdespite what most consumer hardware designers believe, consumers actually don&rsquot care about highend packaging. yes, some consumers perceive value from the ritualistic &ldquounboxing&rdquo experience of products. but talk to any of these consumers a week later and ask them what they think of a product. none of them will positively bias a crappy product because of a great unboxing experience. a high net promoter score will always propel a company further than a popular unboxing video on youtube.consumers care about great products, not great packaging.boring packaging can still be greatalways remember that you can build excitement for your product with focus on the experience of using the product rather than opening it. oh, and you can also build a multibilliondollar company with a cultlike following of users at the same time yes, i&rsquom talking about you, oculus.as an example, pencil by fiftythree, does a great job with elegant packaging that feels nice but is limited to cardboard. while this is more expensive than a 0.35 gift box, it presents a beautiful unboxing experience that gets out of the way fast.pencil&rsquos mostly minimalist packaging strikes a good balance of highquality yet nondistractingwithin a few seconds of pulling off the top, the product creates a moment of magic when the tip first touches an ipad screen. minimizing the time to magic is a great way to get users to forget about packaging and start falling in love with your product.hardware startups, save your time, energy and focus. direct these precious resources towards building an exceptional product in a boring box. i guarantee you, your customers will appreciate it. 
