r/hwstartups

**I spent months building my first product before validating it. It failed. I’m trying not to make that mistake twice. Tear apart my next business.**
My first product taught me an expensive lesson:
Building something isn’t the same thing as building something people will pay for.
So this time I’m doing things differently.
I’m building a company called **Stride Guide** aimed initially at independent footwear retailers.
The hardware is a pressure-sensing platform that captures how a customer’s feet interact with the ground during a fitting. But I’ve become increasingly convinced that the hardware itself isn’t the business.
The business is what happens **after the fitting**.
The concept we’re working toward looks something like this:
Customer gets fitted → pressure/gait data is captured → associate gets data-supported footwear recommendations → fitting history is stored → purchase/recommendation outcomes are tracked → customer receives appropriately timed SMS reminders when they’re likely approaching replacement → customer comes back to the retailer.
Over time, the system should get better at understanding which recommendations actually produce successful outcomes.
For the retailer, the goal is to create a measurable loop:
**Fit → Recommend → Purchase → Learn → Re-engage → Repurchase**
We’re also exploring associate training tools so a new employee doesn’t need 10 years of footwear experience to provide a consistently good fitting experience.
Our current business model hypothesis is unusual:
**$0 hardware cost.**
The retailer gets the equipment without buying a several-thousand-dollar scanner.
We’re currently testing whether roughly **$200–$250/month per location** makes sense for the software, analytics, customer profiles, recommendation engine, SMS retention tools, updates and support.
I’ve started interviewing footwear-industry veterans, independent retailers, marketers and SaaS founders rather than asking people whether they “like the idea.”
And now I’d like Reddit to attack it.
Specifically, if you’ve built B2B SaaS, retail technology, hardware-enabled SaaS, or sold technology to SMBs:
**What am I underestimating?**
I’m especially interested in hearing about:
Customer acquisition cost
Hardware/support economics
Churn
Employee adoption
SaaS onboarding
Whether $200–$250/month creates enough room for a hardware-enabled business
What would actually create defensibility here
The point at which you’d know this was a real business versus an interesting product
I’m not looking for “sounds cool.”
I’d rather hear why this fails.
We’re beginning free pilots with independent retailers, so this is the point where criticism is substantially cheaper than learning the same lesson six months from now.

I have a business related question and I’d really appreciate answers from people who have actually worked in these industries.

If someone is starting a business completely from scratch, what would be the better option: building a software company, such as a subscription based product/SaaS, or starting a hardware/physical product company?

I personally have not worked in either sector, so I’m trying to understand this from people who have actual technical and business experience.

From what I’ve heard, hardware can have lower margins and much higher operating costs . Software seems like it could have better margins and recurring revenue through subscriptions, but I’m sure there are also major challenges that someone without experience might not understand.

So for people who have worked in software, hardware, or ideally both:

What are the biggest pros and cons of each when starting from scratch?

Which one generally requires more capital and has more operational complexity?

Which one is easier to scale?

How different are the margins and cash flow?

which one would you choose and why?

I’m not looking for a simple “software is better” or “hardware is better” answer. I’m trying to understand the actual tradeoffs from people who have experience in these industries.

I’d especially appreciate answers from people

I’m at the early stage of developing a physical product and looking into different ways to find manufacturers. Made-in-China came up during my research, but I haven’t used it before.
For anyone who has actually gone through the process, how was it finding suppliers and communicating the product requirements? I’m also curious about getting samples, checking whether the supplier can handle small initial orders, and making sure the numbers still make sense once everything is factored in.
Was Made-in-China more useful for you, or did you later ended up finding manufacturers in another way?

I’m building an open-source modular hardware project and documenting the development publicly.
EasyEDA recently contacted me offering a small sponsorship: JLCPCB manufacturing credit in exchange for mentioning EasyEDA Pro in three short-form videos, showing their logo, and adding a link in the description.
I’m interested because I genuinely use EDA tools and PCB manufacturing is obviously a real cost for the project. But I’m also trying to build my project as an independent open-source hardware project rather than as a “hardware influencer” brand.
So I’m wondering how this looks from the outside.
I see two possible approaches:
1. Traditional sponsorship
Occasionally have an EasyEDA-sponsored project video, clearly disclose it, briefly mention/show EasyEDA Pro, then continue with the actual engineering content.
2. Project supporter / technical partner
Keep sponsorship messaging out of the spotlight and instead have something like a “Partners & Supporters” section on the project website, listing EasyEDA/JLCPCB as an EDA/manufacturing supporter.
Videos could simply disclose that the PCB/manufacturing for that particular project was supported by them, while keeping the engineering content independent.
In either case, I wouldn’t want exclusivity and I’d want to remain completely free to use other tools/manufacturers and criticize problems if I encounter them.
As engineers/makers, would either of these make you trust the project less?
Does #2 feel meaningfully different from a typical influencer sponsorship, or is calling a sponsor a “partner” actually worse?
I’m especially interested in opinions from people who follow open-source hardware projects or technical creators.

We’re a small startup manufacturing and selling a smart home/IoT product. So far, most of our sales have been B2C through online advertising, but we'd like to explore B2B opportunities as well.

Hiring a full-time salesperson is not really within our budget at the moment, so I’ve been wondering whether independent sales agents could be a reasonable alternative. Are there such people out there who are willing to work like that even? The idea would be to work on a commission-only basis, generous commission on any deals they bring in, including recurring purchases.

Has anyone used this approach? Is it realistic to find good sales agents willing to work purely on commission?

And where could you find them, are platforms like CommissionCrowd or Agents24 worth trying?

First I can't believe it took me so long to find this sub. Been reading through and it's an actual goldmine. So I'm hoping someone can help

Context: My sister and I had an idea for a product and as a PM my first instinct was to make sure there was product market fit. Got a development firm to help us prototype.

We raised ~$100k on Kickstarter and now get about $10k a month in pre-order sales.

Now it's a year later and we still don't have a product to give to customers. It feels like every week theres a new set of problems. The most pressing is that the person who was writing our firmware has left the firm we were working with.

We like the firm, but they are an incredibly small team and I'm beginning to suspect that haven't done something like this before. Plus we're not their only client so there's a maximum amount of time they can dedicate to us.

I'm freaking out because customers are getting (understandably) upset and we're quickly running out of funds. And I keep feeling like things are stalling and I cant diagnose whats wrong.

My biggest problem is that because neither of us are technical, I feel like I'm just twiddling my thumbs while my dreams are going up in flames. So here's my question

What's the best thing I can do right now?

• Try to learn more about hardware so that I can talk to engineers better (I have no idea how long that will take or where to even start please recommend courses I can take)
• Try to find a technical co-founder
• Hire an in-house engineer
• Hire another firm?

My fear with the last 3 is that it's just borrowing more of the same problem. I don't know enough to interview and hire a technical person and so it may just be more of the same.

This post is a bit of a rant because I'm at my wits end. And honestly I'm just glad to find a community of people who understand.

Hello,

I'm developing a product that I plan to use as battery 2 x Li-Ion 10440 cells.

Now, each battery on their own is certified for EN IEC 62133-2 and UN 38.3.

The question is, if I use two of them in parallel ( basically a package ) I will need to redo this certs again for the whole package ? That would cost thousands / tens of thousands... :|

Can you guys please bring some light on this matter. Thanks a lot !

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a manufacturer in China (probably Shenzhen) for a small electronics product, around 50 units initially.

I know a lot of people will say that my product will get copied in no time if I do that, that's not an issue at the moment.

I already have pretty much everything designed:

• PCB + gerbers
• firmware/software
• plastic enclosure STL/STEP
• packaging design

What I need is someone who can handle the whole process: manufacture the PCB, source components, assemble/program it, connect a few cables, put everything in the enclosure, package the finished product and ship it to a warehouse/address I provide.

Ideally looking for a turnkey/EMS manufacturer, not just a PCB assembly service.

If anyone has worked with a manufacturer like this and can recommend someone, I'd really appreciate it. Alibaba, direct contacts, Shenzhen companies, etc. are all welcome.

Thanks!

We're moving quite quickly from prototype to production and our BOM is starting to outgrow excel spreadsheets. Managing revisions, supplier information, costs and approved parts is becoming much harder than i expected. I've started looking at bom management software but there are so many options it's difficult to know where to start. Some seem focused on boms only, while others are part of a broader plm platform. I'm hoping people here will be able to suggest which tools are worth considering for a small hardware team.

Hi everyone,

I'm a student developing a small consumer electronics product and I'm currently looking for a reliable China-based manufacturer for the prototype stage.

I'm looking for a company/person who can potentially help with:

• PCB design/DFM
• PCB fabrication
• Component sourcing
• PCBA
• 3D-printed enclosure prototype
• Final assembly
• Eventually injection molding for larger production

I'm currently looking for a very small quantity (1–5 prototypes), so I'm specifically interested in manufacturers that are comfortable working with early-stage hardware startups and low MOQ.

My budget is limited as I'm a student, so I'm looking for a reasonably priced option.

If you have experience with this or can recommend a reliable manufacturer, please comment or DM me.

Thanks!

We have updated our open source formal verification tool, kepler-formal, to support full sequential equivalence checking in both RTL and gate level.

What is our goal? An infinite license open source equivalence checking tool that can be used in scale for AI agents and CICD flows and can support industrial grade designs.  

Don't hesitate to reach out to us with issues you found and suggestions you have. We want to hear it!

It will be a long journey to productize a project at this scale, and we acknowledge it, but we are up for the task. 

We are currently developing a product to be sold within the european union (we are also located there) which will contain a 15.6 inch panel.
We are having a really hard time to obtain the conformity documents, or a declaration of conformity, for RoHs and REACH from suppliers. Mainly contacted suppliers from Panelook and Alibaba.
Also I understand that we would need a declaration update as soon as REACH is updated with substances that are typical to be used in displays. This seems to be the most unlikely thing to obtain from these suppliers in the future.
Same goes for the typical controller boards offered. Here we might be able to design something ourselves though.

Would be really glad if someone is willing to share their expierence/approach here, or even suggest a trustworthy supplier.

Thanks!

I'm considering an open-source library of parametrically generated fittings, manifolds, adapters, reservoirs etc. The CAD generators would be open source, while a commercial service would manufacture and test parts using validated material/process combinations.

I'm particularly interested in applications involving cooling loops, compressed air, laboratory equipment and custom machinery.

What applications would you actually pay for this rather than machining the part?

I’m a product development engineer and I’m curious how other engineers experience this.

Have you ever been working on a new product and discovered, after development was already underway, that an existing patent created a potential problem with the design?

If so, how far along were you when it came up? Did you have to redesign anything?

Also curious who typically catches these issues at your company: engineering, an internal IP/legal team, outside patent counsel, or someone else?

Hey r/hwstartups,

I am the solo founder behind Ashcroft-Motors, an early-stage automotive venture, and I am currently looking for my technical counterpart and CTO.

About Me & Current Status:
I operate as the business lead and visionary for the project. I have already mapped out a comprehensive, 6-page technical design and engineering blueprint detailing how the vehicle operates, its mechanical specs, and its powertrain logistics. To keep corporate paperwork and cap-table structuring entirely clean, the company remains unincorporated until I find the right technical partner to split co-founder equity with from day one.

The Venture Concept:
We are designing a rugged, low-electronic sedan engineered specifically for law enforcement, emergency services, and defense sectors.

• The Problem: Modern fleet vehicles are heavily dependent on complex software and electronics, making them highly vulnerable to digital attacks, component failure, and EMP threats.
• The Solution: Our vehicle is 100% EMP-proof, runs natively on bio-fuels and renewable fuels, and deliberately bypasses non-essential electronics to maximize field reliability and mission uptime.
• The Market & Pricing: We are matching current municipal fleet budgets with a highly competitive target price of $31K baseline MSRP for standard police cruisers and a $35K high-speed interceptor variant. Our long-term roadmap expands from secured government contracts directly into commercial taxis, rideshare, and the consumer market once stable cash flow is secured.

Who I am Looking For:
I am searching for an ambitious, Technical Co-Founder / CTO.

• Background: Ideally a senior student, recent graduate, or junior engineer specializing in Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Design, or Embedded Systems.
• The Role: You need to be a hands-on builder who is excited to dive into a 6-page engineering blueprint, take ownership of the technical side, and lead the development of our physical prototype.
• Location: Midwest US preferred (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois) for eventual physical prototyping coordination, but open to remote for the initial architecture phases.

Compensation:
This is a co-founder partnership track offering an equitable split of founder shares/equity.

If you wants to revolutionize the fleet automotive and defense industry, please drop a comment or slide into my DMs. I have a standard NDA ready so we can safely jump into the technical blueprints and see if we are a good fit.