186: Sleeping on the Factory Floor

Embedded.fm · 9 Feb 2017 · 1h 10m

What this episode covers

Indrek Rebane, CTO of Build It Hardware Accelerator and engineer at Hedgehog Engineering, discusses the realities of building physical products, from garage prototypes to mass production. He explains why Arduino-based prototypes often fail in manufacturing due to cost, reliability, and component availability issues, and emphasizes the importance of user testing and finding product-market fit before scaling. Rebane also shares insights on the Estonian tech ecosystem, the Garage48 Hardware & Arts hackathon, and the critical need for founders to avoid 'stupid money' and focus on making what customers actually want.

Mentioned

Companies
Build It Hardware Accelerator, Garage48, Y Combinator, Ali Express, Farnell, SparkFun, DHL
Products
Arduino
Chips
Nordic Semiconductor
Also
The Mom Test

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