Hardware Podcasts
Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast podcast cover art

Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast

The Opulo team on taking an open source hardware product from idea to stable production, manufacturing in-house, and shipping thousands of machines worldwide, with interviews from other open hardware makers.

47 episodes · 51 hours · since 2023

Show ended
Visit Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast

Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast has ended.

Its last episode came out on 14 Nov 2025. The whole back catalogue is still here to explore, every episode with its summary and chapters.

Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast is filed under manufacturing, startups, sales & marketing and hardware. Its most recent episode published on , so it sits in the archive rather than the active listings. Listeners have left 11 ratings on Apple Podcasts, averaging 5 out of 5.

Latest episodes

The 10 newest episodes of Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast, each with a summary and chapters.

  • · 1h 10m

    Ep. 46 - Deciding What to Work on Next

    Steven Hawes and Lucy Che Park of Opulo discuss their framework for prioritizing product development, emphasizing that customer interviews and community feedback are the primary inputs for deciding what to build next. They detail how they use the 'Three Machines' model (customer, product, and company) to categorize decisions, such as addressing support tickets, developing new features like wider feeders, or improving operational efficiency. The hosts highlight specific examples, including the decision to integrate community-sourced mods like the V3.1 update and the strategic pivot into the education market after observing unexpected university adoption. They also stress the importance of a clear mission—'helping people manufacture their products'—as a lens to filter out distractions and focus on the lowest-hanging fruit that aligns with their core goals.

    Validation & product-market fitScaling production
    8 chapters

  • · 43m

    Ep. 45 - Advertising

    Stephen Oz and Lucy from Opulo discuss their advertising experiments for the Lumen pick and place machine, highlighting the mismatch between social media ads and long sales cycles. They explain how they shifted focus from direct purchases to awareness and search ads, using exit surveys to track attribution. The hosts detail specific failures with Facebook, LinkedIn, and platform ads on Hackaday, while noting the effectiveness of search ads and event sponsorships in building brand credibility.

    Marketing & brandDirect-to-consumer & e-commerce
    9 chapters

  • · 49m

    Ep. 44 - Are Degrees Worthwhile?

    Hosts Stephen Hoss and Lucy Chafe Park of Opulo discuss the value of formal engineering degrees versus personal projects and job experience. They argue that while a degree is often a prerequisite for stable engineering roles and provides a safety net, personal projects are critical for demonstrating practical ability and passion, especially for startups. They emphasize that 3-5 years of industry work is the best preparation for launching a hardware company, as it builds necessary networks and stress tolerance.

    Careers & educationValidation & product-market fit
    7 chapters

  • · 44m

    Ep. 43 - Collaboration in Open Source

    Thea Flowers and Lucy from Opulo discuss collaboration models in open source hardware, highlighting projects like the LumenPnP, Arduino, and QMK. They emphasize the importance of documentation, clear expectations, and empowering contributors to take ownership. The conversation covers how community-driven projects like Voron and Ornament & Crime thrive by lowering barriers to entry and celebrating diverse contributions. They also touch on the challenges of managing community tone and the value of transparent decision-making in sustaining long-term engagement.

    Open-source hardwareLeadership, teams & culture
    9 chapters

  • · 1h 09m

    Ep. 42 - Certifications

    Steven Hoss and Lucy Trey Park of Opulo discuss the complex and expensive process of obtaining FCC and CE certifications for the Lumen PMP V4 3D printer. They detail the four main categories of EMC testing—radiated/conducted emissions and immunity—and explain how using pre-certified power supplies and open-source community feedback helped them pass on the first try. The hosts also share practical advice on budgeting, the importance of consulting certification houses early, and the specific marking requirements for different markets.

    Certification & compliancePCB design & layout
    8 chapters

  • · 38m

    Ep. 41 - Surviving the Bus Test

    Lucy Chaparr and Stephen Hawes of Opulo discuss the 'bus test' (or bus factor) and how they survived Lucy's 10-week absence due to a family emergency. They detail the critical role of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in tools like Ohai and Mattermost, which allowed the team to maintain order fulfillment and sourcing. However, they also highlight a failure in build management within their PLM system, which led to inventory discrepancies requiring a massive manual count of 100,000 components.

    Leadership, teams & cultureScaling production
    6 chapters

  • · 1h 21m

    Ep. 40 - Influential Media

    Hosts Steven Hawes and Thea Flowers of Opulo discuss the books, documentaries, and creators that shaped their engineering and entrepreneurial journeys. They highlight Steven's early inspiration from Everett Bradford's flamethrower and Thea's foundational experience with a NoPix Linux live CD. The conversation covers influential media like the book 'Schiit Happened', Bunnie Huang's 'The Hardware Hacker', and the documentary 'Developing Hell: Launching Hades', drawing parallels between open source hardware development and video game early access models.

    Founder wellbeingValidation & product-market fit
    11 chapters

  • · 1h 21m

    Ep. 39 - Starting a Hardware Company

    Stephen Hawes and Lucian Chapa, founders of Opulo, discuss the realities of starting a hardware company, emphasizing the necessity of accepting failure and overcoming imposter syndrome. They share personal anecdotes about failed projects, such as a 3D scanner and wedding cake toppers, to illustrate that iteration is key. The hosts also detail their strategy for building traction through authentic social media content, specifically YouTube, and the importance of validating product-market fit by engaging directly with early users.

    Starting a product companyValidation & product-market fit
    9 chapters

  • · 1h 05m

    Ep. 38 - Taking Prototypes to Production

    Stephen Haus and Lucian Chea Hunt of Opulo discuss the Engineering Validation Test (EVT), Design Validation Test (DVT), and Production Validation Test (PVT) phases of new product introduction. They contrast the rigid, high-stakes processes used at large companies like Form Labs with the compressed, agile workflows possible for smaller teams using in-house 3D printing and tools like the Lumen. The hosts emphasize that while the framework is universal, the execution must adapt to the company's scale, supply chain, and risk tolerance to avoid costly errors like cutting the wrong mold.

    Design for manufacturing & NPIPrototyping & iteration
    6 chapters

  • · 1h 12m

    Ep. 37 - Keeping Sales Up

    Lucian Chapar and Stephen Oz of Opulo discuss strategies for maintaining and growing sales for their Lumen pick-and-place machine. They emphasize the importance of identifying customer demographics, using organic social media like YouTube over paid ads, and leveraging analytics to track conversion sources. The hosts also cover the role of professional web design, trade shows, and nurturing existing customers through spotlights and email newsletters.

    Direct-to-consumer & e-commerceMarketing & brand
    7 chapters

If you like Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast

Popular

How I Built This

Interviews with entrepreneurs and innovators about how they built their companies, including hardware startups.

founder storiesstartups
Visit Website

The Startup CPG Podcast

Founders, buyers and operators of consumer packaged goods brands on co-packers, sourcing, retail buyers, pricing and scaling a physical product on the shelf.

consumer productssales marketing
Visit Website

The Manufacturing Executive

Joe Sullivan talks with the leaders driving midsized manufacturers forward, alongside B2B sales and marketing experts, about growth strategy, industrial marketing, and modernising the shop floor.

manufacturingsales marketing
Visit Website

Oxide and Friends

Bryan Cantrill, Adam Leventhal and friends from Oxide Computer Company on building a rack-scale computer from the board up: hardware bring-up, firmware, debugging war stories and running a hardware startup.

hardwareengineering
Visit Website