# 102: How Students Start Successful Hardware Businesses

- Show: [Product Startup](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup)
- Published: 2021-11-17
- Length: 26m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses
- Listen: https://productstartup.com/

## Summary

Scott Evans, Director of InventionWorks at the University of Texas, explains how his 23,000 square foot facility supports student hardware startups through prototyping resources and a 40-member student staff. He emphasizes the importance of student-to-student collaboration, leveraging campus experts, and participating in entrepreneurship competitions to build networks and persistence. Evans advocates for 'practice-centered engineering education,' where students learn by building prototypes that fail, blurring the lines between academic study and professional product development.

## Chapters

- [0:46](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=46) Introduction: Scott Evans and InventionWorks at UT Austin
- [2:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=126) InventionWorks Facility and Student Staff Capabilities
- [5:25](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=325) Overcoming Fear and Leveraging Campus Resources
- [9:51](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=591) Student-to-Student Collaboration and Team Building
- [11:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=718) The Value of Entrepreneurship Competitions
- [14:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=888) Industry Involvement and Networking with Universities
- [17:44](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=1064) Practice-Centered Engineering and Learning from Failure
- [23:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses#t=1391) Lifelong Learning and Maker Spaces

## Topics

- [Prototyping & iteration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/prototyping)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Hiring & workforce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/hiring-and-workforce)
- [Maker community & events](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/maker-community)

## Most relevant to

founders before launch

## Mentioned

- InventionWorks (other)
- Mako Design (company)
- University of Texas (other)
- Austin Technology Incubator (other)
- Arduino (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [S2E51 The Hardware Academy | John Teel](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-12-03-s2e51-the-hardware-academy-john-teel) (Being an Engineer)
- [#052 - Student (hardware) entrepreneurship in Switzerland and worldwide, with Gregory Inauen of ETH Entrepreneur Club, Switzerland](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2018-04-11-052-student-hardware-entrepreneurship-in-switzerland-and-worldwide-with-gregory) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [#016 - Developing with a hardware engineering company, with Karoly Molnar of ProDSP Technologies, Hungary](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-03-08-016-developing-with-a-hardware-engineering-company-with-karoly-molnar-of-prodsp) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [S6E39 Sam Holland | Informal Engineering Collective, the Hardware Handbook, & Donut Hole-Der](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2025-09-26-s6e39-sam-holland-informal-engineering-collective-the-hardware-handbook-donut-ho) (Being an Engineer)
- [S7E32 Steven Szymeczek | From Taking Things Apart to Teaching Engineers How to Build](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2026-07-31-s7e32-steven-szymeczek-from-taking-things-apart-to-teaching-engineers-how-to-bui) (Being an Engineer)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-11-17-102-how-students-start-successful-hardware-businesses. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Product Startup.