Hardware Podcasts

143: Build Your Own Manufacturing for Your Invention

Product Startup · 28 Sept 2022 · 25m

What this episode covers

Don Skaggs, founder of US Biotex Corporation and President of the Inventors Network Kentucky, explains how he bootstrapped a local manufacturing facility from a farmhouse in 1991, growing it to over 150 products before selling the company in 2014. He details the strategic decision to keep production in-house to maintain close integration between R&D, marketing, and sales, allowing for rapid iteration based on direct customer feedback from hospital laboratories. Skaggs emphasizes the importance of using Original Equipment Manufactured (OEM) parts rather than reinventing every component, and leveraging cross-industry technology transfers to innovate cost-effectively. He concludes by discussing his current work with the Inventors Network, helping entrepreneurs find the intersection of their passion and expertise.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, companies scaling up and established companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
US Biotex Corporation, Inventors Network Kentucky, Mako Design + Invent
Also
Mercury Tracer Wagon

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Manufacturing Happy Hour · 1h 07m

    180: Made in Missouri, Live from the 2024 Midwest Manufacturers Trade Show & Conference

    Pavel Bosovik, founder and CEO of 27North, explains how he industrialized the process of making expedition vans by documenting detailed standard operating procedures, such as counting specific screws, to enable scaling. Josh Shelton, owner of Etched Nameplate Company, discusses how being fired served as the springboard for his business and details his strategy of acquiring companies annually since 2020 to grow the brand. Kevin Thompson, a leadership coach at Cambridge Air Solutions, describes how the company uses daily morning meetings and core values to build a culture that enriches lives, moving beyond just manufacturing HVAC equipment.

    Design for manufacturing & NPILeadership, teams & culture
    7 chapters

  • The Builder Circle · 55m

    S3 E7: Building Bootstrapped Hardware That Sells with Christian Reed

    Christian Reed, CEO of Reekon Tools, explains how he bootstrapped the company from a side project to an 8-figure business without VC funding, validating the idea with a $1.2M Kickstarter campaign. He details the manufacturing lessons learned at Formlabs, including how a supplier's factory fire forced a mid-cycle component swap, and describes building a 3M+ social media following through consistent, raw content creation. Reed emphasizes the importance of engineers thinking like entrepreneurs, focusing on product benefits and brand building rather than just invention.

    Crowdfunding & preordersManufacturing partners & offshoring
    9 chapters

  • The Builder Circle · 1h 14m

    S1 E4: Cracking the Code of Hardware Manufacturing with Scott Miller

    Scott Miller, a hardware expert who worked on the early Roomba program and Dragon Innovation, explains how startups should navigate manufacturing decisions, emphasizing that the first 100 units should be built in-house to capture domain knowledge before outsourcing. He advises startups to target tier-two or tier-three contract manufacturers, use dual-sourcing for leverage at $50 million in business, and treat factories as partners by sharing founder bios and VC backing to mitigate their risk. Miller also details the importance of robust Manufacturing Service Agreements (MSAs), lifecycle testing, and quality assurance to avoid catastrophic field failures like the Roomba's early optical encoder dust issue.

    Manufacturing partners & offshoringQuality & yield
    8 chapters

  • Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast · 1h 40m

    Ep. 8 - Ryan from V1 Engineering

    Ryan Zellers, founder of V1 Engineering, explains how his passion for making things led to the creation of the Mostly Printed CNC (MPCNC) and the growth of his company. He details his journey from working at Robo 3D and a medical device firm to bootstrapping V1 Engineering from a garage, leveraging the Thingiverse community for design feedback and sales. Zellers discusses his deliberate choice to remain a solo operator, using automation and contractors to handle logistics while he focuses on product design and community engagement.

    Industrial & consumer product designStarting a product company
    8 chapters

  • The Hardware Entrepreneur · 40m

    #016 - Developing with a hardware engineering company, with Karoly Molnar of ProDSP Technologies, Hungary

    Karoly Molnar, co-founder and CEO of ProDSP Technologies, a hardware engineering firm in Budapest, explains how the company grew organically from university projects into a self-sustaining business serving industrial automation and hardware startups. He details their dual revenue model of engineering hours and manufacturing services, and describes the critical parallel development of 'works-like' and 'looks-like' prototypes that converge into an engineering prototype. Molnar also shares insights on bootstrapping, productivity habits like the Pomodoro technique, and the importance of detailed video documentation when managing cultural differences with Chinese manufacturing partners.

    Starting a product companyPrototyping & iteration
    7 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Product Startup. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.