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The Hardware Story

Apoorv Shankar, former VP of Hardware at Ultrahuman, in long interviews with founders of successful hardware companies on building, the hard parts, and what they would do differently.

4 episodes · 6 hours · since 2024

Show likely ended
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The Hardware Story has likely ended: no new episode in over a year.

Its last episode came out on 2 Jun 2025. The whole back catalogue is still here to explore, every episode with its summary and chapters.

The Hardware Story is filed under founder stories, startups, hardware and interviews. Its most recent episode published on , so it sits in the archive rather than the active listings.

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Where to begin with The Hardware Story: full episodes about building physical products, award winners first.

  • · 1h 12m

    Episode 2 - The Hardware Story of Ethereal Machines w/ Kaushik Mudda | Building a Deep tech Mfg company

    Kaushik Mudda, Co-Founder and CEO of Ethereal Machines, explains how he and co-founder Navin Jain built India’s first 5-axis CNC machines after struggling to find affordable precision manufacturing in college. He details the company’s pivot from selling hardware to providing high-precision machining services for aerospace, defense, and healthcare sectors, citing a 75% reduction in production time for complex components. Mudda discusses the challenges of bootstrapping with only $100,000 in seed funding from Bluepoint, the strategic use of government patent schemes, and the critical importance of running parallel R&D experiments to accelerate deep-tech development.

    Design for manufacturing & NPIScaling production
    1 chapters

  • · 1h 27m

    Ep 3 -The Hardware Story of Miko Robotics w/ Sneh | Building Conversational learning Robots for Kids

    Sneh Vaswani, Co-Founder and CEO of Miko Robotics, details the journey of building a conversational learning robot for children, from prototyping in Mumbai to scaling global retail distribution. He explains how the team used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and 23 product pilots with 50,000 kids to validate the product before launching, and discusses the strategic importance of IP defensibility and raising venture capital from operator-investors. Vaswani also shares insights on navigating manufacturing partnerships, overcoming supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, and achieving profitability with over half a million devices shipped.

    Prototyping & iterationFundraising & investors
    7 chapters

  • · 1h 22m

    Episode 1 - The Hardware Story of Inito w/ Aayush Rai | Building a B2C medical hardware company

    Aayush Rai, Co-Founder and CEO of Inito, discusses building a B2C medical hardware company from Bangalore, India, targeting the US market with a home fertility monitoring device. He details the journey from prototyping with Arduino to navigating FDA regulations, securing $15M in funding through a unique angel-first strategy, and the critical pivot to focus exclusively on the iOS ecosystem to achieve product-market fit.

    Fundraising & investorsCertification & compliance
    6 chapters

Hear it in a few minutes

Single discussions from recent episodes, playing the show's own audio from where each begins.

Latest episodes

  • · 1h 41m

    Ep 4- The Hardware Story of Ati Motors | Autonomous Robots for Material movement in Factories

    Saurabh Chandra, Co-Founder and CEO of Ati Motors, explains how he transitioned from a software product management background to building autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for factory material movement. He details the company's journey from a $1M seed funded by his own capital to raising $37M+, highlighting the decision to use expensive 3D LiDAR early on and the pivot from a bulky prototype to a compact, hub-motor design after initial customer feedback. Chandra discusses the challenges of B2B sales with Fortune 500 clients, the strategic advantage of Bangalore's manufacturing ecosystem, and the importance of maintaining a standardized product to avoid costly customizations.

    Starting a product companyPrototyping & iteration
    8 chapters

Every episode

4 episodes with a summary and chapters, by year.

20252 episodes
  1. 2 JunEp 4The Hardware Story of Ati MotorsAutonomous Robots for Material movement in Factories1h 41m
  2. 15 JanEp 3 -The Hardware Story of Miko Robotics w/ SnehBuilding Conversational learning Robots for Kids1h 27m
20242 episodes
  1. 2 OctEpisode 2The Hardware Story of Ethereal Machines w/ Kaushik MuddaBuilding a Deep tech Mfg company1h 12m
  2. 26 JunEpisode 1The Hardware Story of Inito w/ Aayush RaiBuilding a B2C medical hardware company1h 22m

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