How to Succeed in Hardware: A New Venture Model

The venture model for hardware is broken. Let’s fix it. After nine years as a vc-backed founder, I’ve seen many promising hardware startups gain early traction, raise large funding rounds, then struggle with their go-to-market. Why? Hardware has a different path to success than software, but most people still treat them the same. The playbook for hardware founders to succeed at scale looks more like this: 1. Largest Pain, not Largest Market There’s less competition in hardware because it is so technically challenging. Don’t make it harder by building an umbrella product that inflates your market's size for investors. Align the product with your customer’s biggest pain first, and they’ll be 10x more willing to test and buy your product - even if it’s not perfect. Then expand. 2. Partners First, not Customers The primary goal of deployments with customers should be proof, not revenue. Partner early with customers to clearly define what success means to them. If the deployment doesn’t meet that criteria, iterate. If it works they will happily pay you knowing exactly what your product can do. 3. Scale when You're Ready VC-backed founders are under pressure to chase revenue quickly, forcing many to try to scale incomplete test versions as production products. This mistake will burn your early adopters and ultimately be slower. Take the most direct route to a truly market ready product. Scale once you have it. The old & broken model: Chase early revenue → Rush production → Iterate on vanity metrics The new model: Validate problem deeply → Partner with clear success criteria → Build for scale Hardware takes 3x longer to reach the market, but can become 100x more defensible than SaaS once you do. Do it right and your investors will later thank you for it!