You were a great CTO. Hardware will humble you
Your software instincts will break your hardware company
Hi builder,
I see it often:
A software startup pivots… and decides to build hardware
They think it’s just another stack. It’s not
A hardware mistake cannot be fixed in a pull request
Hardware punishes wrong assumptions with:
Months of delay
Thousands lost
And sometimes… a dead company
It’s not that people aren’t smart. They are (a lot)
They just extrapolate, assuming the problems are similar.
In software:
You iterate fast
You deploy fixes
You debug in production
In hardware:
Iterations take weeks
Fixes require redesign + manufacturing
Bugs require days of hunting (often with the product in your hands)
The mismatch is not technical. It’s mindset.
The traps I see most often
Treating hardware like software
Ignoring compliance until the end
Misunderstanding suppliers (they are people!)
No test strategy (perfect hardware does not need testing, no?)
Training while extinguishing fires
If you’re a software CTO entering hardware
Start here
Define what you will build: markets, use case, environment
Design the system, not just the board: architecture, interfaces, energy flow
Treat iterations as very expensive (because they are)
Plan validation from day one (it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be there)
Bring expertise earlier than you think
Most hardware failures are not technical. They are planning failures
And planning starts much earlier than most teams think
If you’re building your first device, I can help you identify risks early, before they turn into delays and panic.
Happy building ⚒️
Ignacio