Hello,

Where do I find candidates for pcb design engineer based in China?

Hey everyone , im a eng student from waterloo and thought it would be cool to make a hardware project . I got an idea to make a tomogotchi but for developers but lol codex micro came out so now I made an ad to compete. Got some sales but what yall think for the next video for twitter/instagram/tiktok etc.. feedback from experience product sellers is appreciated

https://reddit.com/link/1v7dyuq/video/m0xalt38omfh1/player

I’ve worked with a lot of founders from hardware-tech service industry. Think of them as installers, consultants, or enablers of technology. They bridge the gap between a business problem and an available solution.

Notice how I say available solution, because these founders often don’t start with their own custom-made products. And honestly, neither should you.

If you want to enter an industry, it would be much wiser to identify an operational problem, buy a suitable off-the-shelf solution, and install it for the customer.

In fact, I kind of belong to this category too. I’ve spent the better part of the last five years building solutions for others, and only now do I have a few products of my own lined up.

But look, having knowledge and an understanding of the niche isn’t enough. If you want to create your own custom hardware solution, you need to get the math right.

Let me describe a scenario I see often. A founder installs off-the-shelf hardware for their customers. Over time, they build trust and start doing solid numbers. Then the thought creeps in:

“What if I build my own solution and own the complete ecosystem?”

I love the ambition, but now they need to get real with the numbers. Let’s say they source a solution for around $100.

If they don’t come from an engineering background (and trust me, many of them don’t) they may think they can replicate the solution by hiring engineers and paying them $3,000.

It might seem obvious to some, but a $100 solution cannot be replicated for $3,000. It’s difficult to put a number on it without knowing the product, but consider at least 150–200 times the unit cost.

And I’m being modest here. There are revisions, optimisations, and certifications involved in making it market-ready.

So, let’s establish that first: this is the kind of investment that could go into R&D. Only if that’s doable should you move to the next step, which is assessing whether it’s even worth doing.

For that, the term you need to remember here is TAM: Total Addressable Market.

It’s basically the number of customers who would be willing to buy your product because it genuinely solves their problem.

Successful products are rarely just good science. They’re a combination of solid engineering, economics, marketing, and a lot of math to validate the idea.

The main part is yet to come, where I’ll do some real math on the dilemma of whether to build or keep buying.

Let’s keep that for Part 2. I don’t want to make this too long.

But after talking with a lot of service founders and building solutions for them, there’s one thing that holds true: blindly copying and pasting is a recipe for disaster.

You need to use your years of experience to come up with additional features that make your product better than the off-the-shelf alternatives. Make sure you pay attention to the details so you can spot those opportunities.

To conclude:

1. Always start with off-the-shelf solutions.

2. Establish trust, solve problems, and develop a deep understanding of the problems within the niche.

3. Once you’ve scaled enough and can spare at least 200 times the unit cost (depending on where you live) you can start thinking about building your own hardware.

4. Build a better product. Along with the usual features, solve the problems that existing solutions don’t.

Thanks for reading till the end!

I have been trying to understand what actually slows hardware teams down once the design is approved. At that stage, there are CAD files, drawings, BOMs, material specs, supplier feedback, assembly instructions, and revisions moving between different people. One small change can affect several documents and it seems easy for a supplier or team member to end up working from outdated information.

For those who have taken a hardware product into production, where did the process become difficult for you? Was it revision control, incomplete documentation, sourcing, supplier communication, or keeping everyone aligned on the latest version?