Building a physical product is one of the hardest paths in startup life. Industry estimates suggest up to 97% of hardware startups fail — and it’s easy to see why. Unlike software, hardware means tooling, manufacturing, supply chains and long lead times before a single unit generates revenue.
We sat down with the founder of VK Labs Chris van Kempen, an Origin Workspace member who has spent 18 years developing physical products — from global consumer electronics brands to building a medical device startup from the ground up — to talk about why hardware startups struggle and what founders can do to shift the odds in their favour.
Why Hardware Startups Are So High-Risk
After years working with major consumer electronics brands, VK Labs‘ founder moved into building a medical device company from scratch — a shift from near-unlimited corporate resources to the reality most founders face: high expectations, minimal budget.
That gap is exactly why VK Labs exists. The goal is simple: help promising innovations, particularly in climate tech and health tech, survive long enough to make the impact they’re capable of — by spotting risks early and making sure founders have the right resources to manage them.
The two most common mistakes seen time and again?
With that context, here are five tips every hardware founder should take on board.
Tip 1: Start With the Problem, Not the Product
Design, prototyping and testing are expensive. Before spending a penny on any of it, validate three things:
Market research, user research and financial modelling are relatively cheap ways to test these assumptions. Diving straight into development based on a hunch is the expensive way to find out you were wrong.
The biggest validation mistake founders make is failing to build a clear line between the product and purchase intent. Every feature should map to a specific user need, and every user need should map to a reason someone would buy. The more rigorously you can quantify that chain, the more you can optimise for what actually matters: sales.
Tip 2: De-risk Early
The single biggest risk to a hardware startup is spending more money than you’re able to raise. Product development can become an unstoppable freight train once it’s moving, so having a robust, adaptable plan in place matters just as much as the product itself.
In practice, that means aligning fundraising rounds with development phases — making sure there’s enough commercial and technical traction to raise at each stage, with a clear delivery plan for what comes next.
In your first six months, focus on the unglamorous fundamentals: financial models, project plans, product requirement documents and a risk matrix. These take time and experience to get right, but they correlate directly with your chances of survival — and investors notice when they’re done well. Delegate or outsource if you have to, but get them done.
Tip 3: Prototype Fast — and Learn Faster
Ideally, you’d test everything before committing to expensive tooling or manufacturing. In reality, some prototyping methods aren’t representative enough, and some tests are too costly to repeat across prototype and production units.
The goal is to minimise surprises once you move into manufacturing, where changes become dramatically more expensive. Before that transition, prioritise:
These are worthwhile investments that pay for themselves many times over by avoiding costly late-stage changes.
Tip 4: Build the Right Team and Network
Most hardware startups can’t afford a full-time CTO or product leader — and they don’t need one from day one. What they need is expertise across a wide range of subject areas and experience levels, sourced creatively and cost-effectively.
That typically looks like:
This combination gives founders an efficient balance of strategic direction and functional delivery, without the overhead of full-time senior hires.
So who should be full-time? Reserve permanent roles and equity for people essential to long-term success — those who embody your company values and can move seamlessly between early R&D and production support as the business evolves. Everything else can stay flexible: fractional, freelance or advisory.
Tip 5: Think About Manufacturing Earlier Than You Think
Manufacturing brings its own category of costs — tooling, production and test equipment, jigs and fixtures, certification testing, travel, burn rate over long build cycles, and inventory outlay, often long before any revenue comes in. Founders need to think about how they’ll fund all of this before they even start designing.
Manufacturability should be baked into the product’s DNA from the earliest design stages, not bolted on afterwards. Get Requests for Quotation (RFQs) out as early as possible — sourcing manufacturers, running the RFQ process, and finalising legal agreements can take months, so start well before the design is “finished.”
And when the first production run approaches: build it yourself first. No one understands the product better than the founding team, so don’t expect to outsource equipment selection, jigs and fixtures, operator training and work instructions without close involvement.
What’s Next for Hardware Innovation
Looking ahead, a few trends stand out. Open source software, natural language programming and affordable 3D printing are making it far easier for people to build and test product ideas early — lowering the barrier for more innovations to make it to market.
There’s also a growing distinction between broad “General Intelligence and Big Data” approaches, where founders often struggle to articulate the specific problem they’re solving, and Specific AI — narrower, more targeted applications of technology. For most startups, the advice is the same: be clear about the one thing you’re solving, and focus on doing it well.
Why VK Labs Chose Origin Workspace
When asked what brought VK Labs to Origin, the answer was simple: great coffee, a brilliant location, a strong community, and a packed events calendar. It’s a welcoming space that showcases the best of Bristol’s business community — exactly the kind of environment ambitious founders need around them.
Interested in joining a community of founders, innovators and industry experts like VK Labs? Explore membership at Origin Workspace and find your next workspace in Bristol.
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