15+ yrs in hardware development
10+ yrs leading cross-functional teams
Industry agnostic
I’ve been the engineer who didn’t talk to customers.
And the founder who did but asked the wrong questions.
Early in my career, I was at a startup developing innovative ideas in fiber laser tech.
But it struggled to build products and had no customers.
Out of frustration, I picked up the phone and called a potential customer.
To my surprise, they were excited about what we were developing and wanted to order two units.
I took that back to the founder, however, they wanted to focus on getting the innovation right before moving forward with the customer.
So, I left.
I decided to start a hardware social enterprise, building an energy-efficient irrigation pump for smallholder farmers in South Asia.
This time I knew I needed to talk to customers. So I did.
And I still got it wrong.
I was talking to users — not customers — farmers who would use the pump, but not the ones who would actually buy it.
By the time I figured out who the real customer was, I’d run out of funding.
That distinction — between who uses your product and who decides to buy it — is one of the sharpest lines in hardware.
Missing it is easy, expensive, and nearly invisible until it’s too late.
