Most people assume hardware products fail because the engineering wasn't good enough.

But that's not what kills most of them.

What actually sinks hardware products are business decisions that felt totally reasonable at the time.

Founders make these calls early, often without realizing the damage, and by the time manufacturing starts it's already too late to recover.

I've watched it happen over and over, and I've made some of these mistakes myself.

So I put together both a video and an article breaking down the top reasons I've seen hardware products fail.

WATCH THE VIDEO: 10 Reasons Hardware Products Fail

Or if you prefer to read...

READ THE ARTICLE: 10 Reasons Hardware Products Fail

One of the biggest traps is building before proving anyone actually wants it.

A lot of founders believe hardware can't be validated until it physically exists, so they build first and ask questions later.

Others convince themselves with compliments from friends or random people who say they'd "totally buy one."

But compliments aren't validation, and enthusiasm isn't commitment.

Real validation happens when people take steps that cost them something, like a deposit, a preorder, or an honest conversation revealing how they'd actually use the product.

Another major issue is underestimating manufacturing complexity.

A prototype makes it feel like you're almost finished, but manufacturing usually proves you're not even close.

It introduces problems like tolerances, repeatability, test procedures, quality systems, supplier differences, and failure modes nobody saw coming.

It's common for manufacturing to take as long as prototyping, sometimes longer.

So if you think you can just hand your prototype to a manufacturer and ask them to make thousands, you're going to be disappointed.

Then there's the trap of over-engineering instead of shipping something simple that works.

Every extra feature adds cost, risk, complexity, and development time.

The goal early on isn't perfection.

It's building the simplest version that solves a real problem and can actually be manufactured.

Once real customers start using that version, they show you what matters and where to improve next.

That learning doesn't happen until something ships.

Talk soon,
John