Ask HN: How does one go about bringing a hardware product to market?
I&#x27;ve been doing this for the past 18 months with a Raspberry Pi-based network administration tool called TinyPilot. I originally launched it on HN in 2020[0], and there was enough interest that I turned it into a real product[1] and have been iterating on it ever since. Like you, my background is in software, and I had no hardware experience aside from using the Raspberry Pi as a cheap server on a few projects.<p>I&#x27;ve never found a good guide on how to get started in hardware or eCommerce, but I&#x27;ve been posting yearly[2], monthly[3], and weekly[4] updates about my experience learning as I go.<p>One thing I wish I knew at the beginning: it&#x27;s difficult! Scaling a hardware product is probably 10-100x harder than scaling a software product. There&#x27;s nothing like GCP or AWS that scales from one to thousands. Vendors that offer fulfillment services won&#x27;t work with you when you&#x27;re only selling tens to hundreds per month, so you have to do everything yourself. I built my own fulfillment center[5] and hired people to staff it, and that&#x27;s complicated because that gets into inventory management, employee payroll and benefits, insurance, etc.<p>The difficulty is a double-edged sword, though. It prevents people from competing with you because nobody else wants the hassle. But the downside is that you&#x27;re the one who has to deal with the difficulty.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23927380" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23927380</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tinypilotkvm.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tinypilotkvm.com&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;solo-developer-year-4&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;solo-developer-year-4&#x2F;</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;retrospectives&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;retrospectives&#x2F;</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;whatgotdone.com&#x2F;michael&#x2F;project&#x2F;tinypilot" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;whatgotdone.com&#x2F;michael&#x2F;project&#x2F;tinypilot</a><p>[5] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;retrospectives&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mtlynch.io&#x2F;retrospectives&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;</a>