Welcome to Anti-Hype

Let's build the hardware future we need.

A Little Background

I have been building hardware for over ten years. Fresh out of graduate school I was hired as a launch pad engineer for SpaceX, where I helped design, build, and launch in the early days of the Falcon program. After that, I transitioned to leading the design and build of their rocket landing barges out in Florida and Louisiana. Then, I moved home to Alaska and started The Launch Company which bootstrapped hardware to space on rockets and satellites, while also designing dozens of launch site systems along the way.

I sold that company and about a year ago, I left. I started a sabbatical (which I am still technically in the middle of) and spent a lot of time writing. I write on The Next 30 Trips, a newsletter where I explore our relationship with work and our search for actualization, and I also wrote (and am forever revising) a memoir called The First 30 Trips which examines what happens when a demanding career becomes our sole center and how to recover life afterward.

I Have Some Thoughts

So, in short, things were good! I played with my kids and I went on long bike rides or skis through the woods depending on the season. I putzed around with old motorcycles and I noodled on who we build big things for, and why. This led me to think about startups, and more specifically the world of hardware. I admit, I didn’t mind. I love thinking about hardware development. I even started doing some consulting through my one-person engineering shop Laylu and advising a handful of startups.

As I got back in the saddle, I reflected on what worked, and what didn’t, during the journey of bootstrapping in-space fueling fittings and test equipment in the demanding New Space industry. I thought, too, about what worked and what didn’t for the larger venture-backed companies that were our clients. Companies like Astra, Relativity Space, Firefly, SpaceX, and many more. Some flamed out (quite literally) and others rose to the challenge. I realized that I’d seen a huge swath of a very complex, competitive industry and I have opinions, dammit!

No, more than that, I’d realized that I’d enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour of dozens of very painful lessons in developing and literally launching hardware. From that, I have been synthesizing some of the things I think worked, and those that didn’t. These are lessons I will be holding close as I worked on my own Next Big Thing (which is currently TBD). I wanted to write them somewhere, and they just didn’t fit in my other newsletter nor solely as LinkedIn posts.

And so, Anti-Hype Hardware was born.

Things to Explore

In general, posts will fall into one of two buckets:

• Exploring the State of the Hardware Art

  • Building hardware is a pain in the ass! Why do it? Shouldn’t we all be out pumping fintech companies or jumping on the AI bullshit train? Yeah, maybe we should but if you’re here then you probably have the same screw loose as I do. You like switches, buttons, and watching things light up. You like holding something you built in your hands, then deploying it to do a job. You recognize that the biggest needs on earth all revolve around hardware.

  • But hype is killing hardware. We need an honest exploration of what’s working and what isn’t to develop a set of practices that lead us to the zero-carbon, spacefaring, equitable future we all deserve.

  • Most posts will fall into this category and the vast majority will be free! However, I reserve the right to paywall some especially juicy ones.

• The Bootstrapper’s Guide to Hardware

  • I am a huge believer in bootstrapping companies. Some people think it’s not possible to bootstrap hardware, but my experience disagrees. Even if you don’t bootstrap forever, doing so at the outset helps whittle away a lot of bullshit.

  • To that end, I am developing a series of posts that will encompass a step-by-step actionable guide to bootstrapping your own hardware company through the early days using only the tools you already have on your computer.

  • These posts will be for paying subscribers only, though I will try to share out some nuggets here and there.

That’s the thesis, as of now. It’ll be fun, and maybe we will all learn something together. I hope you’ll come along for the ride!