Fremont’s niche within the Bay Area economy lands squarely on hardware, so over the coming months we will be exploring the hardware comeback that is unfolding in real time. We begin at the intersection of software and hardware with Tindie — an online portal where makers (or indie hardware enthusiasts) can sell their products.

We recently met up with Tindie Founder and CEO Emile Petrone and asked him to tell us what Tindie is up to.

1. What was the inspiration for Tindie?

It was somewhat serendipitous — I was a software engineer and I had some free time. In all seriousness, I came up with Tindie when I started seeing huge momentum in the growth of DIY electronics. It was getting easier and easier to be a “maker,” and things were really starting to take off, with tools like Raspberry Pi and Arduino becoming available. My question was, “Where do people sell the stuff they make?” I realized that a cultural shift was starting, and I wanted to contribute — I needed to facilitate the development of this community. So I posted on Reddit, asking if people would be interested in an online marketplace for indie hardware projects. The response was extremely positive, and the rest is history.

2. You’ve achieved some pretty impressive stats in a relatively short amount of time. Talk about those and what are you most proud of.

Tindie is the largest hardware marketplace online by a long shot, with more than 800 companies using the site and over 3,700 products listed. What I’m most proud of is how much purchase activity comes from legitimate corporate R&D labs — it just shows that our makers are producing very specialized, highly sought-after products. What may be most surprising to people is that nearly all of our sales activity comes through word-of-mouth advertising. And to think — this industry is still in its infancy and is changing very quickly. We foresee exponential growth opportunity.

3. What do you see as the biggest challenge for hardware startups as they try to scale?

The biggest challenge these companies face is designing for manufacturability at a reasonable cost. The iterations of product development required to hit the right price point in production can be significant, and hardware startups rely on developing early partnerships with manufacturers to get this right. To that end, finding the right manufacturer is also critical. Let’s just say you can’t find a manufacturer like you can a Papa John’s pizza store! Today, many manufacturers are not focused on the small startups. However with the rapid growth in this sector, we think this is a good opportunity to connect makers with local manufacturers.

4. What’s next for Tindie?

Over the next year, we will be working on helping our sellers find local manufacturers, as I’ve already mentioned. We are also interested in helping sellers’ post product descriptions that are not overly technical. Not all of the products listed on Tindie are made “by engineers for engineers.” The average consumer needs to understand the product descriptions and relate it to the sales pitch. We have actually created a non-technical customer service function to assist with this goal. We will also continue to hire additional engineers, so contact us if you are interested in joining.