Build 2 Create: Hardware Founder Stories | Analogy Design Studio

Analogy Design

We don't just design. We BUILD. We LAUNCH. We turn messy, impossible ideas into real products that hit the market and change lives. This is the unfiltered truth about hardware: the brutal timelines, the engineering traps, the costly mistakes, and the breakthrough moments that make it all worth it. Every episode breaks down real founder journeys: the prototypes that failed, the pivots that worked, and the decisions that made products actually manufacturable. If you're done with theory and ready for ACTION, this is your playbook. Let's build.

Episodes

  1. EP 3: AI Smart Glasses | 16 Weeks to CES, 10 Months to Acquisition | Build 2 Create

    FEB 10

    EP 3: AI Smart Glasses | 16 Weeks to CES, 10 Months to Acquisition | Build 2 Create

    B2C: Ep 3-  AI Smart Glasses. 16 Weeks to CES, 10 Months to Acquisition  Most hardware startups take years to validate. Himanshu Verma did it in 16 weeks. Most products take a decade to exit. He got acquired in 10 months. In Episode 3 of B2C: Build 2 Create, we sit down with Himanshu Verma, Co-Founder & Business Lead of Mustard AI Smart Glasses, a founder who refused to follow the traditional hardware playbook. What followed wasn't a typical startup story. It was a masterclass in: ✅ Speed without compromise ✅ Visibility without vanity metrics ✅ Execution that attracted acquisition, not just attention The timeline: Concept to CES in 16 weeks → Product visibility to acquisition in 10 months No 5-year roadmap. No endless funding rounds. No "we're still in beta." Just relentless focus on building something the market couldn't ignore. This episode isn't about hype. It's about how to move fast in hardware without breaking everything. It's about why most founders overthink, undership, and miss the window and what Himanshu did differently. If you’re building hardware, med-tech, or any product where failure has real consequences, this conversation will change how you think about execution. If you are a founder, you definitely should be here: The Product Founders Hub (WhatsApp Community):  https://chat.whatsapp.com/DEcVfX8jw9p84QZRSKQzfs  The Product Founders Hub (LinkedIn Community): https://www.linkedin.com/groups/16566026/  Timestamp: 00:00 - Intro 5:19 - Industrial Design Strategy & Founder Mindset 22:28 - Startups Aren’t Cool 53:45 - Manufacturing, Production & Hardware Realities 58:26 - Ecosystem, Market & Industry Strategy 1:06:50 - 5-Item Checklist for First-Time Founders 1:15:00 - 3 Red Flags Before Launch 1:25:30 - Future of Eyewear1:35:12 - Hot Seat Switch 1:36:11 - Outro ⭐We are looking for founders, individuals & startups innovating products & want to launch now! If you are one, meet our experts now:  🌐 Website: https://www.analogydesign.co/ 👉 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to B2C: Build 2 Create for more real conversations with founders, designers, and creators who are shaping the future of product innovation. 🎥 YouTube: ⁠ ⁠https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC2ZEmYEiyp5g6AfZq0UCM9hVdVISmerv&si=7TSQDzmmM43pLfwU⁠⁠  💼 LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/analogy-design/⁠⁠ Follow Himanshu here: LinkedIn:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/hv06/  Follow Mustard here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mustard-glasses/  Follow Analogy here: LinkedIn:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/analogy-design/⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/analogy.design?igsh=MTRvanI3Y21keWxx⁠⁠ Our Communities: Whatsapp General:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://chat.whatsapp.com/CTwGdALDGdD3q5Ng3Vw2DQ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Instagram:⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbYykgaCadachwnX/⁠⁠  Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of B2C: Build 2 Create. This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Scripted. Directed. Edited by - Team Analogy Thank you for Visiting Analogy #IndustrialDesign #ProductDesign #Entrepreneurship #StartupCulture #DesignThinking #TeamBuilding #B2CPodcast #AnalogyDesign #CreativeLeadership #IndianStartups #DesignStudio #HiringTips

    1h 36m
  2. Ep 2: The Untold Story - 8 Years. 3 Failed Studios. 1 Real Product

    JAN 15

    Ep 2: The Untold Story - 8 Years. 3 Failed Studios. 1 Real Product

    B2C: Ep 2- The Untold Story - 8 Years. 3 Failed Studios. 1 Real Product “Hardware doesn’t fail fast. It fails silently.” Building a real product doesn’t collapse in months; it erodes quietly over years. In Episode 2 of B2C: Build 2 Create, we sit down with Vivek Madappa, Founder of Mobident, a med-tech entrepreneur who has spent over a decade tackling one of India’s most overlooked healthcare challenges: access to dental care. Vivek started with a deceptively simple belief: A dentist shouldn’t need a clinic to treat a patient. The clinic should travel to the patient. What followed was an 8-year journey most product stories never talk about: Failed studios and broken execution promises Endless redesigns and prototypes that looked good but didn’t work Teams that couldn’t translate intent into manufacturable reality The brutal realization that patch-fixes don’t save broken systems Everything changed with one hard decision: 👉 Stop fixing symptoms. Start re-architecting the problem from scratch. Today, MobiDent is building one of the world’s most advanced portable dental clinic systems engineered to be: Truly portable Clinically functional Manufacturable at scale Designed for real-world abuse, not lab demos And we had the privilege of building that system together. This episode is not about motivation. It’s about implementation. You’ll learn: ✅ Why hardware punishes shortcuts and surface-level innovation ✅ Where most med-tech products fail between prototype and production ✅ What “designing for the real world” actually means in healthcare ✅ How long-term product thinking beats fast demos and pitch decks ✅ What it truly takes to bring a medical product to life If you’re building hardware, med-tech, or any product where failure has real consequences, this conversation will change how you think about execution. Timestamp: 00:00 – Intro   01:51 – Guest + Project Intro   03:25 – How the clinic came on wheels   15:46 – Italian Design × German Engineering × Indian Ingenuity   40:20 – Insight into the chaos zone   50:40 – Where Everything Finally Clicked   01:10:39 – The hot seat switch   01:16:27 – Hard truth we learned building hardware   01:23:54 – What's next for dentistry on wheels?   01:25:01 – Outro ⭐We are looking for founders, individuals & startups innovating products & want to launch now! If you are one, book slots now:  🌐 Website: ⁠https://calendly.com/analogy/discoverycall?month=2026-01⁠ 👉 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to B2C: Build 2 Create for more real conversations with founders, designers, and creators who are shaping the future of product innovation. 🎥 YouTube:  ⁠https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC2ZEmYEiyp5g6AfZq0UCM9hVdVISmerv&si=7TSQDzmmM43pLfwU⁠  💼 LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/analogy-design/⁠ Follow Vivek here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekmadappa?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app  Follow Mobident here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/doux-dentistry-private-limited/  Follow Analogy here: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/analogy-design/ ⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/analogy.design?igsh=MTRvanI3Y21keWxx⁠ Our Communities: General: ⁠https://chat.whatsapp.com/CTwGdALDGdD3q5Ng3Vw2DQ⁠ LinkedIn:⁠https://www.linkedin.com/groups/16566026/ ⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbYykgaCadachwnX/⁠  Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of B2C: Build 2 Create. This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Scripted. Directed. Edited by - Team Analogy Thank you for Visiting Analogy #IndustrialDesign #ProductDesign #Entrepreneurship #StartupCulture #DesignThinking #TeamBuilding #B2CPodcast #AnalogyDesign #CreativeLeadership #IndianStartups #DesignStudio #HiringTips

    1h 27m
  3. Ep 1: The hard truth about building design team

    JAN 8

    Ep 1: The hard truth about building design team

    B2C: Ep 1 - The Hard Truth About Building Design Teams  "No a##holes. Just ideas." What does it really take to build a world-class design team? In the first episode of B2C: Build 2 Create, we sit down with VyasTeja Rao (Founder & Chief Advisor) and Divya Rao (Co-founder) of Our Design Studio to uncover the unfiltered truth about scaling a design business from garage sketches to global product launches. We share our 10+ year journey of building one of India's leading industrial design studios complete with the hiring mistakes, team pivots, culture experiments, and hard-won lessons that shaped their "no a##hole policy." From managing designers and engineers to coordinating vendors and operations teams, discover how they transformed a scrappy startup into a full-scale product design powerhouse serving clients worldwide. You'll learn: ✅ The real difference between art and design (and why it matters for your business) ✅ How to hire and retain top creative talent without compromising culture ✅ What industrial design actually means in today's market ✅ Strategies for sustaining a design studio through economic ups and downs ✅ Why analogies unlock better design thinking and how they named their company ✅ The future of design in AI, sustainability, and human-centered innovation Whether you're a designer, entrepreneur, product manager, or creative professional looking to level up your team building game, this conversation is packed with actionable insights you won't find in textbooks. Timestamp: 00:00 – Trailer 00:30 – Meet VT & Divya: From Vision to Reality 06:30 – Why "Analogy"? The Story Behind the Name 11:15 – Sustaining a Design Startup for 10+ Years 22:00 – Art vs Design: Understanding the Divide 30:30 – HR & Team Culture: Building the Foundation 32:40 – How We Hire at Analogy (and Who We Don't) 41:49 – A Message for Next-Gen Creators 47:40 – What is Industrial Design, Really? 55:50 – The Future of Design: Trends & Predictions ⭐We are looking for founders, individuals & startups innovating products & want to launch now! If you are one, book slots now:  🌐 Website: ⁠https://calendly.com/analogy/discoverycall?month=2026-01⁠ 👉 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to B2C: Build 2 Create for more real conversations with founders, designers, and ⁠ creators who are shaping the future of product innovation. 🎥 YouTube:  ⁠https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC2ZEmYEiyp5g6AfZq0UCM9hVdVISmerv&si=7TSQDzmmM43pLfwU⁠  💼 LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/analogy-design/⁠ Follow Vyas here: LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vyasatejarao/ ⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/designwillskill?igsh=YXJoZHl2N25yZnZq⁠ ⁠ Follow Divya here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divya-rao-062988330/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/divya_analogy?igsh=ejdqMXJmZm9mc280⁠ Follow Analogy here: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/analogy-design/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/analogy.design?igsh=MTRvanI3Y21keWxx⁠ Our Communities: General: ⁠https://chat.whatsapp.com/CTwGdALDGdD3q5Ng3Vw2DQ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/groups/16566026/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbYykgaCadachwnX/⁠  Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of B2C: Build 2 Create. This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Scripted. Directed. Edited by - Team Analogy Thank you for Visiting Analogy #IndustrialDesign #ProductDesign #Entrepreneurship #StartupCulture #DesignThinking #TeamBuilding #B2CPodcast #AnalogyDesign #CreativeLeadership #IndianStartups #DesignStudio #HiringTips

    1h 3m

About

We don't just design. We BUILD. We LAUNCH. We turn messy, impossible ideas into real products that hit the market and change lives. This is the unfiltered truth about hardware: the brutal timelines, the engineering traps, the costly mistakes, and the breakthrough moments that make it all worth it. Every episode breaks down real founder journeys: the prototypes that failed, the pivots that worked, and the decisions that made products actually manufacturable. If you're done with theory and ready for ACTION, this is your playbook. Let's build.