He Scaled a $500M Product. His Advice for Water Tech? Slow Down

A working prototype means nothing if you can't manufacture it at scale.

Brad Augustine — VP of Hardware Engineering at Inspiren, former VP of Hardware at Lululemon — is the engineer who scaled the Mirror connected fitness device from startup to a $500M acquisition. In this episode, he shares the product development playbook that water tech founders and engineers need to hear.

Brad spent 20 years in hardware product development: building LED lighting and ergonomic furniture at Humanscale, leading the engineering team that cut Mirror's production costs by 40% before the pandemic supply chain crisis, and now building AI-powered senior care hardware at Inspiren.

We cover:

→ Why "hardware is hard" is actually "hardware is fun"

→ The real gap between a working prototype and mass production

→ How Brad's team cut 40% of Mirror's BOM cost — and why that saved them when the pandemic hit

→ Why water industry engineers need to think like product managers

→ The PFAS trap: are you building for wastewater or drinking water? Two very different customers.

→ How AI is finally helping engineers navigate tangled regulatory requirements (UL, IEC, FCC, SCADA)

→ Why "me-too" products die in hardware — you can't pivot a mold

→ What's next: AR beauty tech, AI inside physical products, and solving problems in your own community

Guest: Brad Augustine

→ VP, Hardware Engineering at Inspiren

→ Former VP, Hardware at Lululemon (Mirror)

→ Former Design Engineering Manager at Humanscale

→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-augustine

Host: Ravi Kurani, LiquidAssets

This episode is sponsored by HASA — the leader in water treatment solutions. Keeping communities safe one drop at a time for over 60 years. Learn more at hasa.com.