What Works for Startups Like Yours?

Armbrust American is a US-based surgical mask and PPE manufacturer founded by Lloyd Armbrust in May 2020, reaching $10 million in revenue within six months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lloyd raised $5 million in a weekend to build a vertically integrated manufacturing operation from polypropylene pellets to finished masks, achieving peak production of 1 million masks per day with a unit cost of 5 cents. The company pioneered a royalty-based investor structure and direct-to-consumer sales model that cuts out traditional middlemen in manufacturing distribution.

Lloyd Armbrust, a newspaper operations and advertising veteran, pivoted to launching a surgical mask manufacturing business in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when supply chain disruptions created a critical shortage. The venture was born out of recognizing a significant market gap as most masks were manufactured in Asia and became unavailable as supply chains broke down.

Plunge is a hardware company that manufactures and sells at-home cold plunge devices. Founded in 2020 by Ryan Duey and Michael after their brick-and-mortar float therapy and sauna businesses were impacted by COVID, the company grew from $270k in first-year revenue to $120M+ ARR in four years. Their success is driven by influencer gifting, organic word-of-mouth, and highly efficient paid advertising (7-10x ROAS on Facebook and Google).

First customers: Direct outreach to influencers; they delivered a homemade cold plunge to Aubrey Marcus for free, who then referred Andrew Huberman and other influencers.

Shirley Tan, an experienced e-commerce entrepreneur, created Posture Keeper after her own debilitating back pain led her to experiment with backpack straps attached to her chair, which resolved her symptoms in two weeks. Encouraged by Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington, she spent 10 months perfecting the product design through two iterations and extensive factory collaboration before planning a Kickstarter launch. The hardware startup represents Shirley's return to the physical product space after years in digital e-commerce, leveraging her network and research into crowdfunding best practices.

First customers: Pre-launch via Kickstarter campaign

Emit is a productivity-focused smartwatch founded by Stephen Titus and Thushaan that displays countdowns of important tasks and goals rather than traditional time, leveraging the psychology of scarcity to change user behavior. The founders launched on Kickstarter in 2018 and exceeded their goal by 330%, raising $17,000 from 180 backers, validating strong market interest in their novel approach to time management. They grew through community building on social media and Reddit while navigating the complex challenges of hardware manufacturing and competing against both traditional watches and feature-rich smartwatches.

First customers: Kickstarter campaign with pre-orders from backers interested in the concept after seeing campaign videos

Malta Inc is an energy storage hardware company that spun out of Google's moonshot factory in 2018 to develop a molten salt-based energy storage solution. Founded by Ramya Swaminathan, who previously worked on hydropower companies, the company aims to solve the renewable energy transition challenge by storing electricity from wind and solar sources using molten salt and coolant rather than traditional batteries.

ONAK is a hardware startup that created a high-performance, foldable origami canoe that can be assembled in 15 minutes and fits in a car or airplane. After 4 years of development, the team launched on Kickstarter in July 2016 and raised €235,000 (157% of goal) through viral media coverage including features in Business Insider Design and Time Magazine. The founders—an engineer, designer, and experienced outdoor sales manager—have grown the business through direct-to-consumer sales on their website plus retail partnerships and an ambassador program.

First customers: Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign

BestSelf is a beautifully designed undated journal that helps people set 13-week goals and build daily habits through a structured framework. The founders, Catherine and Alan, validated their concept on Kickstarter (raising $322,696 and selling 10,000+ units) before launching their Shopify store on January 1, 2016, generating $16,721.43 in sales within 12 days. With 70% profit margins and a highly engaged email list of 19,355 subscribers, they're scaling rapidly with virtual support while maintaining their primary focus on the physical product.

First customers: Kickstarter campaign with 10,000+ units sold at $24-$26 price point

GasSend is a hardware and SaaS company founded by Jennifer Reina in 2016 that helps manage propane distribution in Latin America. The company sells IoT devices that measure propane levels and provide marketplace access to suppliers with transparency ratings, while generating recurring revenue through a SaaS dashboard ($20/month for B2B, $1 per transaction for residential). After 2.5 years, GasSend has sold 2,200 devices, generated $100,000 in annual revenue, and is raising $1M at a $6M post-money valuation to scale manufacturing and expand into four Latin American countries.

Narcine is a hardware startup building micro-electric vehicles for urban commuting, founded by Bulgarian industrial engineer Ognyan Bozhilov in 2016. Starting as a side project with cardboard prototypes, the team iterated through multiple designs over three years, eventually settling on a two-wheel configuration after abandoning an initial three-wheel model. They gained traction through live test-drive events and early adopters, planning to launch an Indiegogo campaign to validate the business model and scale production.

First customers: Live test-drive events and early adopters who participated in demonstrations