Field Note 004 · Physical Product · 2013–2025
Thirteen Years of Hardware
Before software, there were fans, batteries, and boxes on real doorsteps in 50+ countries.
Problem
Consumer gadget categories — portable cooling, laptop stands, tabletop games — are full of forgettable, interchangeable products. Standing out meant engineering something genuinely different, not marketing harder.
Idea
Design physical products around one specific mechanical or material idea worth protecting, then take them seriously enough to fund through Kickstarter, tool for real manufacturing, and ship at scale.
Role
Inventor and product owner — concept, design, and the one dealing with the factory, tooling, freight, and customs.
Process
A decade-plus across multiple product lines: portable fans, battery-powered AC units, ergonomic laptop stands, tabletop party games. SandStack, a tower-stacking game where sand redistributes inside sand-infused polycarbonate blocks, carries two issued design patents (US and China) from this era.
Outcome
Six-figure Kickstarter launches, real manufacturing relationships, and units shipped to customers in 50+ countries.
Lessons
Hardware is unforgiving in a way software isn't — a bad decision costs a container shipment, not a hotfix. That discipline is exactly what makes shipping software feel almost easy by comparison.