Agile Hardware Development | duro

The Evolution of Hardware Development: Duro's Approach to Modernization

For software engineers, the creation of a hardware product can evoke memories of the 1980s. Despite advancements in technology, numerous manual steps – often prone to errors and potentially costly – persist. These include reliance on spreadsheets and a general sense of diminishing motivation within hardware development facilities.

Duro's Funding and Vision

Duro has secured $4 million in funding, aiming to introduce agile methodology principles to the often-chaotic world of final-bill-of-materials.top-assembly.final.final.final.final.no-really-final-this-time.xls files.

The funding round was spearheaded by B2B SaaS investment firm Bonfire Ventures, with additional investment from hard-tech specialists Riot Ventures. These funds will be allocated to expanding the sales and marketing divisions, as well as enhancing Duro’s product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions.

Addressing the Pain Points in Hardware PLM

“As a former electrical engineer with two decades of experience in designing and manufacturing products – encompassing IoT, drones, telecom equipment, wearables, and cleantech – I became acutely aware of the time wasted managing fundamental aspects of hardware development: CAD files, the bill of materials, and supply chain data,” explains Michael Corr, Duro’s CEO.

“Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems are intended to centralize and manage this information, including revision control, facilitating collaboration between internal teams and contract manufacturers. However, the tools I encountered often failed to deliver tangible time savings or value. Manual processes remained dominant, often making spreadsheets the preferred option due to the complexity and error-proneness of established tools.”

Duro: A Cloud-Based Solution for Centralized Data

Driven by a desire for change, Michael Corr and Kellan O’Connor co-founded Duro as a cloud platform designed to centralize all product data. This platform aims to eliminate friction when connecting different teams and tools.

The core objective is to ensure transparency, granting access to the most accurate and up-to-date data for product, engineering, supplier, and manufacturing teams at all times.

The Shifting Landscape of Hardware Engineering

“The hardware industry is characterized by a dual culture. An older generation, entering the workforce in the 80s and 90s, established the current toolsets. Simultaneously, a gap emerged – younger engineers gravitated towards web, mobile, and app development, fields perceived as more dynamic.

This resulted in a decline in young engineers entering the hardware space,” Corr describes the market context in which Duro is positioning itself. “However, this trend is reversing. Hardware has regained its appeal, fueled by the rise of IoT and the significant reduction in hardware development costs. We are now witnessing an influx of a younger generation of engineers who are accustomed to the collaborative culture of software development and expect higher standards from their tools.”

Bridging the Gap Between Software and Hardware

In essence, Duro seeks to replicate the transformative impact of SaaS, GitHub, and DevOps processes on software delivery within the hardware industry, bringing it into the modern era.

“GitHub successfully demonstrated the viability of a single, cloud-hosted source for source code control, fostering an ecosystem of tools, people, and tasks. The hardware industry traditionally lacks this centralized approach. Multiple teams – electrical, mechanical, procurement, manufacturing – operate independently, each maintaining their own data copies,” Corr elaborates.

“This fragmentation necessitates significant overhead to manage communication channels and ensure everyone is working with the latest information. For example, each team often has its own version of the bill of materials, creating potential inconsistencies.”

Industry Validation and Market Opportunity

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with Duro, as they are offering a novel solution to a substantial market dominated by established players. By lowering the barrier to entry for new users, Duro is well-positioned to capture a significant share of this expanding market,” states Jim Andelman, co-founder and managing director at Bonfire Ventures.

“The platform’s customer affinity is remarkable, clearly indicating that Duro is becoming the PLM solution of choice for engineering-focused businesses.”

Innovative Business Model

Beyond the product itself, Duro is also innovating its business model, adopting principles from the SaaS world.

“Historically, software sales for hardware have been characterized by high costs, user-license based pricing, and limited trial availability. Duro is disrupting this model with three subscription packages. The Starter package caters to companies recognizing the limitations of spreadsheets and seeking a centralized, controlled data environment. The Pro version offers immediate usability without complex configuration, ideal for teams preparing for their first production run and requiring robust revision control and supplier interfaces,” explains Corr.

“Our Enterprise package is designed for larger teams that have outgrown the lower tiers or have established workflows.”

Pricing Structure

The Starter package is priced at $450 per month or $5,400 annually. The Pro package costs $750 per month, or approximately $9,000 per year. The Enterprise package is customized based on customer needs, with contracts ranging from $25,000 to $100,000.

Riot Ventures' Perspective

“Our extensive experience investing in full-stack businesses has shown us that data continuity issues are inherent in hardware manufacturing and a major concern for the industry,” says Will Coffield, co-founder and general partner at Riot Ventures.

“We admire Duro’s approach to modernizing hardware design and development, leveraging automation to replace manual processes and connect teams with information for intelligent and efficient collaboration.”