Software ate the world, but hardware built it. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Michael Corr, founder of Duro Labs, revealed how applying software development principles to hardware engineering could trigger the next wave of physical innovation. His insights offer a masterclass in cross-industry innovation for founders looking to reshape traditional industries.
When Jealousy Breeds Innovation
“Having lived in the Bay Area in the mid-2000s and being firsthand exposed what I referred to as that whole software agile renaissance movement, I just had extreme jealousy about how much innovation was happening in that industry and none of that was really transferring over to hardware industry,” Michael explains. This envy of software’s rapid evolution sparked a realization: the principles driving software’s success could transform hardware development.
The Cost of Innovation Gap
The fundamental difference between software and hardware development comes down to the cost of failure. “One of the contributing factors to why software excel so rapidly was because the agile movement allowed for rapid iterations and trials, creativity,” Michael notes. “The cost to fail, the cost to make a mistake was so low because you could try something with code, put it out there in the world, learn from it and then adopt in very rapid short cycles.”
Hardware, meanwhile, remained stuck in long, expensive development cycles. As Michael points out, “In the hardware space, those similar kinds of feedback loops are possible, but the costs and times associated with are too high, that the cost to make a mistake is too prohibitive to take risks.”
The Software Companies Leading Hardware Innovation
Perhaps the most compelling evidence for software principles transforming hardware comes from an unexpected source. “You’re seeing that culturally, some of the best hardware products are now being developed by software companies where not the Apples or the Samsung, but companies like Google and Facebook and Amazon who are originally software companies are now developing very impressive and very formidable hardware products,” Michael observes.
These software companies brought their agile methodologies with them: “You’re starting to see that software centric culture of your workflows and agile workflows and get flow coming into the hardware space.”
Breaking Down Silos
The hardware industry’s traditional structure created natural barriers to innovation. Michael explains, “You have electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, operations, procurement. You have manufacturing, you have logistics. And in the most common scenarios, each of those teams, most of them are not even on the same company umbrella.”
This fragmentation led to inefficiencies: “Basically because of the inefficiencies of these software tools, it required a whole secondary labor force just to manage those inefficiencies.” The solution? Apply software’s centralized, automated approach to data management.
The Cultural Shift Enabling Change
The timing for this cross-industry innovation is critical. “There’s a good 10-15 year period where there was a larger number of young engineers were more interested in software than hardware,” Michael notes. “However, that’s starting to change. It started to change about five years ago with people starting to recognize that hey, there’s more value of joining a hardware product and a software product and offering them as a complete solution.”
The Future Vision
Looking ahead, Michael envisions hardware development becoming as frictionless as software development: “A software developer, even a mid-level developer, they can set up their entire tool chain in an hour… What I’m looking forward to is the day that you can do the same thing in the hardware space.”
This vision offers a blueprint for founders looking to innovate across industry boundaries:
- Identify fundamental principles driving success in other industries
- Look for structural inefficiencies in your target industry that these principles could solve
- Wait for (or help create) the cultural shift that makes adoption possible
- Build tools that make the transition easier
The lesson for founders isn’t just about hardware and software – it’s about recognizing that the principles driving success in one industry often have unexplored applications in others. The key is identifying which principles are truly universal and which need adaptation for your specific context.