The latest season of The Disruptors has officially kicked off, and one of the pitching companies demonstrated how a GitHub for hardware engineers could speed up the road to hardware creation.
Upverter is a Toronto-based company that allows engineers to design, share, and review schematics for printed circuit boards. At the same time, Upverter also offers its Parts Concierge, which allows hardware engineers to request parts be built and added to their design through a sourced team of component engineers from around the world.
“There’s $17 trillion dollars a year that gets spent on manufacturing and design, and we are the only real marketplace in the world for doing hardware design services right now, ” said Zak Homuth, co-founder and CEO of Upverter. “We believe the future is going to be more connected and it’s going to be more electronic. There’s going to be circuits in every device everywhere, and we’re making it easier and faster for hardware engineers to build those devices.”
While co-host Bruce Croxon admitted that he didn’t know much about the hardware parts space, the value of a service like Upverter was still obvious to him. “They’re cutting out middle men, taking the cost out of the system, and allowing you to go direct. What’s not to like about that?” he said.
Co-host Amber Kanwar noted that it was an example of the way work was changing. “Rather than applying or filing a resume, you can find work in marketplaces if you’ve got a specific skill set.”
Watch the whole pitch below:
BetaKit is a production partner on The Disruptors. Tune in to BNN every Thursday night at 7pm for full episodes!
