The Hardtech Podcast

In this episode of the Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman welcome Michael Ragsdale, Founder of Bailout Systems, along with engineer Alex Bowersox. The conversation begins with Michael sharing the company's powerful origin story inspired by the tragic events of Black Sunday and details the strategic pivot toward the arbor market to scale their safety technology.

The group discusses the gritty rea...

In this episode of the Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman welcome Bernie Youngblood, the Director of Partnerships at Hot Logic. The conversation dives deep into Bernie’s entrepreneurial journey and his mission to revolutionize the food service industry. Bernie explains how Hot Logic is challenging the dominance of the microwave by offering a solution that prioritizes nutrition, convenience, and food ...

On this episode of the Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman are joined by Katie Ittenbach and Mike York from SMARI, a premier market research firm. Together, they explore how the landscape of market research has shifted from traditional methods to modern, data-driven strategies that prevent companies from building products nobody wants.

The conversation centers on the danger of relying on assumptions ...

In this episode of the Hardtech Podcast, host DeAndre Harakas and co-host Grant Chapman sit down with Sharlene Jerome from Sensoria Health Inc. to explore the cutting edge of wearable medical technology.

What began as a company focused on high-performance smart socks has evolved into a global leader in Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and AI-driven healthcare solutions. Sharlene shares the journey of pivoting toward clinic...

In one of the most actionable medtech episodes we’ve ever recorded, The Hardtech Podcast welcomes Geoff Hutchins, VP of Operations at IntuiTap Medical. IntuiTap has created a first-of-its-kind device that uses a force-sensing array to image spinal anatomy and guide lumbar punctures a breakthrough for epidurals, diagnostic LPs, and emergency medicine.

Geoff walks through:

How IntuiTap navigated the De Novo FDA pathway for...

Oculogica is reshaping concussion assessment with EyeBOX, the first and only FDA-cleared, baseline-free eye-tracking device for detecting concussion. In this conversation, CTO Joel Sanderson joins DeAndre and Grant to unpack the full journey from the neurosurgical insight that sparked the technology to the engineering breakthroughs required to commercialize it.

Joel shares how EyeBOX uses 500-fps infrared eye tracking, sp...

When paramedics guess patient weight in the field, lives are at risk. What began as a college project for Tristan Hazlett turned into Hinckley Medical a hard-tech, FDA-regulated medical device company bringing real-time patient-weight measurement to ambulances across the U.S.

In this episode, DeAndre and Grant sit down with Tristan to unpack one of the most fascinating hard-tech origin stories we’ve ever featured. From ea...

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman are joined by Ashley Phillips, Head of Product at Aura Frames, to discuss how technology and design can foster genuine human connection.

Ashley shares her journey from the world of software to leading product at a company that blends elegant hardware and powerful software to help families stay close without turning users into products. She re...

How do you take an idea built for elite athletes and turn it into a scalable sports tech platform?

In this episode, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman talk with Alex Krause, Director of Hardware at Trace, about the art and complexity of building hardware that learns, adapts, and performs in real-world conditions.

Alex walks through his transition from Apple and The Boring Company to leading a small, scrappy team at ...

Jeff Bennett joins hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman on The Hardtech Podcast to talk about the creation and mission of Morari Medical a startup changing the conversation around sexual health through innovation and openness.

In this candid conversation, Jeff shares lessons learned from decades in the medical device industry and how they shaped the development of Morari’s first product, designed to help men overcome p...

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman welcome David Gil, Managing Partner at VERT Performance, a company pioneering jump and load measurement technology for volleyball athletes.

David shares how VERT’s sports tech platform has become an essential tool for coaches and trainers tracking jump counts, monitoring fatigue, and analyzing landing techniques to reduce injuries. The discus...

CBQ shares his journey from exited founder to building a new venture through the venture studio model, highlighting the importance of customer discovery, hyper-specialization, and building in public. The conversation dives into how software updates transform hardware performance, why listening to customers is the ultimate competitive edge, and how to find product-market fit in crowded industries.

Whether you’re a founder,...

Design isn’t just about how a product looks, it’s about how people experience it. In this episode, we dive into the world of coffee equipment and explore how industrial design and hardware interfaces shape intuitive, user-friendly products.

From balancing complexity with usability to gathering early user feedback, we cover the practical lessons every designer and product builder needs. We also dig into innovative ways to ...

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman talk with Aabesh De, founder of Flora, about turning a personal problem; being a self-proclaimed “serial plant killer” into a fast-growing gardening technology brand.

Aabesh shares how Flora was born from the need for better plant care solutions, and why integrating hardware and software is essential for creating a seamless user experience. T...

How do you build medical devices that are both innovative and compliant without drowning in paperwork?

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman talk with Ashkon Rasooli, founder and CEO of EnGenius Solutions, about rethinking quality management systems in medtech. Ashkon shares his perspective on the No BS QMS manifesto, why redundancy is good but duplication is waste, and the chall...

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, we sit down with Eric Martinez, CEO and founder of Modjoul a startup tackling one of the most overlooked but critical challenges in industry: workplace safety.

Eric shares the raw story of building a hard-tech company from the ground up including how Modjoul evolved from tracking repetitive motion injuries to building collision avoidance systems that protect workers in real time.

...

John Grady, CEO of Ayla Networks, joins the Glassboard team to unpack what it really takes to build and scale successful connected products. Ayla supports some of the world’s leading brands—like Shark and others—by delivering the cloud platforms, mobile apps, and device integrations that power great smart home experiences. But as John explains, the real value lies in helping hardware companies translate their product visio...

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, hosts DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman sit down with Rafiq and Monica from Dipalo Ventures, a VC firm backing early-stage hard tech startups.

They dive deep into what makes building in hard tech so different from the high cost of mistakes to the critical importance of user validation before a single part is built. The conversation explores why founders must clearly articulate why ...

In this episode of The Hardtech Podcast, we dive into the world of medical device innovation with Tom and Bill from The Waddell Group, a firm that specializes in project management for MedTech ventures.

We explore why many healthcare systems still rely on outdated tools like Excel, and how this slows down innovation in a field where precision and progress are critical. The conversation touches on groundbreaking therapies ...