The rigorous and often unpredictable journey from a groundbreaking idea to a thriving startup is a path fraught with both immense challenges and unparalleled rewards. For aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those venturing into the capital-intensive and complex world of hardware technology, direct insights from seasoned founders are not merely beneficial but essential. Recognizing this critical need, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has introduced an innovative new course, "Founder’s Journey: Launching and Scaling Hardware Startups" (2.S977/2.S979), designed to bridge the experiential gap between academic theory and real-world entrepreneurial practice. This initiative, spearheaded by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE), aims to harness the unparalleled entrepreneurial legacy of MIT alumni to inspire and equip its current students and the broader innovation community.
MIT’s Enduring Legacy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
MIT has long stood as a global beacon of innovation, consistently producing a disproportionate number of world-changing companies and technologies. A landmark 2015 report underscored this profound impact, revealing that MIT alumni had founded over 30,000 active companies worldwide, collectively employing an astounding 4.6 million people and generating nearly $2 trillion in annual revenue. This economic footprint, comparable to the tenth-largest economy in the world, is a testament to the institution’s unique culture of problem-solving, hands-on experimentation, and a relentless drive to translate scientific discovery into tangible societal benefit. While updated figures undoubtedly show even greater growth, the core message remains: MIT is a crucible for entrepreneurial ambition.
The institution’s environment, characterized by interdisciplinary collaboration, access to cutting-edge research, and a robust network of mentors and investors, naturally fosters an entrepreneurial mindset. However, the specific hurdles faced by hardware startups—ranging from substantial upfront capital requirements for prototyping and manufacturing, complex supply chain management, longer development cycles, and intricate intellectual property considerations—present a distinct set of challenges compared to their software counterparts. It is precisely this nuanced landscape that the "Founder’s Journey" course seeks to illuminate and prepare students for.
The Genesis of "Founder’s Journey": Bridging Experience and Aspiration
"There are so many amazing entrepreneurial stories among our alumni. We want to bring those stories to our students and our community and build networks with our incredible alumni founders," articulated John Hart, the Class of 1922 Professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE). His vision extends beyond mere inspiration; it’s about cultivating a deep-seated interest in entrepreneurship among students and actively expanding the pathways to bring MechE-born technologies to the global market. This sentiment resonates deeply with the core mission of an institution committed not just to discovery but to its practical application.
Marina Hatsopoulos SM ’93, founding CEO of Z Corp., an early market leader in 3D printing and a co-leader of the new course, emphasized a crucial aspect of the program: demystifying the entrepreneurial process. "So much of this has been done before. I want them to understand that this is a well-trod path," she stated. Her perspective highlights the importance of learning from predecessors, avoiding common pitfalls, and recognizing that while each venture is unique, fundamental entrepreneurial principles and challenges are often universal. This approach empowers students by showing them that success, while never guaranteed, is built on repeatable patterns and adaptable strategies.
The course, first launched in spring 2025, was meticulously developed by Hatsopoulos, Ken Zolot, a senior lecturer at MIT, and Professor Hart. Its inception reflects a proactive response to the growing interest in entrepreneurship among MIT students, coupled with the recognition that specialized guidance for hardware ventures is increasingly vital in an era of advanced manufacturing, robotics, and sustainable energy solutions.
Navigating the Complexities of Hardware Startups
The "Founder’s Journey" class is specifically tailored to explore the real-life challenges inherent in building and scaling hardware technologies. Unlike software, which can often be developed and iterated with relatively low capital and rapid deployment, hardware demands significant investment in R&D, physical prototyping, tooling, manufacturing infrastructure, and often, regulatory compliance. The course delves into these multifaceted issues, preparing students to "find and activate their entrepreneurial energy" through the lens of genuine founder experiences.
Each week of the semester-long course is structured around a critical challenge faced during the development and growth of a hardware startup. Topics range comprehensively from initial fundraising strategies and securing venture capital, navigating complex intellectual property landscapes, designing for manufacturability, establishing robust supply chains, managing inventory, scaling production, to market entry and customer acquisition. Instructors and a curated roster of guest speakers, all successful alumni founders, present these challenges, sharing their personal stories of triumph, setback, and perseverance. This direct engagement fosters an invaluable learning environment where students can prepare targeted questions and participate in reflective discussions, internalizing lessons that would otherwise take years to acquire through trial and error.
The impressive lineup of alumni speakers represents a diverse cross-section of frontier technologies, including robotics, energy, advanced manufacturing (3D printing), consumer products, and more. This breadth ensures that students gain exposure to various business models, market dynamics, and technological complexities within the hardware sector.
Spotlight on Alumni Innovators: Lessons from the Front Lines
The "Founder’s Journey" course features an illustrious group of MIT alumni who have not only launched successful companies but have fundamentally reshaped their respective industries. Their candid narratives provide an unparalleled educational resource.
Colin Angle ’89, SM ’91: The Visionary Behind iRobot
Colin Angle, co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, and now CEO and co-founder of Familiar Machines and Magic, epitomizes the MIT ethos of building from nothing. His passion for creation ignited early, fueled by MIT’s strong hands-on culture. "This idea that you can create something from nothing, that you can have an idea and not just draw it, but build it and make it real, is something I’ve always loved," Angle shared with the class. His time at MIT, particularly witnessing multiple multi-million-dollar companies sprout from his Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity house, demystified the startup process, proving that entrepreneurial success was attainable.
Angle co-founded iRobot in his living room, driven not by a specific product but by a grand vision: "We’re supposed to have robots. So, if not us, who? And if not now, when?" This philosophical approach underpinned iRobot’s remarkable journey, which saw it become best known for the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner. Beyond consumer electronics, iRobot’s impact extended to defense and exploration, deploying PackBot tactical mobile robots in Afghanistan, saving thousands of lives, and even exploring the Great Pyramid in Giza live on National Geographic. Angle’s entrepreneurial joy, he noted, stems from "the ability to build bigger things, from building teams to building a company capable of building something far beyond what I could have ever imagined doing myself… we created inventions that no one thought possible, simply because we believed we could." His story is a powerful testament to the scaling of ambition and impact.
Elise Strobach SM ’17, PhD ’20: Pioneering Transparent Insulation with AeroShield
Elise Strobach, CEO and co-founder of AeroShield Materials, represents the direct translation of academic research into commercial innovation. Co-founded with Kyle Wilke PhD ’19 and Aaron Baskerville-Bridges SM ’20, MBA ’20, AeroShield develops super-insulating transparent window inserts based on novel transparent silica aerogels. This technology originated from Strobach’s PhD research in Professor Evelyn Wang’s lab, demonstrating the powerful nexus between MIT’s research ecosystem and entrepreneurial ventures.
Strobach admitted she wasn’t initially thinking of herself as an entrepreneur during her PhD, but recognized retrospectively, "that’s definitely where that seed was planted." Her journey highlights the organic emergence of entrepreneurial drive from deep scientific inquiry. AeroShield’s innovation addresses a long-standing limitation of aerogels, which, despite being invented nearly a century ago and commercialized by NASA for space insulation, had a hazy blue tint limiting their widespread application. Strobach’s team engineered a completely transparent aerogel material, unlocking a vast array of new everyday uses. The company’s recent achievement of having their work displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum underscores the significant impact of their material science breakthrough. Strobach’s advice to aspiring founders is pragmatic and encouraging: "You don’t have to know everything to start. You just have to know that this is what you want to do and just get started." This message resonates with many students grappling with the perceived enormity of launching a venture.
Maxim Lobovsky SM ’11: Democratizing 3D Printing with Formlabs
Maxim Lobovsky, CEO and co-founder of Formlabs, arrived at the MIT Media Lab already immersed in 3D printing. As he neared the completion of his master’s degree, he identified a pivotal opportunity to disrupt the industry. Alongside fellow Media Lab graduates David Cranor SM ’11 and Natan Linder SM ’11, Lobovsky founded Formlabs with a clear goal: to create a professional-grade 3D printer that was significantly more affordable and user-friendly than the existing market offerings. At a time when industrial 3D printers commanded prices upwards of $100,000, Formlabs introduced a product starting around $3,000, fundamentally reshaping access to advanced manufacturing.
"We definitely built Formlabs in a classic, disruptive innovation path," Lobovsky explained. Their radical cost reduction was achieved through a blend of ingenious engineering and the strategic adoption of modern consumer electronics components, such as laser diodes originally developed for Blu-ray Disc players, replacing outdated 1980s technology. Lobovsky also recounted the challenging initial fundraising phase, which included participation in MIT’s 100K competition and numerous pitches with limited success. Their breakthrough came serendipitously, through an overheard conversation at a restaurant. Lobovsky, an admitted introvert, learned an invaluable lesson: "Sometimes talking loudly at a restaurant is actually a good way to get things going." This led to Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Software and a PC industry pioneer, leading Formlabs’ first round of funding. Today, Formlabs stands as the world’s largest supplier of professional stereolithography and selective laser sintering 3D printers, a testament to their disruptive vision and persistent execution.
Jon Hirschtick ’83, SM ’83: Architecting the Future of Product Design with SolidWorks and Onshape
Jon Hirschtick, co-founder of SolidWorks and Onshape, has dedicated over four decades to building computer-aided design (CAD) software, a field he entered as an MIT intern in 1981. His entrepreneurial inclination surfaced during his undergraduate years, drawn to the "sense of being able to realize your vision, express yourself; a sense of excitement, of making money, and even the idea of a chaotic environment." Hirschtick’s conviction was simple yet profound: "I thought, ‘hey, the world could use this software.’ It’ll be a better place with the software that I envisioned."
He characterizes CAD as a "meta product design"—a product that enables others to design products, which he finds "really cool." For Hirschtick, startups are a natural fit: "The excitement, the idea of trying to solve a lot of problems at the same time. MIT is a place of problem-solving… and a startup is a place where there’s lots of problems to solve." He notes that while large companies innovate, "startups are always doing things," perpetually in a state of creation and problem-solving. Hirschtick emphasizes the pervasive impact of CAD, stating that "most anything today that is a manufactured product is modeled in CAD first." This makes building CAD systems an exciting avenue for those passionate about product development.
Hirschtick offered a sobering yet realistic perspective on entrepreneurial risk: "Nobody knows for sure when they start a company whether it’s going to be successful or not. If it were, if there was a way of knowing for sure, then there wouldn’t be all these classes in entrepreneurship. They’d just tell you the secret. There’s always risk. Visions and hallucinations, they look and feel the same. You only find out which is which once you really try to realize them." This profound insight underscores the courage and conviction required to embark on an entrepreneurial journey, accepting the inherent uncertainty.
Other notable alumni speakers included Mick Mountz (Kiva/Amazon), Greg Mark (Markforged), Seemantini Nadkarni (Coalesenz), Eran Egozy (Harmonix), Renuka Babu (DOTS Technology), Davide Marini (Inkbit), Loewen Cavill (Amira), and Professor Hart himself, sharing his experiences as co-founder of VulcanForms, a company born from collaboration with fellow co-founder Martin Feldmann MEng ’14. Each brought unique insights from diverse sectors, enriching the students’ understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Broader Impact and Future Implications
The "Founder’s Journey" course is more than just an academic offering; it is a strategic investment in the future of innovation. By systematically exposing students to the realities of hardware entrepreneurship through the experiences of successful alumni, MIT is actively cultivating a new generation of leaders equipped to tackle complex technological and business challenges. This initiative strengthens MIT’s position as a global leader in fostering entrepreneurship, ensuring that its students are not only at the forefront of scientific discovery but also adept at translating that discovery into impactful commercial ventures.
The course’s emphasis on hardware is particularly pertinent given the global push for advancements in areas like clean energy, robotics, sustainable manufacturing, and medical devices. These fields often necessitate substantial hardware innovation, making the lessons learned in "Founder’s Journey" directly applicable to addressing some of humanity’s most pressing issues. By providing a structured environment for learning about fundraising, supply chain development, and market penetration specific to hardware, MIT is contributing to a more robust and resilient innovation ecosystem.
Ultimately, the program fosters a vital network between current students and the vast, accomplished alumni community. This network is invaluable for mentorship, collaboration, and future opportunities, reinforcing the enduring bonds within the MIT family. The insights gained from these "journeys" are poised to inspire and empower countless students, ensuring that the legacy of MIT-born innovation continues to shape the world for decades to come.
A version of this story appears in the 2026 issue of MechE Connects, the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s magazine.
