We're a hardware collective that turns prototypes into products

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The talent you need to build a business making physical products.

Our Community

Design

Engineering

Manufacturing

Sourcing

Branding

Marketing

Operations

Our Process

Our Approach

Step 1

Recruit

We tap into the Hardware Meetup community to recruit talented professionals with years of experience in their field to be informal members.

Step 2

Match

Members are matched with clients looking to augment their team and deepen their talent pool.

Step 3

Support

We provide back office support, from AR and AP to compliance and insurance.

Step 4

Scale

Clients work directly with informal members. As they scale, so does their informal team.

Featured Clients

View More Work

Houndsy

Gritt Robotics

Resonant Link Medical

What clients say

informal gave a small, fast-moving team the range of a full hardware company across design, mechanical, electrical, firmware, supply chain, and branding, with on demand access to the talent we needed to keep Inku shipping.

HG Harshyt Goel Founder, Inkboard

Working with informal feels like a true partnership, not just a vendor arrangement. Their members truly understand what they’re building, and are able to clearly articulate the cost and timeline trade-offs with any product design decision.

RA Rachel Allard Vice President of Marketing, Resonant Link Medical

informal paired us with Samantha nearly five years ago, and she's been integral to our marketing ops team ever since. They understood our needs and matched us with someone who had the right technical skills, and who also fit with how we work.

MS Maria Santoro VP, Global Digital Marketing & Ecommerce, Turtle Beach

I cannot recommend informal more highly. We were introduced to informal after having been burned by several product development shops, and the key difference when you work with informal is that you get to choose exactly who you work with. You know which engineers are working on your project - they don't market you on the A team and staff you with the C team. Who you meet is who you get, and that makes all the difference.

SH Scott Hickle CEO, Throne

informal helped us launch Lodge, and over the years their members have provided product support - from firmware to supply chain and new feature development whenever we need it. For a young brand, having that caliber of talent embedded with us is everything.

SL Sanjiv Lal President, Lodge Outdoor

Working with informal is a masterclass in keeping stakeholders informed. They share just enough detail to keep everyone aligned and confident about next steps on a project. As a founder, I always know exactly where we stand.

PB Pavan Bapu CEO & Co-Founder, Houndsy

Have a Project?

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Houndsy

Reimagining everyday pet products to be more convenient, durable, and beautiful.

Houndsy set out to reimagine the pet products people use every day, starting with the dog feeder, as pieces that are as convenient and durable as they are beautiful. Over several projects since 2023, informal has become their go-to partner for industrial design, engineering, and manufacturing.

For the first generation, we took the feeder from a hand-built unit with a highly distributed supply chain to a cost-optimized, integrated manufacturing model, consolidating parts and suppliers so the product could scale reliably and affordably. For the second generation, we re-engineered it in plastic to drive cost down further, and gave it a more refined, elevated look through new industrial design.

Duration

Ongoing since 2023

Team Composition

Industrial design; mechanical and electrical engineering; manufacturing and supply chain

Team Size

4 informal members

Output

Two generations of a smarter, better-looking dog feeder, re-engineered for integrated, cost-down manufacturing at scale.

houndsy.com

Gritt Robotics

Robots and AI that do the hardest construction work on live jobsites.

Gritt Robotics is bringing autonomy to construction, with robots that install solar panels and take on the heavy, repetitive work on active jobsites for some of the largest EPC firms in the country. As a small team deploying to real projects, they needed mechanical engineering depth that could flex with the build.

Gritt came to informal for mechanical engineering support across the program: on-site engineers clearing a modeling and design backlog, CAD models built from physical parts, cable harness design, a field-conditions test bed for panel installation, and a technician embedded on-site for robot build and QC.

Duration

2024-present

Team Composition

Mechanical engineering; CAD modeling; cable harness design; test fixtures and end effectors; on-site build and QC support

Team Size

6 informal members

Output

A field-conditions test bed, mounting and end-effector designs for off-the-shelf equipment, and a cleared CAD backlog, with informal engineers embedded in Gritt's build.

gritt.ai

Resonant Link Medical

Wireless power technology that safely and rapidly charges implantable medical devices through the human body.

Resonant Link Medical spun out of Dartmouth College to solve a problem the industry had long struggled with: delivering wireless power to devices inside the human body. Their Aurion WPT platform charges implantables up to 10x faster and at 2x the range of conventional wireless charging, safely, through muscle, fat, and fluid, and has been designed into more than 50 implantable device types, including Paradromics' Connexus BCI and Lura Health's continuous saliva biomarker sensor.

Resonant Link first came to informal for help designing an enclosure to house their technology, and the relationship has since grown into electrical engineering, firmware, antenna design, marketing renders, and ISO 14971-based system-level risk management. Their team describes the engagement as a true partnership, one built on mutual trust and a shared understanding of the cost and timeline trade-offs behind every product decision.

Duration

Ongoing since 2023

Team Composition

Mechanical, electrical and firmware engineering; industrial design; quality and risk management

Team Size

7+ informal members

Output

Enclosures, electronics, antenna systems, and risk documentation supporting Resonant Link's wireless power platform for implantable medical devices.

rlmedical.com