
S3 E1: Mastering Tech Adoption and The Hardware Development Workflow with Jon Hirshtick
From The Builder Circle™: The Hardware Startup Success Podcast by Sera Evcimen
September 30, 2025 · 1h 17m · Season 3 · Episode 1
About this episode
This episode features Jon Hirshtick discussing hardware development and tech adoption strategies.
This episode is all about hardware, with none other than Jon Hirschtick , the mind behind SolidWorks and Onshape ( onshape.pro/thebuildercircle ). Jon has spent his career building the tools that engineers use to design, prototype, and ship world-changing products. We dug into the ethos of hardware development, what it takes to earn your seat in the engineering workflow, and how software can unlock (or block) real innovation in hardware. In this episode, you'll discover: ⚙️ How to turn a product idea into a real-world innovation. ⚙️ Jon Hirschtick’s untold parts of the journey (SolidWorks & Onshape) + lessons from building world-changing tools. ⚙️ Why customer needs—not wants—are the true foundation of great products. ⚙️How to uncover real problems vs. surface-level requests. ⚙️ Strategies to earn your seat in the engineering workflow & drive adoption. ⚙️ Why usage trumps sales when proving product-market fit. ⚙️ Smarter ways to size markets & avoid founder pitfalls. ⚙️ How humility, curiosity, and customer visits fuel innovation. ⚙️ Why failure sits right next to success (and how to iterate fast). ⚙️ The 3 must-have software types every hardware team needs. ⚙️…
People in this episode
Host: Sera Evcimen
Guest: Jon Hirshtick
Topics covered
- hardware development
- tech adoption
- engineering workflow
- product innovation
- customer needs
- market sizing
- failure and success
Keywords
- hardware
- innovation
- engineering
- product development
- customer needs
- market fit
- software tools
- failure
- success
- Onshape
Sponsors
Onshape
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: SolidWorks, Onshape
More episodes of The Builder Circle™: The Hardware Startup Success Podcast
- S3 E9 Scaling Mission-Critical Hardware: Ops Lessons from Space & Fusion with Darby Dunn · February 10, 2026 · 1h 24m
- S3 E8: Navigating and Managing Contract Manufacturers with Peter Russo · January 27, 2026 · 1h 15m
- S3 E7: Building Bootstrapped Hardware That Sells with Christian Reed · January 13, 2026 · 55 min
- For Hardware Startups by Hardware People: Building The Builder Circle with Host, Sera Evcimen · January 6, 2026 · 18 min
- S3 E6: Building Innovation Moats with Open Hardware with Andrew "Bunnie" Huang · December 9, 2025 · 1h 6m
- S3 E5: AI in Hardware: The Future of Design, Manufacturing, and Innovation with Kristen Edwards · November 25, 2025 · 1h 13m
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