S3 E8: Navigating and Managing Contract Manufacturers with Peter Russo

About this episode

Peter Russo shares insights on managing contract manufacturers for hardware startups.

Peter Russo , entrepreneur and hardware mentor who has founded and sold multiple companies, shares decades of hard-won wisdom on working with contract manufacturers. With 15+ brands created, 2,000+ SKUs launched, and $250M in retail sales under his belt, Peter reveals the strategies, pitfalls, and creative approaches that separate successful hardware partnerships from costly disasters. What You'll Learn: • How to structure contracts that protect your IP while enabling collaboration • The cultural fit factors that make or break CM relationships • Why startups are "crappy customers" and how to overcome it with storytelling • Exclusivity negotiation strategies that work for both parties • Exit planning from day one: ensuring you can transition suppliers when needed • How to avoid being trapped by tooling, know-how, or single-source dependencies • The power of treating suppliers as partners, not vendors Episode Sponsors: Jiga - Professional hardware sourcing with direct access to vetted manufacturers and reliable capacity from prototype through production. Communicate directly with machinists, maintain supplier relationships, and get consistently reliable quality. Visit jiga.io…

People in this episode

Host: Sera Evcimen

Guest: Peter Russo

Topics covered

• contract manufacturing
• hardware startups
• entrepreneurship
• IP protection
• supplier relationships
• negotiation strategies

Keywords

• contract manufacturers
• hardware partnerships
• startup challenges
• exclusivity negotiation
• supplier management

Sponsors

Jiga, Onshape

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