There’s something romantic about hardware.
Magnets snapping together. Aluminum cases. Knobs and faders with physical resistance. The feeling that you’re holding a real object that exists in the world.
But hardware is also unforgiving.
In this week’s episode of Product Craft, I sat down with Kristóf Kerti, co-founder and CEO of Intech Studio — a modular hardware company based in Budapest. What started as two broke high school students cutting up an old Soviet mixing console and experimenting with Arduinos eventually became a global brand selling to musicians, designers, and creators around the world.
It didn’t start with funding.
It didn’t start with a polished plan.
And it definitely didn’t start with success.
It started with curiosity.
The Early Days: No Money, Just Magnets
Kristóf and his co-founder didn’t have capital. They had access to cheap Arduinos from eBay, components salvaged from old radios, and time.
They built their first controllers because the ones on the market were too big, too expensive, and too rigid for their workflows. Instead of picking one tool, they wanted the freedom to assemble their own.
That idea — splitting a traditional controller into smaller modules that snap together magnetically — became the foundation of their company.
But the modularity wasn’t a branding exercise.
It was a constraint-driven solution:
No extra cables.
Reusable components.
Systems that could evolve.
That decision would define everything that followed.
Hardware Is Brutal
The episode pulls back the curtain on what “building a hardware startup” actually means:
60+ enclosure iterations.
Years of 3D printing before injection molding.
Soldering boards by hand.
Building an assembly line with university students.
Designing around manufacturability, not just aesthetics.
We also talk about the part that rarely gets attention:
The first crowdfunding campaign failed.
They had a good product.
They had a clean page.
They even had a video.
What they didn’t have was an audience.
A good product doesn’t sell itself. It enables good marketing — but only if someone knows it exists.
That lesson alone is worth the episode.
Modularity Is More Than Hardware
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was about modular systems.
When you build something modular, you’re not just designing components — you’re designing the rules that bind them together.
You have to decide:
How modules connect.
What protocols they speak.
What stays stable.
What can evolve.
And once certain decisions are made — like physical dimensions — they’re essentially permanent.
In hardware, you don’t “refactor” enclosure size.
You live with it.
This idea applies far beyond music controllers. It applies to design systems. To software platforms. To organizations. Once core constraints are set, everything builds on top of them.
Constraints aren’t limitations.
They’re architecture.
The Founder Tension
We also talk about something I personally relate to deeply:
The tension between building the product and running the company.
Kristóf loves the product work. Prototyping. Iterating. Engineering decisions.
But as CEO, he also has to manage investors, marketing, operations, hiring, and strategic tradeoffs.
That tension — between craft and leadership — is real. It’s something many founders feel but don’t always articulate.
Building the product is tangible.
Building the company is abstract.
Both matter.
What I Took Away
A few things stood out to me:
You don’t need millions to prototype hardware.
You need curiosity, resourcefulness, and tolerance for iteration.
Audience matters as much as product.
Without distribution, even a great product struggles.
Constraints define systems.
Whether it’s size, protocol, or interface — early decisions compound.
Communication across disciplines is critical.
Engineers, designers, and business leads operate differently. Patience and metaphor go a long way.
Luck favors prepared curiosity.
Cheap Arduinos. Emerging VC programs. The right co-founder. Timing matters — but so does readiness.
If you’re thinking about building hardware — or any modular system — this episode offers a grounded, honest look at what it takes.
Not the highlight reel.
The actual process.
Credits
Arseni Harkunou (host)
Site: http://www.arseni.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arseni/
Kristof Kerti (guest)
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristofkerti/
Intech Studio: https://intech.studio/
