What we’re about
Detroit has countless tech meet-ups and events, but where's all the hardware love? We want to bring together a strong community of folks eager to build businesses with physical products, be it a cold fusion engine or a bionic fork. Whether you're an engineer, designer, CEO, investor, or anyone interested in being a part of the hardware start-up eco-system, come join us and let's create an amazing addition to the tech scene here.
Upcoming events (1)
See all- 3rd Detroit Hardware Meetup @ Newlab | ReindustrializeNewlab @ Michigan Central, Detroit, MI
The Hardware Meetup community is excited to kick off Detroit’s third meetup, this time during the Reindustrialize Summit. We'll be meeting at Newlab Detroit in Michigan Central, a hub for hardware and manufacturing startups in the motorcity and a hot spot for the growing movement to re-industrialize the USA.
No-one working in hardware hasn't been impacted by the past 6 months, let alone the past 5 years. Tariffs, supply chain shocks, inflation, tightening liquidity markets, and growing competition abroad have brought the impacts of de-instrialization into sharp relief for everyone in our industries. The next 5 years are going to be about renewing our capacity to build real things, and the Reindustrialize Summit is at the white hot core of that movement.
We'll hear from speakers working at the forefront of the reindustrialization movement, from founders building hardware companies right here in Detroit to software developers building the hardware development tools of the future. As always, we'll have an open mic after the presentations, so anyone in attendance can share what they are working on, ask for help, or offer assistance to others.
Hardware Meetups happen across 30+ cities monthly and help bring together different professionals to connect and meet each other.
Guest Speakers:
Adam Leeb - Reshoring manufacturing by learning from Asia.Adam is CEO and Cofounder of Astrohaus, the company behind the Freewrite line of distraction-free writing tools. He has over a decade of entrepreneurship and product development experience with deep expertise in bringing consumer products to market. Adam is an MIT graduate, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering focused on Product Design.
Vik Parth - Solving the skill gap in manufacturing.
Vik Parth is the Co-founder and CEO of Aether Manufacturing, an American manufacturing technology company founded by MIT engineers to solve the skilled labor crisis in precision machining. Their "Unit Factory" blueprint enables rapid deployment of fully-automated CNC production facilities that operate with minimal human intervention, delivering offshore-competitive costs with domestic speed and reliability. This technology-first approach allows manufacturers to scale production capacity for high-mix, mid volume components instantly without the years-long training cycles traditional skilled roles require, ensuring robust supply chain resilience while rebuilding America's industrial base.
Kiernan Murray - How digital design tools are driving Reindustrialization.
Kiernan leads Commercial Sales at Onshape, the cloud-native CAD platform transforming how hardware teams design, iterate, and collaborate. Over the past six years at Onshape and PTC, he’s helped hundreds of manufacturers modernize their engineering workflows — from fast-moving startups to defense contractors with complex compliance needs. He played a key role in launching Onshape Government, a secure, ITAR-compliant version of the platform built for public sector innovation.
Zach Glabman - Unlocking American Manufacturing
Zach leads growth and partnerships at Doss. Previously he led carbon steel and copper raw materials purchasing for vehicle and energy at Tesla, wrote internal supply chain software and scaled a beverage brand. Doss is a technology partner for the businesses powering America. We’ve built a flexible system of record (Adaptive ERP) to get siloed data talking, shop floor to top floor.
Agenda
6:00-6:30 - Arrival, mingle, grab refreshments
6:30-6:35 - Welcome and introduction
6:35-7:15 - Guest talks and Q+A
7:15-7:30 - Community open mic- Anyone will have the chance for a 2min pitch to demo a prototype or talk about what they are working on.
7:30-9:00 - Mix + mingle
Thank you to our sponsor
Onshape by PTC is the leading cloud-native CAD & PDM platform that runs on any device, anywhere-requiring zero IT. Onshape is for product design companies who are fed up with the errors, time waste, and hidden costs of outdated file-based CAD & PDM.Thank you to our partners
informal is a talent collective helping builders connect with freelancers for design, engineering, and physical prototyping tasks. Working with top teams like Neurosity, Aduri, and Makerbot in the past, Informal will help recruit and match a team to meet any of your prototyping needs.Newlab is a Venture Platform focused on climate & deep tech with place-based communities for founders and startups in Brooklyn, Detroit, and Latin America. Through its community of startups, applied innovation programming, physical infrastructure, and direct investment, Newlab helps commercialize and scale the critical technologies needed to decarbonize the economy. Newlab is located on the Michigan Central District and works hand in hand with Michigan Central to run programs that further establish Detroit as the future of Mobility.
Parking
Newlab is located at 2050 15th Street; the main entrance (revolving doors) is between Dalzelle and Marantette (Northwest corner).
Parking is available on-street or at the Bagley Mobility Hub Parking Garage, at 1501 Wabash Street.If you're parking at the Bagley Mobility Hub, take the pedestrian walkway straight over to the entrance.
If you want to help support the next meetup, please reach out to nate@informal.cc for sponsorship inquiries.
See you soon!
