The Hardtech Podcast pulls back the curtain on the bold ideas, design challenges, and engineering breakthroughs behind today’s most innovative hardware products — and the people who make them happen. From first sketch to final build, we dive deep into the minds shaping the future of physical tech.
Glasslab Podcast
Claim This Podcastby The Hardtech Podcast
5.0(9 reviews)
55 episodes
Updated Weekly
Accepts GuestsHas SponsorsLocation 🇺🇸
51
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality78
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement60
Podcast Overview
The Hardtech Podcast pulls back the curtain on the bold ideas, design challenges, and engineering breakthroughs behind today’s most innovative hardware products — and the people who make them happen. From first sketch to final build, we dive deep into the minds shaping the future of physical tech.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
8/25/2021
Unlock The Full Podcast Authority Score Report
See how your podcast performs across key metrics
51
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality78
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement60
9
Excellent Areas
1
Good Performance
9
Growth Opportunities
excellent
Episode Length
44 minutes
Performing excellently!
good
iTunes Tags
7.9/10
Recommendations available
Unlock the full report to see detailed tips
poor
Publishing Consistency
Every 49 days
Recommendations available
Unlock the full report to see detailed tips
+16 More Metrics
Unlock comprehensive insights including:
- • YouTube presence analysis
- • Social media reach metrics
- • RSS compliance scoring
- • Podcast 2.0 features
- • Technical standards
What's Included in Your Full Report
Detailed Analytics
- Complete breakdown of all 19 authority metrics
- Personalized recommendations for each metric
- Industry benchmarks and comparisons
- Technical RSS feed analysis and compliance scoring
Growth Strategies
- Step-by-step action plans for improvement
- Quick wins to boost your score immediately
- Pro tips from successful podcasters
Get your free podcast insights report
See how your show performs across every key metric
Instant delivery
No spam
Attract Better Guests
High authority scores make your podcast more attractive to industry leaders and influencers who want to appear on credible shows.
Secure Sponsorships
Sponsors look for podcasts with proven authority and engagement. Your score demonstrates your podcast's value to potential partners.
Grow Your Audience
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps you make data-driven decisions to expand your listener base effectively.
1 verified contact email on file for Glasslab Podcast
Pitch yourself as a guest, propose sponsorships, or reach out directly to the host.
Recent Episodes
June 29, 2026
From PT Clinic to Wearable: Cooper Boydston (Alenthia Run)
<p>What if the gait analysis that normally takes a lab full of motion-capture cameras could ride along on every run? That's the bet behind Alenthia Run. Cooper Boydston, the company's CTO, joins DeAndre and Grant to talk about turning lab-grade running science into a small wearable that sits on your sacrum, reads your biomechanics, and flags the form problems that lead to injury.<br> It's two conversations in one: how the technology actually works, and the very real hardware-founder journey of getting a device like this out of the lab and onto real runners.<br> What we get into:</p> <p>How running-form analysis used to work: locked in a lab, on a treadmill, covered in motion-capture markers, reviewed by an expert, and usually only after something already hurt<br> How Alenthia makes it continuous and portable: data on every run, not just one visit<br> The tech under the hood: pairing a well-placed accelerometer with lab-grade motion capture as the "true source," then using machine learning to turn noisy signal into a visual "fingerprint" of your gait<br> DeAndre's flag-football hamstring story, and why small changes in form prevent injuries<br> The hardware journey: shrinking a whole physical-therapy clinic into one device, and why "the first rule of hardware is to try not to do it"<br> Why UX and industrial design have to come in early (the classic "where's the power button?" moment), instead of getting bolted on at the end<br> The "lily pad" path of prototyping: lab accelerometers wired to a laptop, to a dev kit in a 3D-printed box, to a real wearable<br> Being your own first customer, and the pivot from selling to clinics toward the consumer market<br> The surprising core early adopter: people who would have visited a clinic but live where none exists, and why they happily forgive rough early hardware<br> Product-market fit and Mike Seibel's "hair on fire" test<br> The vision for V2 and V3: on-device compute vs the phone's "walled garden," and the resurgence of standalone, bespoke hardware<br> Building the team as "three guys in a garage" while still running the lab, plus closing advice for hardware builders (the 90/10 rule, and the mountain you would never climb if you saw the top)</p> <p>A few lines that stuck with us:</p> <p>"A frog never jumps all the way across the pond. He goes lily pad to lily pad."</p> <p>"It takes 10% of your time and budget to get 90% of the way there, and 90% to get the last 10%."</p> <p>"You were three steps away about 300 steps ago."</p> <p>About the guest: Cooper Boydston is the CTO of Alenthia Run, which builds a wearable sensor that brings lab-grade running biomechanics out of the clinic and onto every run. The company grew out of a physical-therapy practice.<br> The Hardtech Podcast is hosted by DeAndre Harakas and Grant Chapman of Glassboard.</p><p>Special Guest: Cooper Boydston.</p>
June 8, 2026
Moats & Multiples in Hardtech with Venture Declassified
<p>This one is a crossover. Grant sat down with the team behind Venture Declassified, a podcast about what it actually takes to invest as an angel, for a freewheeling conversation about how hard tech companies get evaluated differently from software at the earliest stages. Grant plays the founder in the room and asks three active investors, Jacob Schpok (Elevate Ventures), Mike Kelly (Start Something Ventures), and Ben Pidgeon (VisionTech), to tell him what they're really thinking.<br> It runs from definitions to deal mechanics, with plenty of detours along the way: why your fridge is designed to die, whether subscription hardware is a fad, and a real worked example of a hard tech company that sold to John Deere. There's a companion episode on the Venture Declassified feed, so go find that one too.<br> What we get into:</p> <p>Where the lines are between hard tech, deep tech, and a plain product company (and why quantum computing is "deep tech" until it ships)<br> The business-model twist: hardware waking up to recurring revenue and lifetime value (Ozlo, Plunge, and a hypothetical kitchen subscription), and the financing gymnastics that requires<br> Whether subscription hardware is durable or a fad, the Gen Z economics behind it, and how the speed of innovation killed the resale market<br> Why so much modern hardware is "designed to fail" after the warranty, the uncanny valley of quality (cheap vs mid vs expensive purchases), and when to design for delight instead of indestructibility<br> The opposite extreme: med device and oil-and-gas hardware, where the cost of a single failure is enormous<br> The core investing question: how you underwrite a technical founder, why software is just as "diverse" as hardware, and what changed now that 3D printing and dev kits let almost anyone build a "banger" prototype<br> Power law, and why a software company "looks better" early because going zero-to-one is so much cheaper<br> The flip side: the hardware moat, why hardware gets acquired for the technology (not the sales engine), and why copying Uber had almost no technical risk<br> Multiples and returns: 7x for SaaS vs 2-3x for product companies, and the angel's case for putting hard tech in a portfolio (hint: it looks a lot like life science)<br> The Smart Apply story: a LiDAR-guided sprayer that reportedly saved a farmer about $800K in year one and sold to John Deere, and exactly how the investors underwrote it<br> Closing wisdom: founder vs opportunity, what "coachability" really means, the danger zone of conflicting advice, and the quiet part out loud (if no one will fund you, you might be the problem)</p> <p>A few lines that stuck with us:</p> <p>"Once you graduate your product, you're hard tech. While you're still in Bell Labs, you're deep tech."</p> <p>"The same chasm the founder needed to cross to get from zero to one is the same chasm any competitor would also face."</p> <p>"If you're pitching the right market with the right numbers and no one is giving you money, you might be the problem."</p> <p>About the guests: Venture Declassified is a podcast about angel investing featuring Jacob Schpok (Partner and Head of Platform at Elevate Ventures), Mike Kelly (co-founder of Start Something Ventures and operating partner at Elevate Ventures), and Ben Pidgeon (Managing Director of VisionTech).<br> This is a Hardtech Podcast crossover, hosted by Grant Chapman of Glassboard with the team from Venture Declassified.</p><p>Special Guests: Ben Pidgeon, Jacob Schpok, and Mike Kelly.</p>
June 8, 2026
One Device for Depression, Anxiety & Insomnia: Fisher Wallace Labs
<p>This one is a deep dive into the unglamorous reality of building a prescription medical device. Kelly Roman, co-founder and CEO of Fisher Wallace, flew in from New York to sit down with Grant Chapman and Drew Westrick (Glassboard's CTO is back in the co-host seat) to talk about brain stimulation for depression, anxiety, and insomnia, and the nearly 17-year road to getting it through the FDA.<br> Kelly's path is anything but typical: a Harvard English major who worked in early social media, adapted Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" into a graphic novel for HarperCollins, and then took over a crude brain-stimulation prototype in 2009 because, antidepressant side effects aside, the thing actually worked on him. What follows is a masterclass in the parts of hardware most founders never see: how you design a placebo ("sham") for a device people can feel, why depression is regulated as a Class III device, and why getting through the FDA is only half the battle.<br> What we get into:</p> <p>Kelly's unlikely route into med tech, from Harvard English and early social media to a graphic-novel "Art of War"<br> How Fisher Wallace sold a research device for 14 years (2009 to 2023) under a quirk of FDA regulation, while running trials on it the whole time<br> The 165-first-responder anxiety study that came back a "home run," and the pivot to a Beats-inspired, wire-free form factor<br> Device classes 101: why anxiety and insomnia are Class II but depression is Class III, and the difference between "cleared" and "approved"<br> The placebo problem in mental-health trials, why it's even bigger in at-home studies, and how SSRIs separate from placebo by only about two points<br> The hardest design challenge of all: a sham device you genuinely can't feel, made possible by a high-frequency carrier waveform and a successful blinding assessment<br> How the FDA weighs efficacy against severity, the suicide-risk calculus, and the "wellness paradox" where any risk outweighs benefit for a healthy person<br> A category essentially frozen since 1976, brass-bulb devices from the turn of the century, and Fisher Wallace's multi-year fight to create a Class II path<br> Why FDA clearance is not reimbursement, and the real-world-evidence game (IQVIA, healthcare-utilization data, employer pilots) that actually gets a device paid for<br> Pricing and distribution: DME, upfront fee vs monthly billing, the VA and Medicaid, and recurring revenue from software rather than hardware<br> The IP moat: a prescribable waveform, electric-field modeling, and one device for the three most common conditions</p> <p>A few lines that stuck with us:</p> <p>"It's never going to happen again in our space."</p> <p>"You have to strategically bake in a very high placebo effect in any mental health trial."</p> <p>"Just because you prove it's safe and effective doesn't mean the insurance carriers are going to cover it."</p> <p>About the guest: Kelly Roman is the co-founder and CEO of Fisher Wallace, which develops wearable brain-stimulation devices for depression, anxiety, and insomnia. He's based in New York.<br> The Hardtech Podcast is hosted by Grant Chapman and Drew Westrick of Glassboard.</p><p>Special Guest: Kelly Roman.</p>
55 total episodes available
Recent guests on Glasslab Podcast
Guests from recent episodes — sign up to see every guest that has ever appeared on this show.
Andy Ording
Guest
Troy Kelly
Guest
Eric Roberson
Guest
Deep-dive analytics for Glasslab Podcast
Frequently asked questions
Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
- What is Glasslab Podcast?
- How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates weekly.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 9 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
Legal Disclaimer
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at hey@podengine.ai for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.