Listen Now
Guest: Scott Evans, Director of InventionWorks at UT.
Host: Kevin Mako, founder of Product Startup and the leading expert in hardware startup consulting. A hardware entrepreneur since 1999, Kevin has advised more than 1,500 founders and built and scaled MAKO Invent through its acquisition by TriMech in 2024.
How Students Can Use Campus Resources to Build Hardware
Scott Evans explains how student founders can use campus facilities, faculty, entrepreneurship programs, and community expertise to launch hardware ventures. The episode also explores product strategy, prototype and testing plans, team formation, intellectual property strategy, funding readiness, and market entry.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Look around campus for resources (students, faculty, entrepreneurial programs)
- Product development, in combination with an entrepreneurial mindset, is key!
- How can people in the community be helpful for university hardware incubators?
- Continuous learning is a core tenet; regressing back to the role of a student to learn even as an established professional is beneficial.
- Blur the lines between education and professional practice!
Episode transcript
This transcript is provided for accessibility and reference. Download the SRT transcript.
Read the full episode transcript
Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn from the head of a major university hardware incubator on how students can build a successful product business.
Narrator: You're listening to the Product Startup Podcast, the show that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors,
Narrator: product developers, manufacturers, and hardware industry professionals. Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial
Narrator: idea to getting your product on store shelves. We're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product business.
Narrator: Hosted by Kevin Mako, one of North America's leading experts on hardware development for small product businesses. Now, on to the show.
Kevin Mako: Welcome back, everyone. Today, I'm very excited to introduce Scott Evans to the show. Scott is the director of InventionWorks at the University of Texas, just a few blocks away
Kevin Mako: from our Mako Design, Austin office. InventionWorks is a 23,000 square foot product design and development facility.
Kevin Mako: with lots of fun machines and a team of 40 experts to help student inventions get off the ground.
Kevin Mako: In addition, Scott has spent 25 years in the prototyping a product manufacturing industry.
Kevin Mako: Today, Scott is going to share some valuable knowledge in how student inventors and startups can start their invention idea journey
Kevin Mako: and how to maximize the value of what colleges and universities have to offer you.
Kevin Mako: And today isn't just about students, but also anyone in the industry can get involved with their local schools, both to help and to learn from them. Now, on to the episode.
Kevin Mako: Hey, Scott, welcome to the show.
Kevin Mako: Thank you for having me. It's great having you on. I mean, our awesome office is only a few box away from Inventionworks.
Kevin Mako: So although we haven't met face-to-face in person, looking forward to doing lots of stuff between macro
Kevin Mako: design and as well, Inventionworks with everything that's going on there in the new facility. There are lots of opportunities and I look forward to exploring them. For sure.
Kevin Mako: And talk just a bit about what's going on with Inventionworks. We'll start there and then jump into your background and then go into tips for students
Kevin Mako: to succeed and as well, how the industry can also help students and help themselves. as being a part of facilities and like Inventionworks, of course, in Austin,
Scott Evans: but in facilities all over the world. That sounds great. So I am reporting to you today from the, in the middle of the
Scott Evans: kind of the newest building in the Cochral School of Engineering. And we have a big facility here
Scott Evans: that has a lot of prototyping capabilities, 3D printing, woodworking, machine shop, electronics, as well as some open workspace for students.
Scott Evans: Outside of my office here, there are a bunch of of tables. And right now, several of those tables have sort of a different takes on a little
Scott Evans: 3D printers that are part of a engineering design class. And so, you know, in Texas and Venturemberg's
Scott Evans: includes those facilities as well as all of the training for all of those machines. I have a
Scott Evans: 40 member student staff that gets trained up on the machines as well as trained up on basic design principles and things like that to be mentors for everybody.
Scott Evans: And I also work with professors and all engineering departments, and then actually several colleges around campus to develop
Kevin Mako: forces that have some kind of hands-on, some kind of product development elements of them. That's amazing.
Kevin Mako: And it's so good to see investment from the university level, obviously the state level, going into student entrepreneurship, especially in around the hardware space.
Kevin Mako: When I was a young budding entrepreneur starting Mako Design while I was in high school
Kevin Mako: and then incorporating it in university, there was almost nothing in terms of university programming
Kevin Mako: for entrepreneurship, let alone hardware labs and all this set up to really foster
Scott Evans: student innovation, let alone in the hardware space. It's great. I've seen what's happened over the last 20 years.
Scott Evans: I was a PhD student, actually here at the University of Texas from 2001 to 2005. And during that
Scott Evans: time, I got involved in business plan competitions and technology commercialization. And there were business plan competitions.
Scott Evans: And there was a brand new thing called I did a product that was really for technology folks, engineers, and scientists
Scott Evans: to start looking at how they might commercialize their research. But in terms of actually building hardware prototypes
Scott Evans: and stuff like that, it really just was not a lot of stuff here. And we had to do a lot of work as students
Scott Evans: to piece together people and resources and stuff all over campus and lots of offices and staff members
Scott Evans: to make progress in what we're doing. And now it's really wonderful to come back
Scott Evans: and I've been at the university now for a little over five years to come back and build on some of that momentum and fill some of those gaps that would have been, you
Scott Evans: know, would have allowed us to get so much further, so much faster as students
Kevin Mako: and then be able to do that larger scale than anything that we saw when I was a graduate student.
Kevin Mako: Well, it's great. And, you know, I can tell you on the professional design firm side of things, we had a ton of clients coming out of student agubation programs.
Kevin Mako: It's where a lot of these student innovations start and they get their footing there and then they go on to raise their first angel round, then their seed rounds,
Kevin Mako: then going to venture capital rounds and becoming major businesses. And a lot of that sparks in college and university all around the world, especially
Kevin Mako: with the assistance from these types of programs. So when we're talking to the students in particular, what are some of the things around campus
Kevin Mako: that students should be looking out for when they're thinking about their invention idea?
Scott Evans: or getting a product to market, what resources are there around many schools around the world? What things should they look out for?
Scott Evans: What tips and tricks do you have for those students just in and around campus to start? I want to answer almost answer two questions there.
Scott Evans: The first question is, how does someone get started in this arena? And then the second one is if you're already kind of going and you have some ideas and you
Scott Evans: are looking for some other resources. So the first one, getting started, I would say, it requires a little bit of courage.
Scott Evans: You may have to, like, that's one of the things that we see. People, it requires a little courage for a lot of students to simply walk into this facility
Scott Evans: and ask if they can learn how to run one of our 3D printers. To those of us who are familiar with it, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.
Scott Evans: But for people outside, it takes a little courage. So to get going, I would say, you know, sweep together a little bit of courage.
Scott Evans: go talk to people who don't know, look for some of these resources, walk through the door
Scott Evans: and ask to learn how to run the machine or learn how to do some stuff and just tinker and just sort of move forward.
Scott Evans: If you already have ideas, then one of the things I like to tell people here at the University of Texas is you should do
Scott Evans: something while you're at school. And what I mean is do something on the inaugural while you're here. Why? Well, because within a couple hundred yards,
Scott Evans: of where I'm sitting right now, there's probably a world expert in whatever it is that you need,
Scott Evans: and you can go talk to them, and you can engage them and get them involved in what you're trying to do. And that's going to do two things.
Scott Evans: It's going to move you forward personally,
Scott Evans: or just the networking and learning from these people. It's also going to give you an opportunity to have that world-class expertise in your
Scott Evans: project. So lean in, have some courage
Kevin Mako: on one side. And the other one is, I would just say,
Kevin Mako: assume there are resources out there and there's people who are at your university. There's probably programs you don't know about that could help you move forward.
Kevin Mako: It just requires you to kind of get out and talk to a few people and ask a few questions. Something that really resonates with what you said there
Kevin Mako: is just getting out there and talking to people and having that courage. For those of you out there who are a little bit nervous, let's say, to do that,
Kevin Mako: know that the university setting is engineered and designed for you to reach out to people. The intent there is for you to bother folks.
Kevin Mako: It may not be so as you get into your career. It may be much more difficult to reach out to those, as you mentioned, those world-class
Kevin Mako: individuals that are there as experts in the facility that are either student staff members or
Kevin Mako: faculty staff members or tech members or whatever it might be, but they're right there in your
Scott Evans: backyard. And students here are encouraged to make those connections to have that communication. The key here, too, is it's not just with the facilities like
Scott Evans: invention work, but it's also with other students. And that's something that Scott, you and I talked about before jumping on the air here.
Scott Evans: Can you speak to that power of the student-to-student innovation? That is probably the biggest source of
Scott Evans: learning and of progress for people who are trying to become creative professionals or entrepreneurs or product developers.
Scott Evans: is connecting with other students who are interested in that area and who may be bringing other expertise and stuff
Scott Evans: so that now you're starting to move towards having a team or at least having a network that can help you solve problems. We see such a wide range of students.
Scott Evans: So a freshman engineering student could be someone who has never built anything,
Scott Evans: never taken anything apart. But yet they have this proficiency in math and science, They've kind of got an interest in engineering, and here they are.
Scott Evans: And that's just where they're at. We have other students that show up here, and they've been on robot teams, or they've
Scott Evans: been building stuff, or they have a workshop at home, and they have these incredible skills to move things forward.
Scott Evans: And so student A is certainly going to learn a great deal from student B in this case,
Scott Evans: and probably is going to bring some experience and stuff like that, and they're going to have a productive conversation there.
Scott Evans: So it's amazing what students bring to the table here.
Kevin Mako: And if you look at, you know, just in terms of gray matter,
Kevin Mako: most of the gray matter on campus is in students' heads. You know, most of the, you know, intelligence and stuff like that
Kevin Mako: is in students. So there's a lot of folks like me who have been around for a while and have some experience and stuff like that.
Kevin Mako: But, you know, anytime I step into a classroom, the brain powers is out in the audience. And so I think that's something I kind of keep in mind. So powerful when you talk
Kevin Mako: about connecting those dots. I've judged a lot of student entrepreneurship competitions, both in the university settings and beyond.
Kevin Mako: And one of the things that I find so amazing is that when you get these groups of students together, even if that specific project that they're working on doesn't
Kevin Mako: materialize into this big invention idea or this big entrepreneurial vision, a lot of the time what will happen is two or three or four of the individuals from within those groups
Kevin Mako: or possibly in collaboration with one or two or three individuals from other groups end up getting together and starting something else.
Kevin Mako: The key here is to have that conversation going, get that communication out. Like Scott said, just reach out and start asking for help. A lot of the time as well, if you
Scott Evans: don't know what type of student you're looking for, for instance, like in your example, maybe you've got a great app and you're looking for somebody to build the hardware portion.
Scott Evans: Again, reaching out to the faculty or to the entrepreneurial incubation programs there, a lot of the time those folks
Scott Evans: can start connecting the dots for you or can start putting you in contact with either the groups or the competitions or the events in which you may then meet those
Scott Evans: people who could be a critical match to your potential business going forward. That's very true. You're talking about the
Scott Evans: competitions and what happens after competitions and why they're important. I'm almost hesitant to
Scott Evans: let your listeners know what the secret is here, but I think I think, you know, I think I will just go
Scott Evans: ahead and do it. And the secret is that in the competitions that I've been involved in, it's
Scott Evans: usually not the teams that win that end up being the ones that move forward and make great things happen.
Scott Evans: But the ones that win, I don't know what it is. But sometimes they go forward,
Kevin Mako: but it's usually the ones that are a little further down and they're a little hungry and they're,
Kevin Mako: they kind of, they get a little bit of success, but they kind of see what they could, they could have done differently, and they keep at it, and they have that persistence,
Kevin Mako: often it's the third place team that goes to start a company, or it's the team that almost made it and was
Kevin Mako: fourth, but didn't get me prize money, but kept going anyway. And most of the competitions
Kevin Mako: I've been involved with, somebody who keeps going after the competition isn't necessarily the ones that win. That's a really good observation.
Kevin Mako: Something that I've always said when I've done these keynotes for these events or whatnot is the fact that by being there, by participating in these
Kevin Mako: things, you're already way ahead of the competition. Now, of course, you're trying to win within the event. There's nothing wrong with that.
Kevin Mako: But the reality is there's a lot more meat on the bones within the event itself. It's almost more of the journey than it is the outcome.
Kevin Mako: And what you're saying here just fits to that exactly. It's really something where the more you immerse yourself
Kevin Mako: into it, both, you know, with the school, with the incubators, with the competitions, with other
Scott Evans: classmates, the more you're going to get out, the more you're going to find those matches and the more you're going to be able to pursue those.
Scott Evans: And I think that's why early on what you're saying about just try something while you're at school outside of the academic setting. Try a little bit
Scott Evans: of an entrepreneurial venture or an idea or whatever else, even if it's just in the initial spitballing phase where you're working with some people ideating.
Scott Evans: That can be very valuable to your potential career, even if you decide to go the route of a designer and engineer or whatnot. But on the
Scott Evans: flip side, if you do end up going entrepreneurial, there's no doubt that you're going to learn lessons along the way that aren't being taught academically.
Scott Evans: I think there's actually an earlier and very easy step that you can take as a student. And that is simply show up to a meeting
Scott Evans: of an entrepreneurial student group, super easy.
Kevin Mako: Or there are seminar series, there are speaker series, there are these sorts of things. The people who show up to those things are other
Kevin Mako: people who like you are interested in that, want to know more and are probably going to benefit from building their network.
Kevin Mako: And so then you're often moving. It doesn't, you don't have to have an idea. You don't have to have a problem that you want to solve.
Kevin Mako: If this arena seems interesting to you, move towards it. And you can do that with, you know, to one hour speaker series at a lunch
Kevin Mako: and you're moving in the right direction. And you're here for some great people. Keep in mind when
Kevin Mako: When Scott's collaborating with these outside groups, something that you kind of touched on before was the fact that you've got all these industry leading experts.
Kevin Mako: One of the things that Scott, you and I were talking about before this in terms of collaboration is doing an event like this, bringing in world-class designers out
Kevin Mako: of Mako Design and pairing it with students who are interested. This stuff is free for students.
Scott Evans: And this is the caliber of things that happen at these sorts of meetups or these sorts of groups or whatnot.
Scott Evans: So you might as well take advantage of that sort of stuff while you're a student. because those things become much more expensive or difficult to access as you graduate and as you
Scott Evans: move on. Now, one thing that I want to really talk about here in terms of the university groups is
Scott Evans: looking at the career individuals as well, people who have graduated and are moving on,
Scott Evans: how can they get involved with what's happening at the student level, at the student incubation
Scott Evans: level, student entrepreneurship level, and how can they also improve, you know, themselves academically in addition to their career or to help propel their career forward?
Scott Evans: I think on the University of Texas campus here, there are programs all over the place that have sort
Scott Evans: of a on-campus but off-campus kind of thing. They'll have meetings or seminar series or something like that.
Scott Evans: So as an example, the Austin Technology Incubator has a very extensive group of mentors
Scott Evans: that they draw from as they're working with companies and stuff like that. So showing up to an event that the Austin Technology
Scott Evans: Incubator is part of would allow you as a person from outside the university to start networking with other people who are inside the university.
Scott Evans: There are ways of reaching out to the development teams inside, you know, like the Cockles School of Engineering here, looking for opportunities.
Kevin Mako: You know, it's in the same way that we're sitting here talking about, hey, students, get out there in network, I think we're probably.
Kevin Mako: same thing is going to happen to those who are outside the university and simply kind of
Kevin Mako: looking at the university and trying to find sort of ways of networking the way into the university
Kevin Mako: either through professors or through the development teams or through programs like the awesome technology.
Kevin Mako: I'm looking for people who are out there and who are professionals in various areas and then I have classes that I'd like to include those people in.
Kevin Mako: So I'm looking to network with people who are out there and I'm not the I'm not the only one here. at a university in that same position. This is great advice.
Scott Evans: Basically everything we've talked about in this episode really also can apply to postgraduate students as well, right?
Scott Evans: Get involved, especially if you graduated and you're nearby, your university. Not only should you be donating back to it, but that's a side note, but you should
Scott Evans: really be looking to get involved and what can your, now you're an expert.
Kevin Mako: Now you've got experience and whatever your craft might be, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're a product designer or somewhere in between.
Kevin Mako: you've got a lot of experience now to share down to the next generation. And as you mentioned, Scott, earlier on in the call, that student group has subject matter
Kevin Mako: expert in very specific things that they're working on. They are the gray matter of the future.
Kevin Mako: And like you said, they are the genius that really is a big part of the university setting. So it is a two-way street in terms of value there. It is.
Scott Evans: Another thing I thought is that there are student groups that have coalesced around all sorts of So auto racing, rockets, consumer products, there's all sorts of things.
Scott Evans: And so those are also things that you can look at at your local university as a potential opportunities to get involved. Scott, let me just give a quick overview.
Scott Evans: You had a theory that you mentioned of blurring the lines between education and professional practice. And this is somewhat in line with what we're talking about right now.
Scott Evans: We all hear about perpetual learning and lifelong learning and all that sort of stuff. How do you see that applying to individuals, both at the university?
Scott Evans: university level, but especially when they are into their career, you know, what's the importance of that
Scott Evans: and what are some things they should be thinking about to develop their craft? Part of that kind of stems from a trend in engineering education.
Scott Evans: If you rewind the clock a couple of decades, there was a huge amount of talk about what we want project-centered education.
Scott Evans: We want more projects. We want more students working on projects. The project was the keyword. That's still around. You can still
Scott Evans: find a lot of discussion that kind of echoes all of those things.
Scott Evans: But coming back to the university, I was trying to think of, well, projects are good, but what are we, why are we doing projects?
Scott Evans: Why was that so popular? It's popular because it's the experience of solving problems,
Scott Evans: of working in teams, of having to do the communication of all of the sort of the context around all of the math and science in your engineering class.
Scott Evans: The context is what's valuable. Well, the context is actually the practice of engineering.
Scott Evans: And so if I want to go beyond this concept of just projects to something that's more holistic, then what I need to do is I need to create
Scott Evans: ways for students to operate more like engineers while they're still students. So I think that
Scott Evans: what we're trying to do is practice-centered engineering education. So it's a little bit like traditionally there's this education and there's this hard barrier.
Scott Evans: And then after that you go and you act as whatever professional it isn't you're going to do. But on the,
Scott Evans: professional side, you have this continuing education stuff where people are changing careers and all of those sorts of things.
Scott Evans: So education is bleeding out into your entire career. And so what I'm working on is allowing practice to bleed backward
Scott Evans: into what is traditionally been more strictly education. And I think what that's what that's doing is, is we have sort of an ecosystem of all my student staff
Kevin Mako: and me and all that that allows students, puts them in the driver's seat, allows them to make decisions about whatever this they're working on and allows them,
Kevin Mako: I say this jokingly, but it really is true. I say students, you know, build stuff that doesn't work. And they kind of look at me funny, right?
Kevin Mako: When I say that, but that's the key. The key is building stuff that doesn't work because all of us who are product designers know
Kevin Mako: that we make stuff that doesn't work. And then eventually, after we make a bunch of stuff that doesn't work, we make something that does work and works really well.
Kevin Mako: And then students, when they come in, they don't know all of that fun between, I have an idea and I have something that works really well, all that making stuff that doesn't work.
Kevin Mako: And so we try to kind of highlight that and make sure that we have sort of a structure around people that allows them to kind of learn from that and move forward
Kevin Mako: and be mentored by other students and mentored by professional staff, me, some of some of my other staff members here being a lecture in the master's
Scott Evans: of engineering program myself at ryerston university i can tell you that that's one of the biggest you know ticket items that i think
Scott Evans: is helping educate the students of tomorrow is having that hybrid approach of really you know it comes
Scott Evans: down to real world versus academic and the combination thereof and the best of both worlds so you know
Scott Evans: that's very much tying into the engineering principles that you mentioned there and i love the
Scott Evans: fail forward model that is very powerful especially as a student especially as you learn or craft. And really, I think a lot of these things can be considered on through
Scott Evans: to a lifelong of learning. On that note, is there education, let's say, for folks who are further down the path at UT or things around the world at university centers?
Scott Evans: Are there starting, is there more things or more courses or more workshops or even just these events that maybe can help people that are
Scott Evans: further down the line in their career as opposed to just going through a full-fledged of master's of engineering program? Is there something kind of hybrid in there where they can
Scott Evans: learn remotely or is this stuff coming into practice more? There are continuing education programs that exist. So there's one that's out of engineering here.
Scott Evans: And it's not necessarily a big full degree program, but they have a bunch of small things that are happening.
Scott Evans: I think microcredentialing and badging and having sort of an electronic, your own electronic portfolio of all of those things that you're able to collect.
Scott Evans: I think that's coming. And I think that what you're going to see is more opportunities coming out of universities to take advantage of these small pieces.
Scott Evans: So it might be learning a piece of software, it might be, you know, learning how to build a particular type of device or testing something. But I think that's sort of coming.
Scott Evans: I also think you and I would probably answer this.
Scott Evans: Part of our answer to this question would be identical in that there are places around that are hacker spaces, maker spaces,
Kevin Mako: these kinds of things that are open and community kind of oriented. It's unfortunate that tech shop didn't have their business model right
Kevin Mako: to still be with us in several cities. But there are places like that that are around. And so that's a place where you can show up and learn from other people in the
Kevin Mako: way that students are learning from each other in my facility here. And you can go and maybe you haven't done woodworking.
Kevin Mako: You can find somebody that can help you get going with that. or maybe you haven't programmed Arduino and you haven't done much coding,
Kevin Mako: you're going to find people there that can make our Arduino do all sorts of things and kind of help you move forward there. So I think those kinds of facilities
Kevin Mako: and those kinds of environments are great opportunities for people in our kind of line of work to continue to put themselves back
Kevin Mako: in that kind of mode of a student where you're learning very quickly and you have that sort of, I don't know what to do here and a little bit of that nervousness
Kevin Mako: and stuff like that. or that you have to respond. You have to kind of beat back with a little bit of that inventive confidence.
Kevin Mako: Scott, I appreciate mentioning those events because something I would say to anybody who's in the hardware space out there, whether you're developing a new product, whether you're
Kevin Mako: a student, whether you're a mature product developer, whatever the case is, check out MakoDesign's blog. We've got all kinds of information on upcoming events.
Kevin Mako: We co-run events with a whole bunch of other partners, like the crowdfunded summit and
Scott Evans: like Make 48 TV show and whatnot. So there's a ton of especially digital education. education right now that's in and surrounding the industry that Mako Design is quite heavily
Scott Evans: involved with. But even if it's not something that we're directly partnered with or that I'm not keynoting at, we've got a ton of information on there.
Scott Evans: And of course, by listening to this podcast, we're always trickling in tidbits of information around upcoming events and whatnot as well.
Scott Evans: So thanks for bringing that up, Scott, and to the listeners out there. And I'm sure I speak for
Scott Evans: everyone. I say thanks for your tips and tricks, especially to students or those of us who still have that student vein still in us that we still want to be learning for life.
Scott Evans: Or let's say, to be honest, you know, we kind of miss being in school. It was a great time in our life.
Scott Evans: So I'd say to the students out there, keep that in mind that years later, you will really look back on those times and you will never regret doing what Scott said and doing that
Scott Evans: one reach out that you thought you should do or checking out that facility that you thought
Scott Evans: might be interesting or looking into that course that you thought might lead to something. So, Scott, thanks a lot for being on the show today.
Scott Evans: Much appreciated and we'll talk soon. Thank you for everyone. Looking forward to it.
Narrator: Thanks for tuning in to this episode. of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your
Narrator: product to market and turn it into a big success. This podcast series is brought to you by
Narrator: Mako Design + Invent, the original and leading firm in North America to provide global
Narrator: caliber in-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product business clients.
Narrator: If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to MakoDesign.com.
Narrator: That's ma-k-o-design.com for a free consultation from one of Mako Design's four design studios from coast to coast.
Narrator: Thanks for listening and see you next time.
Turn Campus Access Into Product Progress
Build a Real Product Venture From a Student Idea
Universities can provide exceptional tools and talent, but founders still need a focused product and commercialization plan. Product Startup can help connect those resources to milestones that matter.
Work directly with Kevin Mako, the leading expert in hardware startup consulting, on product strategy, prototype and testing plans, team formation, intellectual property strategy, funding readiness, and market entry.
A focused strategy call on how students can use campus resources to build hardware, tailored to your product, stage, and commercial goals.