Hardware founders hire me when the prototype works but the path to production doesn't. Supply chain, manufacturing ops, and NPI across India, China and APAC. Currently Head of Operations at a satellite propulsion startup — I take on a small number of advisory engagements alongside.
Manufacturer selection, BOM structure, quality systems, certification paths — these are locked in at prototype stage. Without someone who has navigated this before, you're making expensive decisions under pressure, on live products, with real money at stake.
I work inside your operation — vendor negotiations, DFM reviews, quality systems, certification management, logistics setup. Not slide decks. Actual execution, with your team, measured in outcomes.
Manufacturer selection and vetting, DFM reviews, quality systems — incoming, in-line, and final acceptance — production oversight, and certification management from first sample to goods received.
Global vendor networks across India and Asia, cost optimisation through structured negotiation, multi-source risk planning, and logistics setup for domestic and international fulfilment.
Operational process building, team hiring frameworks, KPI dashboards, and ongoing founder advisory — available to a small number of founders after an audit, when the diagnosis shows sustained support is worth paying for.
Every engagement is scoped clearly, executed with full accountability, and delivered with specific outputs — not advisory decks.
20 minutes to understand your product stage, operational challenges, and what success looks like in 90 days. No pitch — just honest assessment of fit.
Define the engagement, deliverables, and timeline. Fixed scope, clear outputs — no ambiguity on what you're getting or when.
I embed in your operations — vendor calls, factory oversight, system builds, founder syncs. Outcomes, not hours billed.
Concrete outputs: audit reports, 90-day roadmaps, production oversight to completion, documented processes for your team.
Two of the builds below — plus, right now, the manufacturing foundation of a satellite propulsion startup: spec-to-BOM documentation and a precision-fabrication vendor base built from zero. The same approach throughout — embedded, accountable, outcome-driven.
Head of Operations, Founder's Office
Cut manufacturing costs 20% and built a global hardware operation across four countries from the ground up.
Lead Engineer — End-to-End Product Launch
Took a smart safety helmet from prototype to international production and distribution in 18 months.
The Supply Chain & Manufacturing Readiness Audit — a written diagnosis of exactly what will break when you scale, and what it costs to fix now versus later.
For funded hardware, EV, and deep-tech founders preparing to scale production or make their first senior supply chain hire. You get four things, in writing:
₹75K–1.25L (India, scope-dependent) · $2–3K (international) · 50% to commence · limited to 2 concurrent engagements.
Book a 20-Minute Scoping Call →An anonymised report from a real engagement — readiness scores, vendor risk findings, cost benchmarks, and the 90-day roadmap. Read it before we ever talk.
Read the Sample Audit →After the audit: founders who want execution support can extend into a focused ops sprint or ongoing fractional engagement. Both are scoped only after an audit — the diagnosis comes first.
Hardware and deep-tech founders who have a validated prototype and are navigating the path to commercial production. If you're dealing with manufacturer decisions, supply chain setup, certification requirements, or operational scaling challenges — this is the work I do.
Yes. I work remotely with founders in the US, UK, EU, Singapore, and beyond. My operational experience spans India, China, Singapore, Germany, and the US simultaneously. I've managed supply chains and corporate entities across multiple countries — geography is not a constraint.
A full-time ops hire makes sense once operations is genuinely a bottleneck to growth — not before. The fractional model gives you senior-level operational experience at the exact moment you need it, without a significant fixed cost commitment before you've validated the need.
Every engagement starts the same way: a 20-minute scoping call, then the two-week Readiness Audit. Fixed price, written deliverable, no retainer ask. The sample audit on this page shows you exactly what you'd receive. Ongoing support is scoped only after an audit — the diagnosis always comes first.
Book a call via Topmate and we can typically scope and start within a week. I hold a full-time operating role and cap advisory work at two concurrent engagements — that cap is what keeps each audit deep rather than templated, so slots are genuinely limited.
"I've sat in factories at midnight checking quality batches. Renegotiated vendor contracts under real pressure. Told a founder — six weeks before launch — that their product couldn't be manufactured as designed.
I work inside your operation. Not from a slide deck."
Atul Nandan · Hardware Operations Consultant · Available Globally
The scoping call is 20 minutes. No pitch. Just an honest look at where you are — and the sample audit above shows exactly what you’d get.
Book a 20-Minute Call