Modern information access and consumer 3D printing have made hardware businesses viable for solo founders starting with under $3,000
Noom built his TMJ pen from scratch using a home 3D printer, self-taught electronics knowledge from YouTube and Reddit, and AI assistance — scaling from his closet to $80K/month before moving production to a 3PL. ✦ AI generated
Noom · My First Million · 2026-08-19 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 42:28
“How much did you spend to make the first handful?”
There are like three things that aligned in this age we're living in that makes it probably now one of the least risky things that you can do making like a hardware consumer product. Having all the access to like information like engineering at this point is like low-key kind of easy... with ChatGPT, with YouTube like I didn't know how to make electronics. I didn't know how to make a PCB. ... I was assembling these things myself up until literally a year ago. Um we we got up to like 80K a month. I was assembling, shipping, I had two 3D printers running my closet in like in my apartment.
verbatim transcript · starts at 42:28
42:14first brand. >> Did you say you 3D printed this? >> Yeah. So the way I started the business is cuz like dude listen hardware used to be I think one of the most risky things you can get into making like a hardware device. Like you'll look at Shark Tank like people are like yeah I spent like a h 100red grand making this and it's like that was a big mistake.
42:32>> How much did you spend to make the first handful? >> I spent less than $3,000. And the idea was like there are like three things that like aligned in this age we're living in that makes it probably now one of the least risky things that you can do making like a hardware consumer product. First having all the access to like information like engineering at this point is like
42:56low-key kind of easy like okay don't clip that but with chatebt with YouTube like I didn't know how to make electronics. I didn't know how to make a PCB. >> What were you doing before? Looked it up. I was I was a mechanical engineer. >> I was in college like >> how old are you now? 24. >> How old is this? >> Three years since I started making it
43:12and then two years of selling it. >> And so you're like I'm an idiot. So you have a 3D printer at home. >> Yeah. >> And you're on Chad GBT at the time and you're like teach me how to like >> you're like give me a >> Well, chatbt back in the day was not good enough. >> But then like there's a motor. I mean I don't know how electronics work.
43:28>> So what did you do? You're at home. You never made >> So what I did I So uh I wrote out what do I need this thing to do? I need it to heat. I need vibration. I need you know it to charge. It needs to be portable, whatever. You write out what you want. The obvious thing that it needs is like a PCB. It's a printed circuit board. So,
43:44it's it's those little green things. Yeah. It it looks like a chip. It has a bunch of things, a bunch of lines on it. Um, so to design that, like I I didn't know what to do, but I looked on Reddit. I asked for advice. I I went on YouTube. I figured out how to design this thing. Um, that was like the first thing I did. Then you design the casings. You look up
44:03potential motors. You buy them all, test them, and and uh >> so you ended up making the assembling the thing yourself for V1. >> Yeah. So for I was assembling these things myself up up until literally a year ago to the day. Um we we got up to like 80K a month. I was assembling, shipping, I had two 3D printers running my closet in like in my apartment. And
44:26then I I kind of went like Alex Herozi mode. I was like, "Wait, what if I just, you know, do this but more, you So, I found like a 3PL. Uh, and normally a 3PL, I mean, you know this, but um they just ship stuff for you. Uh, they like fulfill your stuff. But I was like, "Hey, let me use your employees. Like, I'll put my 3D printers in your place.