You've validated the idea. We engineer the product.
idea8 takes funded teams from concept to manufacturing-ready hardware — electronics, firmware, AI, and the software that ties it together. Start with a real number, not a sales call.
Scoped the way a senior PD lead prices a program — requirements maturity, mechanical scope, power architecture, market count, and the certifications your answers imply rather than the ones you'd guess. Honest ranges, 90 seconds, no call required.
1Stage 1 of 3 · Quick estimate
What are you building?
Where are you starting from? Requirements maturity is the #1 cost driver — bigger than any technology choice.
Electronics complexity Best guess is fine — this and mechanical scope move the number most.
Mechanical & motion
Display & interface
Power architecture
Firmware scope
Connectivity
Companion software
Target markets Each region is its own radio approval — compliance scope is derived, not asked.
Production ambition Decides whether DFM, tooling, and factory test fixtures exist at all.
2Stage 2 of 3 · Tighten to ±15%
Tighten this to ±15%
These are the questions a kickoff call would ask. Each answer updates the estimate live and pre-briefs the engineer who'd write your Sprint report. Only the Sprint itself locks final numbers.
Private: stored only for your report prep and seen by your assigned engineer. NDA before any call — and no need to share the secret sauce in a web form.
Sensors on board Select all that apply.
Actuation
Operating environment
Battery-life target on one charge/cell
Size constraint
App platforms & cloud scope
Markets at launch Select all — certifications are priced per region.
Vertical compliance Select all that apply.
Target unit cost (COGS)
Launch deadline
What already exists Credits applied, subject to audit.
Budget allocated Doesn't change the math — helps us phase it honestly.
Primary users Shapes UX rigor, support load, and onboarding cost.
Must-have integrations Each one adds API, auth, and test surface.
Your product, in 1–3 sentences The most useful field on this page.
Closest existing product Even a rough analogue helps — "like X but for Y".
Biggest technical worry?
DEVELOPMENT ESTIMATEIOT DEVICE
$58k – $94k
Estimated timeline: 7 – 11 months to production-ready
Complexity
MODERATE+
Confidence
±25%
Critical path
—
The range grew because the scope got real — this is the number other firms reveal in month three, not before you commit.
Engineering (NRE) figures only. Not included — the lines everyone forgets: mold tooling (at cost, $15–60k typ.) · certification lab fees (scoped above, at cost) · cellular data plans · cloud opex (~$200–600/mo at 5k devices) · app-store & platform accounts · sustaining engineering (~15–20%/yr post-launch). Unit cost (COGS) and tooling quotes are produced in the Feasibility Sprint.
Answer 12 quick scoping questions — sensors, environment, certifications, COGS target — and your range and timeline update live. The same questions a kickoff call would ask.
Cuts the range by up to 40%
Pre-briefs the engineer who'd write your Sprint report
Private — NDA before any call
3Stage 3 of 3 · Full project briefAnswer 6 more (3 min) — we email you a written briefA structured discovery brief you can share with co-founders, investors, or any other firm.⌄
What triggered this project right now? The event or pain that put this on your desk.
How do users solve this today (workaround)? Spreadsheets, manual checks, a competitor's product…
Define "done" — what does success look like 12 months after launch? One metric is better than three.
What should this product NOT do? Out-of-scope is as valuable as scope.
Riskiest assumption — what would kill this if wrong? Tech, market, regulatory, supply chain…
Unfair advantage vs the next-best alternative? Why you'll win, not just ship.
Existing stack / tech preferences Optional — anything we must keep or avoid.
Private and NDA-covered before any call. The brief is yours to take to any firm — we send a clean PDF-ready summary, not a sales pitch.
✓ Brief sent to your inbox. Your assigned engineer reviews it before the kickoff call.
Phase-by-phase breakdown
The first step
Feasibility Sprint — your product, de-risked in 5 days
The calculator gives you a range. The Sprint gives you your numbers — architecture, BOM, budget, and risks for your specific product, from engineers who will actually build it.
Idea-to-Reality Feasibility Sprint
$495100% CREDITED TO YOUR PROJECT
Technical architecture sketch— system diagram, key components, build-vs-buy calls.
BOM & unit-cost estimate— what your device costs to make at your target volumes.
Phase-by-phase roadmap & budget— proto → EVT → DVT → PVT, with realistic costs and dates.
Top-5 risk register— the things most likely to kill your timeline, and how we'd mitigate them.
45-minute readout call— walk the findings with the engineering lead, not a salesperson.
Two guarantees: (1) Money-back — if the readout doesn't give you at least three decisions you couldn't make before, we refund the $495 in full, no argument. (2) Keep-it-either-way — the roadmap is yours to take to any firm. Clarity is the product; the risk is ours.
What $495 actually buys: ~14 senior engineering hours. The same paid-discovery study runs $5,000–$15,000 at a US or EU firm — our cost structure is the arbitrage, not the report depth. Don't take our word for it: download a sample report and judge the depth yourself.
Regulated or unusually complex device? Ask about the $1,500 Deep Feasibility on the call. Delivery in 5 business days from kickoff. After payment you'll receive the kickoff-booking link and NDA by email within minutes. Refund policy.
Why is it paid — and why so cheap?
Paid, because free consultations attract everyone and your project deserves an engineer's full attention, not a sales script. Cheap, because Colombo engineering costs a fraction of San Francisco's: you get ~14 senior hours that would bill $5–15k at a US firm. The price is geography, not corner-cutting — the sample report is the evidence.
You get a deliverable, not a pitch
A 10–15 page report you can put in front of your co-founder, your board, or your investors. Most clients use it to unlock their next funding conversation.
The lowest-risk way to test us
Before you commit a five- or six-figure build to any firm, watch how they think for $495. Our process, communication, and engineering judgment — on display in week one.
How an engagement runs
From sprint to shipped, in phases you approve one at a time
01 — WEEK 1
Feasibility Sprint
Architecture, BOM, budget, risks. You decide with real numbers on the table.
02 — MONTHS 1–3
Prototype
Working proof: custom PCB, firmware bring-up, core function demonstrated end-to-end.
03 — MONTHS 3–8
EVT / DVT
Engineering and design validation — test, iterate, certify. Weekly demos, no black box.
04 — TO PRODUCTION
PVT & handoff
DFM, tooling support, factory bring-up. Your IP, your design files, your supplier relationships.
From the studio
Concept & engineering design work
Client builds ship under NDA, so here's the studio work we can show: product concepts and EVT design studies across consumer, industrial, and IoT — how we think about architecture, manufacturability, and the details in between.
Studio concepts and EVT design studies, shown to demonstrate design and engineering approach — client deliverables remain confidential under NDA. Tap any tile for full resolution.
Who writes your report
Named engineers, not an anonymous inbox
Every Sprint report is written and signed by the engineering lead who would run your build — and reviewed by a second senior engineer before it reaches you.
Engineering Lead
Engineering Lead
Hardware & Firmware
Senior embedded engineer — has shipped cellular IoT, computer-vision-on-edge, and industrial control systems into production.
Principal Engineer
Principal Engineer
AI / Software
Full-stack and applied-AI lead — focused on shipping production systems, not prototypes.
[EMBED 60–90s VIDEO]
Engineering lead, on camera, walking through one real past project in plain language. Phone footage is fine — faces close offshore deals.
Meet the team in 90 seconds
Who we are, how we work, and one build we're proud of.
Where the work happens
A real lab, not a rendered one
Hardware doesn't get built in a slide deck. This is the bench your product would sit on.
[ADD workplace-1.jpg] Wide shot of the lab, team at their benches
[ADD workplace-3.jpg] Hands + hardware: rework or probing under the scope
PCB rework & assembly
[ADD workplace-4.jpg] 3D printers, enclosure prototypes, iteration shelf
Enclosure prototyping
[ADD workplace-5.jpg] Design review at the whiteboard — real faces
Design review
[ADD workplace-6.jpg] Test rigs, fixtures, assembled product samples
Test rigs & golden samples
Working with idea8
Built to be trusted from anywhere
Your IP, protected
NDA before we see anything. Every schematic, layout, firmware repo, and design file is yours — delivered continuously, not held hostage.
Overlap hours, weekly demos
Scheduled overlap with US and EU time zones, a weekly working demo, and a shared project tracker. You always know exactly where the build stands.
Senior engineers, full stack
Electronics, firmware, AI/CV, mechanical, and app development under one roof — no subcontractor relay, no "that's another vendor's problem."
Questions founders actually ask
How accurate is the calculator?
It's an honest ±25% range based on the complexity profile you select, drawn from real project data. It will not capture what's unusual about your product — that's exactly what the Feasibility Sprint exists to pin down.
What happens after I buy the Sprint?
You get a kickoff scheduling link immediately. Kickoff is a 30-minute call to capture your concept and constraints; five business days later you receive the report and we book your 45-minute readout.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes, before the kickoff call. Your idea, your IP, full stop. We're happy to use your paper or ours.
What if my idea isn't technically feasible?
Then the Sprint just saved you a five-figure mistake, and the report will say so plainly — with the closest viable alternative if one exists. We'd rather lose a project than build something that shouldn't be built.
Can you take over a half-finished project?
Frequently. The Sprint works as a technical audit of existing work: we assess what's salvageable, what isn't, and the realistic path to done.
Who owns the IP and design files?
You do — unambiguously. NDA before we see anything; schematics, layouts, firmware repos, CAD, and reports are delivered continuously during the work, not held until final payment. If we part ways mid-project, you keep everything produced to that point.
Can you invoice my company? What about VAT/tax?
Yes — Stripe issues a receipt instantly and we provide a formal company invoice on request (PO references welcome). We're a Sri Lankan entity providing cross-border services; tax treatment on your side depends on your jurisdiction, so route the invoice through your accountant as imported services.
Do you take software-only projects?
Yes, when it's product software — firmware, companion apps, dashboards, machine-vision pipelines, device cloud. We're not the right firm for marketing websites or generic IT work, and we'll say so on the fit call.
Is the report just AI-generated?
No. AI tools speed up research and drafting — the component selection, cost estimates, and risk calls are made and signed by the named engineering lead who would run your build, then reviewed by a second senior engineer. Download the sample report and judge the depth yourself; generic output doesn't contain power-budget math.
Stop guessing what your product costs to build.
Five days from now you can have the architecture, the budget, and the risks — in writing.
