Jake Hawksworth, CEO of Hypercraft, shares how he’s scaling a hardware-first startup in a software-obsessed world — and what SaaS founders can learn from it. From defining your ICP to ignoring investors (when you have to), this episode is packed with unfiltered insights on building complex, capital-intensive businesses the smart way.
Jake Hawksworth is the CEO and co-founder of Hypercraft—a company bringing turnkey electric and hybrid powertrains to life for the racing, defense, and commercial vehicle industries.
He’s designed 500+ products, holds 8 patents, and has helped generate over $250M in product revenue. But here’s the twist: Jake isn’t building the next SaaS unicorn. He’s building electric powertrains—physical products—in a world obsessed with AI, cloud, and software multiples.
In this episode of Knocking to 10, Jake shares what it takes to scale a hardware startup, how to position yourself in a legacy-dominated industry, and why venture investors often get it wrong when it comes to deep tech.
When Jake launched Hypercraft, he didn’t chase Tesla or the next EV startup. Instead, he looked at the 40 million vehicles built annually by small-to-midsize OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and saw a trillion-dollar gap.
These companies—building everything from boats to off-road vehicles—had no modern path to electrification.
Big OEMs like Ford and GM were spending billions on R&D. But the rest? Still buying diesel engines and stitching together old tech.
Jake’s Play: Provide a modern, full-stack powertrain system for underserved OEMs that couldn’t build it in-house.
“The best companies aren’t always the most innovative. Sometimes they just modernize an industry that’s been stuck for 50 years.”
Hypercraft’s wedge wasn’t just selling batteries and motors. It was using hardware as a Trojan horse to introduce a smarter vehicle platform.
Customers were used to buying engines. So that’s what Jake sold. But under the hood was a vision for software-defined mobility: telemetry, diagnostics, and edge computing all packaged in the system.
Lesson for Founders: Meet your customer’s current behavior—then use that to introduce future value.
In the early days, Hypercraft said yes to everyone: defense, marine, mining, startups, scale-ups.
“We got pulled in every direction. We nearly got ripped apart.”
But Jake didn’t see that chaos as failure. He saw it as a high-velocity way to test markets, tighten product scope, and build ICP clarity.
Now? Hypercraft knows exactly who it's for—and has the confidence (and capital) to say no.
Most SaaS companies need thousands of users to scale. Hypercraft only needs 20–50 OEMs to hit $1B in hardware revenue.
That changes everything about the go-to-market motion.
No cold email blitzes. No demo-qualified-lead scorecards.
Instead: trade shows, deep technical credibility, and outbound targeted at high-value accounts—each worth millions.
“We don't need a wide net. We need a precise spear.”
Hardware buyers don’t move fast. OEMs take 3–5 years to develop a new vehicle. That means Hypercraft’s big wins won’t show up as revenue until year 5+.
Jake’s team had to get creative with early cash flow. They leaned on engineering services—knowing it wasn’t scalable long-term—to stay alive.
Takeaway: If you’re playing a long game, build short-term cash buffers that align with your product strategy (but don’t become your business model).
Raising money for hardware is hard. Raising it during an AI hype cycle is nearly impossible.
Jake doesn’t sugarcoat it:
“Venture capital is trend-driven. And mobility isn’t sexy right now.”
His advice? Don’t chase what’s hot. Stick to your thesis. Stay real about capital needs. And be prepared to survive without investor approval.
Learn more at hypercraftusa.com
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