#33: When to Ignore the Market (At First)

Leo Ballesteros, founder of Atonemo, joins the podcast to share a brutally honest take on what it actually takes to build a consumer hardware company from scratch. From feature overload to ruthless simplification, this episode is about learning by doing. Every single day.

Atonemo is building consumer electronics at the intersection of hardware, software and design, and Leo reflects on the realities of growing a team, bringing in senior talent, and navigating the long, expensive road from idea to product. This is not a romantic startup story, it’s a practical one.

This episode was recorded in collaboration with Lightbringer, the AI-powered platform simplifying the patent process.

In this episode:

✅ Overbuilding first — then stripping the product down

✅ Building a team that covers what you can’t

✅ Why getting a physical prototype fast matters

✅ When feedback helps, and when it kills the idea

✅ Why hardware always takes twice the time and money

✅ What Leo would do differently starting from scratch

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#32. The Rise of the Virtual Power Plant

Daniel Wentz, Chief Product Officer at Greenely, joins the podcast to unpack one of the most interesting shifts in consumer energy: the rise of home batteries, intelligent orchestration, and virtual power plants. With a background leading global connected-device software at Electrolux, he shares why trust and control are the foundation of any energy product, what it takes to integrate EVs, solar, batteries and heat pumps into one system, and how virtual power plants are turning households into active players in the grid.

This episode is sponsored by our partner Lightbringer, the AI-powered platform simplifying the patent process.

In this episode:

✅ Trust & control: the foundation of any energy product

✅ Connecting EVs, solar, batteries & heat pumps into one system

✅ How virtual power plants let households earn from the grid

✅ APIs as the new battleground for energy hardware integration

✅ Scaling Greenely: product maturity and mass-market simplicity

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#31. Industrifonden & the State of Deep Tech 2025

Mala Valroy, Investment Manager at Industrifonden, joins the podcast to share her journey from biochemistry and startups to leading investments in deep tech. With Industrifonden’s unique evergreen model, she breaks down what it really takes to earn a term sheet in 2025, why relationships matter more than pitch decks, and how resilience and sustainability are inseparable in building the future.

This episode is sponsored by our partner Lightbringer, the AI-powered platform simplifying the patent process.

In this episode:

✅ Mala’s path from the lab bench to VC boardrooms

✅ Industrifonden’s evergreen take on deep tech

✅ Why the best founders are often “difficult”

✅ Building long-term relationships – before fundraising

✅ Why sustainability and resilience are two sides of the same coin

✅ Quantum, AI, and the technologies redefining the next decade

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#30. The Quest for Timeless Tech

Per Brickstad, founder and chief designer at Transparent, joins us in our 30th episode – a milestone worth noting. Transparent is on a mission to become the world’s first circular tech brand, building modular and upgradable audio gear that challenges consumer electronics’ throwaway logic.

From a Stockholm design studio to a global hardware company, this is the story of how passion for music, sustainability and design became an international business.

In this episode:

✅ Why industrial design must enter early

✅ How Transparent’s first concept went viral and launched through crowdfunding

✅ The challenge of building timeless, modular hardware that lasts for generations

✅ Growing globally via design retail rather than tech press

✅ Why long-term investors matter more than quick VC money

This episode sponsored by our partner Lightbringer, an AI-powered patent platform helping tech companies protect their edge fast, with in-house legal expertise.

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#29. Elvy & the Energy Subscription Play: 15 Years of Heat, Trust and Risk

Johan Outinen, CEO and co-founder of Elvy Energy, joins the pod to explain why households should lock in their energy for the next 15 years, and how simplicity can unlock the transition.

Elvy Energy is rewriting the rules of home energy with flat-rate subscriptions that cover installation, insurance, maintenance, and even market trading. From the cold reality of –46°C in northern Sweden to contracts stretching into the 2040s, Johan shares why trust is the real bottleneck — and how Elvy plans to overcome it.

In this episode:

✅ Why Elvy believes 15-year energy contracts are the future

✅ How to build customer trust when the stakes are survival

✅ The financial engineering behind $165M in credit facilities

✅ What expansion in Germany and the UK could look like

✅ Why “don’t build for subsidies” is a mantra worth repeating

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Episode 28: From Legal Grind to Founder Speed

Dominic Davies, co-founder of Lightbringer, joins the pod to talk patents, automation and founder-first IP. With a background in both software and patent law, he’s now building a system that aims to replace the traditional patent firm entirely — starting with the needs of deeptech startups.

From knowledge graphs to GPT-3, Lightbringer was born out of frustration with how things work, and belief that IP doesn’t have to be a bottleneck. This is the story of how AI can rebuild trust, speed and strategic value into one of tech’s most painful processes.

In this episode:

✅ Why the traditional patent process is broken — and what founders can do instead

✅ How Lightbringer turned AI into a full-stack IP engine

✅ When to file (and when to definitely not rely on that NDA)

✅ Why investors care more about your patent strategy than you think

✅ What happens when AI outpaces the knowledge workers who thought they were safe

✅ Building fast teams in Sweden, and why the ecosystem is shifting

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More insights at nordichardtech.com.

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Episode #27 – IPercept & the CNC Whisperers: From PhD to Predictive Power

Karoly Szipka, founder and CEO of IPercept, joins the podcast to share how a research project on machine efficiency became a fast-scaling deeptech company with some of Europe’s largest industrial players as customers. With AI, patented hardware, and a “fitness tracker” for CNC machines, IPercept is redefining predictive maintenance for modern manufacturing.

Born out of KTH and backed by years of R&D, IPercept is a case study in how Swedish academia, industry, and startups can collaborate – and why solving Europe’s industrial skills gap starts with data and smart tools.

In this episode:

✅ How IPercept is creating a new category in predictive maintenance

✅ Lessons from scaling a hardware-based B2B deeptech solution

✅ Why CNC machines deserve more attention than music

✅ How deep partnerships with machine builders drive growth

✅ Why the future of European manufacturing is powered by people – and facts

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More insights at nordichardtech.com.

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Episode #26 Build, Share, Repeat: How Makerspace and ihopa Enable Hardware for the Masses

Alexander Engl joins the pod to talk about Stockholm Makerspace – a member-run 24/7 creative hub that empowers hardware builders, tinkerers and early-stage founders to bring physical ideas to life, without public funding or gatekeepers. We explore how the space grew to 1000+ members, how it's staying independent in a soft money ecosystem, and why shared tools are critical infrastructure for Nordic innovation.

Alexander also shares lessons from ihopa – a startup built around shared product access – and what it taught him about scaling physical systems in a world still wired for ownership.

In this episode:

✅ How ihopa is reshaping access to high-quality tools and gear

✅ Why physical tech needs physical infrastructure

✅ The underrated power of maker communities

✅ Why most public innovation funding is missing the point

✅ What Sweden’s startup ecosystem can learn from Berlin, Vienna and beyond

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More insights at nordichardtech.com.

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🤝 This episode is produced in collaboration with Lightbringer – the patent service helping founders move faster. With AI at its core and senior attorneys in-house, they streamline the patent process and set a new standard for how growth-stage teams secure what’s theirs.

Episode #25 Less is More: How Flic Pushed the Button on Scalable Hardware

What if turning off a light or flipping a music sheet could be done with a single press? That’s the vision Joacim Westlund Prändel set out to build with Flic, a Bluetooth-enabled smart button that’s now powering everything from smart homes to healthcare panic systems.

In this episode, we dive into how a humble prototype from Stockholm grew into a profitable global hardware business—scaled on revenue, not venture rounds. With a lean team, clever manufacturing partnerships, and an obsession with reliability, Flic shows what’s possible when tactile tech meets tight execution.

In this episode:

✅ How Flic turned a physical button into a platform

✅ Why crowdfunding beat VC—and still does

✅ Lessons from scaling hardware through Highway1 and Southeast Asia

✅ What it really takes to ship at global scale

✅ Why simplicity, not software, is Flic’s strongest moat

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More insights at nordichardtech.com.

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#24.Cirkulärt varvet runt – mobilskalet som vill rädda planeten

Henrik Jonsson, vd på agood Company, gästar podden och berättar hur bolaget bygger cirkulära konsumentprodukter i stor skala – med lokal produktion som vapen mot klimatkrisen. Från en idé om att sälja direkt till konsument till att i dag samarbeta med jättar som Deutsche Telekom – här är berättelsen om hur hållbarhet blev affär.

Agood company producerar mobilskal, flaskor och anteckningsböcker med cirkularitet som kärna – och har nyligen öppnat USA:s första fabrik för hållbara mobilskal. I ett samtal om tillväxt, klimat, finansiering och mentalt ledarskap bjuder Henrik på ärliga reflektioner från resan.

I det här avsnittet:

✅ Varför agood company hellre återvinner än skryter om bioplast

✅ Hur man skalar hållbar produktion utan premiumpriser

✅ Att bygga relationer med retailjättar – från Elgiganten till Deutsche Telekom

✅ USA-expansion och lokal tillverkning som klimatsvar

✅ Lärdomar från en vd: ”det är inte arbetsbelastningen, utan de mentala svängningarna som sliter mest”

Connecta och bidra

Vill du tipsa om en gäst till podden? Har du en idé som förtjänar uppmärksamhet? Eller feedback vi borde ta till oss?

Hör av dig på [email protected], connecta på LinkedIn eller besök nordichardtech.com.

Sprid ordet och lär dig mer

Tipsa en kollega. Tagga någon i ditt nätverk. Tillsammans bygger vi Nordens ledande hardtech-community. För fler insikter, kunskap och inspiration, besök nordichardtech.com.

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