What connects a folding bicycle, a kitchen tool, and an electric ultralight aircraft?

For Mark Sanders, the answer isn’t the category, it’s the thinking.

In this episode of Why Design, Mark joins host Chris Whyte to reflect on a career that spans more than four decades of designing, engineering, and inventing across radically different industries. From his early work as a mechanical engineer at Rolls-Royce, to retraining at the Royal College of Art, to licensing over 100 commercialised products, Mark’s work is united by a clear philosophy: elegance through simplicity.

This is a conversation about reducing part count, designing for manufacture, and understanding why the earliest design decisions matter more than almost anything that follows. Mark shares lessons from licensing the Strida folding bike, working with manufacturers, and inventing products where cost, reliability, and accessibility truly matter.

It’s not a conversation about trends or scale.

It’s about invention as a craft, and design as responsibility.

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events

💡 What You’ll Learn

⚙️ Why radically different products often share the same design principles

🧠 How simplicity creates elegance across engineering and design

🔩 Why reducing part count improves reliability, cost, and longevity

🚲 Lessons from designing and licensing the Strida folding bike

✈️ What designing electric ultralight aircraft teaches about safety and systems thinking

🧪 Why concept design decisions shape everything downstream

💬 Memorable Quotes

“Concept design is everything. If you get that wrong, you’re fixing it forever downstream.”

“Good design isn’t about adding features. It’s about fewer parts doing more work.”

“Elegance means something to engineers and designers, and that’s why it matters.”

“If you only design for the elite, you’re not designing for people.”

“Invention isn’t a career for security. It’s a career for curiosity.”

🔗 Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events

🌐 Explore Mark Sanders’ work → https://www.mas-design.com

🔗 Follow Mark Sanders on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark77a/

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it, and how their thinking holds up across industries and time.

About Kodu

Kodu is a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product-led businesses.

We help teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership, bringing structure, clarity, and long-term thinking to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

In an industry that often celebrates rapid growth, visibility, and bold ambition, there’s a quieter reality that rarely gets attention:

The design businesses that last aren’t built through speed.

They’re built through discipline.

Through showing up consistently.

Through making careful decisions when shortcuts are tempting.

Through taking responsibility for outcomes, not just ideas.

In this episode of Why Design, Paul Metaxatos, Principal and Owner of Motiv Design, joins host Chris Whyte to unpack what it actually takes to build a consultancy that endures, not just commercially, but creatively and personally.

Paul shares his journey from industrial designer to business owner, and why Motive Design has prioritised steady relationships, clear judgement, and long-term thinking over chasing size or short-term wins. It’s a candid conversation about restraint, responsibility, and staying committed to the work even when growth is uneven or unglamorous.

This episode isn’t about scaling for the sake of it.

It’s about the quiet discipline required to build trust, credibility, and a business that lasts.

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events

💡 What You’ll Learn

🤝 Why relationships are the real currency of consultancy life

🧠 How trust is built slowly through judgement, honesty, and consistency

🏗️ What running a design consultancy actually demands beyond creative output

💬 Why communication and expectation-setting matter as much as ideas

📉 Why not all growth is good growth, and how to recognise the difference

🎯 How staying in the work, not chasing scale, shapes better long-term outcomes

💬 Memorable Quotes

“There’s little doubt the number one thing is the relationship. That is currency.”

“You’re in the ring. This is what you’re going to be doing, and you don’t step out unless something really massive happens.”

“Design is a conversation. There are always solutions, big and small.”

“If you want design to have influence, it has to carry responsibility.”

“People are the biggest challenge, and the biggest opportunity.”

🔗 Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events

🔗 Explore Motive Design → http://www.the-motiv.com/

🔗 Connect with Paul Metaxatos → https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-metaxatos-037838/

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it, and what that means for teams, careers, and leadership.

About Kodu

Kodu is a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product-led businesses.

We help founders and teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership with structure, clarity, and care.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What if design wasn’t just a function… but a way of thinking about the world?

In this episode of Why Design, Tylan Tschopp shares a belief that sits at the heart of his career: that design, when combined with engineering rigour and ownership, has the power to shape better products, better teams, and ultimately, better outcomes for people.

Rather than choosing between design or engineering, Tylan chose the space in between. That decision led him to roles defined by responsibility, momentum and scale where success wasn’t measured by aesthetics alone, but by execution, standards and the willingness to step forward when things were unfinished.

This conversation isn’t about design as decoration.

It’s about design as leadership.

Design as systems thinking.

Design as a force that should influence how we build, decide and deliver.

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast.

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events

What You’ll Learn

🌍 Why Tylan believes design deserves a seat at the highest level of decision-making

🧠 How hybrid thinking between design and engineering creates better outcomes

🎯 Why ownership, not job titles, accelerates careers and teams

⚙️ What the “last three percent” of execution really demands

👥 How to build product teams around growth, standards and ambition

📈 Why scale exposes weak thinking and sharpens good design

Memorable Quotes

“I believe design should take over the world.”

“It was probably 99% me going and asking.”

“We’re here to build rock stars only.”

“That last three percent might take just as much time as the first ninety-seven percent.”

“I debated between the two professions coming out of high school… design and engineering.”

Resources & Links

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte

🔗🔍 Explore Westinghouse Electric Corporation → http://www.westinghouse.com/

🔗 Connect with Tylan Tschopp→ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylan-tschopp-093ab67/

About the Episode

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and physical product development industry.

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the beliefs, decisions and responsibility behind meaningful work.

About Kodu

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups.

We help founders and leadership teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership, bringing structure and clarity to one of the hardest parts of scaling.

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

What connects offshore engineering, inkjet printers, molecular diagnostics and a small workshop in a church in Newcastle? 

For Paul Marshall, it’s all part of the same journey: a lifelong fascination with how things work, and a belief that good engineering can solve meaningful problems. 

Paul is the co-founder of Rapid Fluidics, a UK consultancy and prototyping company specialising in microfluidic cartridges. What began as a part-time side project; evenings, weekends and two 3D printers in a rented room has grown into a profitable, globally recognised business serving life sciences startups, research labs and multinational pharma companies. 

But the part that makes Paul’s story compelling isn’t the technology. 

It’s the honesty: 

He never wanted to be a founder. 

He never set out to run a business. 

And yet here he is, leading a team, travelling the world for client meetings, navigating cash flow, BD, branding, and hiring… all while staying open, self-aware and disarmingly human about the whole thing. 

In this episode of Why Design, Paul joins host Chris Whyte to unpack the journey: the technical foundations, the unexpected turns, the small risks, the networking habits, the content strategy, the international expansion, and what it really means to grow a niche hardware business without investment. 

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. 

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

💡 What You’ll Learn 

🧪 Why microfluidics is exploding, and how Rapid Fluidics carved out a niche 

🎓 How a grandfather, Lego and curiosity shaped Paul’s engineering mindset  

🚀 The step-by-step transition from contractor → founder → employer 

📈 Why transparency about cash flow builds trust inside a team 

🔗 How LinkedIn and trade shows built a global BD pipeline 

🇸 How Paul is expanding into the US without losing his UK roots 

💬 Why the best founders “make it up as they go along”, and why that’s okay  

💬 Memorable Quotes 

“I wanted to see how machines work. I wanted to design machines… building things, breaking things, probably more breaking than building.” 

“If an engineer can design a solution to a problem, it doesn’t matter if it’s a 36-inch pipe or a 200-micron pipe.” 

“Six months in, we hired our first intern… and that’s when I realised: if I’m going to have employees full time, I need to do this full time.” 

“I’m making it up as I go along but as long as I’m one page ahead, that’s all that matters.” 

“You can’t beat sitting in a room showing people what we can make and watching the lightbulb moment.” 

🔗 Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

🔍 Explore Rapid Fluidics → https://www.rapidfluidics.com/ 

🔗 Connect with Paul Marshall → https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-marshall-rapid-fluidics/ 

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 

🔗 Connect with Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product development industry. 

Through candid conversations with designers, engineers and founders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies and product-led start-ups. We help teams hire world-class talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com 

What happens when you mix engineering instinct, a folding bike prototype built by an eccentric inventor, and a chance conversation with a stranger on a London bus? 

For Will Butler-Adams, it became the start of a 20-year journey transforming Brompton from a tiny, chaotic workshop into one of Britain’s most recognisable global brands. 

Today, Brompton bikes are commonplace in cities across the world. But when Will joined in 2002, the company had “a stock turn of one… tons and tons of racking pallets… and squeezed in the edges where people actually adding value.”  

In this episode of Why Design, Will joins host Chris Whyte for a rare look behind the scenes at what it actually takes to grow a purpose-led engineering business without compromising on quality, trust or long-term thinking. 

This is an episode about risk, leadership, hiring, confidence, perspective… and why the world’s most efficient vehicle is still a bicycle. 

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. 

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign

💡 What You’ll Learn 

🚲 Why Brompton’s mission is urban freedom for happier lives, not bikes 

🎯 The leadership mindset that helped grow Brompton from a small team to a global brand 

💬 Why Will believes most people “worry too much about everything” at work 

💼 The danger of chasing growth too quickly, and why patience beats hyper-scaling 

🧭 Why hiring “perfect people” is a mistake, and why a “motley crew” builds better products 

🔥 How innovation accelerates when you embrace risk and disorder 

🧠 Why the next era of engineering belongs to designers who can think beyond their job titles 

💬 Memorable Quotes 

“Opportunity passes us all the time… The challenge is whether we're prepared to get off our ass and grab it.” 

“Most people regret not taking enough risk. Very few regret taking it.” 

“Perfect doesn’t deliver innovation. It’s the imperfection, the grit in the oyster, that creates the pearl.” 

“Purpose is important, but it must be in parallel with profit. Without profit, you have no business.” 

“The role of the leader is not to create order… it’s to create disorder.” 

“We're not selling a bike. We're selling freedom; health, wellbeing, exploring, decluttering your mind.”  

🔗 Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/whydesign 

🔗 Explore Brompton → http://www.brompton.com/ 

🔗 Connect with Will Butler-Adams → https://www.linkedin.com/in/eur-ing-will-butler-adams-obe-freng-ceng-frgs-fcgi-fimeche-b05651b/ 

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. 

Through honest conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build but why they build it; the belief, doubt and persistence behind meaningful innovation. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product-led start-ups. 

We help founders and teams hire exceptional talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com 

What do furniture exhibitions, glowing tables, and digital design have in common? 

For Rémi, founder of Diplik, they’re all stops on a creative journey that ultimately led to Bitpong; a tech-enhanced, interactive ping-pong table that feels equal parts sport, art installation, and arcade. 

From early ambitions in car design to studying industrial design in northern France, to guest lecturing and building his own hardware studio in Berlin, Rémi’s story is a reminder that creative careers rarely move in straight lines. Bitpong didn’t emerge from a sudden idea. It came from years of exploring where technology meets physical experience. 

In this episode of Why Design, host Chris Whyte sits down with Rémi to explore the realities of building a hardware product in 2025, the compromises that shape every designer, and why the best ideas still begin with curiosity. 

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. 

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

💡 What You’ll Learn 

🎨 Why design often begins as a “compromise” between art and engineering 

💡 How a single furniture exhibition changed the trajectory of Rémi’s career 

🎮 The design story behind Bitpong and what makes playful products so hard to build 

🏓 Why running a small hardware company requires resilience, iteration and long-term thinking 

🧰 The role of cross-functional collaboration in bringing interactive products to life 

💬 Memorable Quotes 

“Design became the bridge between engineering and creativity, the compromise that made sense.” 

“You need inspiring things early on. A drill doesn’t make you want to become a designer.” 

“When I say I studied design, what I really mean is I found a way to mix creativity, technology and play.” 

“Building hardware isn’t just about the product. It’s about what it takes to keep going.” 

🔗 Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

🔗 Connect with Rémi → https://www.linkedin.com/in/remi-bigot-03101a5/ 

🔍 Explore Diplik → http://www.bit-pong.com/ 

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. 

Through candid conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. 

We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com 

What connects electric bikes, mobility systems, high-end wellbeing devices and robotics? 

For Joachim, it’s the same mission: design technology that feels intuitive, human, and full of possibility. 

With a career spanning Brussels, Copenhagen and London, and now as co-founder of FutureWave, Joachim has spent the past six years building a 25-strong design and engineering studio working across mobility, consumer tech and deep electronics. From shaping early concepts for startup disruptors to helping global brands reimagine their five-to-ten-year vision, his work sits at the intersection of creativity, engineering, and intuition.  

In this episode of Why Design, Joachim joins host Chris Whyte to explore what happens when designers and engineers stop working in silos and start behaving like one organism. Together they unpack his “human generative design” philosophy, why intuition still matters in a world obsessed with data, and how FutureWave is helping clients design experiences fit for the next decade of hardware.  

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. 

Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

💡 What You’ll Learn 

🧠 Why great design blends poetry and industry, and why Joachim believes designers act as the “glue” between disciplines. 

🌍 How FutureWave breaks hardware silos to deliver desirability, feasibility and viability in one loop. 

🔁 What “human generative design” looks like, and why iteration and cross-functional filtering beats isolated brainstorming. 

🚲 Lessons from working with startups vs. corporates from rapid prototyping to de-risking long-term innovation. 

🚆 Where hardware is heading from mobility transformation to miniaturised wellbeing tech and robotics. 

💭 Why intuition still matters in a world dominated by metrics, risk models and strategy decks. 

💬 Memorable Quotes 

“Designers are never experts of anything… but they’re the glue.” 

“Intuition helps you build dreams, strategy and engineering help you de-risk them.” 

“You need diversity of minds to build a great product. It works like an organism.” 

“Sometimes the market doesn’t know what it wants until you show it the experience.” 

“The future of hardware is invisible tech; seamless, human, and meaningful.” 

🔗 Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

🔗 Connect with Joachim → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-froment-a1920456/ 

🔗 View Joachim's portfolio → joachimfroment.com

🌐 FutureWave → https://www.futurewave.eu/ 

📸 Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 

🎥 Full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. 

Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. 

We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com 

What connects toy blasters, beauty tools, and musical instruments? 

For Rich Thrush, it’s all part of the same mission: to make products people love to use. 

With a career spanning Hasbro, Motorola, Helen of Troy, and now Guitar Center, Rich has led design and innovation teams across some of the world’s most recognisable brands. From developing Braun’s non-contact thermometer to Revlon’s One-Step Volumizer, his work has shaped how millions interact with everyday products. 

In this episode of Why Design, Rich joins host Chris Whyte to unpack the art and strategy of leading innovation across multiple brands, and why the best ideas start not with technology, but with people. 

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

💡 What You’ll Learn 

🧠 How cross-functional curiosity fuels innovation in any industry 

🎯 Why “asking why”, five times, leads to better design decisions 

⚙️ Lessons from managing a portfolio of global consumer brands 

📱 How Motorola’s success (and Apple’s disruption) shaped Rich’s leadership mindset 

🎸 Why Guitar Center’s new era of product innovation is rooted in community and passion 

💬 Memorable Quotes 

“Ideas come from people. The trick is knowing how to create the conditions for them to appear.” 

“Even if you have 90% market share, you still need to be inventing the next thing.” 

“Great design isn’t just about form, it’s about understanding what people actually need, even when they can’t say it.” 

“You don’t buy a drill. You buy a hole in the wall. But really, you’re buying what goes in that hole; meaning.” 

🔗 Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

🔗 Connect with Rich Thrush → https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-thrush/ 

📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. 

Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. 

We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com 

When it comes to sustainability, good intentions aren’t enough. 

For Dr Vicky Lofthouse, sustainability isn’t a checkbox or a materials swap, it’s a mindset shift. 

As a designer, educator and now founder of En-Able Sustainability, she’s spent over two decades helping companies move past the buzzwords and into the messy, meaningful reality of sustainable product design. 

In this episode of Why Design, Vicky joins Chris Whyte to explore what sustainability really looks like in practice; from balancing carbon impact with commercial constraints to understanding why context matters more than any single material choice. 

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

What You’ll Learn  

🌍 Why “make it sustainable” is the wrong brief 

⚙️ How context defines what “better” actually means 

🔁 What circular design looks like in real product teams 

🧠 Why less plastic isn’t always the right answer 

📈 How evidence beats assumptions in sustainable decision-making 

💡 The mindset shift every designer and engineer needs to make 

Memorable Quotes 

💬 “Sustainability isn’t a checklist, it’s a mindset.” 

💬 “Sometimes the right answer isn’t the obvious one.” 

💬 “Context changes everything.” 

💬 “I help companies integrate sustainability and circularity into what they do, not just what they make.” 

💬 “Progress doesn’t start with perfection; it starts with questions.” 

Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

🌿 Learn more about Enable Sustainability → EN:ABLE Sustainability | Sustainability support for purpose driven manufacturers 

👤 Connect with Dr Vicky Lofthouse → https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-vicky-lofthouse-41b4a6/ 

🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 

📸 Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 

🎵 TikTok → _whydesign 

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

📲 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or YouTube so you never miss an episode. 

👥 Share this with a designer, engineer or founder rethinking what better really means. 

About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. 

Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. 

We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com 

What makes someone leave a 20-year BBC career to build a helmet everyone said couldn’t exist? For Dom Cotton, it wasn’t a midlife pivot,  it was a mission. After years spent covering stories about courage and competition, he decided to live one. 

Seven years, countless prototypes, and a steep learning curve later, Dom co-founded Newlane; the company behind the world’s first safety-certified, foldable commuter helmet. 

In this episode of Why Design, he shares how curiosity, persistence, and a touch of naivety helped him turn rejection into progress and an idea into reality. 

Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

What You’ll Learn 👇 

🧠 Why the “novice mindset” can be a hidden superpower in innovation 

⚙️ How to stay resilient through failure, funding droughts, and endless testing 

🔥 The difference between building a good idea and building a viable product 

📢 Why storytelling sells your vision when prototypes can’t 

💡 What every hardware founder can learn from starting over 

Memorable Quotes 

💬 “One of the hardest things is believing in a thing when nobody else can see it yet.” 

💬 “A novice’s mindset can achieve what experts say is impossible.” 

💬 “Everyone wants innovation until you ask them to live through it.” 

💬 “If you’ve got a great product but no story, you won’t sell any.” 

Resources & Links 

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 

👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 

🧠 Learn more about Newlane: 

https://newlane.co.uk 

👤 Connect with Dom Cotton on LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-cotton/ 

🎥 Watch full episodes on YouTube → youtube.com/@whydesignpod 

📸 Follow on Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 

🎵 TikTok → _whydesign 

🔗 Follow Chris Whyte on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 

📲 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube so you never miss an episode. 

👥 If this resonated, share it with a founder, designer, or team leader navigating their own creative leap. 

🎬 About the Episode 

Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. 

Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. 

About Kodu 

Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. 

We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 

🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com