Entrepreneur • Operator • Hardware Advisor
Kevin Mako: Post-exit founder, hardware consultant, guest speaker, & landman.
I founded MAKO Invent in 2006, grew it into the largest product development firm for hardware startups, and sold it to TriMech / Sentinal Capital in 2024. These days I advise and consult hardware founders via Product Startup, public speak on entrepreneurship & hardware, and invest in land & waterfront real estate.
8 figures
MAKO Invent exit
1,500+
Hardware founders helped
30+
Business and design awards
200+
Podcast episodes
Feathers in the cap
These are eight highlights from more than 30 business, growth, and design awards.
The short version of a long build
From a one-person firm to an international acquisition.
MAKO Invent started with one person and a stubborn belief that hardware founders deserved a better kind of product development partner, tailored to early stage startups. It grew into an international team with 4 offices, helped more than 1,500 founders, and was acquired by TriMech in 2024 in an eight-figure exit.
I learned which problems need attention today and which ones are mostly trying to look important. That judgement is what I now bring to founders, operators, and leadership teams mostly in the hardware / physical product space at Product Startup.
Where I can be most useful
Consulting is the main event. The podcast is the long-form conversation that supports it.
Hardware consulting
Direct advice for founders who are building something real.
Product Startup is where I work directly with a small number of hardware founders and leadership teams. The work is practical: clearer decisions, fewer expensive detours, stronger margins, and a company that can survive well beyond the launch deck.
- Product and commercialization strategy
- Manufacturing, funding and go-to-market decisions
- Leadership, team structure and operating priorities
- Preparing to scale, raise, acquire or sell
Hardware is already hard enough. The strategy should not make it harder. Don’t make the mistakes of most hardware startups.
The podcast
The Product Startup Podcast
The hardware product industry’s leading podcast. More than 200 candid conversations with the world’s hardware exports about physical product development, manufacturing, funding, marketing, launch, and scale. If you’re anywhere in the physical product world, this podcast is for you. There are way too many episodes to hit them all, but scroll through and you’ll see lots of episodes that hit your current biggest hardware challenges.
Speaking, teaching and media
Useful stories, honest lessons, and very few buzzwords.
I have delivered more than 50 keynotes and founder talks, lecture in the Master of Engineering program at Toronto Metropolitan University, host the hardware industry’s leading podcast, and regularly join podcasts and media conversations. My best topics are hardware entrepreneurship, commercialization, manufacturing, funding, growth and building a business to sell.
What else am I working on?
Apparently, one lane was never really my thing. These are the six areas that get the rest of my time and attention, mostly because I don’t invest in the stock market!
Rural Land Development Fund
Through Mako Land Fund, I invest in and develop large rural properties across Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The portfolio includes more than 50 properties and nearly 2,000 acres across forestry, mining, quarry and rural housing projects.
Keynote Speaker & Lecturer
I host The Product Startup Podcast, have delivered more than 50 keynotes on hardware and entrepreneurship, and lecture on commercialization in Toronto Metropolitan University’s Master of Engineering program.
Investor
Through Mako Group, I invest equity and debt in small businesses across Canada and the United States. I also provide private mortgages in Canada, the United States, Nicaragua, and the Bahamas.
Mako Property Corp.
I lead Mako Property Corp., which buys, renovates and rents executive waterfront vacation properties in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. The company also handles development and property management projects.
Home Build Consultant of Generational Estates
I am Director of Development at Legacy Manors, a Canadian build consultant of fortified, self-sustaining custom estates designed for large families and lifespans measured in centuries.
For Fun
I am a husband and dad of 5 kids first. I love hosting, playing ice hockey, fishing for bass, and fly as a private pilot. I have not yet found a way to combine all four safely, which is probably for the best.
Building a hardware company?
The consulting work lives at Product Startup. Start there and tell me what you are building, where it is stuck, and what a good outcome looks like.