01 · The challenge
The founders had a strong sensing approach and early customers, but their proof-of-concept used off-the-shelf boards, lasted six weeks on a battery and was impossible to install consistently.
02 · What we did
- 01
Designed a custom low-power board around an LTE-M module, with a power budget measured on the bench at every firmware release.
- 02
Engineered a driven-probe mechanical design that a field crew could install in under four minutes with a standard post driver.
- 03
Built assembly and end-of-line test fixtures, then ran a 500-unit pilot in our shop with full traceability.
- 04
Transferred a complete NPI package to a contract manufacturer for the 10,000-unit run.
03 · The outcome
The pilot hit its uplink and battery targets through a full growing season. The client used the data to close their seed extension and moved to volume production with zero RFIs on the CM’s first quote.
“The NPI package was the cleanest our supplier said they had seen from a startup.”