Software People, Hardware Problems

There's a particular failure mode I see in energy tech: software people applying software intuitions to hardware problems.

The Iteration Fallacy

In software, you ship, learn, iterate. Deploy on Monday, fix the bug on Tuesday, ship the improvement on Wednesday.

In hardware, you install on Monday, discover the problem on Tuesday, schedule a technician for next Thursday, order a part that arrives in two weeks, and fix it the following month.

The feedback loop isn't days. It's months. Sometimes longer.

Design Implications

This changes how you think about product decisions:

Durability over features. That clever software optimization means nothing if the hardware fails in the field. Boring, reliable, well-tested beats innovative every time.

Margins over metrics. Software margins are forgiving. Hardware margins compound. A 5% error rate in software is a bug to fix. A 5% failure rate in hardware is a fleet problem that destroys unit economics.

Deployment over development. The hard part isn't building. It's installing, commissioning, maintaining, and eventually decommissioning. Most of the cost is after the product leaves your control.

The Translation Layer

The best infrastructure products I've seen have someone who can translate between these worlds. They understand software velocity and hardware constraints. They know when to push for faster iteration and when to slow down and get it right.

This person is rare. If you find them, don't let them go.

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This observation emerged from a conversation about why some energy tech startups struggle to scale despite strong technology.