Coworking
A hardware-focused coworking and incubator environment for teams building physical products.
Founders work steps away from machines, fabrication tools, and experienced builders. The incubator supports early-stage companies through workspace, technical feedback, and access to manufacturing resources.
Revenue from space and services funds student training, equipment, and public access to tools. This is where hardware teams grow by building, not by pretending manufacturing can wait.
Grow hardware teams where building actually happens.
The Backyard Shop is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports hardware founders through education, workforce development, and access to manufacturing tools. Our coworking and incubator spaces are designed specifically for teams building physical products, with close proximity to fabrication, experienced feedback, and a working manufacturing environment.
Membership and space fees directly fund student training, equipment, and public access to tools. This is workspace built for builders, not general-purpose coworking.
Who it’s for
- • Hardware startups building physical products
- • Student teams with validated prototypes
- • Small manufacturers seeking a launchpad in Manteca, CA
What’s included
- • Dedicated desks and light fabrication access
- • Supply chain introductions and vendor hours
- • Monthly product reviews with shop mentors
- • Shared storage and secure lockers
What it’s not
- • No loud music, open flames, or unsafe materials
- • Not a generic coworking lounge
- • No consumer app teams without physical product needs
How Hardware Actually Gets Built
Software culture taught startups to move fast. Hardware culture teaches you how to move fast without breaking physics or bankrupting yourself.
At the Backyard Shop we encourage a bias for action and rapid learning through real prototypes, real suppliers, and real manufacturing constraints.
The Idiot Index
One of the first concepts founders learn at the Backyard Shop is the Idiot Index: the ratio between the cost of raw materials and the price of the finished product.
If your product costs $15 in materials and sells for $150, you likely have room to build a real business.
If it costs $120 to produce and sells for $150, you probably have a hobby supported by investors.
This ratio forces teams to confront manufacturing reality early. A product must have enough margin to absorb fabrication, labor, testing, logistics, and scale.
Where Breakthrough Companies Look
The Idiot Index is also a powerful tool for identifying industries ready for disruption.
Some of the most important engineering companies in recent decades started by asking a simple question: Why is the finished product so expensive when the raw materials are not?
SpaceX famously examined the cost structure of rockets and noticed that the material cost of a launch vehicle was only a small fraction of the final price. The majority of the cost came from legacy manufacturing practices, complex supply chains, and industry assumptions that had gone unchallenged for decades.
That gap between what something costs to make and what the market accepts as normal is where engineering innovation lives.
What We Teach Builders to Look For
At the Backyard Shop we encourage founders to examine industries through that lens:
- • Where are material costs low but final products extremely expensive?
- • Which manufacturing steps exist only because "that's how it's always been done"?
- • Where could modern fabrication, automation, or design simplification collapse cost?
Those questions often reveal opportunities that spreadsheets and pitch decks miss.
The goal isn't just to build products. The goal is to identify systems where better engineering can radically change what things cost to build.
Fail Fast, Fail Cheap
Hardware mistakes are expensive if they happen late.
We encourage teams to prototype quickly and often. Early versions may be rough, ugly, or temporary, but each iteration teaches something valuable.
A failed prototype that costs $40 and two days is progress. A failed production run that costs $80,000 is a lesson learned too late.
Bias for Action
Hardware startups fail when founders spend months planning instead of building.
At the Backyard Shop the expectation is simple: design → build → test → improve → repeat.
Ideas are interesting. Prototypes are evidence. Working next to machines, technicians, and other builders creates an environment where momentum matters and progress is visible.
Build Where Manufacturing Lives
The biggest mistake hardware teams make is separating design from fabrication. Engineers sit in offices. Manufacturing sits somewhere else. Problems appear months later.
Here, design happens a few steps away from machines, suppliers, and experienced builders. That proximity compresses feedback loops and helps teams solve problems early.
Hardware companies grow faster when design and manufacturing are neighbors.
Teams in residence
On The Fly Energy Inc.
Peak energy storage devices for AI workloads and high demand fee cost energy processes
www.ontheflyenergy.com →
AEGIS
Modular perimeter awareness and autonomous response platform integrating computer vision, thermal sensing, RF spectrum analysis, and edge AI for multi-domain situational awareness
aegis.hmi.dev →
Backyard Automation
Industrial automation studio bringing robotics and modern manufacturing systems to small and mid-sized factories. CNC tending cells, internal material-handling robots, and retrofit controls for legacy equipment. Closing the gap between automation demos and hardware that runs every day.
backyardautomation.com →
Apply for workspace
We review coworking and incubator applications on a monthly cadence.