Yes, you can get a design review of your schematic, PCB layout, or product enclosure. There are two types of design reviews we offer depending on your plan:

Community Design Review (All Plans)
With the Standard plan, you’ll have access to Community Design Reviews right in our forum. Share your design challenges and receive guaranteed feedback from our expert engineers and fellow community members. It’s a collaborative space where you can get valuable insights in a shared setting.

Manufacturing Readiness Reviews (Premium Plan only)
As a Premium member, you’ll benefit from Manufacturing Readiness Reviews of your schematic, PCB layout, and enclosure design. These reviews are checklist-based and come with a summary of our findings all in a confidential environment.

Not at all. Many members are not doing the actual design work themselves. Instead, they use the Academy to get expert feedback on the work being done by their engineers or contractors.

You can use the design reviews and private support to oversee your team, catch issues early, and make sure you are getting high-quality results without needing to dive into the technical details yourself.

You don't need to learn electronics or product design. You just need to stay in control of your product’s development, and we help you do exactly that.

The Hardware Academy is a global platform with members from around the world. You will benefit from joining regardless of where you are located.

In addition to the U.S. we also have members from Europe, Canada, Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America. To my knowledge we don’t have any members yet from Antarctica, but otherwise we have members from every region of the world active in the Academy.

Most discussions, courses, and resources are completely independent of your location. Some topics like regulatory certifications are location dependent, but even then the requirements are very similar regardless of the country.

Yes! With Premium you get private engineering support.

Regardless of where you are on your journey with your product the Hardware Academy is a hugely beneficial resource. If you don't yet have a definite product idea you wish to pursue, then the academy will help you select the best idea to pursue.

If you instead have a definite product idea then you'll learn what steps come next. If you have a proof-of-concept (POC) prototype already, then you'll learn how to migrate it to a manufacturable product.

If you already have a manufacturable prototype, then you'll learn how to partner with manufacturers, do online marketing, find customers, connect with investors, etc.

The Hardware Academy is focused on every aspect of launching a new physical electronic hardware product, regardless of where you are in the process. You will learn about everything from product design to marketing to manufacturing.

The Hardware Academy was created primarily for electronic hardware products. However, outside of the electronics design, the other steps and challenges are pretty much the same for any physical product, so the Academy can be a good fit for non-electronic products too.

Obviously the content and discussions on electronics design won’t apply, but everything else applies almost equally well for any physical product.

Anything you share privately is kept strictly confidential and is protected by an NDA. All intellectual property remains 100% yours. 

When posting in the open community area you can get support and feedback from lots of other engineers, experts, and members. But what you share there is not private and all other active members can see it. 

Anyone can post in a free forum so how do you know you can ever trust any of the advice?

A lot of the information in a free forum is garbage. Everyone thinks they are an expert, but very few really are.

Public forums can also be very unfriendly places where you may get verbally attacked for asking the wrong questions.

That is not the case at all with the Academy community!

First of all, it's a private forum so only Academy members can access it. This alone filters out a lot of the bad stuff because only more serious people are allowed access.

It also means that the general public can never see your questions or any details about your product.

Secondly, John is in the community all the time personally answering questions and sharing advice. He also heavily moderates the community so the quality remains very high.

Finally, we've hand selected lots of experts to help answer your questions in the community. So you know you can trust the advice you are given in the Academy. It really is much more than just a community, and it's a place for you to get low-cost, low-risk access to trusted experts.

The courses mostly consist of recorded video content. Each course is broken down into multiple lessons which you can watch at your own pace. Total course length is usually between 1-4 hours.

You definitely should join now, because the more you know and the earlier you know it, the better. I'd say the fact you don't have a product idea nailed down yet is actually a big advantage for you.

Understanding the steps it takes to get a product developed and on the market gives you the knowledge to select the best idea to pursue.

Do not wait until you have your idea finalized before you begin the learning process. The earlier you begin the learning process the more likely you are to succeed.

Obviously I'd love it if all our members stuck around forever - but I know that is not realistic and things change! So, if you do decide to cancel obviously I'll be very sad, but if you're intent on leaving then you'll be able to do so with just a few clicks.

I don't hide the cancel button, nor do I require that you get my permission to cancel your subscription. You can cancel at any time. In fact, here’s a video showing you how to cancel your subscription.

Yes, you can rejoin at any time. However, if the membership fee has increased you will have to pay the new higher price.

Yes, absolutely. Whether you want to keep your product a secret, or keep your identity a secret (from perhaps your employer), you'll still gain a ton from the Academy.

You can remain totally anonymous inside the Academy if desired, so no one except myself (and any employees) will know your true identity. We will be as secretive with your idea and identity as you wish.

However, we always encourage members to not be overly secretive (especially with their identity) so they can receive the maximum benefit possible from the Academy.

If you want fully private support from John Teel then consider his private mentoring program, or the private engineering support available on the Academy Premium plan.

You get access to everything already inside the Academy straight away. We don't artificially delay anything just to hook you into staying longer.

Instead, we hook you into staying longer by continually helping you move forward with your product!

Yes. You are allowed to upgrade and downgrade between the different plans as needed. Although, we do ask that you plan to stay on the new plan for at least 3 months. Please email us for help switching plans.

You can all share all the same account as long as you are all a part of the same startup/project.

Absolutely not! All of your intellectual property remains 100% your property. We claim absolutely no rights to your intellectual property.

For more details see the section titled “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS TO YOUR MATERIALS” in the terms and conditions for the Academy.

Absolutely not! As long as you stay an active member your price is guaranteed to never increase. Any price increases will only impact new members, not existing ones. 

However, your current pricing is only guaranteed if you stay on your current plan or downgrade. If you wish to upgrade you are subject to the same price increases as new members. 

Also, if you cancel your subscription you are subject to all of the price increases and you will need to join at the current rate.

The price for the Hardware Academy is constantly increasing so the sooner you join the more you save.

This is kind of like asking "Should I wait until my project is successful before I ask for help?".

So the answer is no, and you need to get help first in order for your project to be successful. Helping you reach the point of generating revenue is one of the main goals of the Hardware Academy.

I always encourage you to strive to keep your expenses to a minimum, but the cost to join the Academy is so low it's really insignificant compared to the cost of developing and selling a new product.

The small monthly fee for the Academy will likely save you thousands of dollars and months or even years of your time. There is no better Return On Investment (ROI) than joining the Hardware Academy.

The earlier you seek help from those that have done what you seek to accomplish then the faster you will reach your goals!