Whipsaw Launches "The Workshop" to Accelerate Breakthrough Hardware Startups

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Whipsaw, the award-winning design and innovation studio known for creating category-defining products, announces the launch of The Workshop, a new accelerator program built specifically for early-stage hardware founders. The inaugural 10-week cohort began this week, bringing together five ambitious startups developing bold new tools for health, home, and human connection.

Unlike typical accelerators, The Workshop is built around direct collaboration with Whipsaw's multidisciplinary team of industrial designers, engineers, strategists, and brand experts. The program gives founders access to Whipsaw's deep product development expertise, helping them go from idea to investor-ready product with real-world traction and design excellence.

The Fall 2025 cohort includes founders who are:

• Reimagining personal health monitoring with a more human touch
• Designing smarter, more sustainable systems for everyday living
• Tackling overlooked but universal frustrations of daily life with elegant solutions

They come from backgrounds as diverse as clinical research, consumer electronics, sustainability design, and frontier tech. Some are repeat founders with successful exits, others are first-time entrepreneurs bringing deep domain expertise from academia and industry. Together, they represent a new wave of hardware talent—pragmatic dreamers building products that people will actually use and love.

"These founders are solving everyday problems in thoughtful, original ways," said Dan Harden, Whipsaw's CEO and Principal Designer. "We created The Workshop to help entrepreneurs bring those ideas to life with clarity, momentum, and design leadership."

Over the course of the program, founders participate in weekly seminars, 1:1 coaching, founder development sessions, and collaborative design sprints. The curriculum is structured to deliver a final product concept, brand story, and investor-ready pitch deck by the end of the 10 weeks. The program culminates in an invite-only Demo Day in late November.

The Workshop's operating team includes Whipsaw leadership across industrial design, experience design, technical strategy, and business development. Advisors and mentors bring additional depth in fundraising, storytelling, and hardware go-to-market execution.

Whipsaw plans to run The Workshop several times per year. For more information or to express interest in future programs, visit www.whipsaw.com/the-workshop-hardware-startup-accelerator or contact [email protected].

Media Contact:
Anne Van Itallie
VP of Client Relations & Growth
Whipsaw
[email protected]
(408) 297-9771

SOURCE Whipsaw, Inc.