Hard technology startups generate a lot of buzz, but there's a growing group of companies building digital tools that are squarely focused on making hard technology development faster, more efficient, and much closer to software development. increasing.
California-based Rollup is the latest startup to emerge as part of this ensemble. Although the company is coming out of stealth on Monday, it has actually been around for three years. But despite raising a total of $5.6 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Teal Capital, the team has remained very under the radar.
The startup has developed a software platform that has the potential to completely change the way complex hardware is built. The platform is designed to be your partner throughout the product lifecycle, providing comprehensive support for tasks such as systems engineering, system modeling, requirements management, technical documentation generation, and design review.
The platform is made up of various “modules” such as requirements management and CAD viewers, all of which communicate with each other and represent changes made throughout the project.
“[Rollup is] It’s not a homework product, it’s a flagship product,” founder and CEO Collin Mickels explained in a recent interview. “A lot of engineering collaboration software is treated like homework by engineers. They go in, upload files, approve them, and then go out.”
In contrast, Rollup is meant to sit next to an engineer's screen as a companion throughout their workflow throughout the day. Michels, who worked briefly at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Blue Origin and Varda Space Industries before founding Rollup, said the current state of affairs is characterized by a lack of communication, including meetings, emails and Slack messages. He said the entire job is aimed at efficiency or reduction. Friction between different disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, and regulatory.
“Engineers basically spend 10, 20, 30 percent of their time doing non-engineering work,” he said.
The platform aims to condense iteration cycles on complex hardware and ultimately help companies, especially early-stage companies, get to market faster while reducing technical risk.
Rollup is profitable, and nearly all of its customers are early-stage companies, from small satellite manufacturers to robotics companies. The startup aims to bring more mature companies into its customer base, expand the number of integrations with other tools, and bring more features to the platform.