Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Nolan: Co-locating Engineering and Initial Manufacturing Is Mandatory

Scott Nolan · From SpaceX to Founders Fund to Solving America's Nuclear Fuel Problem · Invest Like The Best · Apr 14, 2026 · at 35:04

Scott Nolan, Founder/CEO of General Matter and Founders Fund partner, outlines his core manufacturing philosophy for hardware startups.

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“I think you need to, at a minimum, put your first of a kind manufacturing co-located with engineering and then better yet small scale manufacturing, mid scale manufacturing, maybe a large scale. You can push it somewhere else and go to a lower cost center as opposed to like Southern California where so many of these companies are, but I think it's mandatory.”

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