> people hunger for robust, interesting wares The "robust" part of this is really important, and I would add "niche" to the list. Recently I've been working o

> people hunger for robust, interesting wares The "robust" part of this is really important, and I would add "niche" to the list. Recently I've been working on a DIY whole-home audio system, and there was nothing in the market which could meet the specs I need in terms of latency, and was sufficiently accessible at the software level. So I decided to build them myself, and in addition to getting the specs I want, I can also use high-end materials and get a design which fits in my home perfectly. So what I'm ending up with is totally over-engineered, and quite expensive when you add up all the parts and labor, and it would make not be economically feasible for any company to produce these at scale. There are not going to be 100k people who want these, but there could potentially be a couple hundred. I think the really cool thing about operating on that smaller scale is that the incentives really are aligned with creating the best possible user-experience from end-to-end. When the user-base you are serving is a nameless, faceless multitude, it's easier to decide to make a product which, for instance, will fall apart sooner, so the consumer has to replace it more often. But at the smaller scale, it actually is feasible to really truly prioritize making the best possible product for the user.