I help founders avoid the 99% Club.

Fractional CTO and founder coach for deep tech hardware. What you do not want to hear, early enough to act.

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Reza Larimi at a podcast desk, looking into the camera
19+
years, hardware and mechatronics
7
ventures, three times CTO
5
patents: sensors, test beds, methods
EF
alum, Entrepreneur First, Toronto

Companies and institutions I have built with

  • WearTech Labs, SFU
  • University of British Columbia
  • Entrepreneur First
  • Orchard Technologies
  • ForthGrid
  • GutPlans
  • Global Heat Transfer
  • Vivid Machines
  • EOI Technologies
  • Pleasant Solutions
  • Greenbuilt Group

Meet Reza, the operator who finds out before you build

Over 19 years and seven ventures I learned that the biggest risk in a startup is not whether the technology works. It is whether anyone was ever going to pay for it. Most founders find out the hard way, after years and millions. I help them find out faster.

Reza Larimi sketching a funnel on a glass wall

I work in four modes:

  1. Research Engineering Manager at WearTech Labs, Simon Fraser University's wearable technology facility
  2. Fractional CTO and hardware advisor through my practice, New Element Research and Development
  3. MBA candidate in Innovation and Value Creation at SFU
  4. Builder of AI agent systems that turn a question into a shipped, working thing the same day
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How I help

Five ways to work with me. All of them start with the same question: will anyone pay for this?

  1. Venture Validation Sprint

    Exit Without Execution, applied.

    Thirty to forty-five days to prove or kill a venture thesis on paper: customer, funnel, pricing, revenue model and IP position, before you commit years and capital to building it.

  2. Fractional CTO

    Hardware from prototype to manufacturable product.

    The hardest phase of deep tech. Design for manufacturing, new product introduction, compliance, supply chain and the team to run it after me.

  3. Technical Due Diligence

    For investors and boards.

    An operator's read on a hardware company: what is real, what is a demo, what it will cost to reach volume, and which risks the deck leaves out.

  4. Founder Coaching

    The conversation nobody else will have with you.

    For founders who want a challenger, not a cheerleader. Positioning, validation, priorities and the patterns that put startups in the 99% Club.

  5. AI Systems

    Agents and automation that run every day.

    Multi-agent pipelines, digital twins and automations wired into the tools a business already uses. Built to run in production, not to demo once.

What I think

Two frameworks on their way to becoming books, and one belief about speed.

“What founders hire me for: telling them what they do not want to hear, early enough to do something about it.”

Exit Without Execution

Validate the commercial thesis on paper first. Funnel, conversion, pricing, revenue, IP. Especially in hardware, where execution costs the most and a wrong thesis costs everything.

Framework in use. Book in development.

The 99% Club

The predictable ways founders disqualify themselves from the one percent: loving the solution before the problem, building a product when the customer wanted a service, skipping the pricing test.

Drawn from seven ventures. Book planned.

Stack and ship

Stacked strategies and stacked tools mean “I wonder” can become “here, take a look” in hours, not quarters. Fast start means slow and focused: do one small thing brilliantly, then compound.

How I work, every day.
Book to Blueprint

Book to Blueprint

One book, one actionable blueprint, under ten minutes.

My YouTube channel. Founder and operator books, personal development, strategy. Three episodes a week.

Watch on YouTube

Track record

Seven ventures, three CTO seats, one lab. Newest first.

  1. 2025, nowWearTech Labs, SFUResearch Engineering Manager, wearable technology core facility.
  2. 2023, 2025GutPlansCEO and co-founder. Food tech. A deliberate 45-day validation sprint, concluded with assets and learnings carried forward.
  3. 2022ForthGridCTO and co-founder. Autonomous precision machining for frontier industries. Angel and VC funded.
  4. 2021, 2022Entrepreneur FirstFounder in residence, Toronto.
  5. 2019, nowNew Element Research and DevelopmentFractional CTO and hardware advisor. Patented sound jammer to volume production, first continuous ICF molding machine, IP68 industrial systems.
  6. 2016, 2020Orchard TechnologiesCTO and co-founder. Metal additive manufacturing, venture backed.
  7. 2017, 2019Global Heat TransferR&D product lead. Patented IoT monitoring for industrial heat exchangers.
  8. 2015, 2017University of British ColumbiaResearch assistant. Stretchable sensors, adaptive control, robotic hands.

Book a call

Thirty minutes, online. Bring a venture, a hardware problem or a question you have been sitting on.

Pick a time at cal.com/rezalarimi/intro