When looking for someone to develop an electronic product, the first instinct is to go to a large company. It has an impressive website, a long client list and a feeling of safety. But what decides whether your project succeeds is not the size of the company. It is who will actually work on it, and how easy it will be for you to reach them.
What one question looks like in a large company
Say that in the middle of the project you want to change something small: add a button, or check whether an expensive part can be replaced with a cheaper one.
In a large company: you write to the project manager. They pass the question to the hardware team lead. The team lead asks the engineer working on the board. The engineer needs to check something with the software team, so their team lead talks to the software team lead, who talks to the developer. The answer travels back the same way. A few days have passed, and sometimes the answer that reaches you is no longer exactly what the engineer said.
In a small company: you ask the engineer. They know the answer, because they designed the board and wrote the code. If something needs checking, they check it and reply the same day.
This is not because people in large companies work less well. It is structure. Every layer of management adds time, cost and a chance to lose information on the way.
Comparison
| Large company | Small company with a senior engineer | |
|---|---|---|
| Who talks to you | A project manager | The engineer doing the work |
| Response to a technical question | Days | Usually the same day |
| What you pay for | Engineering + management layers + overhead | Mostly engineering |
| Who is responsible when something fails | Depends on which team the problem is in | The same person |
| Flexibility for changes | A formal change process | A conversation |
| Attention to your project | One of many projects | One of a few projects |
| Engineers in parallel | Many | Few |
Why a small company is usually faster
- No message relay. Every question, decision or change goes straight to the person doing the work.
- No boundary between teams. When the same engineer owns the hardware and the firmware, integration problems are solved in hours. Why this matters so much.
- Decisions are fast. You don't wait for a weekly status meeting to decide to replace a component.
Why a small company is usually cheaper
In a large company, an engineering hour also carries the project manager, the team leads, sales, offices and overhead. In a small company most of the money goes to engineering itself. And less coordination time means fewer hours to bill.
Personal attention is not a slogan
In a large company, a mid-size client's project is one of dozens. When a bigger project arrives, the best engineers move to it. In a small company that takes a limited number of projects, your project is a significant part of the work. It doesn't get pushed aside.
When you really need a large company
To keep the comparison fair, there are cases where a large company is the right choice:
- A project that needs dozens of engineers in parallel, for example a system with many boards, FPGAs, a large software stack and a schedule a small team cannot meet.
- Certification and processes that require a large organization, such as an internal quality department with specific accreditations.
- Large-scale ongoing service over years, with many people.
Most product development projects, such as a controller, a portable device, an IoT product, a control board or a proof-of-concept prototype, don't need that. One senior engineer, with long-term partners for mechanical design and manufacturing, gets the product there faster and for less money.
What to check in a small company
A small company is as good as the engineer behind it. Before choosing, check:
- Real experience. Similar projects, not just a list of technologies.
- Hardware and software together. Does the same person design the board and write the code?
- A clear process. Stages with defined deliverables and a price known in advance.
- Intellectual property. All files and source code are handed over to you at the end.
- Partners. Who does mechanical design, manufacturing and assembly, and who coordinates them.
ProtoMakers brings 15+ years of experience and 200+ projects, one engineer who owns the hardware and the code, a fixed price per stage, and all files handed over to you. Book a free intro call.
Written by Roman Alperovich, founder and lead engineer at ProtoMakers.