Intro 

Welcome to another episode of Innocence Theory. Today's episode is about putting our feet to the ground. It's about turning knowledge into action. It's also about learning from people who actually do it. We began the series by saying, it's not personal, it's just business. Today we explore someone who's building a business that is deeply personal.

We'll be speaking with Koushiic Durai Founder and CEO of WowFactories. This is an innovation startup building products and tools that are made to last. They focus on sustainability and on the right to repair.

In this conversation, we explore what it takes to build a physical product in today's world and what it means to turn an idea into a concept, into a business.

Koushiic is launching his first product, the Combine Driver. This we'll learn more about in the episode, but imagine how a simple object like a screwdriver can actually represent something bigger about passion, about responsibility, about the world of business. If you're a founder or if you're a designer, or if you've ever wondered about how passion turns into a product.

There is something in this episode for you. Without much further ado, let's get into it. You're listening to Innocence Theory. This is the inflection point series. 

Okay.

Meet Koushiic and Wow Factories

Arjun: Extremely happy to have you Koushiic Thank you for joining us.

Koushiic: thank you, uh, for the invite. it's an honor.Um, I'd love to contribute and talk whatever I know and learn from you guys as well.

Arjun: Awesome. 

Podcast Mission and Hosts

Arjun: So, um, Koushiic a quick word about us. we have Dinesh, Dinesh and I, are buddies from school. we've known each other for a long time and, and about five years back. Uh, we kind of started having certain conversations which were particularly started forming shape. And just around four years ago, we started this podcast called the Innocence Theory Podcast, Dinesh comes from a design background and I come from a technology background.

our goal in these conversation is to enquire uh, people, ideas, actions, news, events around the world, that are in the intersection of sustainability, climate change, technology, ai, using lenses of, you know, systems thinking, design thinking, conversations. Right. Um, Dinesh. Over to you, man.

Origin Story of Combine Driver

Dinesh: Hey, uh, hey Koushiic. Thanks for, joining. we were just, uh, checking the product, uh, it looked really cool. So first of all, congratulations for that. I'm curious to know what's the backstory about, about your, product. Can you talk a little bit about that?

What's, what's the inspiration from why a screwdriver?

Koushiic: Yeah, sure Dinesh so this is part of my, uh, thesis project when I studied at Central St. Martins, in London.so I did the course MA (Industrial Design), and, I sort of knew that, you know, my thesis, I wanted to cover exploring the process of, you know, how do we make a product carbon negative

Not, not really sustain neutrality, I was looking at into being carbon negative and,seeing how does manufacturing need to change?

How do we need to change the design approach? What are the financial models that need to adapt to it? You know, really, really looking at all the elements at play. What are the variables? So in the end of that, thesis, I made two products, which was a screwdriver kit, and then a mechanical keyboard. And, theoretically they were both, carbon negative.

So I'm saying theoretically because I still haven't manufactured it in large scale. So the screwdriver kit was about carbon negative by 190 grams. So, which means for every kit you make, you remove 190 grams of atmospheric carbon, the keyboard, which is a larger product for every kit you make, you actually remove 700 grams of atmospheric carbon.

Traditionally, what would happen is for a keyboard, you, when you make a keyboard, you emit about, um. 6 to 20 kilos of, CO2 into the atmosphere throughout the process. So we are not 6 to 20 kilos carbon negative, but we are 700 grams carbon negative. So it's healing, but you know, it's not healing faster than the damage or at, at matching the damage rate.

That's the ideal goal. But also, you know, carbon negative is, it's easier to pull you than pull in my carbon just because of how the, how being carbon negative works, which I'll elaborate later. And so, after my thesis, I wanted to take one of those projects, forward to bring it to, the masses so that, you know, uh, I mean one of the only ways you can be more sustainable is at scale. That's how we got to being more polluted at scale. So it's the same game. 

Why a Screwdriver First

Koushiic: So we did a lot of research on what's the best way to do it. Is it, uh, gonna be a mechanical keyboard or a screwdriver? In the end, we decided to choose Screwdriver for a couple of reasons.

One is, as a maker and a industrial designer, I love tools. Anytime I go to a hardware store, I feel like a kid. I just wanna buy everything I see. Even if I have the same, like I've got like four or five screwdriver kits. I don't even use all of them, but it's still there. And, I mean, yeah, that's, that's not sustainable, so I'm not vouching for that.

Don't buy that. But, um, you know, just, just to paint the picture of how much I like tools, but I think, uh, although I love mechanical keyboards, I like tools more. They allow me to make. That was one decision why we thought, okay, you know, I love this product. Let me just go with that. The other one was, um, wanted to make more tools because, in a way what we thought was if you make something responsibility that allows people to make, then they would use that as a benchmark to make more responsibility.

And that's why we thought, let's make tools, the best tools, the most responsible way. So at least that will be a benchmark for people when they use that to make something they want, that they can make something better. we sort of positioned wow factories as a beacon where, you know, we are balancing sustainability, but it's, it's very important that we are financially successful. It had to be a really good product and it had to be sustainable, right. As a business model and for the environment.

So that's what we are trying to do and mean. It's, it's a very long path we've just begun.

Green Product That Performs

Koushiic: And, uh, the one thing we've tackled on our first product is it's fully repairable and fully recyclable. So that's, two of the problems we've solved on a very high quality, high durability product.

So the reason we did this is, uh, firstly we wanted to challenge the norm that green does not mean better. We tried to use, being sustainable. A green has the argument to make the product better in every single way. for example, when you look at a screwdriver's handle, it's got a overmolded rubber grip and all of that, which makes it less recyclable.

So we obviously didn't wanna do an overmolded rubber grip because that's not recyclable, but when we went into mono materiality, now you need to. challenge the crowd or the naysayers that a mono material handle can be better than a rubber grip. So how do you do that? And, I think in the pursuit of solving that issue and that angle, we've actually created a handle that outperforms a rubber grip while still being more recyclable.

And here because of decisions like this, I think the culminating result is, sort of, we don't even talk about sustainability. The handle is just better hands down. So a lot of the YouTubers we've sent it to, we, we've not even told, you know, the handle is the way it is because of mono material. We only told them because of ergonomics, it's a better handle.

And they genuinely agreed. And then we tell them, Hey, it's also mono material and you can fully recycle it. And then they start to start to like that angle more, rather than saying, you know, it's a great angle because it's mono material that's, we don't believe that's why people should buy it. That's our responsibility to make a good handle. And so that's the attitude we've, you know, put across the entire product. Nobody should buy it because it's green. That's our responsibility. But we wanted to make a great product that's also green. So that's the screwdriver. And we thought to get started to make something, um, organic in terms of business practices to, uh, to make something that is not very, uh, CapEx intensive. We thought we'll make a screwdriver that's mechanical, that's easy to repair and service so we can ship replacement parts and all of that. And, it's a good metaphor for, uh, or a representation of your right repair. So maybe 10, 20 years from now when we are doing a lot more tools that are right to repair the screwdriver is the ultimate tool.

And we'd wanna say that's where we started. So that's why the screwdriver 

Dinesh: Arjun, you, you have, some naive questions to ask.

Why does it matter to the unitiated

Arjun: I do, so Koushiic, treat me as somebody who very uninitiated in this space, right? Like for me, my first question is why Right To Repairability? Why screwdriver of all things that you could have made, why this particular product? 

 How does somebody look at this and why products like this matter to people like me?

Koushiic: Right. Yeah, so there are angles to this. for somebody who's uninitiated I would say, you know, when we bring in the argument of sustainability, it's quite a lot to wrap your head around when if you're not really aware and, uh, especially with all of this greenwashing and stuff, you sort of get, um,tuned out, in a way that yeah, and anything could matter and not matter at the same time.

So it's kind of overwhelming to really think about, what's true or not. But, you know, obviously if you do your research, you would know. And I think I, I, I wouldn't say that it's not the consumer's responsibility to decide, but I think, if everybody made a great tool. And then that's the only variable.

Then I think the consumer is the one to decide and they have to take that responsibility. But I don't think that's a very easy argument to make because, one is, you know, we are talking about affordability. I mean, you can make an incredibly sustainable tool, but that's only sustainable to the climate and not. Finance.

So what about people who can't afford it? Right. You, you can't make the argument that they have to buy it. They have to make the decision because they can't, honestly, they would love to, but they don't have access to the decision that, you know, we're talking about access. So, so that's why, you know, we thought we'll make a screwdriver, which is a very ubiquitous and generic product to see what people think about it.

And, and you know, that's one of the reasons we launched on Kickstarter before going the brick and mortar route and investing a but lot of money on it. It's because, um,we wanna know what people think. And honestly, you, you can actually see a lot of our YouTube videos comments, like, people genuinely still think the repairability is, greenwashing.

Like the, the, the arguments that we are seeing are, I'm not gonna pay this much for, screwdriver. That's repairable. When I can just go to Home Depot, a home base and get a screwdriver for like $20 and when it breaks, I'm just gonna buy another one. I can buy 10 of those before I get one of these, which is a very true argument.

Right? You, you can't argue against that because that's, that's a fact. and the the other thing is, you know, obviously we, we can make it cheaper and there are so many other ways to, you know, get it more accessible. So if I'm, I'm pretty sure if we made a screwdriver that is equally, price competitive, I don't think that person is going to go out of the way to an unsustainable product. I, I think the main, main thing that we'd wanna talk about is accessibility to sustainability. That is a huge price to pay, and that's something that, you know, a lot of countries are also facing, 

 just giving India for example, like, paying $10,000 as electricity bill, just for the sake of sustainability makes lives unsustainable, right?so that argument just doesn't work. Sustainability is not affordable right now. it's not, we don't even have a choice.

But these are the kind of arguments that we're trying to solve when it comes to the average buyer. what we are trying to do is bring the cost down to a point where we've just made a better screwdriver, which we have, we believe we do, but you know, the cost still matters. So when somebody looks at this on the shelf, we don't want them to think, do I need to buy it?

Because it's more sustainable. They just should buy it because it's a better product and they can afford it. I think that access to sustainability is what we really wanna solve.

Arjun: And to make that accessible. Um, is this first of many for you? Like this, is this going to be the product for you or, how does this, this journey for you look like, in, in terms of now and next?

Koushiic: obviously bringing that access involves a lot of reinvestment in r and d, it is a very CapEx intensive journey. Which we're happy to do, but it also builds a lot of ip. So we believe that there is a lot of returns in building sustainable ip, that's what we call it. And,it's easier for smaller companies to solve the problem, mainly because of bureaucracy and, you know, investor, expectations.

Because we, we, we don't have set expectations already through our past business years to keep following. We can just tell the investors, we wanna do this, you can come on board or not. So we're not deceiving anyone. that's something we want to, uh, do. And yes, this is one of many, so we are starting with the screwdriver.

We'll probably be with fasteners for the next three years because it, it, I mean, a hardware product is a very slow journey, but I think you get very steady and stable returns. You, you just can't disappear like a software company, someone fine day, and, we are gonna be doing software as well in the future, but for the sake of sustainability, not, not the duck curve or the revenue curve, but, you know, it's, it's, it's keeping focus and bringing the argument back to the table where. know, it, we are making more tools, investing into more,  materials, trying to solve problems. So like, for example, I'm just giving hypothetically, right? If, if we found an amazing way, an amazing material that at, absorbs so much carbon, like,eight times, its mass, right? So if you make a product which weighs one kg and it has removed eight kgs of atmospheric carbon, and then somehow it's magically the best product and it's super affordable, everybody buys it and you've removed all the atmospheric carbon you could possibly do to reverse climate change at that point.

Now you are unsustainable because you need atmospheric carbon. at what point do you decide to stop? So you need a business model that takes you to that point, but also then you need to start telling your audience, guys, you know, uh, now we are not going to be removing that much carbon because you've still gotta eat and plants need carbon.

So, you know, you can't suffocate the atmosphere out of carbon. You, you need that. So, you know, when we talk about sustainability, it's not a one way argument. Sustainability is basically a balance. And, uh, with so much to learn, we are starting with materials and practices. That's where we are starting, but we are gonna lean a lot more into policy and education.

But we don't wanna make it noise. we don't wanna go protest, we don't wanna do stuff like that.  we wanna bring the argument of affordability from the consumer. we want them to feel like they chose a product and inevitably it became a very sustainable decision for them and the rest of the world.

Arjun: And then be proud that they made that choice, you know, not we asked them to, or bragged about it on online forums and being really Toxic about it. Hmm. 

Koushiic: uh

long, uh, long answer shot. Yes. We, we have a lot more products, lot more R&D to do, to solve this one very big problem.  

Hardware Startup Reality Check

Arjun: if we leave the, idea of sustainability right, to repair. all the ethics and values around why this is shaping the way it is like this for you.

Koushiic: Mm-hmm.

Arjun: and, and look at, the business of what you're trying,trying to do. Um, how friendly is it at this point in time for someone to start in this space?

What has been your journey? what are some initial learnings? I know, you're probably still in the initial phases 

Koushiic: Yeah, 

Yep.

Arjun: is it still the same, like from the, from concept market? how, how has this evolved for you?

Koushiic: Well more or less the same. I think your, your,pre-seed has become a little more easy and more accessible. But I think, uh, the battle after that, it's, it's very hard for people to start to understand, especially investors, especially Indian investors. the valuation you get from Indian investors pretty, pretty bad, because they're more into investing into startups,ev startups and electric startups, which are just dump money, scale, scale, scale, dump money, dump money, scale, scale. And you've still not made a profit. You, um, you, you have revenue, but you're large. You're so large, you can't fail. I mean, yeah, sure. Uh, you can dump money into anything and make it really, really large and raise value and quit. Right? So, so, with, with that argument, when, when we come in, it's, it's obviously difficult for us because it's, it's a different mindset.

a lot of these investors, you know, have also invested in those companies. They also come and sit with us and they're like, okay, where is my 10 x? When is it gonna be, and I'm trying to tell them, this is the journey. We are trying to solve the issue. Obviously we wanna be profitable.

We, we know how we can. The amount of money we require upfront is a lot more because we are investing in the logistics molds, engineering, your, first 1 Lakh your first 50,000 pieces, putting the infrastructure down for service and all that, which is huge. Right? I wish it was a software where you just, you know, get four crores in seed fund, get a couple of Macs, get a couple of guys code it and push the launch button. You need software. You definitely need software, right?

But I think, yeah, the hardware problem is at some point you've, you've gotta do it. You can't run away from it. And,that's, that's what we're trying to do. And it is a little, see, building a hardware startup today than before is definitely easier. But the building a startup today, which is a hardware startup compared to a software startup, is so much more difficult to make that argument.

It's, it just doesn't make sense. Like you just make an app. You can, you can ask ChatGPT make an app and say, you made that app and launch it. Like, I mean, I'm not, I'm ultra simplifying it. but. the amount of checks that we need to do.

So, for example, if, if, if we invested, say about 36 crores into our first batch of production and moulds and all of that, and turns out that's, we thought we made a great product, but turns out that's not what actually people want. Like, they like it, but that's not exactly what people want. We've dumped 36 crores into the, into the bin, right?

We can't push an over there update and shorten something and lengthen something or make it thicker and, uh, fix that problem. We can't do that. And, uh, these, these are some of the things that make it more difficult. But, you know, I think whoever's doing it today, the hardware guys, they're doing it because it's enjoyable and, it's, it's the right thing to do.

So, I mean, we, we can't really make a software today that solves climate change. I mean, it can help you manage climate change, but in the end, the problem is a very physical problem. It can help you manage that, like track, see where it's going, what, what is the best solution to do. But all the doing, all the action is very physical.

It has to be physical because that is where the emissions are there. So that is why, that's one of the reasons we are doing what we are doing. 

Arjun: So you mentioned two things. people giving indication of what they want and investors saying, where's my 10x 

Koushiic: Mm-hmm.

Arjun: from the business side of it, I want know, are you getting true signal from users? What is your way of, feedback mechanisms, right? Is it still old school? Is it still, has something changed in the way you actually collect good feedback, quality feedback right now in 2026?

 and how does this correlate with what investors want? Like, it seems like you are battling two different sides at the same time in some sense.

Koushiic: yeah, yeah. So in the end, investors want a confident product. They obviously want you to make a product that's sellable, right? There's, there's nothing's changing there. And obviously it has to be profitable, more profitable, the better. Investors are happy. But, collecting feedback is a lot more easier today because see, uh, traditionally, you know, you, you'd be face to face with the guy who's gonna potentially use it.

Ask him if he likes it. I mean, what is he gonna say that he hates it? Like he is just gonna say, I mean, yeah, you can change this, you can change that, but it's more or less okay, so how do you translate that? It's a lot of noise. But today, especially with social media and all of that. People can just sit in their room, in their most comfortable space and just comment whatever the shit they want about the product.

And that's very helpful. That's honest.

the reason it's very helpful is not that it's harsh, but it's very honest. Like, if, if people hate it, they genuinely hate it. They're not trying to give you sugarcoated, that makes it easier to take a decision. You're not putting in more effort to clarify something or they, they're not telling you, this might work or may not work, but it's up to you.

You know, that's not happening. Like people are telling you exactly what they like and what they don't like,

Arjun: Yeah, so I, but say I just put fire emoji on the product, right? And one like full rock on emoji on the product, like from from a founder. How, how, does that really translate for, for you? Like, do you, you see this other, this is working, or this is like somebody who doesn't care to share a few more words about this product.

Koushiic: okay. So, so I think you're coming from a lot of, reel chats, right? but so far whatever comments we've had, people are actually taking the time to write about, on average, at least 60 words. Like we, we had a comment, which is 120 like, there were people like raging over the product at some point, because one of the video YouTubers said, this is better than what, Swiss guys and German guys are making.

And this is made in India.

And we had comments about why somebody would never buy, made in India, that we had comments about all of those stuff So, you know, if, but, you know, coming back to question, if somebody gave a flame emoji or rock on emoji, I wouldn't pay much attention to it. reason is, uh.

That's not solving any problem. I'm happy, he's happy. Maybe he'd buy the product. I really want to get it to the point where, why is somebody not buying the product? Uh, because that's the problem I can act on. That's the problem I can solve. See, if somebody loves the product, there's nothing for me to solve.

I just give them the product. Right? But if somebody hates it, something I can do something about. And those are the comments that obviously we look at a hate to like comment ratio. So we do see that. that's important. So to know how far you from a bad, a good product. 

Brand Constraints and Tradeoffs

Koushiic: so, but you know, you've gotta be really careful with these things because you can't just look online and write down a checklist of all the hate comments that you see and say, okay, gen two, we are gonna solve all of that.

And make that product that's, that's the wrong thing to do because, uh, okay. Like one of the comments were, you know, I like more colors, but we know as a company when you make more colors, it makes it less recyclable and all of that. So eight of those eight other guys would've bought it because of whatever other values we had to make, satisfy this one guy.

We might actually end up losing those eight guys. So at some point you need to constrain your brand to certain things. You have to say no to certain things, and yes to certain things. You become a person, you're not a yes man. Right. And I think sort of establishes that, helps people decide what will they do, what will they not do.

And a company that's very good at that is Apple. there are things that they just wouldn't do. Like they, they've still not come to a point where they would come. They're convinced enough to put a touch screen on their Macs Um, and touchscreen Windows has been there from, I don't know, since I was in my eighth grade or seventh grade. Right

And, it's still not great. It's still a nice to have. It's not something that has become a, the way to use windows. You still use it on a keyboard. And so I think, uh, when we look at arguments like this, I feel like. Obviously we have to listen, we have to be very critical. But I think in the end you have to take the right decision to listen to or not listen to certain comments.

'cause they can make or break you. You need to understand is he the customer I wanna be it to down the line or am I gonna be losing more people? 

New Bit Interface Explained - Product Demo

Koushiic: So when this is something we we're still deciding on because see some of the decisions we took in this product is, I wouldn't say rad, not radical, but I would say rage baiting or triggering.

Uh, but I think in the end we did it for the betterment of the total community. So one thing we did was if you look at our, uh, bit Interface your bits would be, uh, a hex bit they would go in a hex socket. So we've actually reversed this. The main reason is,

 you can see the amount of play here. It reduces the play a lot. And, The other thing is, the thickness between these two. So it's the same strength, but now you've just got one shaft that allows you to go into more recessed spaces.

 And when we did this, we had so many people saying, you know, you're making something now and we won't buy it. you know, we are the only people who will be making those bits. Uh, which is a very fair argument. But, so we had to balance between do we make a great user experience and, uh, uh, change the bit standard or do we stick to the bit standard and not really solving this one problem?

Nobody solved. Like any screwdriver, manufacturer uses a Hex interface. We are the only guys who use Torx T30. What we've now done is created this crowd of audience that only bits this problem is solved only through us, right?

 It's, it's kind of like when Windows only existed and MacOS came out. Obviously a lot of Windows fan boys are gonna hate it. They are gonna hate it. They like Windows. That's fair. But all the problems Windows had, some people finally decided, Hey, you know what? I'm gonna buy into Mac Os. And they became the Mac only guys.

They would only, they would swear by Mac, right

And I think this is important because you need to give people these choices. And I'm, I'm sure, like most of the people are gonna buy a screwdriver. Whether they like it or not, would just shift because we offer a different bit interface. That's one problem only we solve. Nobody else solves

everything else is a betterment, right? Our, our ratchet is better. Our torque clutch is better, our strength is better. All of that is just better. So for something to be just better. You sort of need a lot more time convincing somebody. Like for example, yeah, Ferrari's got a 1000 HP car, or 750 HP car.

So does a Tesla plaid, a model s plaid, right? But that doesn't mean somebody is going to, in their right mind compare a ferri and a Tesla, right? Horsepower is, it's important, but it's the whole experience. It's if you love Ferrari, there's no way you're going to fall for a Tesla model Plaid, right? But if it's just speed and it's just the adrenal and tech, maybe yes, you'd make that argument. so what I'm trying to say is, you, you need to create this, a different, not not for the sake of it, but you, you have to do something where it drastically changes the product at some point where only you offer that it becomes a you product. Like some people will decide to yours because only use all that differently 

these guys who buy yours will only buy yours. Then, you know, you can start making everything else better where it adds value for other people to shift. So that's the path we are trying to do it. It is, it's not easier, but it's more stable. And,you get to create your own audience.

You're not trying to dive into a market. So because you're not making another screwdriver, they don't compare because we've changed this one interface and it becomes hard to compare. But people know the decision they need to make.

Dinesh: there's one place which sort of keeps me unsettled is, is probably, I think you also address. So there's, there's one area where we are speaking about right to repairability, sustainability. And we want a product 

that, that is coherent to those ideas, you give the right example of Mac, and apple and you know, their products.

And if you look at it, their products are not, very repairable, right? in your case, in your, the screwdriver, for people who are like listening if you have to like simplify it, if I lay, say lose few bits. Right. loose few bits or probably, they kind of get worn out because of repeated use.

then, then I can go easily and, uh, and get few bits, and then, then I have your screwdriver, and then it's, It's full functionality is restored,

right As opposed to a proprietary mechanism where now that is not there. No. So no, that we'll have to only reach out to you.

Koushiic: Mm-hmm.

Dinesh: Uh, so isn't it sort of conflicting there where we have a product which is, well thought through, well intended and, yeah.

We want to be sustainable. We want to, make it work for the guys who are very passionate about right to Repairability, but at the same time, it's conflicting a bit in the space where the, the tool itself is not repairable. how do you square that?

Koushiic: when it goes on sale and say people's bits wear out and you, and you actually can't buy it in the market, then I think, uh, that's a very valid argument because you don't have access to this supposedly repair, you know, a repairable screwdriver, but. The parts are not available.

So how does it matter if it's repairable? but I think that's not, that's not what we are looking at it. So when we order, say, 1 Lakh screwdrivers, only about fif 85,000 screwdrivers would be assembled. The rest 15,000 are just spares. We don't even assemble them. so at, at some point when somebody wears out something and they just want to buy another part, if it's inaccessible, then there's no point in making a repairable product.

But the whole point is to make it accessible. In fact, the reason we've made a kit modular is so that in the future people can just buy more of some bits that they think they've been using a lot more. Or, you know, if it's on a desk or a workshop where there are, I think 20/30 people sharing two screwdriver kits, they don't need to necessarily have only one set of Hex or one set of Torx bits.

They can just buy another module, buy more bits and put it on. And for that, environment to exist, we need to have a lot more spares available in the market. So, yes, not just bits, the entire screw driver, you can still buy each part individually from a store and assemble a kit entirely by yourself. But again, Torx T30 YouTube comments, use the word proprietary.

It's actually not proprietary Torx T30 is an ISO standard.

Dinesh: Right,

Koushiic: anybody can go make this if they want to. They just need to make the bits themselves like legally, we can't stop or so anybody from making that their bit interface. Right. Because that's an ISO standard.

It's a new design. It's, it's an ISO standard, a new design that people can use. And we've tried to solve that the Hex standard doesn't solve. That's all this is. We've not innovated the Torx T30 in, if we did that, that's proprietary.

Dinesh: right.

Koushiic: Yeah.

 if you go to the ISO standards, you can basically download a ISO standard paper that has dimensions for Torx T30 30. What dimension tolerance It needs to be there to pass. You can just make it honestly.

Why Industry Stuck With Hex

Dinesh: So, why is the industry been, you know, evolved using the current form of the, the hexagon one? I mean, is it solving something for them or what

Koushiic: Yeah, yeah. It's, It's easier to make Dinesh so for example, the Quarter Inch hex, right? It just comes as a long tube, as hex. You just cut it and machine the tip That's.

Dinesh: Right.

Koushiic: We have to do broaching machining. It's a more expensive. That's one of the reasons Also, the Torx bit interface was invented much later.

It was the Torx bit interface or the Torx screws. Right? So it's a screw head. The Torx, the Penta lobe,

Dinesh: Right.

Koushiic: mean, uh, hexa lobe, that's what Torx is. That was in innovated because hex was not solving certain problems, that needed solution. That is what Torx was. Torx creates more surface contact. It, doesn't slip that easily.

It doesn't Cam out. It doesn't wear that easily. And we felt like, hey, it's an obvious decision that these Screws were invented because the hex was not good. This is better. But, uh, the entire manufacturing supply chain is sort of designed around the hex interface.

Dinesh: Hmm.

Koushiic: honestly a lot of decisions we took made it harder for us, it, it's still making it harder for us.

But I think in the end, these are hard problems to solve now than later. I don't think if we were a 500,000 crore company, we'd honestly invest any money into making a Torx bit interface today. That's, that's only us. We are reinventing something and we have to reiterate to our customers that, Hey, we are trying something new.

It's not proprietary, but as a startup, this is the only thing we want to do now, which is solve this problem. And that sort of defines you. And because we get this, we get to do this, we can do that in every product where not to make it proprietary, but to make it, and also not different for the sake of it.

But at some point, if the industry has imposed a constraint, a self inflicting constraint on it, we get to break it simply because we are a startup

Kickstarter Reality Check 

Dinesh: what does it mean to, launch a product in Kickstarter in 2026? tell us about your journey there. And I think maybe you can, uh, you, it's been a week since you launched. Yeah.

Koushiic:It's, it's been just a week. And let me see, um, I think we are 30% funded. We have about 1 22 backers, 1 24 now. So two people very generously just backed us now. yeah. And I think, uh, it's a, it's a very scary journey, to be honest. So I'm, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it anyway. 

Dinesh: Mm-hmm

Koushiic: it's, it's very intimidating, like. Our first day when we launched, so, okay. I'll, I, I'm, I'm just being very Candid, so I've backed a lot of projects on Kickstarter. Like I, I love the idea of Kickstarter. I think it's, it's the most organic thing you can do to hardware startups, right? Crowdfunding. unfortunately there are a lot of people, who have Launched their product on Kickstarter, and at some point it just becomes too overwhelming and they just decided to quit. some of them have decided to just take that money and enjoy life. Some of them have tried so much to a point where they've inevitably failed and backers have not gotten their money back.

I think about at least 75% of the. Projects launched on Kickstarter, try their level best to, you know, make it because it's so difficult. Like, I think a lot of these guys, they don't fail at fundraising or anything like that. They, they get the product done. It's, it's about execution. That's why you fail.

If, if the model fails, see running a business, right? They're like a hundred variables. I need to, and you need to get every single one of them, right? and you, it's, it's not like you can get some of these, right? And if you get those wrong, it's okay. It's okay. They, they will somewhere make up.

But in the long run, you need to get every single one of these variables, right? So when we, one of the reasons we launched on Kickstarter was it allows us to keep more stake, otherwise I would've to raise more money, to get the product. Because we made the product now, which itself we borrowed money.

But now to, to the next stage, we have proved it. We've gotten the product, and now we need to raise more money to go, to the next stage, which is your tooling and all that. So our tooling cost is I think, uh, 1.2 crores just for the screwdriver. And another, uh, 1.5 crores for all the bits 

 right? So, so it's about, we are looking at three, two and a half crores of total tooling. at this stage, if I go to an investor, he's obviously gonna compare it to a software company. He's gonna expect different returns. He's gonna say, in two months you'll launch. That's what he'll ask me.

Yeah. So, uh, but you know, the reality is different. So if I have to, borrow another two and a half crores or, you know, give up stake for two and half crores the amount of stake I'll be giving up is disproportionate to the amount of money we'd be bringing up later. So it's like less, more and more, red reduced skin in the game.

And in the end you don't own anything. You own like 2 or 3% 

and then you lose the company. And yes, you start doing what everybody in the company wants you to do. You're left wondering, why did I even do this? I mean, in the process, you, you get rich. there's no doubt about it.

You, you probably be able to buy whatever boat or house, whatever you want, but that's not the point. Right. Your mission is a lot more, you're willing to sacrifice so much. Now, I, I don't think that's the point. 

Feedback From Backers

Koushiic: So we launched on Kickstarter because one is, we wanted to keep stake, but the second most important thing was because we are doing, actually, this is the most important thing because we're doing such a radical product, we wanted to see if people are receptive to it, what do they think?

Are they open to it or is this going to be some crap that they don't wanna be involved with? Surprisingly, that are so many people, I think, who look at us like f like the comments are like, finally somebody decided to do this and Shitting on the hex bit. Right? Obviously there are fans of Wera and PB Swiss tools who are like, If you want the best screwdriver, go buy those without using this, which is fine. I don't blame them. I, I, I've done that to Apple when I was a kid. Like,I'm, I was a huge Apple fan boy, so even if they made a shitty product, I would do the same, But I think so many people looked at it as finally a way out and, um, and they genuinely did believe in us.

So we look at launch on Kickstarter as a little early bird where, you know, we, we, we get to test the market without any risks. We are not putting any money in. We'll see how it goes. We'll see what people hate and we, what people like. And then, in the end, one last decision change. If we need to make, if anything needs to be done, we've already gotten all that feedback for free.

We don't need to invest, all of the tooling and molding and do all the logistics and give up 50% of your company and get to a product where people actually don't want. We know why these people are, we know how to get the product to them. We know who our customers are. All of this just because of Kickstarter.

And I think that's the real beauty of Kickstarter to get access to this data, listen to people. It's a platform where people start to talk about, and we are really happy about, what people are saying. We are very humbled by, What people want and why people hate it.

And it's gonna be a long, a long, long journey. I'm sure even 10 years from now, somebody somewhere is gonna still be ting on our screwdriver because it's not hex. probably because he really likes it. If not, if not for the Torx that he is like, oh man, if you could just make this one bloody change, I would buy it.

Choosing The Right Problem

Dinesh: Koushiic. how do you find a good problem to solve, right? Like what's, I mean, you were in, in that space before this entity began and you were searched. Or may, maybe you said it was a thesis, maybe there was already an affiliation there to begin with, but if I were to pick your brains on every problem seems like a lucrative idea.

Arjun: Every lucrative idea startup, and every lucrative startup seems to have the same set of problems. And what makes a one problem standard different from another?

Koushiic: Well, I think it's just you, Arjun I think you just, it's your passion, right? That's, that's why see, solving a screwdriver's problem is actually a nice to solve problem. It's not like this screwdriver is going to change the way fasteners or fasten for, I mean, I can romanticize with that. It's gonna change the experience, but let's be honest, you're still gonna use your hand, do a left turn and right turn and screw a product.

Right? That's not what we are trying to do with the screwdriver I, I, I feel like. in the end, you've started something. Where do you want to go? What's the larger problem? So for, for us, the screwdriver is not the solution to a problem that we're trying to solve. Our, so our problem is a little bigger. It's to do with scalability and climate change and bringing sustainability to the masses and making it more affordable.

That's the problem we are trying to solve. We can do it with a screwdriver, we can do it with anything else. The reason we started with the screwdriver, I've given you those reasons. One is, I mean, I'm more passionate with it. I'm more confident with it, and I feel like I can design a tool that I'm more passionate about, better.

That is why I started with that. Uh,I think, uh, this is, uh, it's a very, very valid question that you asked. It's basically you need to reduce noise and increase focus, right? yeah, you can have this as a problem, but you know what's also a problem?

Like, a lot of restaurants or fast food centers have to dump oil, and that also creates waste. It's harder to wash those utensils because they use so much oil. What if we come up with a system that does it have, it's super easy to, you know, clean the oil in the restaurant itself or clean those utensils without using so much water?

That's genuinely a problem to solve. Like you already have customers for that. So why don't you solve that, you can ask this question for every single problem that you think problem? Like,

in the end, I think you just need to decide which one of these problems really get you out of the bed and feel like you can represent this to death, like you're willing to give it all.

I think those are the problems you genuinely end up solving.

Arjun: Hmm.

I have a follow up to that. Now, say I've kind of zoned in on something that is the core to my, my thinking. My, I, I'm seeing a connected thread across all of everything I'm, I'm trying to do. it is in the passionate zone. It is in the discomfort zone. it lands very well.

But there is this also the side of the founder journey, which is like the set of knobs that you have to kind of work around because your investors won't get it the way you get it. your people might not get it the way you get it. Some, these are all the trade offs, the compromises, the, the, the paraphrasing of the narrative.

sell it, sell the idea differently than what it means to you in a certain way so that people are on board 

Koushiic: absolutely.

Arjun: Right. 

Koushiic: Absolutely. 

Arjun: these trades are probably very, softer in nature, but they are probably extremely crucial for this to even kick off. Right.

you can't be very tunnel visioned into passion, passion, passion. You know, you can't go to an investor and if he's asking you What made you do this? You can't just say passion,

Yeah,

exactly.

Koushiic: um, it needs, it needs to make financial sense in the end of the day, and there might be a hundred passionate problems that you'd wanna solve, but there are some that are worth solving better than the others. And that's something you need to reflect on and you need to decide, and this is, this is a fact, like this is not to go by your hunch or, anything. So when you do your market research, say you've got like 10 problems that you genuinely wanna solve that you feel like it's worth solving, then the others for societal reasons or for your own reasons, you do your research on your market analysis, what makes more money?

There has to be some agenda somewhere somebody makes more money, or even you, right? So what's the win? And then you start to realize, and this, this research will start prioritizing. Some problems are better to solve than the others. So at that point, you need to take a call.

Founder Knobs And Tradeoffs

Arjun: What are some tradeoffs, you went through this journey, how do you look at convincing people, persuading people? Is it just you or you? Did you have your support? What are those softer angles to this that we are not speaking yet about?

Koushiic: I feel like in terms of our, angel investors, right? I mean our investors were angels only, they didn't even ask too many questions. They liked the pitch deck. They liked the idea, they liked the product,

Arjun: They liked you.

I have a feeling they liked you more

Koushiic: I understand. Yeah, I, I can understand where that comes from because if I were to invest, even if it's a little lesser glamorous product, but I can see the energy in somebody I, I'd invest, that gives you more confidence.

So I feel, you know, for those reasons, they did. But you know, in the end, the math has to speak. we know how to make, get profitable, so that problem is solved. We just on the journey to get to profitability and I think, it, right now it's not yet a challenge. so like you said, the, those knobs, right?

So, so when I start, so I dropped out of college after my second year for a year to start another startup, which was a drone startup. So I worked on a lot of drones to see where I can get them going and all that. But, you know, I an ultimatum. My dad said if you can't get funding in a year, you have to go back.

It took me eight months to even get a prototype done. And I was naive. I had no idea what I was doing. I was all about passion. And uh, and I didn't even get to meet like five investors. Probably met two, three who, who still wanted to advise and didn't know I'm coming for an investment to them. I didn't even ask them the right way.

Right? So that, so that was a very good learning experience for me to sort of know, what to prioritize. you need a great product, but you can't keep dumping time and money into it. You need to launch at some point. You've, you've gotta launch. You know, you just can't say it's not there yet. It's not there yet.

It's not there yet. And take five years for a screwdriver, you can, you absolutely can, but somebody has to feed you and it has to, has to be sustainable then. So that's one knob is how long are you gonna get to take to get to market? You actually thought six months. But since we don't prototype ourselves, we rely on other partners.

To prototype, it took a long time. there were mistakes in prototyping, so took a lot longer. So it took, instead of six months, it took one year and two months to launch. that is one. And, uh, the, the other knob is how, with, how, how little money can you make the most amount of work, 

So yeah, it'd be great to take a two crore, three crore investment, but you're also giving away a lot more stake.

So the lesser the money you can borrow, the more money you can put out.

So on the Kickstarter campaign, the entire film and animation was done by us. It was just me and my partner Hiral. And, the entire page was designed by her. She only directed all the videos and all of that. I only sat and did the animations.

So if, if we had to, if we were just product guys and we had to pay somebody to do all of this, this would've easily added another 25 Lakhs Right, which we are paying in stake. So we are sort of saving that by doing all this by ourselves. So these are the kind of knobs that we had to play with.

Another thing was we had to patent the screwdriver, but patenting, we had only enough money to patent it in country. 'cause if we went to our main markets and patent where we are, wherever it is that we wanted to, just, the patent cost is north of one crore right? So, so we need to see, so again, this makes us as a startup, very gullible. Like we, we have one patent, we have so many other innovations. So then in the back of your mind, you need to start realizing your next product.

You better have enough money and change possibly every single thing where you get to patent the entire product. So you better know the shortcomings of this one already. I think that is where getting to market soon helps because, you know, once you have a product that you're happy, you know, luckily for us, we've made it better in every single way.

Our screwdriver is better in every single way. And this is after testing. This is not my opinion. We wanted to, but when you test it, our ratchet, a torque limiter, a build quality, it's actually better. And you know, the YouTubers also say the same thing. We're very fortunate about that. It doesn't pan out the same way.

But luckily during this, we also stopped at some point where we decided, you know what? This is enough. We'll send it to the market and see. And luckily they liked it, but we know that we could have, we still can make better screwdrivers.

So it's like, so that sort of gives us the confidence to not just dump all that money into a patent.

Because we know in two years, three years, when the competition catches up, we have a better screwdriver already ready. And it's gonna be cheaper. It's gonna be better, and. Everybody who didn't wanna buy will finally buy it. We'll have another marketing run. So these are the balances that we need to do as a founder.

And you know, you're doing this for the, for your company. Like, you need to do these, take these decisions for the betterment of your hard work and the product. Like, it's, it's not a compromise, it's it's strategy. If I pushed it before it was ready, that's a compromise. That's not a strategy.

Distribution And Plan B

Arjun: It's interesting you said that. you said the math has to work. You also said that you knew you were gonna be profitable.

Koushiic: Mm-hmm.

Arjun: Did you solve the distribution before you went to market? Or did How much of it did you rely on marketing post factor? How much of it was already pre-solved before, at least on paper, before you really etched

Koushiic: Now on paper, I think, uh, it's about being agile. So we, we had, okay, so we'll go through Kickstarter. If. It goes viral. We make so much sales. Luckily we have a supplier with whom we can work with to manage those sales, despite being a startup. Not a problem if it goes that way. Lucky, amazing. You get a lot of money reinvest.

But if it doesn't go that way, what's plan B? What if Kickstarter fails? You don't make money. What is another plan? Right? So when you keep all of this in mind, you know, so you know the path to profitability, you know what you need to do to be profitable, and I think that journey changes depending on any of these scenarios.

You just need to be adaptable for this thing to exist.

so it can't be, you can't be so narrow-minded and believe I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. It's gonna result in this because, you know, there are, especially with marketing and all of the so many variables, because you still don't know, you've not put the product out.

Now, if, if you ask me next year or the year after on the next product, I probably have a better judgment on how much money we will make in a month of launching. Because we know the people's pulse, we know our customers, we know what the market did to us on the first launch. Like, it's, it's the most rooted, honest, hardwired learning you can do, which is launching a product, right?

 pretty much everybody's advice, we try to follow, we try to balance out, but it is different. It's different to every scenario. I think you should take advice as them giving you their experience and, take what you can from it. Because every journey is unique. Every product is unique, every marketing tone of voice is different, and they culminate and end in different results. 

So, know, you then, once you do some, so you gotta do something for a benchmark and some data points, and then you can start to change. This is our first data point launching on Kickstarter. Until then, we've been, I don't know, in bootstrap mode. We are still in bootstrap mode, but only now that, you know, we've revealed the product and we actually know what people think.

It gives us an idea of what mistakes we've made, what we shouldn't make, what we need to improve, and what are the changes we need to do to be profitable.

Hope And Founder Mindset

Arjun: All right. So, if we zoom out from the product and the company and the current campaign, how does hope look like for you? With everything that's happening in the world, ai, tariffs, founder, first company, all of this put together. what does hope look like for you?

Koushiic: it's de definitely quite intimidating. it's, it's, I mean, I'm not even gonna lie, it's super intimidating. There are times where you wake up tensed and you feel like, oh, you're not gonna make it. but I can't really say anything more than that Arjun because we have not moved to the next phase. So if we move to the next phase, I'll probably get back to you on that. But I think it's an exciting journey, right.

See, right now as we speak, I'm still intimidated about the Kickstarter. Uh, once we get the money, I need to give back to people who we borrowed from, some workshops where who's given, may done work for us without taking money, knowing we are gonna go on Kickstarter, taking that risk with us.

They know we might fail on Kickstarter and still decided to make those products for us. So we need to pay them, and then have some money left to do tooling. If that's not enough, we need to raise funds. So I'm just, you know, thinking of all of this, in fact, we, I'm still not taking salaries from the company. We, I only get a living allowance. I mean, that's what I've decided to take. 'cause most of the money goes into the company. So, it's, it's intimidating, but I think, I mean, what else better am I gonna do apart from doing all this, I mean, you never know, right? So if see if it's great five, 10 years down the line, I tell you man, Arjun it was worth it, worth every single second.

But if it wasn't, then I would have a different opinion. So I don't have the answer for that now. I can say it's accelerating and exciting and a lot of learning if you ask me about the learning. Absolutely. It's so worth it. I know so much more about launching a product and bringing it to the market and really understanding what works, what doesn't, what's bogus and a little more foolproof.

I could say. I could be right now. 'cause now I understand a lot more stuff and how things works. I'm not just gonna listen to everything everybody says, 'cause I've tried it. Now I know a little bit, right? Obviously there's so much more room to learn. But apart from that, apart from the learning and the fun and the thrill of this, I think we are a long way ahead.

Before I could tell you it was so worth it, Arjun and I hope that's the journey we'd be on and hopefully next time we meet, I could tell you, man, it was worth it.

Arjun: Yes. I think that's a good design goal for the next, meet as well.

Koushiic: Mm-hmm.

Arjun: I am just, getting to wrap it up, Dinesh, any final thoughts?

Dinesh: Yeah I I just wanna check on Abhinav uh if you have any questions Uh he's been yeah a Abhinav has always been uh your fan Koushiic so

yeah so you if you have a fan boy you can ask

Koushiic: nothing like that, I am barely established

Abhinav: No, I mean, I am, really happy to meet a, a designer who's turned into a founder who's launching an actual product. Yeah, because,as a designer you have so many dreams about making things and getting it to market, but when you see somebody actually doing it, it's quite, oh, there's so much to do. it's a lot.

Koushiic: Oh, trust me. It's so, yeah. Yeah. Go on.

Abhinav: yeah, so I, me being a designer right now entering the market, one very slap in the face learning has always been that designers need to speak business. And I think, yeah, if we don't speak business and make economic sense, there's, there's really no point. Nobody's gonna listen to your passion unless it's financially viable. And,the way that you speak itself has to reflect that.  when you mentioned that sustainability is not just the world, it's economics as well. 'cause it just 

Koushiic: yeah,

Abhinav: work at scale.

So that's something that I've, uh, I've grown to really appreciate. So thank you for giving me that insight.

Repair Culture In India

Abhinav: And for me personally, one of the questions I had was that, you bringing something like this to India, 'cause iFixit, and things like that do really well in the western market in India with the Jugaad culture and other cultures here where you just, you repair it just to the point of making it work. How do you think launching a repairability focused sustainability product is different in terms of the market need, the marketing needs, and the people wants?

Koushiic: Right. So repairing is not the first, If you look at the order at which things start to exist, repair comes after something, and that something is way more important, which is making, like if, if you're not a maker, if, if you don't think like a maker, repairing is a chore, but if you're a maker, repairing is fixing it.

It's getting back to putting it back to where it's, the reason why this repair and handyman culture exists abroad a lot is they've always encouraged to make it themselves, you know, build themselves. we don't do that in India. We don't do that. We call somebody some Kothinar will come, put the hole in the wall.

Done. Yeah, you'll be eating there. Pay thousand rupees, 800 rupees done. So what do we actually, you know, where a brick is laid, you know, where what is laid. And my grandfather, my, all my relatives, they're very proud of certain things they've done, but they're not done yet. They've overseen it Right. So see, uh, telling where a tile should come and actually plastering that.

I mean, laying that tile without any gap are two different things. And I think you, you sort of develop a different level of sensitivity when you've made something. So you can't just train somebody to repair because that's a mundane thing. But when you made it and when you're a maker and then repair, it becomes into a journey.

It's understanding. So every time you take something and fix it, right, you learn to make something else better. So there has to be an agenda to repair. So the agenda to repair is not just to fix that product back. Yeah, it's definitely cool when you repair it. You fixed it back without needing to buy something, but there's so much learning in when you open it.

And the best thing to do is breaking toys. I just love breaking toys, like taking it apart, seeing,

what works. I just recently broke the screwdriver, electric screwdriver, and I realized they use a planetary gear, not even a planetary, gearbox set, which is, it costs like, 75 rupees, that's it.

 So I was just like, oh man, how much can you cheap out on? You could have made a planetary gearbox actually, which is so much better. So I feel like that learning needs to be there and I think that attitude needs to change if you wanna make repair better, which is you need makers. And, it's not very easy for us to thrive in India as a repair company because there's no incentive to repair. People are not interested in making. So making needs to become like a Weekend thing, you know?

we need to encourage people to build what they feel like and not buy what they want to be built. 

 And once you start seeing that people can build, people can make whatever they wanna make.

I don't think repair is. Repair is, obvious. Like it's, it's like, dude, you can build something, just repair something else. You know, like, and I feel like that encouragement needs to be there from schools to, and, and this is not just 3D printing, like people should cut wood, like cutting wood. People don't know how to cut.

Right. identifying densities, grains, how do these materials communicate to you? What's a good job and what's a bad job? Right. So the, so these are things that exist outside here. It's not that they don't exist. We have not had the privilege, I'm sure we all used to be makers at some point. Olaipinnal clay houses where that, I'm sure there were generations where that family built that house, right.

And stayed in it. That is what we want. If, if those guys existed today, they'd be repairing everything today. It is just that after this transition we stopped doing DIY. 

I feel like once the maker culture exists, the repair culture will follow. Yeah. think that's what we do in India.

Arjun: 

Abhinav: Being a maker I think is, is very important. as designers, you learn to be hands-on. Its a little difficult difficult when you speak to other people who are not designers 'cause such fundamental part of your life to just do

Koushiic: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Abhinav: So, um, uh, it is as

simple as  you wanna buy something, it's like, wait, I can make it or I can make it out of this thing. And they're like, why would you put in the 

it's more fun that way yeah,

and I really hope that, the making culture comes back in India.

Arjun: Awesome.

Arjun: Koushiic, this was, extremely insightful  we had a lot of fun talking to you. I was completely absorbed In everything that you have, you have said. first of all, we want to wish WowFactories you. The, the, the Kickstarter campaign, the very best. We wanna drop a link, on the episode as well, 

 and the hope that you mentioned. I think we should really plan for it on your project plan to say that okay, let's probably come back and talk about it very soon. It's just an eventuality. thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing these insights.

Thank you for, for the product. And then we wanna, wish again, the very best to you and I hope you had fun, talking to us too.

Koushiic: Yeah, I had a lot of fun. Arjun thank you all for your time. I had a lot of fun, by the way, like whatever I said, I'm still learning. I'm sure. Everything might change or nothing might. So I don't know. But yeah. I'm not gonna say everything I said is right.

It's just based on my opinion and my experience so far. And if they change, that means I've learned something. So I hope they change. 

Outro

Arjun: That was our conversation with Koushiic Durai founder and CEO of wowFactories. There was much to learn from that conversation, from the realities of building something from scratch, to designing for something with purpose and the persistence that it takes to turn an idea into a real product. If this conversation sparked your curiosity, the best way to support what they're building is through their Kickstarter campaign.

We leave the link in the show notes so you can explore the product and follow their journey. There's never a straight or easy path to building products and businesses and any early support can make a real difference for teams that are trying to bring thoughtful ideas to life. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing this with someone who cares about design, sustainability, or building products that are aligned with passion and purpose.

This is the inflection point series, and you've been listening to Innocence Theory. thank you for listening and see you on the next one.