Build it now.
Build it right.

Reza Larimi is a hardware builder and catalyst based in Vancouver, Canada. Founders hire him to find out early, while there is still time to act, whether a product will sell, work and scale. Then he helps build it, from first principles and early prototypes to repeatable production, fast and without breaking what already works. He is a three-time CTO and co-inventor on 8 US patents, and uses AI to compress the design cycle. Today he leads engineering and the industry side at WearTech Labs, Simon Fraser University's wearable technology facility, and takes on select hardware builds through his practice, New Element Research and Development.

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works with a company part time, usually for a defined phase, instead of as a full time hire. In deep tech hardware the phase that needs one most is prototype to manufacturable product: design for manufacturing, new product introduction, compliance, supply chain, and building the team that runs it afterwards. Reza takes on that phase and hands over to the team he helped hire.

Exit Without Execution is Reza Larimi's framework for validating the commercial thesis of a venture on paper before building it. It tests the customer, the funnel, conversion, pricing, the revenue model and the IP position first. It matters most in hardware, where execution costs the most and a wrong thesis costs everything. The framework is in use with clients and a book is in development.

The 99% Club is Reza Larimi's sarcastic name for the founders who follow the popular startup playbook without checking the odds: incubator and investor advice, build big or go home, raise and burn. Almost none of them reach the destination that route promises, so it is not a club you want to join. The point is to choose your route on purpose and read the early signals, real customers and real cash. A book is planned.

A Venture Validation Sprint is a thirty to forty-five day engagement that proves or kills a venture thesis on paper, before the founder commits years and capital to building it. It applies Exit Without Execution to one venture: customer, funnel, pricing, revenue model and IP position, with a clear go or no-go at the end.

Yes. For investors and boards he provides 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 pitch deck leaves out.

Stack and ship is how Reza works every day. Stacked strategies and stacked AI tools mean an idea can become a working thing to look at in hours rather than quarters. The rule behind it is to start small and focused, do one thing brilliantly, then compound.

Book to Blueprint is Reza Larimi's YouTube channel. Each episode turns one book into one actionable blueprint in under ten minutes, covering founder and operator books, personal development and strategy. Episodes at youtube.com/@reza-larimi.

Seven ventures and three CTO seats, eight US patents covering sensors, test beds and methods, and an alumnus of Entrepreneur First in Toronto. Roles include CTO and co-founder of ForthGrid and of Orchard Technologies, CEO and co-founder of GutPlans, R&D product lead at Global Heat Transfer, and research assistant at the University of British Columbia in stretchable sensors, adaptive control and robotic hands.

His Gallup CliftonStrengths top five are Ideation, Competition, Activator, Strategic and Achiever, and his strongest domain is Influencing. In practice he connects ideas across fields, measures the work against the best in the market, turns talk into a first prototype fast, flags dead ends while there is still time to act, and finishes what he starts.

Book a thirty minute online call at cal.com/rezalarimi/intro or from the Book a call section of this site. Bring a venture, a hardware problem or a question you have been sitting on. Reza is based in Vancouver and works with founders and investors remotely.