A product company built from the ground up

My cofounder and I started Chave Digital in 2010. I took responsibility for the technical chain: electronic design, embedded and application software, early production practices and field work. The job required moving between schematics, code, manufacturing decisions and the realities of an installed system.

Our engineering approach was to develop the electronics and software as one product, then make the result testable and manufacturable. In my view, this integrated scope was a meaningful source of technological differentiation in our segment. It let us shape the complete system rather than treat hardware, firmware and operations as disconnected tasks.

Turning individual engineering into a team capability

I helped form the initial technical team, organize the production line and train a technician to test units. That meant translating engineering intent into repeatable work: what to assemble, how to verify it, how to identify a fault and what information needed to follow a product into the field.

I also commissioned systems on large projects. Installation work exposed the gap between a laboratory design and an operating product: wiring, site conditions, commissioning procedures and clear diagnostics all mattered. Each deployment fed practical knowledge back into engineering and production.

We also created a pilot version for the US market that supported remote firmware updates. At the time, this capability was only beginning to emerge in our segment. For me, it was an early example of treating field maintenance as part of the product rather than requiring every firmware change to be made locally.

From product design to an operating company

  1. 01

    Design

    Electronic projects and software for connected security products.

  2. 02

    Build the team

    Establish the initial technical group and train a test technician.

  3. 03

    Industrialize

    Create a production line and a practical unit-test process.

  4. 04

    Commission

    Install and commission systems on major projects; transfer repeatable work to the team.

A first-person summary of my responsibilities from 2010 to 2015.

The work connected engineering decisions to repeatable production, field commissioning and a team able to sustain operations.

A handoff that continued after my departure

I left the company in 2015, five years after its founding. Chave Digital continued operating after my departure and remains active today. I consider that continuity an important part of the work: a technical operation should become a team capability that can keep serving customers beyond the founders who created it.

The company’s current website describes its present product lines and is useful context for readers. It does not, by itself, document the historical products or my individual contributions described in this first-person account.

Chave Digital — current company websiteChave Digital — current addressable product line

What I carried forward

This experience shaped how I approach connected products today: own the interfaces between circuit, firmware, software, production and field service; make tests part of the product; and document work so another engineer can operate and extend it. Building a system is only one part of the job. Building the capability to deliver it repeatedly is what makes the work durable.