Jun 24, 2026 · 1h 9m
Hardware founders drive innovation from tabletop gaming to hypersonic flight
Why the Future of Video Games is Moving Back to the Dinner Table
This episode explores how modern hardware startups are overcoming manufacturing and capital challenges to build highly ambitious physical products.
- 1Board integrates physical game pieces with a digital touchscreen using conductive patterns and embedded AI.
- 2Hermeus is developing the Chimera engine to enable sustained Mach 5 flight for autonomous military aircraft.
- 3Both startups leverage creative financing and capital efficiency to overcome traditional hardware manufacturing barriers.
Don't miss
AJ Piplica explains how the Chimera engine combines a turbojet and a ramjet with a pre-cooler to keep the engine from melting at Mach 3.
The brief
Hardware innovation is taking two wildly different paths, from reimagining family game night at the dinner table to pioneering autonomous hypersonic flight for national defense.
Brynn Putnam is blending physical pieces with a 24-inch digital touchscreen at Board, using embedded AI and conductive patterns instead of expensive electronics inside the toys.
At the same time, AJ Piplica is leading Hermeus to build hypersonic aircraft like Dark Horse, utilizing a unique dual-engine design to solve the thermal challenges of Mach 5 flight.
Both founders are proving that building physical products requires extreme capital efficiency, whether navigating consumer toy licensing or securing defense contracts.
What was said on this episode
34 statements · 25 positive · 4 negative · 1 mixed · 4 neutral
Board is a face-to-face gaming console combining board games and video games.
“board is the first face to face gaming console”
Listen at 1:37
Board’s embedded AI detects and tracks physical game pieces through its touchscreen.
“our custom software stack processes the raw data from the board's touch sensor, using embedded AI to detect and track the pieces”
Listen at 3:31
Early startups should avoid overengineering their products.
“I generally recommend that you don't over engineer your early startups”
Listen at 11:27
Startups should demonstrate the customer experience first, then build further after raising capital.
“you actually try to show and deliver the experience that you're trying to give to your customers and then build into that once you have more capital”
Listen at 11:31
Board costs $399 and includes seven games.
“the board is 399 and includes seven games”
Listen at 13:05
Individual Board games cost approximately $35.
“you can buy individual games at around $35”
Listen at 13:12
Eighty-five percent of Board members are monthly active and play over thirty sessions monthly.
“85% of our members are active monthly paying, playing over 30 sessions per month”
Listen at 14:55
Board is creating a fundamentally new gaming category.
“we're creating something that's fundamentally new”
Listen at 18:06
Board’s shared-screen design brings players together instead of isolating them.
“really bringing you together”
Listen at 18:39
Board sold its initial 10,000 launch units within a few weeks.
“we sold out of our 10,000 launch units within a few weeks of our launch”
Listen at 26:51
Board operates a reviewed marketplace for community-submitted games.
“it's a marketplace where people submit their games for review and then they get posted in the community section”
Listen at 31:02
Board expects native licensed intellectual-property games to release within the next few years.
“those will release in the next few years”
Listen at 33:14
Board plans to release a tabletop product in July.
“A table, a tabletop product comes out in July”
Listen at 34:40
Dark Horse is designed as a reusable, uncrewed aircraft faster than the SR-71.
“Dark Horse is a hypersonic reusable aircraft, faster than the SR71, smaller than the SR71 with no person on board”
Listen at 42:08
Unmanned systems will become central to future warfare.
“unmanned systems are by all means the future of warfare”
Listen at 44:24
Dark Horse will fly autonomously without a human pilot in the loop.
“they'll fly the way that, you know, rockets fly today”
Listen at 44:53
Cargo transport is the most natural initial commercial application for hypersonic aircraft.
“cargo is the like natural entry point number one because you don't need to put people on the platform”
Listen at 48:39
Mach 4–5 travel would make distant economies effectively regional.
“Mach 4, Mach 5 travel, like it really takes the world and makes it regional”
Listen at 49:38
Faster transportation systems have historically driven economic growth.
“At any time in history that you've done that by whatever technological means, be it steam power and shipping or railroads or the interstate system in the US it's always driven economic growth”
Listen at 49:51
Hermeus’s precooler enables a gas turbine to operate at higher speeds without melting.
“we've done that through developing a pre cooler which cools down the air that's coming in so that the thing doesn't melt”
Listen at 51:23
A turbine-based combined-cycle engine has not previously flown, despite laboratory demonstrations.
“it's never been done in the sky. It's been done in the lab.”
Listen at 53:42
Hermeus plans to flight-test its precooler and ramjet components soon.
“we'll do that later this year. Okay. And then pretty soon we'll be flying the ramjet piece too”
Listen at 54:20
Hermeus builds roughly one new airplane annually to reduce technology risk.
“building roughly one new airplane per year that de risks the next step”
Listen at 54:50
Hermeus aims to increase Quarter Horse speed from Mach 1.21 to roughly Mach 1.5 or higher.
“we hit about Mach 1.21, so want to get that up a little bit higher. Maybe 1.5, a little bit north of that”
Listen at 57:05
The aircraft will be capable of launching AMRAAM missiles.
“The aircraft will be capable of releasing stores like an Amraam”
Listen at 58:04
Existing weapons could achieve approximately double their range when launched from the aircraft.
“existing weapons, double ish the range, maybe more”
Listen at 59:11
Quarter Horse 2.3 is intended to reach Mach 3 and enable ramjet ignition.
“get up into the Mach 3 range where you can start a ramjet engine”
Listen at 1:00:14
Long-duration high-speed flight is the final major technical challenge for Dark Horse.
“the next big thing and kind of the last big thing is long duration high speed flight”
Listen at 1:01:13
Hermeus will likely combine heat rejection and heat avoidance methods.
“likely it'll be a combination of the two”
Listen at 1:02:25
Using the precooler to cool the entire aircraft would be inefficient for extended periods.
“it would be like pretty inefficient to do that for long periods of time”
Listen at 1:02:47
Hermeus can remain privately financed if it maintains sufficient capital access.
“you can build it privately with sufficient access to capital”
Listen at 1:03:34
Hermeus expects to raise billions of dollars over time.
“I don't expect the numbers to be small, like, there will be billions of dollars that we'll want to raise”
Listen at 1:04:36
Hermeus monetizes technology-risk reduction funded by equity capital through government contracts.
“we are monetizing the tech de risking that we're doing with the equity capital that we're raising”
Listen at 1:05:21
The F-22 and F-35 each required decades and tens of billions of dollars for development.
“the F22 and F35, they each took 20 to 25 years to develop and like 30 and 60 billion dollars just for development”
Listen at 1:07:56
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.