I Made a Million Dollar Product from My Dorm Room (2025)
Nick Winans recounts how he developed the "nice!nano," a wireless Pro Micro-compatible microcontroller for DIY mechanical keyboards, from his college dorm room. What started as a personal project to solve a performance gap quickly scaled into a successful product, selling over 50,000 units and generating over a million dollars. This inspiring tale resonates with the HN community for its bootstrapped innovation, technical problem-solving, and entrepreneurial journey from concept to market impact.
The Lowdown
Nick Winans shares the remarkable journey of creating the "nice!nano," a wireless, Pro Micro-compatible microcontroller board, from a college dorm room project to a product with over a million dollars in sales. His story highlights the iterative process of problem-solving, community engagement, and entrepreneurial growth in the specialized world of DIY mechanical keyboards.
- Faced issues with existing DIY wireless keyboard solutions (high latency, poor battery life, unsuitable form factors), prompting him to design a better alternative.
- Spent a weekend designing the "nice!nano" using KiCad, Nordic documentation, and existing schematics, aiming for a thin, Pro Micro-compatible, and power-efficient board.
- Successfully produced initial prototypes, demonstrating over 100x improvement in power efficiency compared to his previous attempts, leading to significant community interest.
- Conducted a highly successful group buy, selling 1,000 units in seven hours, but found the process stressful due to financial risks and logistical challenges.
- Collaborated with Pete Johanson to develop ZMK, a new wireless-first, low-power keyboard firmware, further enhancing the nice!nano's ecosystem.
- Expanded into a full-fledged business, Typeractive, with his father, focusing on wireless keyboard parts and kits, and becoming a leading store in the split keyboard market.
- Encountered product cloning but maintained market position due to superior quality and Typeractive's exclusive stocking.
- The nice!nano achieved over $1 million in sales and sold over 50,000 units, significantly influencing the DIY wireless keyboard community.
Winans credits a combination of hard work, timing, and luck for the product's success, acknowledging the support from collaborators and family in transforming a dorm room idea into a significant industry contribution.