Informal

What Informal does

Informal is a Brooklyn-based freelance collective founded in 2020 by Sam Holland and Nate Pagett that connects hardware and hardtech clients with a curated roster of 300-plus independent professionals across design, engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, branding, marketing, and operations. The company's core offering is a matching and staff augmentation service in which it recruits seasoned experts from the Hardware Meetup community (reported at over one million members), matches them with client engagements ranging from solo inventors to publicly traded enterprises, and provides back-office support including contracts, invoicing, compliance, and insurance. Revenue is generated by taking a margin on freelance engagements, with pricing scoped individually per project and contract durations ranging from single projects to multi-year arrangements.

The company's go-to-market is community-led and referral-driven rather than sales-led: the Hardware Meetup ecosystem functions as a continuous recruitment funnel, while content assets including the Hardware Handbook, Hardware Teardowns, MFG Database, CMF Database, Design Puck, and Amortization Calculator drive top-of-funnel awareness and lead capture. Notable customers include Neurosity, Aduri, Burrito Pop, Aloe Care Health, MakerBot, Cloudastructure, Lodge, Tarform, Turtle Beach, Stakt, Uncommon Goods, EightSleep, Throne, Resonant Link Medical, and Rectangle, spanning startups and enterprises across consumer electronics, medical devices, electric vehicles, and connected health.

Informal operates without disclosed external funding as a privately held entity. The business model is structurally hybrid: an agency-like services backbone (matching, back-office, margin on engagements) overlaid on a community-and-content ecosystem that functions as a long-term moat in the niche hardware talent market. Operations are global in claim (active engagements in USA, GBR, IND, CHN) though the only confirmed office is the Brooklyn headquarters.

Name

Informal

Legal name

Informal

Website

https://informal.cc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Informal is a Brooklyn-based freelance collective founded in 2020 that matches a curated network of 300-plus independent hardware and hardtech professionals with clients ranging from startups to publicly traded companies, providing back-office support and taking a margin on engagements.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Hardware Product Development Services

NAICS

Temporary Help Services (561320)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

Contingent Workforce / Contractor RPO (Contractor Recruiting) (BPACABAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

General Permanent Placement (Multi-Industry) (BPACAFAA)

Keywords

• Hardware freelance collective
• Hardware staff augmentation
• Product development services
• Hardtech engineering talent
• Prototype to production

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Professional Services / Freelance Matching: Connects independent hardware professionals with clients needing product development services. Provides back office support including contracts, invoicing, and compliance, taking a margin on freelance engagements.
2. Staff Augmentation: Provides single contractors, full-time employees, or entire teams for hardware projects ranging from product development to go-to-market.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Informal is a freelance collective that matches a curated network of 300+ independent hardware, design, manufacturing, and go-to-market professionals with client projects. Engagements range from single contractors to full augmented teams, with informal providing back-office support (contracts, AR/AP, compliance, insurance) so members can focus on client delivery across product development, prototyping, manufacturing ramp, and go-to-market execution.

Product overview

Informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware and hardtech. The company operates as a talent-matching platform connecting over 300 specialists (designers, engineers, manufacturers, marketers, branding experts, and operations professionals) with clients ranging from solo inventors to publicly traded companies. The core offering is the Freelance Collective Services, augmented by a suite of educational tools and resources including the Hardware Handbook, Hardware Teardowns, Hardware Resources Database, MFG Database, CMF Database, Design Puck, Amortization Calculator, and a regular Newsletter. The collective also provides back office support services (AR/AP, compliance, insurance) and a matching process that connects members with clients based on project needs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Freelance Collective Services Staff augmentation and project services that match a curated network of 300+ independent hardware, design, manufacturing, and go-to-market professionals with client engagements ranging from single contractors to full embedded teams. Each engagement includes informal's back-office support (contracts, AR/AP, compliance, insurance) so members can focus on client work.
• Back Office Support Services Administrative and operational support provided to freelance members and clients on collective engagements, covering accounts receivable, accounts payable, compliance, insurance, and project management.

Quantifiable outcome

• MVP to market for less than the salary of a single full time engineer

Named customers15 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Resonant Link MedicalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 April 2026Valued informal client for wireless power and data transfer technology for implantable medical devices. Informal team helps demonstrate technically complex products in accessible ways for product launches, investor demonstrations, and customer projects. Deep trust built over years of collaboration.
• Lura HealthminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 April 2026Lura Health partnered with Resonant Link Medical to develop the first salivary diagnostic wearable sensor. The partnership needed ultra-small wireless power for continuous biomarker monitoring.
• ParadromicsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 April 2026Paradromics partnered with Resonant Link Medical for Connexus BCI - a fully implantable brain-computer interface for speech restoration. The implant is powered entirely through Resonant Link Medical's inductive charging technology.
• RectanglecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 September 2025Rectangle collaborated with informal member Tadhg Duffy and cofounder Sam Holland to design and iterate their patented digital art placard. informal provided industrial design expertise for the product that debuted at Bibliotheque in Soho, NYC.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Toptal: Top-tier freelance talent marketplace that vets and matches elite independent professionals to client engagements. Most analogous to Informal's curated-network, margin-on-engagement model, though Toptal is heavily software/finance oriented where Informal focuses on hardware.
• Catalant: Marketplace for vetted independent business consultants and experts matched to client projects. Uses a similar curated-network, margin-on-engagement model, but focused on management/strategy talent rather than hardware specialists.
• Braintrust: Decentralized talent network that matches independent professionals to client engagements with a low take rate. Comparable curated marketplace model for technical talent, though primarily focused on software/AI rather than hardware.

Broad incumbents

• Upwork: Large generalist freelance marketplace that includes hardware engineers, designers and manufacturers alongside software talent. A much larger, broader incumbent competing for the same pool of independent hardware professionals Informal curates.
• Insight Global: Large IT and engineering staffing firm placing contract and full-time technical talent. Comparable in providing staff augmentation for engineering projects but at vastly larger scale and without a hardware-curated community or content moat.
• Robert Half: Global staffing and consulting firm placing contract and permanent professionals across functions including technology and engineering. A public-market incumbent offering overlapping services but without Informal's hardware community and curated-expert positioning.
• Aquent: Established staffing and creative services firm placing designers, marketers and product developers. Comparable in providing staff augmentation for product development and brand work, though operating at much larger scale and broader scope.

Emerging players

• Boldly: Premium staffing firm providing vetted remote professionals for project and fractional engagements. Comparable in curated-network positioning and project-based engagement model, though focused on executive assistants and remote operations rather than hardware.
• A.Team: Platform that assembles product teams of independent product managers, designers and engineers for client builds. Closely comparable curated-talent, team-formation approach for product development, though software-leaning where Informal is hardware-specialized.

Others

• Frog Design: Global design and engineering consultancy that staffs physical product development and brand work using employed designers and engineers. Competes for the same hardware client engagements but operates a traditional consultancy model rather than a freelance collective.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/informal_hq
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/informal-hq

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Informal