Running
Illuminious — NPI engineering, DFM and production for hardware startups
The reading version · San Francisco ⇄ Shenzhen
James Gong
I build AI hardware across the two places it actually happens: the bench where it gets designed, and the line where it gets made.
Founder, Illuminious · Host, Future Factory
Next cohort December 6–11, 2026 · max 20 founders · 10+ factories & labs.
- SF ⇄ SZdesign + production
- NPIengineering firm
- 20founders per cohort
What I'm doing right now
Now.
Hosting
Based
San Francisco Bay Area · Shenzhen
Reading
Supply-chain ethnography, sci-fi, and far too many PCB datasheets
The two things I run
The work.
Founder · Jan 2026 —
Illuminious
A US-facing NPI engineering and design firm — architecture, DFM, prototyping and tooling — with production in Shenzhen and Batam that it owns and runs.
Most contract manufacturers will build what you hand them. Very few will tell you that the enclosure won't release, that the tolerance stack won't survive a drop test, or that the design has quietly added three weeks and a mold to the schedule. That feedback is the difference between a product that ramps and one that stalls.
- Engineering
- NPI, DFM, prototyping, tooling
- Electronics
- PCB / PCBA
- Mechanical
- CNC, molding, casting, sheet metal
- Footprint
- Shenzhen · Batam · US
- Founded
- January 2026
- Ownership
- Founder & operator
- Plant heritage
- Back to 2003
Host · 2026 — · founding member 2025
Future Factory
Six days inside the hardware supply chain, twenty founders at a time. Next cohort December 6–11, 2026.
An application-only tour that puts founders on the floor of the factories that will eventually build their product: ten-plus visits across robotics labs, actuators and motors, sensors and vision, PCBA and EMS, injection moulding, cable and harness, and prototyping shops — with the owners and line engineers in the room, not a sales rep with a catalog.
- Length
- Six days
- Cohort
- Max 20, by application
- Visits
- 10+ factories and labs
- Next
- December 6–11, 2026
Eight things that keep me level
Off the clock.
Tennis
A standing court time and a permanently improving backhand.
Skiing
Sierra weekends, long traverses, and an unreasonable love of cold chairs.
Horror & sci-fi
Practical effects, dread, and the kind of science fiction that gets the engineering right.
Synthwave & techno
Analog pads, modular racks, and a long-running playlist for the bench.
Hiking
Bay Area ridges, Point Reyes fog, and whatever trail is closest at 6 a.m.
Travel
Shenzhen, Tokyo, Taipei, and anywhere with a good airport and better food.
Photography
35 mm, available light, and far too many frames of the same building.
Grand strategy & sandbox
Long campaigns, supply chains, and games where the map is the point.
The full argument for each one is on the about page. Here it is simply true.
Thinking in public, occasionally
Notes.
Sep 28, 2026 · Manufacturing
Tooling is the real decision
Every hardware program has one irreversible moment. Founders tend to discover it on the invoice.
Read the noteAug 14, 2026 · Supply chain
The six-month lead time is usually a communication problem
Factories are slower than they look and faster than founders believe. The gap is rarely the line — it's the loop in front of it.
Read the noteJun 2, 2026 · Career
From term sheets to tooling
What underwriting companies from the outside teaches you — and the one thing it cannot.
Read the note The full archive
Three notes, no newsletter pop-up. Promise.
The short version
About.
I build AI hardware between San Francisco and Shenzhen — the bench where it gets designed, the line where it gets made.
I founded Illuminious, an NPI engineering and design firm built for hardware startups. We take a product from architecture and industrial design through mechanical, electrical, DFM, prototyping and tooling — with production in Shenzhen and Batam that we own and operate, not broker. Because the line is ours, a DFM finding does not become a negotiation between two vendors. The repositioning is deliberate: a US-facing engineering partner, not another catalog of factory services.
I host Future Factory, a six-day, application-only tour of the hardware supply chain. Twenty founders at a time, ten-plus factories and labs — robotics, actuators and motors, sensors and vision, PCBA and EMS, moulding, cable and harness, prototyping — with the owners and line engineers in the room. The next cohort is December 6–11, 2026. I was a founding member in December 2025 and run it now.
“Show the prototype early. Ask the line engineer before the sales deck.” — the only process rule
Hardware, in order
- 2026 — Illuminious Founder NPI engineering, DFM and production · Shenzhen, Batam, US
- 2025 — Future Factory Host · founding member Six-day supply-chain tours · max 20 founders · next cohort December 6–11, 2026
- 2023–24 Fullwill Technology COO & Director of North America Consumer electronics operations and North American e-commerce · Shenzhen
- Languages
Mandarin and English, bilingual. Spanish, six years of it and still a work in progress.
- Day to day
Python and R when the problem is quantitative, a spreadsheet when it is faster, a factory floor when the answer is not on a screen.
- Approach
Show the prototype early. Ask the line engineer before the sales deck. The cheapest fix is the one you make before the mold.
Founders, engineers, factory people
Say hello.
The fastest route
Tell me what you're building.
Stage, volumes, and the part that is keeping you up at night. If it is a Future Factory question, say that too — I read everything and reply to most of it.
[email protected]