## Hardware video interview highlights

### Can you give us a brief overview of AllSpice?

At a high level, [AllSpice](/content/site-root.html) is a collaboration platform for electrical engineers, hardware engineers, and PCB designers. AllSpice uses git-based revision control through a [central hub for collaboration](https://hub.allspice.io/) – it features [AI-powered design reviews](/content/product/drcy/index.html), issue tracking, and releases, with analytics and automation. The solution is essentially [Github](https://github.com/), but made for engineering teams to develop electronics more efficiently – rather than text-based code, think PCB, schematics, and BOMs.

### Tell us a bit more about your background, and what drove you and your co-founder to create the hardware development platform

Valentina has a mechanical engineering background and worked at [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/) as a project manager, while Co-founder, and CTO Kyle Dumont has an electrical engineering background with experience working at [iRobot](https://www.irobot.com/). Together, the pair makes “one full stack developer.” [They met while completing a dual-degree program at Harvard University](/content/post/our-founding-story/index.html). After being exposed to the software world and its native tools, increased project quality, deceased timelines, and high employee satisfaction rates, it was clear that hardware workflows needed a boost in efficiency. And the use of PDFs, excel sheets, large email threads, post-it notes, and screenshots was due for a tune-up. So, Kyle and Valentina pushed to build [better processes for hardware engineers](/content/post/how-tools-for-humanity-scaled-open-hardware-collaboration-for-the-orb/index.html).

### Why was Git the right choice for automating the workflows of hardware engineers?

Allspice uses [Git protocol](https://git-scm.com/) to power their platforms’ revision control. They chose Git due to several factors. The first one is that the hardware industry was already beginning to [shift to Git from SVN](/content/post/7-reasons-why-hardware-teams-are-adopting-git/index.html). The second reason is Git puts various teams into a shared infrastructure, making it easier to collaborate with, for example, firmware or software teams. It encourages a common language and methodology between the teams, creating a seamless experience. The last reason behind choosing Git was the desire to provide native integration for [ECAD tools](https://learn.allspice.io/docs/what-file-formats-do-you-support).

### Why do you think a hardware development tool like AllSpice did not already exist?

Previously, in product development, most of the limitations resided in the manufacturing side, taking significant time to get products back – this made tools that may have the ability to operate faster inessential. The innovation that is currently occurring enables a quicker process – teams are prioritizing doing more with less, driving efficiency in the PCB Design process.

Another reason why a similar platform has not existed before AllSpice is the lack of resources. Recently, the AllSpice team ran a survey asking hundreds of engineers what the biggest blocker is for them when adopting Git for hardware, and several respondents were simply unsure of [where they could learn about it](/content/ebooks/git-for-hardware-guide/index.html).

Watch the full interview here:

[Episode 23: A New Guard in Crowdsourced Tech Development with Valentina Ratner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSeDqQiHt4g)