The UK’s elite hardware talent is wasted.

Imperial, Oxford, and Cambridge produce world-class engineers. Yet after graduation, their trajectory is one of economic tragedy — and a hidden arbitrage opportunity.

The Amazing Reality:

• Top London hardware graduates: £30,000-£50,000

• Silicon Valley equivalent: $150,000+

The reality for most graduates is even worse:

• £25,000 starting salary in traditional engineering firms

• Exodus into consulting or finance just because it pays better

While computer science graduates get many jobs in big tech or quant trading, usually starting at £100,000+

Examples of wasted potential:

• Sarah: Built a fusion reactor at 16. Now? Debugging fintech payment systems.

• James: 3D-printed prosthetic limbs for A-levels. Now? Writing credit risk reports.

• Alex: Developed AI drone swarms for disaster relief at 18. Graduated with top honors from Imperial. His job? One-button ergonomic tweaks to home appliances.

These are not outliers. They are a generation of engineering geniuses whose talents have been squandered.

It’s not just wage disparity. This is the misallocation of human capital on a national scale.

As a hardware founder in London, I have witnessed this firsthand. We have the talent for groundbreaking innovation, but lack the means to realize it.

Key factors:

1. Geographical Limits: Unlike lucrative software jobs, hardware engineering requires physical presence.

2. Venture Capital: European VCs, often strong in fintech and SaaS, remain wary of hardware. Result? A feedback loop of underinvestment and lost opportunities.

3. Industrial Stagnation: Traditional engineering firms fail to transform talent strategies and match compensation, accelerating brain drain.

Consequences:

1. Innovation Stagnation: Not only will we lose pay differentials; we lack the next ARM or Tesla.

2. Effects of Ripple on the Economy: A successful hardware company can spawn many ancillary businesses. We lose these effects in integration.

3. National Security Implications: In an era where technological content equates to geopolitical power, can we allow our best hardware talent to languish?

4. Brain Speed ​​Up: We risk losing our top talent permanently to overseas markets.

Debunking Common Myths

“The lower cost of living in London justifies the lower wages.”

Lie. London is about the same as NYC and more expensive than most parts of California and certainly Texas. It also ignores:

• Wealth Creation and Ecosystem Acceleration: High salaries and successful exits are more abundant over time, which is why the US has more VC and angel capital.

• Talent attraction: Top jobs attract global talent. Example: Google’s entry into London with competitive salaries changed the entire technology ecosystem.

“Small UK market limits growth.”

Old-fashioned thinking. Consider:

• Dyson: From a barn in Wiltshire to a global technology powerhouse, now innovating in Singapore and Malaysia.

• Ocado: The online grocer has become a global automation technology provider, with robotics solutions deployed across Europe and North America.

• ARM: Powers 95% of smartphones worldwide.

“Hardware is more dangerous than software.”

Not true anymore:

• Development speed: 3D prints and PCB prototypes are now available in 24 hours, rivaling software iteration speeds.

• Moat strength: Apple’s hardware-software ecosystem is more defensible than most pure software games.

• More hardware outputs:

  • ARM: Sold to SoftBank for $32B in 2016, now worth $140B+.

  • CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio): Acquired by Qualcomm for $2.5B in 2015.

  • Dyson: Even if not an exit, it will be worth over £20B in 2023.

The Arbitrage Play:

It’s not about cost. It’s about ambition.

While software talent flows freely around the world, ambitious UK hardware startups can exclusively tap into a world-class, locally-bound talent pool.

1. The Software Brain Drain:

   • US tech giants are quickly snapping up UK software talent

   • Remote work can erase geographical boundaries

   • Result: Constant flow of top software engineers

2. The Hardware Opportunity:

   • Physical presence is important – can’t make rockets at a distance

   • UK hardware talent is largely untapped by global competition

   • Do something ambitious, attract local engineering superstars

3. The Talent Trap:

   • Brilliant minds waste away in soul-crushing corporate jobs

   • Your future “10x engineer” is someone else’s bored employee

4. The Hardware Advantage:

   • Forget the software. Hardware is the new frontier.

   • Build the next ARM or Dyson, not another fintech app

   • Take advantage of the UK’s world-class research institutions

5. Why Now:

   • Incumbents are not ambitious, startups are few (now)

   • Top-tier VCs waking up to UK hardware potential

   • First movers have their pick of the talent pool

The Window closes

This arbitrage does not last forever. As you read this, others are waking up to the moment. Prime movers reap the rewards. Followers will wonder why they didn’t see it sooner.

The Hardware Revolution Begins Now

Wake up, UK. Our engineering talent is our nuclear fusion. Start it or lose the future.

VCs:

Your next unicorn is not code. It’s cobalt and circuits. Bring back the touch.

Builders:

Stop fleeing to the US. London may be the hardware capital of the world. We have talent. We have creativity. What we need is your courage.

Engineers:

Your brain is worth billions. Build empires, not apps.

While the world is obsessed with the next GPT wrapper, let’s continue the next industrial revolution.

This is not a pipe dream. This is a necessity.

UK, it’s time to build.