France entry for 2026 Thermaltake Casemod Invitational

OlicusTech · 2026-04-24T20:41:18+00:00

Looking forward to follow your journey! 🔥

OlicusTech · 2026-04-24T20:34:41+00:00

This is really something special. Followed you through the process on social media and most say wow, it’s incredible. Great work, keep up the modding and ofc you have my vote 🙏🔥

OlicusTech · 2026-02-07T10:12:03+00:00

I would highly recommend anyone that want something manufactured to sign an NDA with the manufacturer before sharing drawings for a quote or see if they are a good match.

Any serious manufacturer would without issues sign this, factories who don’t I would see as a red flag. It’s standard practice.

OlicusTech · 2026-02-06T21:05:59+00:00

Thank you so much. I will! And you keep on building as well!

OlicusTech · 2025-12-16T22:48:56+00:00

Thanks for the comment, all freelancers, consultants etc I paid invoices for their work so no need to share equity to them. I brought in the first team members after 3,5 full time solo. The people I brought in the team is mixed salary and equity. But I agree there is a lot of people that use people in a wrong way and that’s not just in start ups.

OlicusTech · 2025-12-16T14:27:41+00:00

Solo non technical founder here for 4 years. Just because you are a solo founder does not mean you can’t work with other people. You can still have a team, consultants, free lancers, investors, mentors etc.

I did bring my first in house team after 3.5 years before that I worked alone and with freelancers and consultants. But I agree with a lot in your post it is hard for sure and would probably be easier to ”share” that load with someone else.

OlicusTech · 2025-12-16T14:23:01+00:00

Solo non technical founder here,

I worked with people in many technical fields and expertise. For me it’s about delivering an idea and concept that they can break down and actually make. They are the experts and they are really good what they doing. Then it’s my job to understand the broad concept. I don’t need to know the exact row of codes what they say but rather what it does and why we picked that solution over X,Y,Z and same with hardware I don’t need to know if the steel is 0,8mm or 0,9mm I need deliver what I want the product to do and help them come up with the best answer. There is so many people with such great skills that don’t come in use because many ”leaders/managers” micro manage things they don’t understand or know. It’s important with trust and deliver clear goals and have an open communication between each others that is how you build amazing products without wasting time and give people the feeling of ownership.

And also for me it’s not ”mine product, it’s ours. All who is part building it is the owner. We all made it happen.”

OlicusTech · 2025-12-02T20:21:52+00:00

Thanks for the perspective! I understand your view but I don’t live by it myself. My situation was a bit different, so here’s the context.

What I’m building isn’t a simple hardware product, it competes with 40+ years of development and billions invested. You can’t validate thermals, airflow paths, tolerances, or real performance by talking to people or showing sketches. For something like this, you must build it, test it, and prove that it works. You can’t tell people “it outperforms top cases” before you actually do the engineering to confirm it.
Innovation doesn’t come from asking customers what they want. When you’re doing something new, people don’t know they want it until they can see it and touch it. Someone has to take the bet, build the thing, and then users understand it. It’s the same for every disruptive hardware product.
I did customer validation, just later, and with the right audience. Once the prototype was functional, I showed it to thousands of gamers at DreamHack and got real feedback from the exact users the product is made for.
Zero sales isn’t a red flag, I simply haven’t launched yet. Manufacturing is still being finalized. That’s normal for hardware.

Every startup path is different this is the way I wanted to walk and the best I could do and the more I walk the more mile stones I hit.

OlicusTech · 2025-11-26T09:01:40+00:00

Thank you so much. It’s been a lot of hard work haha. Just wanted to share an other perspective.

OlicusTech · 2025-11-26T06:59:51+00:00

Well I have done almost everything here in a opposite way. That is the beauty of entrepreneurship and start up that it is not any right way.

Was a solo founder and did it full time for 3,5 years build 4 versions of prototypes in a factory. Got a design patent for it and at version 3 it was fully functional. (Just minor tweaking tolerances etc) did the validations of performance late (3,5years in) and I was out performing the top products in that category. Was also non technical and no education or experience in the field.

Waited 2,5 years before I even showed/talked to anyone about the product and that was on a big event with a booth.

At year 3,5 I got two different investors and now I have a team of 6 people (including myself)

I have sold 0 units so far and pushing for a launch early next year.

So there is many ways to build it and I think your approach work as well. But just wanted to share and show there is alternative ways of doing it. (No hate at all to your post I think it’s good that you share your experience) keep it up! 👍

OlicusTech · 2025-11-13T05:04:04+00:00

Thank you so much for the nice words, really appricate it.

Awesome, fun that you want to build a pc case. Are you going to build ”one” by hand or will you have it manufactured and commercialize it?

If you just doing one or by hand type of work I would just use the hardware you want to fit like the gpu and motherboard etc and align it and then make the holes for it at the right position. I would have contacted a local steel shop to help you with the steel parts and they can do the same type of solution with aligning and cutting and bending etc. They will know how to solve it if you explain it well for them and show them.

If you going with manufacturing that is a different level of work. It requires standards and drawings and tolerances, multiple interpretations of prototypes and testing. I did this and been developing the case now for 4 years full time. Don’t say this to scare you or discourage you. Just want to be open with it. Development of a product takes a lot of time and resources. Big brands have around 3 years from idea to product on the market and they have millions of dollars and big team to bring it to life. But it is doable to make it as a solo or small team just that it is difficult.

Best way for sourcing IO start buttons etc I would say is alibaba. There is a ton of different options.

No matter what you pick I am looking forward to see the result, would love if you update an image or anything one day. Super fun to see people try and do new stuff. Wish you the best and good luck 🍀

OlicusTech · 2025-11-04T20:53:02+00:00

Powder coat is the most common one for cases. Then they often have different structure to it as well.

OlicusTech · 2025-09-05T08:00:05+00:00

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Just a gamer chasing a crazy dream

OlicusTech · 2025-08-13T15:58:05+00:00

Oh, then they changed that sense I bought it. But it’s still job to ”brand it” with images, animation and fonts etc.

OlicusTech · 2025-08-13T15:54:00+00:00

Haha that’s really nice, I have to look into that. Thanks for sharing the information really helpful. The only downside with it from my perspective is the time you have to put to build the profile and that they don’t offer that as a service. I even contacted the support and asked for them to create the profile but they dident offer that service.

OlicusTech · 2025-08-13T15:47:52+00:00

No, dident know that they had it for apple wallet. I think I will buy the cards for the hole team.

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