From Pilot to Production: The Manufacturing Fund in Action with OnSight

Two months ago, Angel Mendoza and Matt Martinez found themselves in an uncomfortable position. The two Northwestern mechanical engineering students had built OnSight, a company developing non-invasive sensor technology to help gym owners better manage and organize their facilities. The idea grew out of their experiences with broken machines and long wait times at gyms, where owners often lacked clear insight into how the equipment was actually used. After building their first sensors, they completed a successful pilot, validated demand, and signed their first customer.

There was just one problem: they couldn’t afford to fulfill the order.

“We were stuck,” says Mendoza. “We didn’t have the money to actually fulfill the contract we were about to sign. We were looking for outlets, anywhere we could find the money.”

That is exactly the gap The Garage’s new Manufacturing Fund was designed to close.

Launched this year, the Manufacturing Fund provides student teams with awards of up to $25,000 to cover critical production expenses, including prototyping, tooling, and minimum order quantities required for initial manufacturing runs. While The Garage’s Prototyping Lab gives students the tools to build and test early versions of their products, scaling beyond campus often requires significant upfront capital.

“Not everyone has the ability to bootstrap a startup, especially a hardware startup like ours,” said Martinez. “Having access to the Manufacturing Fund and being able to move from proof of concept to serving a real customer is huge.”

For OnSight, the fund arrived at the right moment. With financial support in place, Mendoza and Martinez were able to purchase enough electronic components to outfit an entire gym, increasing the number of tracked pieces of equipment from 20 to more than 140.

For student founders building physical products, the leap from prototype to production can be the hardest step. The Manufacturing Fund helps close that gap, ensuring that promising ideas don’t stall due to upfront manufacturing costs. For teams like OnSight, it’s not just funding, it’s momentum.

“Now that we have our first customer and were able to actually fulfill that contract and deploy, that just leads to way more traction and more development for the company.” Mendoza shared, “From here, we'll get two customers, three customers, four customers - now that we have some proof of concept that our data is actually working.” 

The Garage Manufacturing Fund is for student teams that are working on a physical product that requires prototyping, tooling, or manufacturing beyond the capabilities available at The Garage. Teams must have participated in Jumpstart or have spent at least two consecutive quarters as Residents. To learn more about the Manufacturing Fund, visit https://www.thegarage.northwestern.edu/programs/manufacturing-fund