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The Frontier Podcast

Hardware is hard; you make it happen or you don’t

Keith Nothacker, Founder and CEO of BACtrack, even in college knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. When he was looking for something -- anything -- to sell online, he decided it was crazy that the police could test anyone for their blood alcohol level, but consumers couldn’t test themselves. So he decided to solve that problem. 


BACtrack pioneered the consumer market for breathalyzers, positioning the product as an affordable, consumer-friendly safety device. In 2004, BACtrack became the first company ever to receive U.S. Food & Drug Administration clearance to legally sell the devices to consumers for personal use.


Ledge sat down with Keith to share the story of his company, from design to prototypes, manufacturing to distribution, and into the age of the smartphone. As Keith says, “Hardware is hard,” but just like any other business you buckle down and make it happen.




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