The archive · Hardware & Devices · Strategic decision · 2026
ProvenMetal bets automating PCB front-of-house can make US fast-turn boards viable
Two Trinity engineering students assemble US circuit boards in 5-7 days, betting quoting, DFM, and part procurement - not assembly - are the real bottleneck.
ProvenMetal
What the business is
Fast-turn printed circuit board fabrication and assembly in the US: customers upload design files, get automated quoting and DFM review, and ProvenMetal sources parts, runs fab, assembles, X-rays, and ships in 5-7 days.
How it started
Johnny Doyle and Will Carkner, Trinity College Dublin engineering students, began assembling boards in a garage in Dogpatch, San Francisco, with prosumer equipment, betting domestic PCBA could serve US hardware and robotics teams. Accepted into YC S26 only after their first pitch was rejected as not ambitious enough, they rebuilt the business model in a week before the second interview.
What happened
Garage assembly proved capacity-constrained, so they pivoted to automating the front of house: automatic component sourcing across distributors, KiCAD and Altium plugins that order long-lead parts before layout is finalised, per-manufacturer quoting profiles, and an AI DFM harness. They took their first paying order in under a week and did roughly $70K across 11 orders in the first six weeks.
How it ended up
Still live. YC-backed ProvenMetal offers 5-7 day standard turns with no expedite fees, X-rays every board, and is targeting drone, robotics, and defense customers who need domestic supply chains.
Background
ProvenMetal is a San Francisco startup assembling printed circuit boards in the US with a 5-7 day standard turn. Customers upload Gerbers, BOM, and placement files, get an automated quote with DFM review and a ship date before they approve, and ProvenMetal handles sourcing, fabrication, assembly, X-ray inspection, and test under one accountable team.
Founders Johnny Doyle and Will Carkner - Trinity College Dublin engineering students - started by assembling boards in a Dogpatch garage with prosumer equipment. They were accepted into YC S26 after their original pitch was rejected as not ambitious enough; they rebuilt the business model in the week before their second interview.
Garage assembly quickly showed them that manufacturing capacity was not the binding constraint. The real delays were front-of-house: days of email back-and-forth to get quotes, manual DFM review, and sourcing parts. They pivoted to automating that layer - automatic BOM sourcing, KiCAD/Altium plugins, manufacturer-specific quoting profiles, and an AI DFM harness.
The bet is that a domestic PCB supply chain can be rebuilt from the order-intake side first: first paying order in under a week, roughly $70K across 11 orders in six weeks, and a YC S26 launch aimed at drone, robotics, and defense teams that need fast US-built boards.
What has to be true
- US PCB production shrank from 30% of global output in 2000 to 4%; ProvenMetal found quoting and procurement, not assembly, were the weeks-long bottleneck.
- Owning assembly first let them learn the process, then deliberately stop fighting a battle they could not win early - capacity - and focus on the software-shaped part of the chain.
- Automated ordering during design (before layout is finalised) turns procurement from a multi-day scramble into an earlier, cheaper, parallel step, which is what makes a 5-7 day turn credible.
- Reshoring demand from drones, robotics, and defense creates customers who value speed and domestic supply over Chinese prices, giving a small US assembler an entry wedge.
What can be applied
When a market looks like a capacity problem, check where time is actually lost: ProvenMetal found quoting, DFM review, and part procurement - not assembly - were the bottleneck.
Aftermath
As of September 2026, ProvenMetal is live and YC-backed (S26), offering standard 5-7 day turns with no expedite fees, fully domestic builds on request, up to 32-layer HDI, SMT to 01005, and X-ray plus AOI on every assembly. The founders describe the long game as owning the full stack from design review to tested boards and driving high-mix, low-volume costs down over time.
Sources
- Launch HN: ProvenMetal (YC S26) delivers circuit boards in days instead of weeks
- ProvenMetal: Fast-turn, American made PCBs
- I'm trying to build the next Stripe: Two Irish start-ups accepted into top Silicon Valley programme
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