Ryan Vinyard

Ryan Vinyard has over 10 years of experience in the hardware engineering and product development industry. Ryan began their career in 2012 as a Product Development Engineer at Lime Lab. In 2013, they joined Highway1 as an Engineering Lead and Director, where they advised 67 hardware startups on how to engineer and manufacture their products, grow their startups, and learn through iterative prototyping. Ryan also hired a full engineering team and crafted a technical curriculum for the program. In 2016, they joined Molekule as the VP of Manufacturing, where they worked on engineering, operations, and program management. Ryan also helped the company grow to over 50 employees, go through their Series A diligence, scale manufacturing of their first consumer product, and start development of the next generation. In 2018, they started their own consultancy, Vinyard Product Development, and successfully thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. In 2019, they became an Advisor at Nexleaf Analytics and in 2020 they became an Advisor at Population, where they led the initial hardware development for a novel air purifier based on cutting-edge science. In 2021, they became an Advisor at Jara and in 2022 they became the Head of Hardware at Olyns Recycling.

Ryan Vinyard attended Stanford University from 2003 to 2007, where they earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Product Design, Mechanical Engineering, and Studio Art.