Startups have to deal with scarce resources to be acquired from elsewhere and tight requirements to advance their innovative ideas. This study explores production competence as a reflection of a missing link from conception to efficient industrialization and the scale-up in hardware startups. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study consisting of an investigation of fourteen startups. Hardware startups working on discrete product technologies lack the technical competence, strategy, facilities, and functions to adequately address production issues. This implies that their challenges in managing and executing industrialization and scale-up activities impact viability and competitiveness of the ventures. Skinners’ missing link analogy has been used to understand the phenomenon faced by hardware startups.