Reno entrepreneurs seek to take induction cooking outside

Original Article, by Rob Salvo seen here:

https://www.nnbw.com/news/2025/nov/04/reno-entrepreneurs-seek-to-take-induction-cooking-outside/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOmvfRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe3NvTXk3Ea-ZVZWqWIkHvjmmHnP9-zd7sFAU8-MT48lzJQbLDarba9ToUMjQ_aem_-igIbaXaqAOwr_QCdiqu7w

A showroom in a nondescript industrial building in south Reno is ground zero for a company that intends to disrupt the cooking appliance industry.

Induction Hardware was founded in September by entrepreneurs Galen Bradford, Brian Pick, Eric Keller and Matthew Biondi. Bradford, Induction Hardware’s chief executive officer, was a former executive with appliance manufacturer ZLine. Pick, the company’s legal counsel and strategic adviser, spent more than two decades working as an attorney in all stages of the business lifecycle.

The idea to become entrepreneurs occurred during a mountain bike ride on the flanks of Mount Rose. Pick had stepped away from the demanding duties of being a partner at McDonald Carano, while Bradford had retired from his role as chief marketing officer at ZLine. Neither had the personality type to spend their days loafing at a country club.

Bradford said one day he sized up a Blackstone griddle used for outdoor cooking and an idea sparked in his mind.

“Induction is perfect for griddle cooking,” he said. “You don’t have a risk of fire or any emissions. No one has taken this cooking technology outside, so we decided to make an outdoor induction griddle.”

Induction heating is the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly form of generating heat for cooking — about three times more efficient than gas. Induction heating, which works with any pot or pan made with ferrous metal, directly heats the metal in the cookware through electromagnetic transfer. It’s much safer than other forms of heating because there’s no flame, and heat dissipates as soon as the appliance is turned off. It’s also instantaneous — induction heat can boil room-temperature water in about 30 seconds.

“It’s insanely fast,” Pick said.

The duo are uniquely qualified to position Induction Hardware as a major player in the North American and international cooking appliance industry. Bradford brings extensive expertise in scaling an appliance company, while Pick’s two decades of work in mergers, acquisitions, buyouts and more provided master-class training in founding, financing, scaling and running a company.

“There were so many times I helped someone start, run, clean up or sell their business,” Pick said. “I had my hands in all of it, and I was very good at it, but I wanted to do it for myself.”

Induction cooking is far more prevalent in Europe than in North America – at least for now. According to the Environmental Coalition on Standards of Brussels, the market share for global induction cooking products is expected to reach just shy of $21 billion by 2032, with Europe accounting for approximately half of all sales.

That leaves quite a bit of room for an American-based company to claim its share of the industry.

“This is the best-performing technology, and it will be the future of cooking (which is the company’s tagline),” Bradford said. “Nobody is focused on it in America, so there’s an opportunity to be the company that switches the market here in the U.S.”

Induction Hardware is engineering and developing all of its products. In early 2026 it plans to introduce 36- and 20-inch outdoor grills that use a carbon steel plate for the griddle top to reduce weight for easy cleaning. The smaller unit is designed for camping, tailgating or barbecuing on apartment balconies where space is limited.

The griddle top also can be removed, turning the cooking unit into an outdoor kitchen.

“You can do all our cooking outside, and that changes the game,” Bradford said.

Induction Hardware also offers ranges, cooktops and range hoods, with additional products in the development pipeline, said Bradford, who expects to offer a full suite of kitchen appliances beginning in 2026.

Induction cooking appliances typically have higher price points than off-the-shelf stoves and ranges from big box home improvement retailers, but costs are easily outweighed over time by significantly lower energy usage, Bradford noted. They also are significantly less expensive than most high-end luxury appliances.

Induction Hardware’s rigorous focus on quality is backed by an industry-first lifetime warranty on all appliances, he added. Bradford likens Induction Hardware’s products to appliances that were produced in the 1950s – solid, reliable, and long-lasting, but with modern technology and features.

“All of our products are built to last. I want to be able to sell products that last decades and have customers be so happy about how good they are, how easy they are to use, and how much better they are for cooking that they tell 100 people who also buy our appliances,” he said. “That customer following is how we will take our share of the market.

“We are so confident in the quality of our products that we are offering a lifetime warranty,” he added.

The showroom in Reno could prove to be a model for key markets across the U.S. and in other countries, Bradford noted.

“The flex space is unique in that you have warehousing and a showroom,” he said. “We can have space for distribution and showrooms in core markets, and if it works as well as we hope, we will be opening many more locations very quickly.”

Induction Hardware already has partners in Europe and Australia, and it’s secured manufacturing space in Thailand with an eye at onshoring production as soon as possible.

“We have a few phases in mind,” Pick said. “For the first phase, it’s utilizing manufacturing in Thailand so we can get up and running, get to volume and get the sales volume to justify building a factory here in the U.S. where we can use the lessons we have learned in Thailand.

Added Bradford: “It’s a major goal and one of the reasons why I got back into the ring. It was unfinished business, bringing appliance manufacturing back to the U.S.”

The duo also have very personal reasons for founding Induction Hardware – as neighbors in St. James Village, they both almost lost their homes in the 2024 Davis Fire, which was caused by an improperly extinguished campfire that likely was used for cooking. The fire destroyed 11 homes but had the potential to wipe out hundreds more.

“We are solving a lot of solutions to manufacturing problems, and as an entrepreneur, that is something I am most proud of,” Bradford said. “We chose this avenue to solve a ton of really tangible problems, like outdoor gas grills almost burning our houses down.”