This company Nominal (nominal.io) just raised $80M at a $1B+ valuation for hardware engineering data infrastructure. That alone is interesting. But what caught my eye is they released a physical product catalog styled after McMaster-Carr. Square-back binding, industrial aesthetic, the whole thing. It's a software company shipping a paper catalog in 2026.
Their product helps hardware teams (aerospace, defense, automotive) manage test and operational data. Think time series, video, structured metadata across massive test campaigns. Customers like Anduril and Hermeus are using it.
But honestly I'm just here for the catalog. Someone over there clearly cares about the craft of how engineering tools get presented to the world. The website has a similar retro-industrial vibe. Feels like a throwback to when instrument companies like Tektronix and HP actually had taste.
