Episoder
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This episode’s guest is Kistjan Vilosius of Katana, a startup from Estonia.
Working at a small-, medium-sized company, or startup you have to wear many hats and it happens often that there are simply not enough people to wear those hats. You have limited resources. Highly efficient way of working is therefore extremely important. How many times did it happen that you spent unexpectedly high number of hours trying to fix some issues when using your software, for example plain old spreadsheets, especially when those spreadsheets are connected, which handle different aspects of your business?
This episode’s guest is Katana’s co-founder and CEO, Kristjan. He has held different leadership positions in the corporate world as the group CFO then group CEO of Magnum, a multinational pharmaceutical retailer in the Baltics and Finland. Later he was the CEO of Up Invest family office investing in retail, media, healthcare and cleantech companies. Today he’s the CEO and Product Manager of Katana, a manufacturing ERP for makers, crafters, manufacturers.
We’ll talk about how they started out, back when Katana was just an idea. We discuss what solutions exist for managing inventory, production besides Katana’s solution. We go into details how their software works, the many integrations they offer now and they expect to offer in the near future. You’ll also hear about trends that you can expect in the b2c space.
Enjoy this episode.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
The story behind the first manufacturing and inventory management tool that helps small business scale faster [3:00] What makes Estonia one of the best countries to start a company [6:30] How Katana brings in the point of truth [8:54] Why focusing on a specific customer niche is a winning strategy for inventory management platforms [12:23] The ways in which Katana is trying to become an integrated app [18:08] How Katana supports manufacturers producing highly complex products [25:18] The differences between Katana and Excel that make your life and business easier [29:36] Trends for small manufacturing in 2019 and beyond [33:02] If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? [35:21] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? [36:46] Why make your leg day in the gym on Monday morning [38:24] How to bring out the best of people in an international team [39:40] What is the best way to reach Kristjan? [37:40] -
My podcast guest is Pete Staples, co-founder and president of Blue Clover Devices with locations in San Francisco, Hong Kong and of course, Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley of Hardware.
This is an episode on some important aspects of production lines and its challenges. Without a production line you have no mass manufacturing so if you want to play in that field, it’s good to know about some current issues.
Pete’s company is originally and even now an ODM company. In this episode he will talk about what they do as an ODM. You’ll also find out about typical waste in production lines and what can go wrong with Work Instructions or SOP, Standard Operating Procedures that are typically used in production lines. Pete’s team has a solution to make teams’ life easier. Their product is for automating testing, but not the usual way which can set you back by a few hundred thousand dollars.
We’ve talked about many many more topics, enjoy.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
Why Blue Clover Devices are not afraid of competitors [3:25] The difference between ODM and CM and the benefits of using each of them [7:13] Why SOPs are good for consistency but becoming more and more obsolete for usage in Production Lines [9:53] A new level for remote work: “a teleporter” that automates the manufacturing and production process [15:40] How Blue Clovers Devices company applies the 10x improvement [22:00] If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? [27:45] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? [30:00] How staying fit during work time is good for both the employees and the company [32:07] How to keep the balance when shifting between two different cultural and business worlds [33:45] What is the best way to reach Pete? [37:40] -
Manglende episoder?
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I have a very special guest, one of the pioneers of one of the most popular innovation frameworks these days: the lean startup framework. My guest is Ash Maurya, who along with Eric Ries, did some substantial work in this field, laying the foundations of this concept.
You’ll learn in this episode why this idea is still important today, especially in hardware field after it was born around the last financial crisis. You’ll get to hear also what companies are using it, some tactics you can use to make it work for you and also how others use it so you can get inspired. Ash will describe some of the steps, milestones you should hit during the development. In addition he’ll highlight some of the latest cutting-edge innovation topics he’s been working on which connects with my one of past episodes, episode 18 with Alan Klement when we discussed the Jobs To Be Done framework.
Enjoy this episode.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
The trigger behind the creation of the Lean Startup innovation framework [1:56] Some examples of big and small companies that prove Lean Startup principles are universal when applying the right tactics [7:24] Strategies that hardware startups use to go faster than their competitors [10:27] The three stages of Lean Startup, the risks associated with them and recommendations on how to move successfully through each one [16:18] Running Lean, Scaling Lean and the Customer Forces Canvas – when and how to use them [24:25] How a fisherman in South America surprisingly benefited from Lean Startup principles [29:11] If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? [34:08] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? [34:48] A routine hack for accomplishment-driven makers [36:25] Why sharing stories help us thrive in cultures with different nuances [38:00] What is the best way to reach Ash? [40:28] -
My guest in this episode is Moritz Waldstein-Wartenberg of Mitte from Berlin, Germany.
We all drink water, mostly, I guess. I drink it in my tea, usually Fennel Anis Cumin bio tea, I drink it many times per day. Or I consume water in its pure form. But is water really pure? If it’s not pure, for example tap water, which we drink many times in Europe, how do you make sure you have a high quality water at home without going to the supermarket, paying for it and without taking, then throwing out the plastic bottles? And if you get it in the supermarket, is that good enough water for us?
Mitte addresses these points mentioned. With Moritz we talked about different technologies to purify water, how Mitte started out, the milestones they reached and how they got to the current investment round of 10 million. We also covered some of the strategies and tactics they used. We also touched on agile transformation, a topic covered in the last episode.
Enjoy this episode.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
What Mitte adds to their product that makes it unique and how they go beyond the standard for every user [2:40] Some very important actions to consider on your way to a successful crowdfunding campaign [8:55] Designing contracts when working with bigger companies as partners and other helpful skills in the initial start-up stage [14:56] A nature-like technology that’s a good offer for both people and the planet [19:28] The difference between working in silos and work streams [23:18] If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? [27:00] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? [28:00] Why morning routines are important for Moritz [30:33] Why diversity brings strength to companies and what it requires [31:28] What is the best way to reach Moritz? [33:51] -
I’m back on this episode and you will hear about the continuation of the topic of the last published episode. What should you do once you know you have a problem worth solving and you validated what solution you should build with all the features? Should you just go ahead and develop the product based on the specs, the whole development potentially taking multiple years? What is some framework that’s being adopted by more and more organisations these days, such as by Tesla, Bosch, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Boeing, Saab Defense or also some of the smaller companies, startups? They realized you cannot keep developing and operating in a rigid plan-driven way since the whole world has turned upside down, speed of working has increased and if you don’t come out onto the market with a product faster than your competitors, you lose.
This episode is about agile transformation of organisations, especially their hardware development.
What hurdles have you seen in your transformation or in your wish to transform?
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
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This episode features me and I’ll talk about topics that are especially relevant for technical founders.
Your product is not the product. Many of us in high tech entrepreneurship have a technical background, with years of academic training where we’ve been educated about how to build products, with all the technical skills needed for that. We know how to calculate many things, such as mechanical properties, we know how to create CAD drawings, and how to actually translate theory into practise by actually building stuff. But is entrepreneurship really about these technicalities, specifically hardware entrepreneurship?
In this episode I address 3 questions:
(i) if it’s not your product that matters, what matters than more?
(ii) once you have the basics of your business, should you rush to build and publicly release a fully-fledged product which perfectly reflects your vision?
(iii) what are some of the frameworks for some of the well-known hardware startups that make their business tick?
In this episode you can learn about how to find good ideas, why and how not to fall into the product trap, how Audi won the Le Mans competition without having the fastest car, how Tesla rolls out its products and many more.
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
How to hang a picture on the wall [2:00] Why constraints are actually helpful [5:18] Elements of a story about how an organization creates, delivers and captures value [8:00] How smart it is to tackle the biggest risk first [10:51] Typical business models for hardware startups [13:46] -
I had Michael Corr as guest, who is the co-founder and CEO of Duro Labs from LA, southern California. I already had a guest from LA in episode 25, Shaun Arora of Make in LA, the hardware accelerator. Michael is also in a way supporting the hardware ecosystem, but he’s not from an accelerator. He’s helping hardware companies with their developments and he has a product for it.
His product is at the interface between software and hardware. He’s been deep in hardware development, designing and manufacturing all kinds of hardware products for more than 15 years both in the US and outside. Hardware products he has designed range from drones, IoT devices, wearables, telecom equipment, cleantech. His team is coming out now with a cloud-based product.
Many talk enthusiastically about digital manufacturing and that there’s a renaissance in manufacturing, but actually still too many use such “sophisticated” tools as email or simple spreadsheets. How do you avoid miscommunication between teams in design, in manufacturing, inside and outside your organisation? How do you make sure you can keep track of all the data you produce during your development without people working with inconsistent versions of your database? How do you circumvent getting inaccurate data, spec sheets, part numbers, drawings into your design? These are all some of the questions he addresses in this interview. Beyond these, we also talked about other pressing issues for agile hardware development a reality or why we don’t have revision control in CAD design similar to how it exists in software development with git repository.
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
The solution to a common pain point across various endeavors in designing and manufacturing hardware [4:30] Who can benefit from Duro and the variety of problems it can solve that differentiate it on the market [8:12] What some of the most used management tools cannot give to today’s engineers that Duro can [16:23] How the gap between prototyping and mass production stage is slowing down the hardware industry in its struggle to catch up with the software industry [20:25] State of agile development and which companies are making progress in this respect [27:24] Stages of the hardware development where agile will have the most impact [35:12] Why version management tools aren’t common in hardware development [42:12] If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? [46:06] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? [47:43] Why and when to be process-oriented [48:49] Being in different worlds for development and its challenges [51:08] What is the best way to reach Michael? [53:28] -
This is a rerun episode after one month of no publishing. As mentioned in the last episode, I changed the publishing frequency to monthly. Why am I doing now a re-release of a past episode? Perhaps you’ve seen the recent report by HAX, the hardware accelerator based in Shenzhen, China and in San Francisco: their first hardware report in 2018. In the report they mentioned the importance of a great team when building a company and immediately this past episode with Alan Clayton came up in my mind, who’s the person assessing hardware startup teams’ healths. Since this is a very important topic, I wanted to bring it in focus again by re-releasing this episode.
Alan has been working for SOSV, the Venture Capital company, since its beginnings in 2010. You might know as SOSV as it’s the world’s top hardware VC. They’re special also in another aspect as unlike other VCs, SOSV runs accelerator programs, such as HAX, HAX Growth, RebelBio, IndieBio, Food-X, Chinaaccelerator, MOX. They are understandably very tech-focused and Alan Clayton is the person who understands people. This means he makes sure you have the right team to deliver the right results as otherwise things can and if they can, then they will go wrong.
The question we addressed in this episode is: how can you maximize your success with your team? You can learn in this episode about successful team’s composition, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) for testing what areas the team covers, and also how this knowledge can help you pitch your idea better. So in essence we’ll go deeper than just talking about the left and right brain thinking.
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
Do you use your brain’s full capacity? - [3:27] What SOSV stands for and Alan’s role in the company – [6:38] Who is Ned Herrmann and how his work is helping startups work more effectively? – [7:48] At which phase of the startup process you will most surely need Alan? - [9:17] How does a startup founders’ assessment unfold? - [12:42] Which type of intelligence are you - Captain Kirk, Doctor Spock, Scotty the engineer or Doctor Bones? - [15:04] How to avoid conflicts and benefit from the team diversity at the early stages of a startup? - [21:38] What are the major success factors for hardware startups? - [24:58] What set of skills does a hardware startup CEO need to develop? - [27:20] A Star Trek crash course on pitching - [30:30] If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [34:54] Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [35:39] Some cultural differences that Alan observed throughout his career – [36:46] Alan’s recipe for a good start of the day - [38:55] What is the best way to reach Alan? – [42:20] -
My guest is Guy Zbarsky, co-founder of Keepgo, a firm that has been in business for about a decade.
Guy’s company is called Keepgo and this company name already suggests that they want you to keep going, everywhere you want to go to. Some of you know that well, I cannot live very long without traveling so their topic connected with me. I met their company via one of my trips at IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam at the end of June this year. Their business operates in a fast-moving field, in telecom. This also means that Guy will share some interesting tips and stories, how they’ve been riding the telecom wave.
Some of the topics we cover are: where telecom business is heading to, especially the data connectivity aspect. Guy mentions some timelines he expects for the virtual SIM technology’s adoption. He also brings up when and how each of us will be able to start making money based on the emergence of virtual SIM. He also talks about the beginnings of his company and their pivoting a few times. Guy drops some tips too on project management-related tools he uses and is considering using soon.
I have an additional announcement in this episode regarding the publishing frequency. This is happening as I’ll be focusing on some other projects, too in the future. Are you angry or happy about it? Let me know by sending an email or via social media.
Enjoy this episode.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
Why Keepgo is an exciting company (for me) Problem they’re targeting – offering an alternative to the rip-off scheme by others Beginnings of Keepgo and its multiple pivots Virtual SIM technology to replace plastic SIM cards? Different virtual SIM technology standards What virtual SIM technology has to do with Airbnb Timeline Guy expects for virtual SIM’s adoption by the public and the bright future for all of us to make extra money Keepgo’s past and current uniqueness on the market Business tools Guy uses to manage his company The wisdom Guy would take back to his 20-year-old self His favorite book he uses for his business Guy’s daily habits and how they help him (re-)focus Cultural differences he highlights and how he thinks we can overcome those Guy’s last bit of advice, take home message – why you should start a business -
Recently I participated in IoT Tech Expo Europe in Amsterdam on 27-28 June. It was a fascinating event to feel the pulse of the industry, how things stand and where the industry is heading to. In this episode I want to bring you some of the highlights, essential take home messages.
This event is one of the biggest ones of its kind in Europe with nearly 9000 attendees. It had a few sections, including AI, IoT, Blockchain. At least half of the exhibitors were related to blockchain. However, in this episode in order to have some focus, I’ll concentrate more on the former two fields.
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Enjoy and take a look at the highlights below to get a glimpse of topics discussed.
What is the IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam all about? When expectations and investments rise (too) high in AI/IoT Some healthy developments in AI – Aiir Innovations Need for investments in AI – Asgard Another application of AI/IoT – predictive maintenance Emerging startups at IoT Tech Expo and their use cases Interview with Aiir Innovations on their AI innovation and how the future of AI looks like -
My guest in this episode is Nancy de Fays, one the two co-founders of a company from San Francisco, California, which is called Linedock.
Have you ever wanted to work or play from anywhere but you ran into the issue of running out of power for your devices? Maybe you did actually want to work from a beach with your laptop, while navigating a drone in the air at the same time, while playing music on a speaker...for hours long. Nancy’s hardware startup wants to tackle this problem so one can become more location-independent.
Their company has received lately substantial traction via crowdfunding: their campaign brought in a few hundred thousand dollars of backing. To put it in context, according to Kickstarter stats from 2017 only 3% of crowdfunding campaigns typically get over 100 kUSD of support.
Nancy and Quentin, who she joined at the beginning of their venture, are building seamless electronics for creatives and professionals on the go. As for background she has a Master’s in Economics, and she started off as a Software Tech Consultant at Deloitte in Belgium and France, then decided to follow her heart: starting their “business” project with Quentin. Rest is history (even if their company is wearing baby shoes).
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
What Apple, firefighters and startups have in common - [2:45] How it all started: computer in a swimming pool and forgotten charger - [5:12] Human-like features for the more power-hungry devices - [9:30] What makes Linedock stand out among other similar products on the market - [11:44] Why hardware is hard and the place of crowdfunding in the process - [14:35] Advantages of Indiegogo over Kickstarter - [17:18] How to reach high numbers in crowdfunding with a limited budget - [20:30] Hardware-specific challenges: the 90 % done, but 90% remaining - [25:48] What is special about the crowdfunding world that makes it different from the rest of the world? - [31:18] If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? - [35:28] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? - [35:54] What to do before diving in your tons of emails and phone calls - [36:57] Never take “no“ for an answer - [37:33] What is the best way to reach Nancy? - [39:14] -
This is a second recording with Joey Atlas of SCULPTAFIT Global, USA who has had recently a Kickstarter campaign. He is a fitness student, consultant and pioneer.
In this second episode you get to hear about the lessons learned from his crowdfunding campaign. In the first episode he talked about the campaign preparations.
We’ll analyze his campaign, why it was a success for Joey, the hypothesis he wanted to address. He explains what went well and he gives also some ideas on how he could improve his future campaigns. What were some of the tools or tactics he used to get his results? We go into details also on these. At the end of the interview he also discusses the next steps, how he wants to grow in a sustainable way and will give a creative idea on how he wants to rely on his new customer base in the future.
Enjoy this episode.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
A short summary of the SCULPTAFIT concept - [2:16] Hypothesis check: how math algorithms can help you when you launch a project on Kickstarter - [4:30] The importance of pre-marketing in big-ticket items sales - [11:54] Surprising and not so surprising buyers on his Kickstarter campaign, and the value of follow-up - [13:48] A video walk-through – making it transparent, simple and easy for the client - [20:03] Three tools that brought Joey success during his Kickstarter campaign - [23:50] Evergreen phase: future steps for SCULPTAFIT - [27:47] “That person sounds just like me”- [31:15] -
I’m back again on the podcast with an episode where I’ll be talking about the timing of innovation. This means I don’t have a guest in this episode.
Why do many startup ideas fail, what’s the main reason for it? What are some of the other implications for your business in case you fail due to that one reason? It turns out actually timing is crucial. And with timing I don’t mean when you get your team together, or when you get the funding. Timing entails here something else: when you should come out with the innovation.
In this episode there will be many examples, hardware examples for companies, projects that didn’t see the light for a long time and I will touch on a few reasons why it happened so. An example is Kodak which invented digital photography but did not make a business around it or also Pebble will be mentioned, which is a more recent story.
Enjoy this episod!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
The single biggest reason why startups succeed – [0:50] Educating the market – examples of the past and present – [2:18] A light bulb – nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come – [5:05] Questions to be asked by both startups and established companies – [7:24] -
This is an interview with Raja Younes of Startupsfund, Futuris Technologies, Lebanon. We wanted to look at the Lebanese startup ecosystem, especially in hardware, so for producing physical products. We don’t hear about Lebanon enough, even though we should as there are some strong reasons for it - you can find out in this episode about some of these reasons.
All tech startups run into a problem sooner or later which is connected to their workforce. There is actually a megatrend related to this, which can become a huge bottleneck for further growth worldwide. Other topics Raja will talk about is some facts on Lebanon and its effects on making the Lebanese startup ecosystem a unique one in the region or in the world. Why should startups or established companies seriously consider going to Lebanon? What are some examples for companies doing that? We will touch on these questions, and Raja’s initiatives to alleviate these issues.
Enjoy this episode.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
A guide to Lebanon and its startup ecosystem - [1:58] Underlying problems in today’s world and Raja’s solution to them - [4:00] Main incentives of the Lebanese ecosystem that make it attractive for investors and entrepreneurs - [6:42] Success stories from Lebanon and major international companies in the country - [10:04] Missions of Futuris Technologies and Startupsfund and key benefits of their services - [12:37] If you could go back in time to the time when you were in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? - [16:33] If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your thinking and on your career? - [17:58] Some habits that help Raja stay organized and relaxed at the same time - [18:55] Some observations Raja had on cultural differences throughout his career - [20:02] What is the best way to reach Raja? - [22:20] -
We have a different episode than usual as we’re taking you on a ride on a Kickstarter campaign. My guest was Joey Atlas of SCULPTAFIT Global, from Florida, who is a fitness student, consultant and pioneer.
In this set of episodes you get to hear about the before and after cases for a hardware product. This is the first episode which was recorded just before launch.
How familiar are you with the concept No pain, No gain? I guess, actually very familiar. But does fitness really have to be that grueling? Is it really justified that we’re supposed to give our best, to kill ourselves in exercises from day 1? Joey challenges this philosophy with his thinking, program and now his machine. With his techniques he simplified fitness and he has distributed his programs to every country; his top selling programs have been translated into 5 languages.
He will tell his story about how fitness became central in his life, his many years of struggles, and during the whole time his entrepreneurial thinking will also shine through. His venture is self-funded which is a rare feat in hardware, when you want to bring out a physical product. Joey will tell us how he came to the idea of his product, some of the manufacturing challenges he overcame, the target audience which is very important for quick adoption of his product. Last but not least, he’ll talk also about some considerations for his Kickstarter campaign. Check out his campaign, which might be out by the time you hear this interview.
Enjoy this conversation!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
By universal design - [2:34] What sparked the fitness interest in Joey and what it evolved into - [5:33] Rediscovering playgrounds - [11:36] Self-funding that turns the tables 180° - [16:50] How to find a company for serial production of your prototype - [22:11] “What about my husband?” – first validation experiences - [29:15] The potential of Kickstarter beyond your own capabilities - [35:48] If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [39:18] Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [40:30] Non-negotiable habits for a better quality of life – [43:36] Some cultural differences that Joey observed throughout his career and examples of how he overcame them – [47:38] Changing the no pain, no gain game – [51:12] -
In this episode I wanted to give you an overview on an essential topic that can make or break your business - the chosen business model.
My goal now is to give you an overview of two major business models, B2C (Business to Consumers) and B2B (Business to Business) with all its pros and cons. I approach this topic based on my own recent experiences that you will learn about, as well as based on interviewing many entrepreneurs; lastly by relying on some good old logic. I will also make an announcement in this episode which will serve as pillars to this episode on what I have to share about B2B vs B2C.
I think this is an important topic that I wanted to write and talk about for a long time, so please enjoy.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
An announcement to make, a distinction to clarify and lessons to share - [0:44] What do you do when a constellation happens? - [2:11] A crash course in b2b and b2c – pros and cons illustrated with examples - [5:14] Trends, connections and overlap in Silicon Valley - [10:08] -
My guest this time was Gregory Inauen of the ETH Entrepreneur Club in Zurich, the youngest individual on this podcast so far.
Well, why having a student on the show? I think we should talk not only about people who have acquired a lot of success, but also about the upcoming generation. I’ve known Gregory for about a year now and by bringing him onto the show I wanted to show how a student-run organization that cared about entrepreneurship is run. Moreover, he’s from the Zurich where I also live which is another reason to feature him on the podcast, so this way we could describe the local ecosystem here.
Some hardware topics do come up in this episode, but we wanted to focus more on entrepreneurship from students’ perspective. Gregory talked about the 3 pillars of how they want to reach their mission, highlights of his time with Entrepreneur Club that includes speed-dating and how someone managed to land a CEO position this way. He also talked about the startup ecosystem in Switzerland and some specialties of Switzerland, e.g. craftmanship which has been attracting worldwide attention recently because of its uniqueness and effectivity.
Enjoy this episode!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
The youngest podcast guest so far and his story about ETH Entrepreneur club’s mission - [2:32] Inspiring highlights from ETH Entrepreneur Club - [6:52] How has a global movement attracted tremendous attention in Switzerland? - [11:01] Why is university not enough when you want to be an entrepreneur? - [13:45] The Swiss hardware startup ecosystem, its advantages and relation to the universities - [16:03] Key points that differentiate ETH Entrepreneur Club from other similar clubs worldwide - [18:40] If you could time travel into the future, what would you give yourself? – [22:42] Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [24:13] Gregory’s morning fueling routine – [25:05] Challenges that Gregory had to overcome throughout his experience with the Entrepreneur Club – [26:04] What is the best way to reach Gregory? – [28:02] -
I had as guest Greg Fisher of Berkeley Sourcing Group (BSG) and Hardware Massive.
Greg is very experienced in the hardware field, since he’s been running BSG for more than a decade, assisting more than 900 hardware startups, operating from the US and from China. There is tons of information on manufacturing in China, but I think information on this topic never seems to be enough. Greg talks about typical timelines for developing consumer products, the different steps one has to take; he gives tips on how to stay lean and agile. He’ll talk also about Hardware Massive platform, how it all started out and the yearly event that connects to it called Hardwarecon, the premier global meeting for startups, taking place actually in April this year. The lineup and topics look pretty amazing so you might want to check out that event soon.
Enjoy this episode as much as I did interviewing Greg!
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
His first successful hardware project and marketing tips obtained during Tour de France - [3:15] The essence of BSG and the types of companies Greg works with - [4:55] Manufacturing in China vs the U.S. – which direction to take? - [9:12] From first production run to shipping – a standard timeline overview - [12:00] Do it right the first time - [16:47] Best ideas are born in early morning hours - [19:08] A premier hardware innovation event that gets it all together - [22:49] What makes a business successful, according to Greg - [25:39] If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [28:20] Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [28:43] What is a frog doing in Greg’s daily routine? – [29:30] Some cultural differences that Greg observed throughout his career – [30:45] What is the best way to reach Greg? – [34:36] -
I sat down with Ashley Faulkes of Mad Lemmings, who’s passionate about the internet, on how products are showcased and how they can be found.
We wanted to address two challenges: how can you bring a visitor to your website and how can you convert them from visitors into a buyer? These are not exactly hardware topics, but for sure these days they’re relevant to everyone doing business.
There is tons of information around about tools, so it’s not an easy job to find the right one(s). We’re all biased to some degree. We’re all selling. As Seth Godin recently wrote, if you say you’re not selling, at least you’re selling possibility. The possibility Ash was selling is that you don’t need need to pay constantly a web-developer to do all the work. You don’t need to pay a lot of money to do only Google AdWords.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
Quick overview of the most used CMS’ - [3:45] CMS’ pros and cons depending on the stage of development - [8:11] How did Ashley get into website design? - [11:24] Thrive Themes versus other similar tools - [15:29] How to be found on Google and where to start from? - [19:54] Examples of why you should choose your battles on Google wisely - [27:20] If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [39:44] Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [41:03] Ashley’s daily non-routine – [42:40] Some cultural differences that Ashley has observed throughout his career – [44:30] What is the best way to reach Ashley? – [46:58] -
Again, this is a rerun episode so a re-release of the episode with Milton Chang of Incubic. You can find out more about some of the reasons for it in the last episode and in the episode before that. This is another episode that is in the top 5 episodes regarding download numbers; in fact it’s #3 on my podcast chart.
Dr. Milton Chang, is a serial entrepreneur with an impressive, long track-record of building hardware companies.
Milton is currently managing partner of Incubic Venture Fund. He was president of Newport and New Focus, which he took public. In addition, the companies he incubated resulted in six IPOs and close to 10 acquisitions. He currently works with several companies, including Aurrion (acquired by Juniper Networks), MBio Diagnostics, YesVideo, and Protein Fluidics. He’s a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology and has recently served on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. He writes a business and management column for Laser Focus World.
Milton is also the author of Toward Entrepreneurship, a book that I consider as one of the best books on entrepreneurship - find out in this episode why.
You can find out in this episode what it means for him to found a company, to grow slowly or fast. You can also learn what you should pay attention to if you come out of academia to start a business, what separates a good from a bad business idea and many many more.
Enjoy.
Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com
Show highlights can be seen below:
Why I am doing a rerun of this episode - [0:49] Toward Entrepreneurship - Milton Chang’s book – [3:48] Starting a niche business modestly versus rapidly growing a business in a hot field - [6:48] Bootstrapping explained with two examples from his own experience - [8:52] What were the critical ingredients that helped Milton start his companies? - [11:51] Ingredients that are typically missing in founders who start out right out of school, e.g. after a Master’s or PhD program? - [14:13] Self-actualization inside a company - synchronizing the employees’ and the company’s needs [19:02] What separates a good business idea from a bad one? - [21:50] Pros and cons of different sources for financing a start-up - [23:50] Fueling your own dreams - [27:37] The field of photonics as an enabler for other industries - [29:18] If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [32:48] Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [30:07] Milton’s morning routine – [34:43] Milton’s observations on Asian and European cultural differences – [35:30] What is the best way to reach Milton? – [37:10] - Vis mere
