The Hardware Entrepreneur

#068 - Challenges of small manufacturers to organise their production and inventory, with Kristjan Vilosius of Katana, Estonia

Wed, 15 May 2019 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#067 - How to speed up your New Product Introduction - Production Line Tool, with Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices, USA

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 14:00:00 +0000

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]

#066 - How to apply lean startup principles to hardware, with Ash Maurya of Leanstack, USA

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 14:00:00 +0000

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]

#065 - How to care about sustainability to get rid of plastic bottles (and still make a profit), with Moritz Waldstein of Mitte, Germany

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 14:00:00 +0000

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]

#064 - To transform or not to transform your hardware company to an all agile one next year, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 14:00:00 +0000

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

#063 - Your (hardware) product is not your product - think in terms of business models, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#062 - How a hardware SaaS company wants to help you not get lost in your data during product development, with Michael Corr of Duro Labs, USA

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#061 - RERUN - How to avoid mistakes when building a team - lessons from mentoring 1200+ hardware entrepreneurs, with Alan Clayton of SOSV

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#060 - Future global data connectivity without worrying about your costs, with Guy Zbarsky of Keepgo, Israel

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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

#059 - Where IoT/AI are heading to - impressions from IoT Tech Expo Europe, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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

#058 - Freedom to work and play anywhere without losing power, with Nancy de Fays of Linedock, USA

Wed, 04 Jul 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#057 - Kickstarter Post-launch - a home gym challenges the "No pain No gain" crowd, with Joey Atlas of SCULPTAFIT Global, USA

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#056 - Not too early, not too late - how to get the timing right for your innovation, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#055 - Why hardware startup ecosystem in Lebanon is becoming interesting, with Raja Younes of Startupsfund, Futuris Technologies, Lebanon

Wed, 23 May 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#054 - Kickstarter Pre-launch - a home gym challenges the "No pain No gain" crowd, with Joey Atlas of SCULPTAFIT Global, USA

Wed, 09 May 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#053 - Which one to choose - b2b or b2c for hardware startups, with Balint Horvath, your host, Switzerland

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#052 - Student (hardware) entrepreneurship in Switzerland and worldwide, with Gregory Inauen of ETH Entrepreneur Club, Switzerland

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#051 - Connecting the (hardware) dots, with Greg Fisher of BSG and Hardware Massive, USA

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 13:00:00 +0000

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]

#050 - How to get your product found on the internet, with Ashley Faulkes of Mad Lemmings, Switzerland

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:00:00 +0000

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]

#049 - RERUN - Elements of building a successful tech business, with (proven) serial entrepreneur Milton Chang of Incubic Venture Fund, USA

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:00:00 +0000

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]

#048 - RERUN - How to think like Elon Musk - scrum for hardware, with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc, USA

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 14:00:00 +0000

This is a rerun episode so a re-release of the episode with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc. Why a rerun? There are a few reasons for it and I brought up some during the last episode.

One of the reasons, as mentioned, has to do with slowing down at the beginning of the year. Another reason is that this episode was in the top 5 most downloaded episodes in 2017. It had a major impact on me as well since after my conversation with Joe I embraced agile to the fullest: I use it both in my professional and personal life. This re-release emphasizes the importance of this topic. Execution is extremely important for startups and agile is one of the best or the best method I know for project management, and for hardware its application is spreading faster and faster.

As for Joe he is the President of Scrum @ Hardware at Scrum Inc, the company which is led by the initiator of scum, Jeff Sutherland.

Enjoy this very inspiring, information-dense episode.

In this episode we elaborate on the topic of scrum. Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com and show highlights can be seen below:

Why I think this episode is important so it has to be re-released - [0:34]
Nokia’s story coming to an end - [3:23]
Can you describe the Scrum method? - [4:36]
What the New Zealand All Blacks #1 rugby team has to do with Scrum - [7:09]
Some companies that use Scrum, especially in the hardware field - [9:17]
Situation with Scrum for startups in the hardware field, and small or medium sized enterprises? - [13:11]
Examples where Scrum has been scaled up, specifically for hardware - [16:12]
Tesla and their job postings; WIKISPEED competing against Tesla - [17:59]
How to think like Elon Musk? - [19:37]
The connection between Kanban, Lean Startup, Lean Canvas and Scrum - [19:50]
Two major obstacles for implementing Scrum framеwork, especially in the hardware field? - [24:10]
Countries approving Scrum - [29:17]
“the last of the old will still be the first of the new” - [30:16]
How the leader, the Scrum master or the product owner, can motivate the team? - [31:43]
If you could go back in time, when you were younger, what notes what would you take back to that time to keep it to yourself? [37:43]
Books which had the biggest impact on his career - [39:44]
Joe’s incredible routines to be super-efficient, super-energetic - [43:12]
Memorable cultural differences he has encountered - [46:00]
How to reach him - [48:47]

#047 - RERUN - How next-generation retail looks like, with Vibhu Norby of b8ta, USA

Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:00:00 +0000

This is a rerun episode so a re-release of the episode Vibhu Norby of b8ta. Why am I doing a rerun? Well, there are a few reasons for it.

Rather than speed up like what most people do, I want to slow down at the beginning of the year. I am doing some energy management by not coming out with new content. Instead I’m reusing some content. This is in line with the first episode I have released this year which was about simplicity. Many times we’re too busy, so busy that we forget to enjoy life and to celebrate some special episode from the past. This is the episode that you loved most in 2017, based on the number of downloads. By re-releasing it, I wanted to put a spotlight on them. Hardware startups, at least in the consumer space want to sell to the end customer and this episode has some important insights so listening to it again or the first time can prove useful.

Vibhu was before with Nest, the smart thermostat maker. This is where he had the realization that retail is far from optimal and that one might have to rethink retail to bring it up to date, to capitalize on today’s tech capabilities. b8ta is essentially a software-powered retailer.

In this episode Vibhu talks about b8ta’s contrarian belief on why brick and mortar stores are dying, how they want to bring back customers to the stores, and what the best brands do. Nowadays e-commerce topics is stealing the headlines, but contrary to this, people actually buy products in stores. You can also learn about conflict of interest between brands and retailers and how Vibhu wants to solve this conflict with his company. You can also find out how he validated his idea, what mistake he made during this time. He also walks us through the process what details make your brand sell or not sell inside a store. And many more topics will be covered, too. 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? - [0:37]
How is the store model of b8ta reversing the trend of brick-and-mortar stores closing down? - [3:45]
Previous professional experience that lead Vibhu to creating a platform for solving the retail conflict - [6:44]
Important observations that evolved into replacing a whole system – [12:55]
How did he validate the idea? - [14:28]
Key ingredients that differentiate b8ta from their competitors - [17:23]
How does the platform pay the makers? - [20:55]
Importance of timing and speed of bringing products to market - [22:05]
A walk through b8ta’s four-step customer journey that they analyse - [24:58]
Plan for success – mistakes the founders made while growing the company [28:05]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [31:57]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [32:28]
Vibhu’s everyday routine – [33:11]
Some cultural differences that Vibhu observed throughout his career – [34:58]
What is the best way to reach Vibhu? – [36:46]

#046 - When not to start a startup - how to license your idea (Part 2), with Stephen Key of inventRight, USA

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 14:00:00 +0000

This episode is Part 2 of my interview with Stephen Key of inventRight. Why two parts? Soon you can learn why I believe this topic deserves special attention.

Stephen Key, using a relevant Star Wars terminology, is the Yoda of "renting" ideas as Tim Ferriss referred to him. The question is still the same: do you really need to found a company?

In part 1 we discussed Stephen’s guideline on when to start a startup and when to license. He brought up also another point: should you sell a product first, or something else?

In part 2 we talk mainly about Provisional Patent Application (PPA), which is a cornerstone idea behind how licensing can generate profit for you. You don’t hear about this topic often as it’s something some people don’t want to talk about. Such people as patent attorneys. Another question Stephen addresses is why don’t companies steal your idea? There are many more topics we covered, such as open innovation, mistakes he made and the ultrafast round.

Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

What is a PPA and who is the best person to write it? - [2:02]
Why is now the perfect time for filing a PPA and where in the world can you do that? - [5:06]
What are the steps for a well-written PPA? - [8:49]
Is intellectual property good for high tech startups? - [11:50]
Can you do it on your own? – lessons from Stephen’s entrepreneurial career [15:31]
Try to steal your own idea first - [17:07]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [21:38]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [21:57]
The habit of structured chaos – [22:32]
Some cultural differences that Stephen observed throughout his career – [24:10]

#045 - Simplicity and what it has to do with what I learned from my guests in 2017, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 14:00:00 +0000

This episode contains some of the crucial learnings for me in 2017, and critical lessons that you might want to keep in mind in the year to come.

I am extremely thankful for my guests for their insights. Such knowledge has transformed my life and in this episode I am talking about the impact on my daily routines, how I manage projects, some aspects of how I manage my podcast. You can learn about my guests’ routines, how they optimize their businesses from the start, what to keep in mind in terms of human capacity, skill when starting a business. Finally I’ll close off this episode with an outlook for 2018, what you can expect to hear about.

Enjoy this episode and I wish you an entrepreneurially outstanding year ahead in 2018.

Enjoy this episode.

Show highlights can be seen below:

Simplicity as coming from Da Vinci and how it connects with the thinking of Patagonia’s CEO - [2:10]
The meaning behind staying small - [5:15]
Some examples on how my guests’ companies stayed small at the beginnings - [7:55]
Execution or how my guests stay organised in their life and in their business - [10:05]
What to pay attention to when building a team - [16:00]
Outlook for 2018 - [20:35]

#044 - When not to start a startup - how to license your idea (Part 1), with Stephen Key of inventRight, USA

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 14:00:00 +0000

This is an episode on a topic that, I believe, should get more attention in entrepreneurship circles. My guest is Stephen Key of inventRight.

Stephen is literally one of the teachers of Tim Ferriss. He went to Stephen’s lectures and sought his advice on how he can make his business at that time, BrainQUICKEN more efficient.

Do you really need to found a company? This is the question we address in this episode. Stephen is a lifelong entrepreneur, inventor and a renowned intellectual property strategist.

This episode is split into 2 parts, because this way the topic can get more attention. In part 1 you will learn how Stephen helped Tim Ferriss and what he got in return unexpectedly. Stephen also discusses what the most important thing is today when you want to bring out a product to market. You can find out some guidelines from him on when to start a startup and when to license. And when you want to sell something, shall you sell the product first or something else?

Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

What do the Yoda of renting out ideas and the German Tim Ferris have in common? - [2:11]
The Ferris effect - [5:25]
Why has Stephen’s book gained such a tremendous success? – [7:52]
The differences between starting a company versus renting out your idea - [10:38]
A piece of plastic worth a quarter of a million dollars - [13:27]
Do you want to stay creative or do you want to wear many hats? - [17:04]
The benefits of selling the benefit first - [18:48]
What are some safe approaches when communicating your idea to the licensee? - [22:34]

#043 - How to avoid mistakes when building a team - lessons from mentoring 1200+ hardware entrepreneurs, with Alan Clayton of SOSV

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Alan Clayton of SOSV, who’s the Roaming Mentor at the VC and who’s been with the company since the beginnings.

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]

#042 - How to think with your hands - LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology with Alexandra Mandoki of Sparks Guide, Switzerland

Wed, 22 Nov 2017 14:00:00 +0000

I had a special guest on the podcast, somebody who’s also originally from Hungary, just like me. My guest was Alexandra Mandoki, founder, chief guide and innovator at Sparks Guide based in Zurich, Switzerland, just like me.

Would you like to perhaps double your brain activity? Then this episode is for you. You’ll soon also learn how the same technique with Lego can be used in a group setting to innovate, to let some creativity juice flow. This topic is close to me as I used to love and still love Lego.

This interview was recorded with a camera, for the change, and this is its audio version. You will learn from Alexandra about the method she’s an expert of and also about its myriad applications that are just mind-boggling. I don’t know why exactly this method is not so widespread yet, but I hope that after this episode some of you find it useful, even if you “just” use its basics.

Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

How a childhood game can bring innovation to the [adult] business world – [2:20]
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® - an on-the-fly definition - [3:40]
How did LEGO come up with its tool for strategy development and team building? - [5:34]
Practical applications of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® - [7:33]
Why “serious” and why “play”?- [11:30]
“I did not know that I know that” - [12:33]
What is the biggest challenge for the adoption of LEGO bricks in the business world? - [13:53]
Mistakes Alexandra learned from while working in an international business environment - [15:20]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [16:54]
Which book had the biggest impact on her career? – [17:16]
Alexandra’s interesting habits – [18:07]
How does Alexandra overcome cultural differences in her career? – [19:28]
What is the best way to reach Alexandra? – [20:32]

#041 - How to use lean startup principles to start the world’s first VR cinema franchise, with Dimitri Nabatov of WeAreCinema, Switzerland

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 14:00:00 +0000

Dimitri Nabatov has been my guest recently, founder and CEO of a company called WeAreCinema.

In episode 36 we had VR topic and this time again we’re back to that topic on the show. His company, WeAreCinema has a new business model in the world of VR and his company is a nice example that in order to become successful with hardware products there are a number of ways of doing that, including theirs.

You can learn about VR, why it’s special in the entertainment or advertisement industries, how they validated their idea with very cheap hardware, and also how they managed to pre-sell their idea to customers, getting strong market validation without investing almost nothing. You can also learn how he started thinking about the scaling topic in his business at an early phase and this serves as the basis of his current business model. He also gives a challenge to you, innovators, a call for innovation.

Enjoy.

Show highlights can be seen below:

What is the current development of the VR industry and what it has to do with a black and white TV? - [3:55]
What makes WeAreCinema stand out in the buzz around VR? – [5:45]
The motivation behind founding a company in the entertainment industry - [7:17]
Previous experience that lead Dimitri to founding the company - [8:58]
How can a very cheap device help you validate your idea? - [10:00]
Key lessons from a VR startup venture - [12:15]
The business model behind WeAreCinema and how their scale-up - [15:56]
How can challenges provoke you to be creative in terms of cost effectiveness? - [18:20]
How has WeAreCinema been able to avoid the issue with dizziness? - [22:52]
Challenges in front of the team - [24:44]
Mistakes the founders did while developing the company - [26:56]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [29:38]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [29:59]
Dimitri’s cold habit – [30:54]
Some cultural differences that Dimitri observed throughout his career – [32:25]
What is the best way to reach Dimitri? – [33:28]

#040 - Beer as you don’t know it - a startup bringing you the freshest craft beer possible, with Jong-Wook Shin of HOPii, USA

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest is Jong-Wook Shin from the US, founder and CEO of HOPii, which is a company for beer-lovers.

For you who wants to know how to get to the source where it’s the beer is freshest. You’ll also learn why beer on the shelves is actually far from being fresh.

Jong is not simply an avid beer drinker. He was formerly Vice President of Innovations, with over 21 years of experience in high tech innovations. You’ll hear in this interview quite well, I believe how excited Jong is to bring the HOPii’s vision to life and introduce brand new craft beer experiences to fellow craft beer lovers. He talks also about their business model’s attractiveness, so not only the hardware itself. Project management topic will come up, as well, so execution, what he thinks about it since an idea without execution is like a child without growing up.

I met him at IFA Berlin in September this year at the HAX stand, as they're a graduate of this Nr 1 hardware accelerator's program. I liked their product very much, their really unique business model and their story.

Enjoy this episode and make sure you check out their (currently running) Kickstarter campaign.

Show highlights can be seen below:

Craft beer and the world’s biggest hardware accelerator – [2:33]
How was HOPii born? - [4:03]
What happens when you combine professional background and passion - [7:58]
“If the content is not there, that device is not really useful” - a business model that brings the freshest craft beer to your local town - [11:16]
Who is the brewmaster and why is he so important? - [15:17]
What kinds of technological innovations does HOPii introduce? - [17:25]
Mistakes the founders did while developing the company - [22:10]
Important insights when you’re doing project management for startups – [24:57]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [28:18]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [29:22]
Jong’s interesting prioritizing habit – [30:27]
Some cultural differences that Jong observed throughout his career – [32:58]
How can you help bring HOPii to life? - [34:44]
What is the best way to reach Jong? – [35:33]

#039 - Brain vs Capital - how to build a business from components (Part 2), with Prof. Günter Faltin, Germany

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:00:00 +0000

This is Part 2 of my interview with Professor Günter Faltin, from Germany and at the same time a successful entrepreneur.

Briefly, I consider him as a kind of the German version of Tim Ferriss, as his book Brain vs capital is similarly influential in entrepreneurship in Germany, similarly to Tim Ferriss’ book especially in the US, but also worldwide.

You can learn in this episode why the MBA person often clashes with the entrepreneur, why a business plan is not actually a plan, what Prof. Faltin thinks about entrepreneurship, how it could be applicable for many of us. We talked also about outsourcing, what’s crucial about it, how it can work in expensive countries. We have many many more topics, including the “ultrafast round” with 4 short questions so here you go. Enjoy.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

What entrepreneurship has to do with art and how it is different from business administration - [2:30]
“The moment the business plan leaves the printer, it's outdated” – or is a fixed business plan a dangerous thing to do? - [6:35]
Entrepreneurship for the many and our underutilizing our brains - [10:49]
Why is it important to create a business model that can afford to work with professionals? - [14:33]
Mistakes, or opportunities to empower yourself while growing a stable business - [17:10]
Entrepreneurship – an existential exercise that helps personal development - [19:35]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [22:40]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [23:53]
Prof. Faltin’s early morning routine – [25:25]
Some cultural differences that Prof. Faltin observed in terms of entrepreneurship – [26:46]
What is the best way to reach Prof. Faltin? – [28:50]

#038 - Brain vs Capital - how to build a business from components (Part 1), with Prof. Günter Faltin, Germany

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest is Günter Faltin, professor of entrepreneurship from Germany and himself also a successful entrepreneur.

He’s an early pioneer of entrepreneurship education in Germany. He’s widely known in Germany because of his pioneering work connected to a concept called “component principle”. Last year I read his book “Brain vs capital” at around the same time as Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek book, and the connection between the two were obvious. Actually people in Germany buy these two books together, as I later found it out from Prof Faltin. Both books have been major eye-openers for me. Prof. Faltin and Tim Ferriss’ works are for ones who want to get results fast and sustainably, just prof. Faltin’s is more applicable exclusively to entrepreneurship. In the links below you can see actually an interview that Prof. Faltin did with Tim Ferriss, and it made me smile how much the two are in agreement.

Prof. Faltin is a very practical person despite being a professor. So by any means, he’s not sitting in his Ivory Tower. You’ll learn in this episode he’s had his quite successful business which is still thriving.

In this part 1 episode you can learn from Prof. Faltin how he systematically started his company, he’ll discuss his principles for how to stay lean and efficient even after the beginnings of a startup when one wants to scale. He’ll also bring up other examples besides for companies that use his principles. Enjoy.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Who is Prof. Faltin and how does his book relate to Tim Ferriss? – [3:32]
How do you become the world’s largest importer of Darjeeling tea? - [4:58]
A business model that looks beyond conventions - [14:36]
The basics of progress – the component principle - [16:08]
Entrepreneurship Summit in Berlin and how can you win a free ticket to it? - [17:03]
How is the component principle applied in Teekampagne? - [20:07]
An example of building a company organized 100% by components - [21:38]
The advantages of using outsourced talent - [24:02]
Another example of a business which uses the component principle - [26:38]
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” - [28:19]

#037 - Disrupting with digital manufacturing, with Nick Pinkston of Plethora, USA

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My interview guest is from the US from San Francisco, Nick Pinkston, founder and CEO of Plethora.

In case you’re into manufacturing, and you should be, if you’re into into hardware, then this episode is for you.

Nick is a central figure in hardware in the Bay Area which you’ll learn about in this interview. He’s behind CloudFab, the world's first manufacturing-as-a-service API, HackPittsburgh, a collective workshop for the makers of Pittsburgh and he’s co-founder of the San Francisco Meetup. These topics will all come up in this episode.

His latest venture is Plethora which provides rapid manufacturing services that give you real-time design feedback and pricing when you upload your 3D file. After this step, their on-demand automated factory programs itself to make your parts. He’s essentially transforming the way we do manufacturing via digital manufacturing.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Where hardware startups fail when it comes to manufacturing and how to avoid that - [4:11]
The God-like vision of Plethora and what it has to do with pizza delivery - [8:42]
The company’s vertical approach and their 13 000 competitors - [12:27]
How Plethora wants to scale the scaling itself - [16:18]
Current situation of local manufacturing shops – the issue with specializing [18:20]
The experience behind San Francisco Hardware Startup Meetup and how it has grown to other initiatives - [20:06]
Escape velocity, or challenges in front of the company - [25:35]
The main lesson the founders learned while growing the company and how the OODA loop concept applies to them — [27:04]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [30:45]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [31:34]
Nick’s super structured routine – [32:27]
Some observations Nick has made in terms of organizational culture – [36:45]
What is the best way to reach Nick? – [36:2]

#036 - Is your immersive content searchable? - Mark Milstein of Microstocksolutions, USA

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:00:00 +0000

The interviewee, Mark Milstein, who I have in this episode is a very experienced serial-entrepreneur whose obsession is immersive media content. This includes VR, AR, 360 degree videos.

We talk about a topic that is often not talked about, that is what about the searchability of the immense amount of data you produce when recording immersive media?

Mark is an impressive person in digital photography, digital asset management (DAM), curation. He’s the founder of Microstocksolutions and DigitalContentSolutions, two of his latest companies which do DAM, curation, asset mgmt services for the visual media industry as well as Fortune 500 companies. Mark is also the founder of two of Central and Eastern Europe's most respected photo agencies, Northfoto and Red Dot. Red Dot was a significant company in that it was the region's first internet based photo agency.

In this episode Mark talks about what most companies, innovators concentrate on in immersive media field, what challenges he sees and how he wants to solve some of the problems of content creators. You can learn about his past as well, how his career naturally led up to this point and how his curiosity and lack of some knowledge actually helped him take risks others would not take. Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Virtual Reality - a field that is not a reality yet – [2:43]
Main problems of the VR industry - [4:15]
Trying to put a tyre on a horse, or what kind of barriers big stock media companies have to overcome - [6:40]
Mark’s previous professional activities that led him to found his current companies - [8:07]
The result of a decade long experience in metadata - [12:41]
What is one question that Mark would like to be asked in relation to VR? - [15:22]
Who can have the VRmeta tool even before its release? - [17:26]
“Document everything” – importance of mistakes while developing a company - [18:36]
The story of risk tolerance and the VRmeta tool – [20:52]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [23:26]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [24:22]
Mark’s incredible information-ingesting morning routine – [25:19]
Some striking cultural differences that Mark had to overcome throughout his career – [27:06]
What is the best way to reach Mark? – [28:41]

#035 - How a hardware startup’s product goes viral, with Christian Smith of TrackR, USA

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest in this episode is Christian Smith, co-founder and President of TrackR. Their company is a startup based in California, outside Silicon Valley, at a remarkable place called Santa Barbara, and it is a quite successful hardware startup so lots of things to learn in this interview.

TrackR works in the intelligent personal item tracking space, so their products help you find your lost items. Since its start in 2009, it has grown tremendously from being a startup operating out of a garage to a global operation, with over five million devices shipped worldwide. TrackR is built into many products, as Christian explains it in this episode, from leading brands like Amazon, DoCoMo, HP, Cross Pens and more.

In this episode you get to hear the story of how they got their idea on the beach, what it entails to be passionate or obsessed about something. There are many many more topics we discussed as you can see below in the highlights.

Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

A success story of 5 million+ devices – [2:30]
What’s common between surfing and the idea behind TrackR? - [4:20]
Being obsessed [not passionate] about giving humanity back 100 hours every single year - [8:08]
The Lean startup method as a way to engineer great sales - [11:09]
How did they validate the idea? - [13:22]
Early failures the founders had while growing the company - [15:05]
The law of equivalent exchange - [16:27]
“Great marketing is built into the product” and how the company went viral - [19:38]
The core value proposition of TrackR - [23:57]
How will a tracking device look like in the future, according to Christian - [27:02]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [28:52]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [29:24]
Christian’s super powerful morning routine – [30:14]
Observations Christian made throughout his career in regard to cultural differences – [32:00]
What is the best way to reach Christian? – [33:46]

#034 - How next-generation retail looks like, with Vibhu Norby of b8ta, USA

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest this time is from Silicon Valley, USA, Vibhu Norby of b8ta.

This is an episode that you should simply not miss - many many things to learn from and a guest to inspire you. Vibhu was before with Nest, the smart thermostat maker. This is where he had the realization that retail is far from optimal and that one might have to rethink retail to bring it up to date, to capitalize on today’s tech capabilities. b8ta is essentially a software-powered retailer.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

How is the store model of b8ta reversing the trend of brick-and-mortar stores closing down? - [3:45]
Previous professional experience that lead Vibhu to creating a platform for solving the retail conflict - [6:44]
Important observations that evolved into replacing a whole system – [12:55]
How did he validate the idea? - [14:28]
Key ingredients that differentiate b8ta from their competitors - [17:23]
How does the platform pay the makers? - [20:55]
Importance of timing and speed of bringing products to market - [22:05]
A walk through b8ta’s four-step customer journey that they analyse - [24:58]
Plan for success – mistakes the founders made while growing the company [28:05]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [31:57]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [32:28]
Vibhu’s everyday routine – [33:11]
Some cultural differences that Vibhu observed throughout his career – [34:58]
What is the best way to reach Vibhu? – [36:46]

#033 - Elements of building a successful tech business, with (proven) serial entrepreneur Milton Chang of Incubic Venture Fund, USA

Wed, 19 Jul 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve had a very special guest, who I got to talk to. My interviewee, Dr. Milton Chang, is a serial entrepreneur with an impressive, long track record of building hardware companies.

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.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

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]

#032 - Why manufacturing in USA vs China is becoming interesting, with Scott N. Miller of Dragon Innovation, USA

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest has recently been Scott N. Miller, co-founder and CEO of Dragon Innovation, a company based in the US helping hardware companies.

Scott has a pretty remarkable career behind him so far with at least two decades of experience in hardware field, so many of you have probably heard from him.

A few companies they have worked with are e.g. Pebble which was the topic of episode 8 of this podcast or Bose, the audio equipment company. We’ll discuss manufacturing in China vs in USA regarding salaries, unit numbers to work with, and also the future of manufacturing in China, as well as why the current trends can be beneficial to manufacturing in the US. Scott will elaborate also on their latest soon-to-be released software tool, and their latest announcement of a joint effort with Kickstarter. We have many more topics to cover so enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Differentiating factors between U.S. and China manufacturing in terms of quantity, wages and vertical integration - [3:42]
China as seen through the manufacturing triangle - [6:09]
Scott’s journey of learning how manufacturing works - [8:05]
What does Dragon Innovation do? - [8:58]
“A fishing guide” to help customers grow their business - [10:58]
Benefits of using Product Planner and how it’s different from Dragon Standard BOM - [13:00]
Launching an initiative in partnership with Kickstarter - [17:43]
Things you need to know and do before starting a Kickstarter campaign, as seen through the manufacturing triangle - [18:36]
What is the future role of robots in manufacturing? - [22:25]
The trends millennials are setting are good news for startups - [24:38]
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger” - [27:12]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [31:24]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [31:57]
Scott’s creative [morning] habits – [33:01]
Observations he made while working and living abroad about cultures and people – [34:05]
What is the best way to reach Scott? – [36:00]

#031 - Why I change the publishing frequency, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I’m back on the show, just me, and I’ll talk about an announcement, that is I’m changing the publishing frequency from weekly to bi-weekly.

Why do I do this?

I enjoy podcasting very much, it’s my passion, as well as helping you guys, connecting you with others and to sources of information. I love my guests as well and of course all of you, who take the time to listen to the episodes.

Instead of creating a kind of blog post out of answering the why question, I encourage you to listen to the episode as it’s a pretty short one - fast-forward it if you want to listen to it even faster.

Highlights can be seen below. A big thanks again for listening to this show! I can’t wait to bring you more inspiring guests and contents.

Further info at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

The announcement - [0:49]
The reason - [2:32]
What resources do you use in your entrepreneurial life? - [3:00]
My message to you - [4:12]
Outlook on next week’s episode - [4:54]

#030 - Makers of the fastest production drone on Earth and beyond, with Chris Hsiao of Gossamer, USA

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest is from the US, from Texas, Chris Hsiao, co-founder and leader of Gossamer, a startup for startups that became known for developing the Teal drone, the fastest production drone on Earth.

As for Gossamer, it is a full stack product design and engineering firm that focuses mainly on hardware startups. You’ll learn in this episode how Chris started his venture, their being acquired recently, the story of the Teal drone and another project that is important to him because of the potential impact.

Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Why is Gossamer not a conventional startup? – [2:08]
What makes the company different from hardware accelerators? – [3:48]
Gossamer’s geographical focus - [6:26]
His previous ventures and how it all started - [8:14]
A remarkable project example - Teal Drones – [11:55]
Another project example and Gossamer’s part in its development - [14:55]
What changes took place after the company was acquired by Tekzenit? - [18:24]
Mistakes the team made while they were growing the business - [20:54]
The stress issue of startup founders - [22:56]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [24:42]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [25:37]
“Never take your shoes off” and when do the great ideas come? – [27:49]
Some cultural differences that Chris had to overcome throughout his career – [29:58]

#029 - Call for action to you - for a new path to reduce climate change, with Joshua Spodek of NYU, Spodek Academy, USA

Wed, 07 Jun 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Again, I’ve interviewed Joshua Spodek, a professor at NYU and an entrepreneur. He was a guest in episode 22 of this podcast because of his hardware entrepreneurship background and his leadership teaching that we can all learn from. He’s back since we have something important to talk about which concerns Earth’s physical resources which I alluded to in episode 1 and I didn’t want to wait long to start to publicly discuss this topic.

Briefly about Josh: he’s a best-selling author (“Leadership Step by Step” book), holds five Ivy-League degrees, he runs regularly marathons, writes intensely (daily blog posts, articles on Inc magazine).

In this episode we’ll talk about leadership again but this time on applying it on one specific topic, on sustainability. We hear constantly about facts on climate change, the consequences of our not taking actions, the green technologies’ slow adoption. “If information was the answer, we’d all be millionaire with perfect abs” says Derek Sivers. Maybe there’s another, potentially more effective way to decrease climate change, by talking less and acting more, a certain point Josh makes, which he thinks has been almost completely overlooked.

Enjoy this episode.

Just one more thing since it’s a call to action: let me know or Joshua if you want to do something on this topic, e.g. joining an accountability group, or contributing in any way to this initiative.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

The importance of climate change topic - [2:40]
Joshua’s view on sustainability and climate change – [3:57]
Do you turn on the aircon on a hot summer day or you bear some uncomfortableness? – [5:10]
The most common perception of behavioural change for reducing climate change - deprivation - [7:05]
His practical recommendations - [8:36]
Joshua’s journey to becoming environmentally conscious - [15:11]
We need to do different things if we want to see different actions - [19:10]
A simple technique I developed for changing my behaviour even before facing pain - [21:28]
How about a website for the listeners to sign up for personal challenges to start taking action? - [23:25]

#028 - Meet the creators of FitBit for medication, with Peter Havas of PillDrill, USA

Wed, 31 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My interviewee is Peter Havas, co-founder and CEO of PillDrill, USA.

PillDrill wants to ease the way people take their medicine. Their first product is already very much beloved by the customers.

Peter has a long track-record of entrepreneurship. He started his first company at the age of 24, which failed unfortunately. He certainly learned from this experience as his second company, SandwichDirect.com, which was founded in 1999 was a success which resulted in the acquirer eventually becoming a 100 million USD company with Peter being its CTO.

In this interview Peter talks about his motivation why he started PillDrill, his take on whether you should be a subject-matter expert in a discipline to start a company, or if it’s better to have other traits. You’ll also learn why it’s better to sell directly to consumers first. In addition you’ll hear also about his connection to Brinc, an accelerator that was featured in episode 11 of this podcast. Peter will tell you also about the essential elements of his innovation and many more.

Enjoy!

Learn more about this episode via the highlights as seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

FitBit for taking medication and the problem it addresses – [2:30]
What fueled Peter’s motivation to start the company? - [4:42]
When there are enough stars aligning - [6:06]
Earlier endeavors before PillDrill and what Peter learned from them - [7:14]
The advantage of not having subject matter expertise in an area when you start out a business, according to Peter - [9:55]
Why did the company chose to sell first direct to the consumer?- [11:36]
“How a product makes you feel determines the relationship you have with it” - [12:50]
Main investors in the company and the stages of funding - [15:07]
The business model of the company - [18:30]
PillDrill’s three core design principles - [20:50]
Features of the app that help users keep being active and mobile - [24:38]
Locations of prototyping and manufacturing of the product - [28:08]
“Let’s only drop the balls that can bounce” – lessons Peter learned while developing the company- [31:00]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [33:20]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [34:16]
Peter’s opinion on habits – [35:28]
Some memorable cultural differences that Peter had to overcome throughout his career – [36:30]
What is the best way to reach Peter? – [38:02]

#027 - Rapid prototyping - a platform and its essential tools, with Finbarr Watterson of Fictiv, USA

Wed, 24 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve recently interviewed Finbarr Watterson, Hardware Community Evangelist at Fictiv, from the Bay Area, USA. His company is all into helping you iterate on your early product versions faster and with high quality.

Fin has been entrenched in the manufacturing industry for over 5 years living in both Shenzhen, China and the San Francisco Bay Area. He works closely with the hardware community to create content and events that help engineers and designers to build better hardware.

Fictiv is a pretty interesting company - I wish they were also outside the Bay Area. They provide very short lead-times for orders for parts that are 3D printed or CNC-machined.

We discussed many topics in this interview, their vision, mission, some examples of hardware startups, such as Lockitron’s mistake in the early phase they learned from, their experience with validating their product with customers and how they scaled production from manufacturing a few units to mass-manufacturing in China. We discussed Fictiv’s business model, their services related to rapid prototyping that makes them different from their competitors, how they bootstrapped their company using an MVP or Minimum Viable Product. This interview reminds me of some of the topics discussed in episode 7 with Radu Diaconescu of Swie.io which works with a similar business model and episode 23 with Jacob Rothman of Platform88 when we talked about manufacturing consumer products in China.

Enjoy this episode. The highlights can be seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

The vision and mission of Fictiv - [3:10]
Finbarr’s role as hardware evangelist and Fictiv’s core business - [3:34]
What’s the value proposition of the company? – [6:35]
The frustration that drives innovation – the story of the company’s MVP [8:35]
Their business model and what it has to do with Airbnb - [11:37]
Considerations on Design for Manufacturing - [16:44]
Who are their competitors and how are they different? - [17:53]
Stages of financing the company - [20:25]
Mistakes that Finbarr made after he joined the company, which he learned from - [21:08]
Manufacturing in the U.S. vs China: Minimum Order Quantity, inventory, iterations - [23:44]
Going from small-scale production in the US to mass-manufacturing in China - [27:02]
Examples of companies which went from prototyping in the US to mass manufacturing in China - [29:34]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [30:33]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [31:25]
An Iron Man habit – [31:49]
What kind of cultural differences Finbarr had to overcome during his career? – [33:08]
What is the best way to reach Finbarr? – [35:05]

#026 - Connected lab - a startup bringing IoT to R&D environments, with Alok Tayi of TetraScience, USA

Wed, 17 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve had recently the chance to interview Alok Tayi, co-founder and CEO of TetraScience, a startup that was formed by MIT-Harvard graduates, based in Boston. This interview allowed me to connect with my past as scientist and therefore their work greatly resonated with me.

Their vision is to connect every scientific experiment and instrument to a single online dashboard. This means their work is related to IoT. But that’s not all. In order to have an even bigger impact, they do innovation related to the scientists’ workflow so scientists and researchers can have a higher added value.

Alok himself is scientist and entrepreneur; he has strong background in both. What we talked about is his (entrepreneurial) career before TetraScience, the situation when founding the company, including the Eureka moment He elaborated on the main part of the business model, why it’s attractive for labs of all sizes, how they validated their idea, how they came up with the price point. He talked also about product development, mistakes they made and their participation in Y Combinator’s accelerator program.

Enjoy this epic performance by Alok, giving a lot of details on their strategy, specifics about how they built their business.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Earlier entrepreneurial initiatives before TetraScience and their connections with the present venture - [2:55]
The mission of TetraScience - [5:55]
The business model behind TetraScience - [7:10]
Alok's Eureka moment and how he started the company – [9:30]
The process of validating the idea - [12:36]
How did the team decide on the price of the product? - [14:36]
Strengths and previous experience that helped Alok - [18:35]
What are the advantages of TetraScience in the context of IoT? - [22:53]
Key hardware-related learning points during the development - [25:55]
Mistakes that the team made while growing the company - [29:40]
How did the startup benefit from participating in the Y Combinator accelerator? - [32:10]
If he could time travel and go back in time, what notes would he give himself? – [34:40]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [35:16]
Alok’s work-related habits – [35:58]
Some observations in regard to cultural differences that Alok has made throughout his career – [37:58]
What is the best way to reach Alok? – [39:40]

#025 - How to benefit for your startup from the one and only hardware accelerator of Southern California, with Shaun Arora of Make in LA, USA

Wed, 10 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest is Shaun Arora, co-founder and Managing Director of Southern California’s only hardware accelerator, Make in LA.

Besides being the Managing Director, he’s an angel investor in 35 startups, and sits on the board of the contracting manufacturing company he helped build for over a decade of exponential growth (NEO Tech). He has a diverse background, which I see as one of his strengths, since before NEO Tech, he worked as a cultural anthropologist for alcohol brands and CPG companies.

In this podcast I’ve had so far 2 accelerators on the show, Brinc from Hong Kong and an accelerator with several hardware verticals from Switzerland, Kickstart Accelerator. I’m glad to feature Make in LA now from sunny California. In this episode we discuss topics such as his journey before and during Make in LA, what their program is about, including what they offer. Shaun talks about LA, why it’s a hot place due to its hardware ecosystem. He talks about examples of startups that successfully graduated from their program, and apart from successes, he is also open to talk about mistakes he made which he could learn from.

Learn more about this episode via the highlights as seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

What is Make in LA all about? – [2:43]
Offers and strengths of Make in LA – [4:42]
Types of hardware topics that are addressed in the accelerator – [7:56]
Finance offerings to startups and the accelerator’s business model - [9:02]
Successful startups as examples that graduated from the accelerator – [10:40]
How does Make in LA implement its follow-on funding? - [12:30]
What is a B corp and how does it add a social element in the work of Make in LA? - [14:48]
How does Shaun “prevent people from falling off the cliff?” - [17:43]
How and until when companies can apply for the only accelerator in Southern California? - [19:03]
Mistakes Shaun made along the journey and what he could learn - [21:15]
If you could time travel to the time when you were younger, what notes would you give yourself? – [23:33]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [26:04]
“If you measure, you’re going to improve” – [27:50]
Some striking cultural differences that Shaun had to overcome in his work– [29:58]
What is the best way to reach Shaun? – [31:31]

#024 - How to increase your own productivity and that of your garden’s, with Mattias Lepp of Click & Grow, Estonia

Wed, 03 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve had as guest Mattias Lepp, co-founder and CEO of Click and grow, a company from Estonia. His company is a green one that wants to create an even greener future: their vision is to change the way plants are grown around the world.

Mattias has a quite unique background, i.e. a long-term experience in plant cultivation, IT and design and educated as a choirmaster.

Today, besides being the CEO he’s also responsible for R&D and strategic management. We discussed many topics, such as their participation in two famous accelerator programs, Y Combinator and Hardware Club, but also when actually the seeds for the company started to grow, the companies they get help from, e.g. NASA, Google, Apple. He explained their technological innovations, how they financed their developments to come to the results and he elaborated on their business model, as well. I asked him also what mistakes they made along the way and he discussed each of the main ones.

Enjoy this episode. The highlights can be seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

When sustainability has a prominent place in Harrods – [2:30]
Earlier [ad]ventures before Click and Grow – [3:43]
What is it about Estonia that stimulated Mattias' business idea? – [6:20]
How did NASA fuel further Mattias' passion for gardening? - [7:30]
The two essential components of Click and Grow that make it unique - [8:40]
How did the company receive its initial investment? - [10:20]
Adaptive lighting for growing plants – [12:30]
What is the common thing between Nespresso, Keurig and Click and Grow? - [14:07]
The importance of Hardware club accelerator in the development of Mattias’ company - [16:13]
Why is the company based both in Estonia and USA? - [17:46]
The toughest challenges they ran into during development – [19:30]
Mistakes during the development of Click and Grow – [21:18]
If you could go back in time to the time when you were in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? – [24:22]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [24:56]
Some interesting habits that Mattias has – [25:28]
Some cultural differences that Mattias had to overcome in his work – [26:40]
What is the best way to reach Mattias? – [28:42]

#023 - Developing consumer products with an all-in-one manufacturer in China that is just different, with Jacob Rothman of Platform88, China

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest was Jacob Rothman, co-founder of Platform88, which offers services from China.

Jacob has over fifteen years of experience working in China. He has founded several companies including Smart Products, Velong Enterprises, and his latest venture, Platform88. With Platform88 his goal is to help hardware entrepreneurs with their manufacturing, retail needs.

This is a first episode where a company which is based in China is featured. Since the world’s manufacturing base, especially for hardware, consumer products is in China, I find his topic extremely relevant for this podcast. We’ll discuss such topics as how much retail and manufacturing has changed in the world and in particular in China in recent years; how Jacob arrived to China and how he got to start his recent company. You’ll learn what differentiates them from accelerators, what products they specialize in, what kind of innovations they like very much. We also discussed what market trends he can see that can be significant opportunities for startups. We brought up also an example of a hardware startup called Stojo which they worked with.

Learn more about this episode via the highlights as seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

A different China – [3:03]
What’s going on in the world’s manufacturing base? – [4:20]
Jacob’s journey to Platform88 - [5:35]
Changes in the retail sector that created opportunities for factories - [7:25]
What do your factories do? - [9:14]
What services does Platform88 offer? - [10:23]
The key differentiators of Platform88 - [12:22]
At what stage of development startups should reach out to Platform88? - [15:05]
“If you're going to scale, eventually you're going to get to China” – [17:35]
The benefit of working with somebody who is in your vertical - [18:52]
Why does Jacob prefer to focus on more traditional products rather than technological marvels? – [21:00]
What are some development and market trends that would allow new entrepreneurs to thrive, according to Jacob - [24:30]
How does Platform88 deal with the cash flow issue of startups? - [26:41]
If you could go back in time to the time when you were younger, what would you tell yourself? – [28:00]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [28:45]
Jacob’s work related habits – [30:40]
Some cultural differences that Jacob had to overcome in his work – [31:51]
What is the best way to reach Jacob? – [33:48]

#022 - Effective project-based learning from astrophysicist turned entrepreneur, professor, with Joshua Spodek of NYU, Spodek Academy, USA

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve interviewed Joshua Spodek, a professor at NYU and an entrepreneur. This has been an eye-opener interview for me on leadership, how to master it and also on his teaching methods, his entrepreneurial journey.

Joshua is a best-selling author of the book called “Leadership Step by Step”, which has recently come out. In this interview we talked about his leadership principles which he describes also in his book. He’s a professor and a coach, teaching about leadership and entrepreneurship. In addition he writes regularly for Inc magazine, holds five Ivy-League degrees, including a PhD in Astrophysics and an MBA, both from Columbia University. Following his academic career he co-founded a company called Submedia, commercializing his hardware invention for in-tunnel motion-pictures. We talked also about this and what problems they ran into. Beyond his professional achievements, he completed six marathons, swam across the Hudson River, did over 90,000 burpees, wrote over 2500 blog posts, took over 250 cold showers. This means you’ll also get to hear about some of his habits.

Enjoy this episode, which I did very much.

One more thing: if you want to have access to a material that Joshua made available for you as my podcast listener click here.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

How does Joshua warp time? - [3:03]
What's the common thing between Joshua, Balint and Nobel Prize winners - [4:32]
The motivation of a physics researcher to become an entrepreneur - [6:55]
What if it were straight instead of round – the story of a zoetrope - [8:45]
The timeline of starting their company - [10:35]
What he would have done differently when prototyping - [13:55]
"Don't forget to do some experiment" - [16:55]
How did Joshua move from the business world of entrepreneurship into teaching leadership and teaching entrepreneurship - [18:00]
The other side of business [life] - [22:25]
How is project-based learning the future of education? - [ 25:10]
What it is about actors, musicians and sports people that inspired Joshua to write a book on leadership? - [26:55]
What is method learning? - [29:55]
An example of a project-based learning by a 10th grader - [33:30]
Some of the reactions to Joshua's way of teaching - [37:20]
How does Joshua think we can incorporate innovative teaching methods in the current educational system? - [40:10]
If you could time travel and go back in time to your early 20s, what would you do differently or what information would you give yourself? - [44:30]
Books which had the biggest impact on Joshua's career and entrepreneurial thinking - [45:25]
The habit of not messing around with your habits - SIDCHA - [46:17]
You believing it's hard is one of the main things that's making it hard - [49:40]
Some striking cultural differences in Joshua's work that he had to overcome - [51:30]
"What do we have that's all over the place that I'm not noticing?" - [53:40]
What is the best way to reach Joshua? - [55:46]

#021 - How you can benefit from a multi-corporate accelerator, with Patricia Schlenter, David Emmerth of Kickstart Accelerator, Switzerland

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I had a duo-feature interview with Kickstart Accelerator from Switzerland, Patricia Schlenter, responsible for Program Lead and David Emmert, head of one of the verticals of the program.

In a previous episode, we had Brinc on the show, an IoT accelerator. This time we feature another accelerator, which has a wider range of disciplines they’re handling, but still, also hardware topic comes up in their portfolio of companies.

Now a little bit about my guests. As for Patricia, she received her Bachelor’s from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy and her Master’s in Energy, Trade of Finance from Cass Business School, London, UK. She subsequently worked in the shipping industry in London, then started her own fashion accessory company. Shortly afterwards she became a co-founder for a Venture Capitalist’s startup in Berlin, Germany.

David on the other hand has a background in biology and economics and likes to create and work with people with lots of energy. When he is not busy with Kickstart, he's working on his own startup "Imagine Cargo" in the area of sustainable logistics.

In this episode we’ll discuss what they do, all the verticals they have, what their differentiating factors are from other accelerators, the corporate partners they partner with, the steps a startup would go through when working them. They explain their business model, what disruption means for David and many more.

Please have a look at the detailed highlights below and enjoy listening. Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

An overview of one of Europe’s largest multi-corporate accelerators – [3:24]
What does a Vertical Lead and a Program Lead do in Kickstart Accelerator? – [5:03]
How David defines disruption – [6:00]
The selection process of Kickstart Accelerator – [7:20]
David walks us through their programusing an example from food vertical – [8:40]
The unique features of Kickstart Accelerator – [10:08]
The accelerator’s business model and why David thinks it’s sustainable in the long run– [11:08]
Switzerland’s drive to catch up with startup innovation – [12:30]
What are the sources of inspiration of Patricia and David? - [13:48]
If you could time travel and go back in time to your early 20s, what information would you give yourself? – [15:40]
Books which had the biggest impact on their career and entrepreneurial thinking – [16:25]
Morning routines and creative chaos – [17:00]
Some striking cultural differences in their work that they had to overcome– [18:00]
What is the best way to reach Patricia and David? – [19:28]

#020 - Executing lean and agile retail growth for your startup or SME, with Benjamin Ertl of Retailbound, USA

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 13:00:00 +0000

I had as guest Benjamin Ertl, Director of Business Development at Retailbound. He works in retail, helping entrepreneurs on how to get their product to customers in a lean and agile way.

He gives you an intro to retail field, and to his company. Due to their uniqueness in essence they enable companies to operate lean and agile especially during the risky phase when a business model has not been validated yet, so taking on more staff would be a risky move. Since when working with them one doesn’t have to take on more personnel, this means one can operate leaner, and agile as they’re flexible based on the needs.

Benjamin finds himself lucky that he was mentored and educated for the last two and a half years on the complexities of retail personally by his company’s President - Yohan Jacob. Swimming competitively in college for four years and having an older brother has made him very competitive - which translates well for retail.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Please have a look at the highlights below and enjoy listening.

How retail works for hardware products – [2:43]
What’s the main value-add of Retailbound? – [4:07]
A retail team to help you become retail ready – [5:12]
How did Benjamin end up in [retail]bound? - [8:27]
Their services offered and their business model - [10:58]
What is retail coaching? - [14:10]
The future of retail from startups’ perspective - [14:46]
If you should limit distribution - [16:30]
If you could go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [18:57]
Which book had the biggest impact on Benjamin’s career? – [19:50]
Segmenting, planning and doing sports – [21:06]
When in Rome do as the Romans do – [22:40]
What is the best way to reach Benjamin? – [24:30]

#019 - Chairless chair, with Keith Gunura of noonee, Switzerland

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 13:00:00 +0000

My guest is Keith Gunura, co-founder and CEO of noonee, producers of an exoskeleton-like device.

Keith developed the Chairless Chair® at the ETH Zurich in 2009 to help now production line workers.

We’ll discuss with Keith what Forrest Gump has to do with noonee’s technology, how the company was started, Keith’s way of simplifying things to attack a real problem. Keith will talk about how they got into CNN and how it happened that some people didn’t like this much. We’ll cover the future of exoskeletons, why they are working with an engineering company, a similar company to the one that was featured in episode 16 of this podcast.

Learn more about this episode via the highlights as seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Enjoy listening.

Show highlights can be seen below:

What problem does chairless chair solve and for whom? – [2:20]
The story behind founding noonee - [4:29]
Iron Man as main topic others focus on vs simplifying the problem? - [5:40]
How to be featured on CNN – [7:31]
What good could happen when journalists don’t keep their promises? – [ 10:35]
BMW and Audi, the first supporters of the chairless chair, and their views on the publicity of the idea – [13:05]
What is an exoskeleton? – [15:03]
How do you know you’re on the right wagon? – [16:19]
From a university spin-out to working closely with an engineering company or why you can’t do everything yourself?– [18:36]
Chairless chair current stage of development – [20:43]
What’s the near-term future for exoskeletons? – [22:22]
If you could time travel and go back in time to your early 20s, what notes would you give yourself? – [23:28]
Which book had the biggest impact on Keith’s career? – [24:02]
Co-founders’ habits – [24:52]
The way they do business – [26:08]
What is the best way to reach Keith? – [28:32]

#018 - Why not to out-innovate your customer, with Alan Klement, Entrepreneur & Innovator, USA

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Alan Klement, Entrepreneur&Innovator, and thought-leader on the Job To Be Done (JTBD) framework. This is a concept that every innovator should hear about.

This episode is all about JTBD, one of my favorite topics.

Alan has the mission to help teams and individuals become great at making and selling products that people will buy. His own experience as a successful innovator and entrepreneur is what make him effective at helping others. He has applied successfully Jobs to be Done theory to his own businesses and has helped many others do the same.

On October 2nd 2016, Alan released the first book dedicated to Jobs to be Done (JTBD): "When Coffee and Kale Compete". It develops Jobs to be Done theory and features interviews with entrepreneurs who've applied Jobs to be Done to create successful companies and products. It is a book dedicated to helping you become better at creating and selling products that people will buy.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Enjoy listening.

Show highlights can be seen below:

When coffee and kale compete – [3:26]
How customers really view competition – [4:16]
Schumpeter, Karl Marx and the concept of creative destruction – [6:10]
What started Alan’s deep dive into the topic of JTBD – [7:55]
What is exactly JTBD theory and its connection with Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs, Ferrari, Porsche – [10:22]
The story behind the unexpected failure of chotuKool – [14:20]
What are people going to stop doing when they start using your product? – [19:30]
Switch or not to switch from using “Tide” detergent – [21:35]
What if Apple had introduced the iPhone in 2000? – [22:30]
Don’t out-innovate the customer – [23:10]
What if there was no iPod first, just an iPhone coming out? – [23:55]
If you could time travel back to the time when you were in your early 20s, what notes would you give yourself? – [25:00]
Books which had a big impact on Alan’s way of thinking and career – [25:25]
Alan’s creative habits – [26:41]
Cultural differences between Westerns, Eastern Europeans, Chinese – [28:00]
Best way to reach Alan – [31:00]

#017 - How not to think about IoT, with Michael Vladimer of Orange IoT Studio, USA

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Mike Vladimer, cofounder of Orange IoT Studio in Silicon Valley, the innovation strategy office of Orange, one of Europe’s biggest telecommunications operators.

Mike was previously Director of Business Development at Neura, an Internet-of-Things (IoT) startup. Mike holds an MBA from Berkeley-Haas and an MS Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon.

I had an in-depth discussion with him on a framework for thinking about this important hot topic - violate it at your own risk. We’ll talk about examples as well, such as how IoT is different from a conventional device like a garage door opener. He’ll moreover outline the four elements of a successful product, discuss our feelings towards IoT products vs our phone.

Enjoy listening.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Orange IoT studio in short – [2:23]
Internal and external collaboration in Orange – [3:17]
Why did Mike co-found Orange? – [4:25]
Mike’s background and his connection to the IoT – [5:25]
A three-layer recipe on how to or not to think about IoT - [8:38]
What it takes to have an IoT device? – [10:20]
What are some wrong assumptions about IoT? – [12:09]
What are some organizational or technological challenges for developing and adopting an IoT device? - [18:53]
Mike’s position on the controversy of the IoT – [20:42]
Security, one of the biggest roadblocks for developing IoT, and how to solve this issue – [21:33]
Segmenting the security issue with IoT – [24:52]
What’s the business model of Orange IoT Studio and what services do they provide? – [27:00]
If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [30:25]
Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [31:43]
Mike’s interesting white board habit – [33:55]
Some striking cultural differences that Mike had to overcome – [36:45]
What is the best way to reach Mike? – [42:30]

#016 - Developing with a hardware engineering company, with Karoly Molnar of ProDSP Technologies, Hungary

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Karoly Molnar, co-founder and CEO of ProDSP Technologies, Hungary.

ProDSP Technologies, a hardware engineering company, which works with many hardware startups as advisors, contract developers, as well as giving manufacturing services.

Running the company as CEO in Budapest, Hungary, Karoly Molnar, is an electronic engineer in his heart and soul. The company supports the whole product life-cycle: specification, embedded hardware and software design, algorithm development, prototyping, product realization and manufacturing.

Karoly and I studied together in Hungary so I have known him for quite some time. In this episode, we will talk about his company’s mission, circumstances that pushed them to found the company, choosing organic growth, details about their sources of revenue, types of prototypes they develop, and many many more.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Short definition of the company’s mission – [2:42]
Circumstances that lead to founding the company – [4:32]
Comparison of running the company to a certain game – [5:52]
The not so romantic steps of founding – [7:34]
Slow but organic growth – [9:09]
Startup scene in Budapest – [12:14]
Domination of one source of revenue – [13:52]
Menu for hardware startups to choose from – [15:46]
Two types of prototypes explained – [17:02]
Merging the two prototypes into one – [20:13]
The importance of working together, and their company’s added value – [22:49]
Karoly’s sources of inspiration, experts to follow – [23:55]
What notes he would give to his 20 something self – [25:40]
The book that impacted his career – [28:28]
Habits, productivity techniques he uses: email processing, time-management – [29:54]
Critical cultural difference he has come across and how he creatively solved it – [31:42]

#015 - How to benefit for your hardware project from the first major crowdfunding platform, with Sandy Diao of Indiegogo, USA

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 14:00:00 +0000

I interviewed Sandy Diao, Director of Strategic Programs at Indiegogo. She works with companies to help them bring their hardware projects to life.

You might know that Indiegogo is one of the two major crowdfunding platforms. But you might not know that It stands out as one that brings out more and more special support for hardware projects.

Sandy started her career incubating an ads auction system at Pinterest, then moved into music technology at The ONE Smart Piano. After she learned piano through the Smart Piano product and raised half a million through crowdfunding, she joined the Indiegogo team to share her learnings with more entrepreneurs. Her hobbies include learning musical instruments spanning from Erhu to acoustic guitar, and practicing her ambidexterity in writing languages, like Chinese and Korean.

Please have a look at the highlights below and enjoy listening. Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Back to the roots of Indiegogo – [2:17]
When was Indiegogo created? – [3:33]
What does Sandy actually do at Indiegogo? – [4:30]
Why did Sandy join Indiegogo? – [5:04]
The three ways in which Indiegogo and Kickstarter differ from each other – [6:13]
At which stage of product development should a startup turn to Indiegogo? – [8:30]
What is the situation with successfully crowdfunded projects and their exits? – [11:24]
What kind of companies turn to Indiegogo? - [14:00]
Major recent initiatives by Indiegogo and the shift Sandy expects in the future for crowdfunding – [14:25]
What’s the engagement of the startups with the new offerings by Indiegogo? – [16:54]
If you could go back in time and meet your earlier self, what kind of notes would you give yourself? - [17:54]
Books which had the biggest impact on her entrepreneurial career – [18:43]
Sandy’s productive habits – [19:36]
Critical cultural differences that one might encounter in a global environment – [20:46]
The best way you can reach Sandy – [22:11]

#014 - Brick-and-mortar stores for crowdfunded projects to help reach consumers, with Damien Ng of Backers, Hong Kong

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Damien Ng, co-founder of Backers, a chain of stores in Asia that wants to help crowdfunded projects bring closer to the consumer mass market. To my knowledge they’re the first such initiative in the world.

With Backers Damien saw a gap experienced by crowdfunded projects: they take place in the virtual world whereas because most of the time those products are physical, they should actually be experienced physically.

I met Damien in their office in Hong Kong, where I conducted this interview.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Identification of the problem…the beginnings of Backers - [2:21]
Their motivation - [5:08]
The beginnings: testing - [7:09]
What major challenges did you have during founding and now? - [9:04]
How does the funding situation look like in Hong Kong in hardware? - [10:18]
Tips for running a crowdfunding campaign - [12:10]
Your biggest strengths? - [13:55]
His sources of inspiration - [15:17]
if you could go back to the time when you were in your twenties - what notes would you give yourself?- [16:35]
Which books had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? - [17:25]
What routines do you have? - [18:50]
We interact with different cultures - what cultural aspects were challenging?- [19:39]
The impact of food on business - [21:21]
What is the best way to reach you? - [22:12]

#012 - Feel the beat - creating the world’s first wearable device for musicians, with Florian Simmendinger of Soundbrenner, Germany - Hong Kong

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode my guest is Florian Simmendinger, co-founder and CEO of Soundbrenner.

Soundbrenner is maker of the world’s first wearable smart device for musicians. Their product is called Soundbrenner Pulse and their ambitious goal is to help every single musician on the planet to achieve rhythmic perfection. Their Indiegogo campaign on their first device, a smart vibrating metronome, was very successful with pre-orders in total of around $250 000. This market validation of their product then allowed them to receive a seed funding of of $0.5 million and most recently an additional $1.5 million USD of financing.

I met Florian’s company at Global Source faire in Hong Kong where they exhibited their exciting product. In this episode their fascinating story will be presented. We will touch on many topics, on their motivation for founding, their journey so far, including details on successful crowd-funding, manufacturing, elements of his personality, etc.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

What was your motivation for founding the company, and your story briefly so far? - [3:24]
What music and music instrument do you play? - [7:28]
What other mobile platforms do you cover besides iPhone? - [9:09]
How did you find this idea, identified the problem? - [10:28]
Could you elaborate on your setup of being in Berlin and Hong Kong? - [11:37]
Pros and cons of having a startup in Berlin - [12:03]
At which phase did you move to Hong Kong? - [13:27]
How was your funding during crowd-funding and afterwards? - [14:16]
When to follow the crowd-funding route and when not to? - [16:14]
What are the essential elements of a successful crowd-funding campaign and why did you choose Indigogo versus Kickstarter? - [18:15]
Do you still get orders because Indiegogo would allow you to do that? - [21:14]
Where do you manufacture and where are the other steps of product development done? - [21:57]
What is your biggest strength and your team’s? - [22:59]
The notes he would you give to his twenty something self and the key to being unstoppable - [25:56]
If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your career? - [27:48]
Do you have some routine in your life, morning, evening and so on routine? - [28:31]
Cultural differences when working, especially during their participation during the accelerator program - [30:58]
What is the best way to reach you? - [32:58]

#011 - Accelerate with an IoT accelerator, with Bay McLaughlin of Brinc, Hong Kong

Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Bay McLaughlin, co-founder and COO of Brinc, a remarkable hardware accelerator focusing on IoT. This is the first interview on an accelerator on this show.

Brinc is a global IoT accelerator and platform based in Hong Kong with offices in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Bay, who co-founded Brinc about 2.5 years ago, has long years of startup experience. He has spent half of his career in or founding startups. He was founding team member of Apple’s global SMB channel and founder of their first Entrepreneurship Evangelism channel. With 8 software and 14 hardware portfolio holdings, he’s successfully made the transition from digital to physical and from San Francisco to Asia.

In this episode we bring you the story of Brinc. Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

Definition of an accelerator - [1:55]
What is Brinc? - [2:42]
The strengths of their program and challenges of hardware startups - [4:04]
A free program feature - [6:23]
The motivation behind founding Brinc - [7:10]
Competition among hardware/IoT accelerators - [9:34]
Two main things that make Brinc stand out among other accelerators - [11:48]
The importance of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Honk Kong - [13:07]
“Trial by fire” - [14:30]
Exits in hardware - [15:15]
Biggest challenges for a hardware startup - [16:20]
Are you seeing the entire chess game? - [17:15]
Internet of Sh and how Brinc picks the topics to concentrate on - [19:00]
Why are investors scared? - [21:38]
Who is Bay inspired by? - [22:27]
If you could time travel back to the time when you were younger, what notes would you give back to yourself so that you can improve? - [24:20]
Books which had the biggest impact on his career - [24:44]
His hardcore routines - [25:26]
Critical and memorable cultural experiences Bay has seen globally - [26:55]
What is the best way for listeners to reach him? - [28:07]

#010 - How to think like Elon Musk - Scrum for Hardware, with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc, USA

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 14:00:00 +0000

Today I have a special guest. If there was a black belt in his field, he would certainly be one of its holder. He’s a master of a type of project management and innovation style, agile, specifically he’s into scrum, which is the most commonly used agile framework. My guest is Joe Justice from the USA, President of Scrum @ Hardware at Scrum Inc, and CEO, founder of a company called Team WIKISPEED.

In this episode we elaborate on the topic of scrum. Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com and show highlights can be seen below:

Nokia’s story coming to an end - [3:23]
Can you describe the Scrum method? - [4:36]
What the New Zealand All Blacks #1 rugby team has to do with Scrum - [7:09]
Some companies that use Scrum, especially in the hardware field - [9:17]
Situation with Scrum for startups in the hardware field, and small or medium sized enterprises? - [13:11]
Examples where Scrum has been scaled up, specifically for hardware - [16:12]
Tesla and their job postings; WIKISPEED competing against Tesla - [17:59]
How to think like Elon Musk? - [19:37]
The connection between Kanban, Lean Startup, Lean Canvas and Scrum - [19:50]
Two major obstacles for implementing Scrum framеwork, especially in the hardware field? - [24:10]
Countries approving Scrum - [29:17]
“the last of the old will still be the first of the new” - [30:16]
How the leader, the Scrum master or the product owner, can motivate the team? - [31:43]
If you could go back in time, when you were younger, what notes what would you take back to that time to keep it to yourself? [37:43]
Books which had the biggest impact on his career - [39:44]
Joe’s incredible routines to be super-efficient, super-energetic - [43:12]
Memorable cultural differences he has encountered - [46:00]
How to reach him - [48:47]

#009 - Commercializing the first robotic touch sensing that uses light, with Ákos Dömötör of OptoForce, Hungary

Wed, 18 Jan 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Ákos Dömötör, CEO of OptoForce, Hungary.

Ákos Dömötör, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and two Master’s in Management, started out in the global graduate program at LEGO, then taking up a position in Denmark. He then left the creative space in Denmark in 2014 to be the CEO of his venture, OptoForce, in his native land, Hungary. In 2015 OptoForce, producer of force/torque sensors for industrial and service robots, gained a huge revenue growth of 600% and now works with some of the most important robotic companies, universities in the world.

In this episode we bring you the world of robotics closer to you, discussing how they feel, i.e. how they touch, trends in the robotic field, how Ákos and his team differentiates their company from competitors, how they iterated on the business model a number of times to reach the current version that works. We talked about manufacturing aspect, challenges and many more.

In this episode we elaborate on the robotic sensing, the highlights as seen below.

Balint’s introduction - [1:47]
OptoForce’ technology defined - [2:44]
Motivation for joining the company - [3:54]
Field of robotics today - [5:28]
Differentiation of company from competitors - [9:23]
Sensing using light - [11:08]
Technological maturity when Ákos joined the company - [14:03]
Iterating on the business model - [17:40]
Major challenges at the early phase - [19:57]
Keeping manufacturing in-house or outsource? - [23:07]
Advice to his younger self, while being satisfied with himself - [26:05]
The book that most impacted his career - [26:01]
His effective morning routine - [28:24]
Cultural difference against which he spoke up and the difference he embraces - [30:00]

#008 - What to learn from Pebble’s story: two times most funded Kickstarter campaign ever to its eventual end, with your host, Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode, you’ll hear a short, dense analysis on the rise and demise of a well-known company, Pebble, which produced the first smartwatch. I chose to talk about this topic as the latest news from them was a shock. The goal with telling you their story, their shocking ending, as always, is that you get to learn from others, in this case from a company’s story that had its highs and in December its low moment. So hopefully, you’ll get some actionable insights.

Highlights can be seen below.

The goal for this episode - [0:25]
How can a company that broke records two times on Kickstarter end up being sold and having to stop producing? - [1:40]
Pebble’s beginnings - [2:00]
The single most important reason for the not so happy end - [3:17]
Other reasons leading to insolvency - [6:15]
Two ways out of this problem of margin vs scale - [8:18]
The third, often not considered way out of the margin vs scale problem- [9:35]
Marketing styles necessary for consumer brands - [10:30]
Job To Be Done concept applied on hardware - [12:16]
Summary - [14:07]

#007 - How one company wants to radically cut down the lead-time of electronics manufacturing of all volumes, with Radu Diaconescu of Swie.io, Switzerland

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 14:00:00 +0000

My guest is Radu Diaconescu, co-founder and Business Development Manager at Swie.io.

Swie.io is an industry 4.0 company, which is building the world’s largest distributed manufacturing network. They believe that electronics manufacturing should be easy and accessible to everyone. Swie is the next-generation platform for agile electronics manufacturing, guaranteeing the shortest lead time in the industry.

Radu is an electrical engineer, with M.Sc. in Management of Technology from EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, and industrial experience at Honeywell. He is currently managing Swie.io's business development efforts and sits in the Board of Directors.

In this episode we elaborate on the topic of agile electronics, the highlights being as seen below.

Balint’s introduction during the interview
Can you tell us about your company and the reason for co-founding it?
What is your added value when working with factories?
How does your company deploy industry 4.0?
Do you work with off-the-shelf components or you develop your own?
Their mission
Considerations about volumes of manufacturing: low and high
What factories do you work with?
What is your uniqueness on the market regarding lead-time reduction?
How did you reach the current business model?
What were some major challenges and how did you overcome those during founding as well as later?
What challenges did you see regarding funding and at which stage are you?
How do you see the funding situation in Switzerland or in Europe?Next steps for your company?
If you could go back in time, what notes would you give yourself?
If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your career?
What morning routine or other routines do you have throughout the day?
Which cultural difference you wish you knew about beforehand and how did you resolve issues related to that?

#006 - How a drone company overcame the limitations of indoor applications for restaurants, warehouses, with Junyang Woon of Infinium Robotics, Singapore

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 14:00:00 +0000

In this episode my guest is Junyang Woon, co-founder and CEO of Infinium Robotics, LLC.

Infinium Robotics is a company which has been active in the field of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and Vehicles (UAV) since 2009. Initially they focused on GPS-denied environments and multiple-UAV coordination technologies. They developed multiple patent-pending solutions over the past few years. Most notably, the company has developed a low-cost, low computational solution for a conflict-free and collision-free Unmanned Air Traffic Management Software that can be deployed on a wider scale internationally.

Junyang Woon, with notable academic titles of M.Sc. in Engineering from Stanford University, USA, B.Sc. from University College London, UK, has had his hands dirty in the field of drones for quite some time now. He started dealing with drones when serving in the Navy for 7 years, where he got vast experience working with military UAVs and today he hopes to apply the technologies for peaceful purposes. In his spare time, Junyang enjoys spending more time with drones, tinkering with his personal DIY drone, and plays golf, as well as spends time with his wife, daughter and son.

I reached out to Junyang because I read about his company in various news outlets and I find their story fascinating, as well as the promising technologies they work on. In this episode, we will touch on many topics, with highlights as below.

#005 - The tough journey of building a biotech company, with Federico Bürsgens of GNA-Biosolutions, Germany

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 20:07:11 +0000

My guest is Federico Bürsgens, one of three founders and currently Managing Director of Finances, Hardware & Software at GNA-Biosolutions. He is one of many who was born for entrepreneurship as he started his entrepreneurial career in high-school.

He did his undergraduate studies of physics in Germany, at University of Münster and at Universities of Würzburg, followed by Master’s in Physics in the USA, at University of Texas at Austin. Afterwards, Federico moved back to Germany where he did his PhD work in physics at Center for Nanoscience at University of Munich or LMU in 2008. He is author/co-author of 16 scientific papers on detection technology.

I met Federico during my PhD studies in Munich and I got to know him as an energetic person who could later transfer his energy into building up a company in one of the toughest fields to choose, that is the heavily regulated biomedical field. In this episode we uncover what it means to found such a company, working over multiple years until the imminent market launch.

#004 - How one green company could beat the odds with a magical pencil and double each year, with Michael Stausholm of Sproutworld, Denmark

Wed, 14 Dec 2016 20:00:00 +0000

I’ve interviewed Michael Stausholm, founder and CEO Sproutworld, a company based in Denmark. His company is a green tech company with a very successfully working business model which is rare in the field of sustainability. He is behind the startup with the world’s only plantable pencil and other green consumer products.

Sprout has a remarkable client-base such as Disney, Bacardi, Bank of America, WWF, Marriott, Coca Cola. Sprout has offices in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Boston in the US and sells more than 450.000 pencils a month to over 60 countries.

Michael Stausholm has been an expert and consultant in sustainability for the past 16 years. Before founding his company, for 15 years he worked in Asia with sustainable production within the textile industry, advising clients such as Walmart and Nike.

I reached out to Michael after reading about their story in a flight catalogue and his case is an example that a product does not have to be technically complex with many features and functions to find success on the market. In this episode, which is infused with Michael’s enthusiasm for sustainability we uncover many topics, on how to make a company successful in greentech, which success factors are transferable to other industries too.

#003 - From scientist to entrepreneur for holodeck technology, evaluating startups, with Bernhard Petermeier of World Economic Forum, Switzerland

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:11:06 +0000

My guest is Bernhard Petermeier, founder of CargoSoul, community leader of Technology Pioneers at World Economic Forum from Geneva, Switzerland. CargoSoul was active in the technology development towards the holodeck concept we know from Star Trek.

#002 - Empowering women in Nepal by a woman entrepreneur, with Anya Cherneff of Empower Generation, USA

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:10:50 +0000

My guest is Anya Cherneff, co-founder and Executive Director of Empower Generation. Her company is a social enterprise that connects women in Nepal with global hardware suppliers, which provide solar technology.

#001 - Introduction to the podcast, with your host, Balint Horvath, Switzerland

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:10:23 +0000

This is the first episode of The Hardware Entrepreneur podcast. In this episode, I’ll elaborate on why I started this podcast and how you, listener, can benefit from listening to the episodes.

The Hardware Entrepreneur

#068 - Challenges of small manufacturers to organise their production and inventory, with Kristjan Vilosius of Katana, Estonia

#067 - How to speed up your New Product Introduction - Production Line Tool, with Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices, USA

#066 - How to apply lean startup principles to hardware, with Ash Maurya of Leanstack, USA

#065 - How to care about sustainability to get rid of plastic bottles (and still make a profit), with Moritz Waldstein of Mitte, Germany

#064 - To transform or not to transform your hardware company to an all agile one next year, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#063 - Your (hardware) product is not your product - think in terms of business models, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#062 - How a hardware SaaS company wants to help you not get lost in your data during product development, with Michael Corr of Duro Labs, USA

#061 - RERUN - How to avoid mistakes when building a team - lessons from mentoring 1200+ hardware entrepreneurs, with Alan Clayton of SOSV

#060 - Future global data connectivity without worrying about your costs, with Guy Zbarsky of Keepgo, Israel

#059 - Where IoT/AI are heading to - impressions from IoT Tech Expo Europe, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#058 - Freedom to work and play anywhere without losing power, with Nancy de Fays of Linedock, USA

#057 - Kickstarter Post-launch - a home gym challenges the "No pain No gain" crowd, with Joey Atlas of SCULPTAFIT Global, USA

#056 - Not too early, not too late - how to get the timing right for your innovation, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#055 - Why hardware startup ecosystem in Lebanon is becoming interesting, with Raja Younes of Startupsfund, Futuris Technologies, Lebanon

#054 - Kickstarter Pre-launch - a home gym challenges the "No pain No gain" crowd, with Joey Atlas of SCULPTAFIT Global, USA

#053 - Which one to choose - b2b or b2c for hardware startups, with Balint Horvath, your host, Switzerland

#052 - Student (hardware) entrepreneurship in Switzerland and worldwide, with Gregory Inauen of ETH Entrepreneur Club, Switzerland

#051 - Connecting the (hardware) dots, with Greg Fisher of BSG and Hardware Massive, USA

#050 - How to get your product found on the internet, with Ashley Faulkes of Mad Lemmings, Switzerland

#049 - RERUN - Elements of building a successful tech business, with (proven) serial entrepreneur Milton Chang of Incubic Venture Fund, USA

#048 - RERUN - How to think like Elon Musk - scrum for hardware, with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc, USA

#047 - RERUN - How next-generation retail looks like, with Vibhu Norby of b8ta, USA

#046 - When not to start a startup - how to license your idea (Part 2), with Stephen Key of inventRight, USA

#045 - Simplicity and what it has to do with what I learned from my guests in 2017, with your host Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#044 - When not to start a startup - how to license your idea (Part 1), with Stephen Key of inventRight, USA

#043 - How to avoid mistakes when building a team - lessons from mentoring 1200+ hardware entrepreneurs, with Alan Clayton of SOSV

#042 - How to think with your hands - LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology with Alexandra Mandoki of Sparks Guide, Switzerland

#041 - How to use lean startup principles to start the world’s first VR cinema franchise, with Dimitri Nabatov of WeAreCinema, Switzerland

#040 - Beer as you don’t know it - a startup bringing you the freshest craft beer possible, with Jong-Wook Shin of HOPii, USA

#039 - Brain vs Capital - how to build a business from components (Part 2), with Prof. Günter Faltin, Germany

#038 - Brain vs Capital - how to build a business from components (Part 1), with Prof. Günter Faltin, Germany

#037 - Disrupting with digital manufacturing, with Nick Pinkston of Plethora, USA

#036 - Is your immersive content searchable? - Mark Milstein of Microstocksolutions, USA

#035 - How a hardware startup’s product goes viral, with Christian Smith of TrackR, USA

#034 - How next-generation retail looks like, with Vibhu Norby of b8ta, USA

#033 - Elements of building a successful tech business, with (proven) serial entrepreneur Milton Chang of Incubic Venture Fund, USA

#032 - Why manufacturing in USA vs China is becoming interesting, with Scott N. Miller of Dragon Innovation, USA

#031 - Why I change the publishing frequency, with Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#030 - Makers of the fastest production drone on Earth and beyond, with Chris Hsiao of Gossamer, USA

#029 - Call for action to you - for a new path to reduce climate change, with Joshua Spodek of NYU, Spodek Academy, USA

#028 - Meet the creators of FitBit for medication, with Peter Havas of PillDrill, USA

#027 - Rapid prototyping - a platform and its essential tools, with Finbarr Watterson of Fictiv, USA

#026 - Connected lab - a startup bringing IoT to R&D environments, with Alok Tayi of TetraScience, USA

#025 - How to benefit for your startup from the one and only hardware accelerator of Southern California, with Shaun Arora of Make in LA, USA

#024 - How to increase your own productivity and that of your garden’s, with Mattias Lepp of Click & Grow, Estonia

#023 - Developing consumer products with an all-in-one manufacturer in China that is just different, with Jacob Rothman of Platform88, China

#022 - Effective project-based learning from astrophysicist turned entrepreneur, professor, with Joshua Spodek of NYU, Spodek Academy, USA

#021 - How you can benefit from a multi-corporate accelerator, with Patricia Schlenter, David Emmerth of Kickstart Accelerator, Switzerland

#020 - Executing lean and agile retail growth for your startup or SME, with Benjamin Ertl of Retailbound, USA

#019 - Chairless chair, with Keith Gunura of noonee, Switzerland

#018 - Why not to out-innovate your customer, with Alan Klement, Entrepreneur & Innovator, USA

#017 - How *not* to think about IoT, with Michael Vladimer of Orange IoT Studio, USA

#016 - Developing with a hardware engineering company, with Karoly Molnar of ProDSP Technologies, Hungary

#015 - How to benefit for your hardware project from the first major crowdfunding platform, with Sandy Diao of Indiegogo, USA

#014 - Brick-and-mortar stores for crowdfunded projects to help reach consumers, with Damien Ng of Backers, Hong Kong

#012 - Feel the beat - creating the world’s first wearable device for musicians, with Florian Simmendinger of Soundbrenner, Germany - Hong Kong

#011 - Accelerate with an IoT accelerator, with Bay McLaughlin of Brinc, Hong Kong

#010 - How to think like Elon Musk - Scrum for Hardware, with Joe Justice of WIKISPEED and Scrum Inc, USA

#009 - Commercializing the first robotic touch sensing that uses light, with Ákos Dömötör of OptoForce, Hungary

#008 - What to learn from Pebble’s story: two times most funded Kickstarter campaign ever to its eventual end, with your host, Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#007 - How one company wants to radically cut down the lead-time of electronics manufacturing of all volumes, with Radu Diaconescu of Swie.io, Switzerland

#006 - How a drone company overcame the limitations of indoor applications for restaurants, warehouses, with Junyang Woon of Infinium Robotics, Singapore

#005 - The tough journey of building a biotech company, with Federico Bürsgens of GNA-Biosolutions, Germany

#004 - How one green company could beat the odds with a magical pencil and double each year, with Michael Stausholm of Sproutworld, Denmark

#003 - From scientist to entrepreneur for holodeck technology, evaluating startups, with Bernhard Petermeier of World Economic Forum, Switzerland

#002 - Empowering women in Nepal by a woman entrepreneur, with Anya Cherneff of Empower Generation, USA

#001 - Introduction to the podcast, with your host, Balint Horvath, Switzerland

#017 - How not to think about IoT, with Michael Vladimer of Orange IoT Studio, USA