August 06, 2018

An Interview with Ben Einstein

1 hour 36 minutes

This week’s show was sponsored by Arrow.com, who want to hear from engineers like you. They’re offering 30% off a first order for new customers and free overnight shipping for everyone. Check out their online selection for your next project!

Welcome Ben Einstein, founder of Bolt!

Bolt is a Pre-Seed

0h 1m 10s

Downtown Boston

0h 1m 47s

They started around 2011/2012

0h 2m 30s

Twiddle with atoms instead of bits

0h 3m 13s

Went to school in Boston

0h 3m 42s

Inherited a product consultancy

0h 3m 57s

Maury Ballstein

0h 7m 12s

Startup within a startup

0h 8m 6s

Lightbulb went off

0h 8m 28s

First iphone bluetooth accessory

0h 9m 6s

Sometimes the lucky thing is picking Apple instead of picking Palm

0h 10m 36s

Brad Feld of Foundry Group based out of Boulder CO

0h 13m 14s

Institutionalized hardware/software investing

0h 13m 48s

Makerbot/Sphero

0h 14m 0s

Invested in first fund

0h 15m 2s

Ben is a big introvert

0h 16m 59s

Trust and intimacy

0h 17m 41s

Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends"

0h 17m 50s

Raising Venture Capital (VC) wasn't right from first fund

0h 22m 41s

In early VC started where it was their money

0h 23m 52s

Vast majority is a management fee

0h 23m 58s

GP = General partner

0h 25m 19s

LP = Limited partner

0h 25m 29s

Why didn't this hardware model exist previously?

0h 26m 51s

Bill Gross at IdeaLab

0h 27m 6s

"Hardware by itself is not an attractive business"

0h 27m 39s

Software breaking out of the screen

0h 29m 26s

Number of companies pitching has increased

0h 31m 44s

Bolt.io

0h 32m 4s

Looking for companies that will be worth 100M in 5-7 years

0h 32m 55s

Early meetings with prototype

0h 33m 56s

Bolt provides an early investment with a 100K to 1M check

0h 34m 5s

Nutty things pitched

0h 35m 27s

Spherical iphone

0h 35m 58s

Only been around for 5 years

0h 36m 34s

They spend 18 months with companies

0h 41m 8s

80% of the founders at Bolt companies haven't done hardware

0h 43m 45s

The best companies are built from the best product, not just hardware

0h 44m 38s

They have a strong belief that companies should not build the perfect product

0h 46m 3s

Consumer vs industrial

0h 49m 3s

Everyone talks about consumer connected hardware companies

0h 50m 15s

20% are consumer

0h 50m 26s

Recurring revenue is a very strong theme.

0h 52m 9s

Why Juicero's press is so expensive

0h 56m 22s

AvE's take on the Juicero

0h 57m 32s

Product development

1h 1m 56s

Suggested reading: The Illustrated Guide To Product Development

1h 2m 4s

Suggested reading: The Complete Guide To Building Hardware Startup Teams

1h 3m 57s

Team is more than just the employees

1h 4m 0s

Teams coming in are 2-4 founders

1h 7m 30s

Proof of concept prototype

1h 7m 48s

Sometimes they invest in people instead of companies, like Mike Phillips from Sense

1h 8m 51s

Joe Bamburg from Sense has been on the show before.

1h 9m 11s

Tyler runs engineering at Bolt, former iPhone engineer

1h 12m 3s

Thinking about Industrial Design (ID) early on

1h 14m 0s

Prototyping engineers in the shop

1h 14m 8s

Tempo automation

1h 14m 45s

Dragon Innovation / Scott Miller

1h 15m 34s

A $200 Roomba vs a Dyson

1h 18m 46s

James Dyson on "How I Built This"

1h 19m 27s

Looks like / works like prototypes

1h 21m 20s

Engineering prototype

1h 21m 30s

How far are people expected to go on that check from Bolt?

1h 23m 36s

Silcon Valley (the show) is a farce and has truth

1h 26m 59s

Bolt is like the bumpers at the bowling alley

1h 35m 48s

Want to reach Ben? You can email him

1h 36m 35s

If you're looking to pitch, it's better to reach out via Bolt.io/pitch

1h 36m 45s

Follow Ben on Twitter as @BenEinstein

1h 37m 23s

Follow their fantastic blog as well!

1h 37m 59s.

...more

View all episodes

By The Amp Hour (Chris Gammell and David L Jones)

4.9

226226 ratings

August 06, 2018

An Interview with Ben Einstein

1 hour 36 minutes

Welcome Ben Einstein, founder of Bolt!

Bolt is a Pre-Seed

0h 1m 10s

Downtown Boston

0h 1m 47s

They started around 2011/2012

0h 2m 30s

Twiddle with atoms instead of bits

0h 3m 13s

Went to school in Boston

0h 3m 42s

Inherited a product consultancy

0h 3m 57s

Maury Ballstein

0h 7m 12s

Startup within a startup

0h 8m 6s

Lightbulb went off

0h 8m 28s

First iphone bluetooth accessory

0h 9m 6s

Sometimes the lucky thing is picking Apple instead of picking Palm

0h 10m 36s

Brad Feld of Foundry Group based out of Boulder CO

0h 13m 14s

Institutionalized hardware/software investing

0h 13m 48s

Makerbot/Sphero

0h 14m 0s

Invested in first fund

0h 15m 2s

Ben is a big introvert

0h 16m 59s

Trust and intimacy

0h 17m 41s

Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends"

0h 17m 50s

Raising Venture Capital (VC) wasn't right from first fund

0h 22m 41s

In early VC started where it was their money

0h 23m 52s

Vast majority is a management fee

0h 23m 58s

GP = General partner

0h 25m 19s

LP = Limited partner

0h 25m 29s

Why didn't this hardware model exist previously?

0h 26m 51s

Bill Gross at IdeaLab

0h 27m 6s

"Hardware by itself is not an attractive business"

0h 27m 39s

Software breaking out of the screen

0h 29m 26s

Number of companies pitching has increased

0h 31m 44s

Bolt.io

0h 32m 4s

Looking for companies that will be worth 100M in 5-7 years

0h 32m 55s

Early meetings with prototype

0h 33m 56s

Bolt provides an early investment with a 100K to 1M check

0h 34m 5s

Nutty things pitched

0h 35m 27s

Spherical iphone

0h 35m 58s

Only been around for 5 years

0h 36m 34s

They spend 18 months with companies

0h 41m 8s

80% of the founders at Bolt companies haven't done hardware

0h 43m 45s

The best companies are built from the best product, not just hardware

0h 44m 38s

They have a strong belief that companies should not build the perfect product

0h 46m 3s

Consumer vs industrial

0h 49m 3s

Everyone talks about consumer connected hardware companies

0h 50m 15s

20% are consumer

0h 50m 26s

Recurring revenue is a very strong theme.

0h 52m 9s

Why Juicero's press is so expensive

0h 56m 22s

AvE's take on the Juicero

0h 57m 32s

Product development

1h 1m 56s

Suggested reading: The Illustrated Guide To Product Development

1h 2m 4s

Suggested reading: The Complete Guide To Building Hardware Startup Teams

1h 3m 57s

Team is more than just the employees

1h 4m 0s

Teams coming in are 2-4 founders

1h 7m 30s

Proof of concept prototype

1h 7m 48s

Sometimes they invest in people instead of companies, like Mike Phillips from Sense

1h 8m 51s

Joe Bamburg from Sense has been on the show before.

1h 9m 11s

Tyler runs engineering at Bolt, former iPhone engineer

1h 12m 3s

Thinking about Industrial Design (ID) early on

1h 14m 0s

Prototyping engineers in the shop

1h 14m 8s

Tempo automation

1h 14m 45s

Dragon Innovation / Scott Miller

1h 15m 34s

A $200 Roomba vs a Dyson

1h 18m 46s

James Dyson on "How I Built This"

1h 19m 27s

Looks like / works like prototypes

1h 21m 20s

Engineering prototype

1h 21m 30s

How far are people expected to go on that check from Bolt?

1h 23m 36s

Silcon Valley (the show) is a farce and has truth

1h 26m 59s

Bolt is like the bumpers at the bowling alley

1h 35m 48s

Want to reach Ben? You can email him

1h 36m 35s

If you're looking to pitch, it's better to reach out via Bolt.io/pitch

1h 36m 45s

Follow Ben on Twitter as @BenEinstein

1h 37m 23s

Follow their fantastic blog as well!

1h 37m 59s.

...more

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An Interview with Ben Einstein

An Interview with Ben Einstein

More shows like The Amp Hour

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

This Week in Tech (Audio)

Security Now (Audio)

Software Engineering Daily

Talk Python To Me

SpyCast

SANS Internet Stormcenter Daily Cyber Security Podcast (Stormcast)

Embedded

Smashing Security

Darknet Diaries

Physics World Weekly Podcast

Practical AI

Hackaday Podcast

Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

Robinson's Podcast