Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories

By Vigs

Interviewing hardware entrepreneurs to bring you a behind-the-scenes look into building and shipping innovative physical devices that change our interactions with the real world.... more

· Technology

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FAQs about Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories:

How many episodes does Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories have?

The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.

Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories episodes:

May 17, 2024The Earth and Engineering
✍️ Show Notes:
Dan Casciato and his team at Lightbrite are building mostly in stealth, but Dan has some strong perspectives on the interplay between engineering and the Earth - our environment, our home, and our place in it. This is a thought-provoking episode about sustainable product development.
🔑 Bytes:
There's no work life and personal life. There is only one life.

Make sure the problem you're solving is truly worth solving. Is it worth the externalities?

Think about Right Action, not Reaction.
🔎 Keywords: mental health, emotional well-being, mindfulness, sound and vibration, technology, engineering, communication, sustainability, manufacturing, holistic approach
...more
30min
May 10, 2024Red light therapy brings better sleep for all: Helight
Greg from Helight joins this week and talks about his background as an audio engineer, and how that translates over to light engineering, as well as some of the challenges and lessons learned while building and shipping Helight (over 70,000 units sold in the past few years!). The science behind this is fascinating, and what really caught my attention was their attention to customer detail. Greg flat out says “if we can’t help you, we don’t want your money” which is the only way to approach consumer health tech!

🔗 Check out Helight at helight.com

🔑 Bytes:
Focus on your core expertise for the problem you’re solving. Packaging, charging, etc are important but first find validation by focusing on your core offering.

After initial launch, listen to your customers to figure out what’s next on the roadmap

Be as precise as possible with your product requirements doc up front! Know what you want to have better conversations with vendors and suppliers.

Keywords:
#startups #hardware #prototyping #engineering #productdevelopment #podcast
...more
36min
May 03, 2024Find your inner child with Truest North Compass
Karl joins us with his amazing storytelling to share how he manifested fun and wonder into his latest invention, the Truest North Compass.

🔗 Check out truestnorthcompass.com

🔑 Bytes:
Do childish things with an adult focus and energy :)

Use storytelling to capture your audience and truly reach them.

Find your core principle (e.g. not another app) and problem-solve around it (mobile browser)
...more
34min
April 26, 2024Using Water to Store Energy: Greener Power with GreenPWR
Mitch joins the show this week to talk about his journey hopping between corporate and startups, and now starting his own venture — GreenPWR. His first product, the SunHopper-D, aims to utilize existing water tanks as thermal batteries. Their goal is to make products that work with renewable energy sources when available, and fall back to other sources if needed.

🔑 Bytes:
Look for inspiration from your studies to find business opportunities.

Try to put all critical functionality in hardware (programmable or otherwise).

Know what you're getting into when it comes to certification.

🔗 Learn more at greenpwr.com

Chapters (thanks AI)
00:00 Introduction and Overview of Green Power
08:48 Mitch's Journey in the Renewable Energy Space
16:23 Lessons Learned in Startups and Corporate
29:06 Targeting Installers and Educating Consumers
...more
31min
April 19, 2024Lace Up with LaceClips: Sport-specific fitness tracking
This week I'm chatting with Jonathan, who is reimagining fitness tracking specifically for sports in order to measure things like steps, jumps, and pivots. The origin story is a fun one - sometimes building hardware just happens serendipitously!

Takeaways:
Go after the underserved. For example: Fitness tracking for youth sports.

Think about who the purchasing decision maker is for your product. In this case: parents & coaches.

Build a community to empower users to compare their data with friends, creating a sense of competition and motivation.

🔗 Check out Laceclips at laceclips.com

(Sorry for the audio - this is the last episode without a real mic! Thanks for being here so early on my journey ❤️)

Chapters (thanks AI)
00:00 Introduction and Product Overview
01:34 Target Audience and Market Need
04:53 Sports-Specific Tracking
05:49 Differentiating Factors and Software Features
07:16 Competition and Motivation
08:46 Coaches and Team Usage
10:26 Personal Impact and Data Analysis
12:27 Manufacturing and Production
14:35 Customer Feedback and Iterative Process
23:55 Challenges and Advice for Hardware Startups
31:52 Expanding Beyond Sports and GPS Integration
33:01 Where to Find More Information and Support

Keywords: hardware, engineering, product development, business, fitness, tracking, wearables, sensors
...more
34min
April 12, 2024Make any watch smart with Ganance
The dynamic duo, Alex & Ian join me from Ganance, where they're bringing fitness metrics to classic watches, combining sensor tech with stylish choices. We dig into the inspiration and ideation process as well as some really technical details with fellow firmware engineer Ian.

My 3 takeaways:
Find a partner that can immediately share your vision. It's worth waiting for the right person.
Data collection and refinement is an ongoing process - so OTA updates are key to continually improve the customer experience.

Battery life shouldn't be an afterthought! Plan for it from the architecture.

Get your own at https://www.ganance.com

Chapters (thanks AI):
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:05 Meeting and Partnership
03:23 Hardware Development and Decision-making
04:35 Iterative Development and Planning
06:16 Target Market and Customer Profile
08:28 Addressing Style and Fashion
10:20 Hardware Components and Communication
12:23 Discussion on Zephyr RTOS
14:22 Tap Detection and Sensor Optimization
16:54 Future Plans and Gen 2 Development
25:09 Architecture and Communication
26:48 Gen 1 and Gen 2 Plans
29:20 Battery Life Optimization
32:12 Business Goals for the New Year
33:30 Partnerships with Watch Brands
34:00 Conclusion and Thank You

Keywords: wearable tech, smartwatch, activity tracker, traditional watch, firmware, Zephyr, Nordic, hardware, battery life
...more
35min
April 04, 2024 Safer Beach Days with the Sun-A-Wear UV Tracker
Sam joins us on Fika Bytes this week to talk about developing the sun-a-wear UV tracker going from prototyping to production. My favorite part was what he decided to do when they were having difficulty getting a battery into the design... Listen to the episode to find out what he did.

My 3 Takeaways:
-Good engineering follows the rules. Great engineering knows the rules well enough to bend them.
-Think about specifically how your customer will use this device when making design decisions.
-Use off-the-shelf parts to validate your idea before going to custom designs.

Chapters (thanks AI)
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:54 The SunAware UV Tracker
01:46 The Importance of UV Radiation
02:08 Motivation for Building the SunAware UV Tracker
05:39 Prototyping the SunAware UV Tracker
09:01 Trade-offs in Prototyping
09:31 The Value of Rapid PCB Prototyping
10:23 The Challenge of Battery Charging
11:08 Innovative Solar Power Solution
12:14 Exploring Specialized Components
13:03 Making Design Decisions
14:18 The Importance of Thinking Outside the Box
14:46 The Engineer's Journey
15:58 The Challenge of Firmware Updates
17:33 Future Plans for Over-the-Air Updates
18:21 Exploring Solid-State Batteries
19:22 Advantages of Solid-State Batteries
21:03 Building a Support System in the Hardware Ecosystem
23:54 Embracing the Strengths of a Small Company
24:31 Considerations for Design and Manufacturing
26:50 The Importance of Part Availability
27:49 Hidden Synergies in Component Selection
30:37 The Fun of Engineering and Deep Diving into Design
30:59 Where to Follow SunAware

...more
32min
March 29, 2024A Weightlifting Coach In Your Pocket: Calibrex
Nick from Calibrex talks about combining his passion for fitness and hardware into this pocket-sized coach.

3 Things To Takeaway
A crowdsourced feature board to gather ideas from users and prioritize development

Offload heavy computation to the phone app so the device can be lean, mean, and efficient

Take care of your first customers. Handwritten notes, special features, and access to exclusive perks. They'll do the marketing for you.
Get your own at ⁠⁠calibrex.com⁠
Chapters (thanks AI)
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:01 Creating a Fitness Tracker for Weightlifters
08:16 The Importance of Personalization and Customer Engagement
11:46 Challenges in Building the First Version
13:32 Power Management and Hardware Design
21:13 Improvements in Calibrex 2 and User Feedback
24:21 Crowdsourced Feature Board and User Engagement
29:32 Raising Capital and Scaling the Business
31:42 Advice for Entrepreneurs in Hardware
...more
35min
March 27, 2024 Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories (Trailer)
...more
1min

FAQs about Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories:

How many episodes does Fika Bytes: Hardware Founder Stories have?

The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.