Bob Christopher is the founder of Pleo, a massively successful robot dinosaur kids toy with hundreds of parts. This is one of his many products and product companies over a long and successful history in the product innovation world. He was also the director of innovation at Panasonic, and sits on a number of advisory boards at hardware accelerators. Today Bob is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand what it takes to design and develop complicated mechanical and/or electronic consumer products, with many development lessons he has learned along the way.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Bob Christopher / Pleo Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Andra Keay is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics which supports the innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies. She has headed up Venture Capital rounds, is a fellow lecturer, TedX speaker, and an XPrize judge. Her office is also just down the hall from our Mako Design California office at CircuitLaunch. Today Andra is going to share some valuable knowledge to help inventors, startups, and small manufacturers understand how robotics is becoming a mainstream part of new electronic mechanical products, the future of the consumer robotics industry, and tips for anyone thinking about a robotic product or even incorporating basic robotics into their new hardware product.

Today you will hear us talk about:

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Andra Keay / Silicon Valley Robotics Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Yohan Jacob is the Founder and President of RetailBound, an agency that helps emerging hardware brands get into major retail stores and sales channels.  RetailBound has been around for 14 years and has worked with over 4,000 product companies.  Yohan himself has spent 30 years in the industry, including being a major buyer for Sears and Office Max.  The last episode we talked about how to get into retail store chains, and today Yohan is going to give best practices on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can scale up their product sales once they land a retailer by building a buyer relationship, enhancing product exposure, reviewing your placements, and more.

Today you will hear us talk about:

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Yohan Jacob / RetailBound Links:

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Tim Uys has spent 25 years as a senior leader and lecturer in the industrial design and mechanical engineering world. He has worked for Nike Golf, Dell, Qualcomm, Ironman, and many other prominent companies as the Director of Design for ID-ONE, which was one of the top Austin design firms before it was acquired. For the past 6 years, Tim has been the head of design at MAKO Design + Invent out of our Austin, Texas office. Today, Tim is going to share his extensive knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can better understand the importance of design for manufacturing, 3 big tips on how to succeed in doing it, and where DFM fits into the overall product development process.

Today you will hear us talk about:

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Tim Uys Links:

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Marco Torres has been selling online for clients for 25 years and has sold over a billion dollars through direct-to-consumer internet marketing. He has 75,000 followers on his two Facebook Groups dedicated to online selling and affiliate marketing, and is the owner of Marketing Boost, a company which helps thousands of clients with free upsell coupons to their customers. Today Marco is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can use a single landing page sales funnel to launch a new invention product or to improve an existing product’s online sales, and some tips and tricks to best optimize conversions.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Marco Torres / Marketing Boost Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Kapil Kane is the Director of Innovation at Intel and founded Intel’s internal hardware invention incubator. Prior to that he was a Product Design Lead and Manager at Apple. He is also a fellow keynote speaker, and he has done two TedX talks. Today Kapil is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can learn from how the biggest hardware companies in the world prioritize and qualify new invention ideas. He is even going to walk through the step-by-step pillars that all Intel incubator innovations go through to prepare their idea for market success.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Kapil Kane Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Alex Dantas is CEO of CircuitLaunch, one of California’s top hardware accelerator facilities.  CircuitLaunch is an almost 40,000 square foot hardware innovation space and makerspace for inventors, hardware startups, and hardware companies.  Mako Design is also a long-standing partner in the space.  Today Alex is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can utilize facilities like Circuitlaunch to develop their invention product ideas, then scale them to the big leagues.  He is also going to give his advice on what really works to ensure startup success given the hundreds of startups he has watched come through their doors.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Alex Dantas / CircuitLaunch Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

EA Csolkovits has founded multiple product businesses, which in total, brought 75 new products to the market in the health and wellness space. He has been in the business of building hardware teams for 40 years, is the founder of GIVERS University, is a radio host, is an author, and is even a fellow plane private pilot. Today EA is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, product startups, and small manufacturers on the importance of building great product business teams early on, and how specifically to choose great product team members for building and scaling your hardware business.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

EA Csolkovits / GIVERS University Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Rich Goldstein is the Founder of Goldstein Patent Law. He has landed over 2,000 patents for his clients over the last 25 years. He is also the author of the book the ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent. Today, Rich is going to share his wealth of knowledge with inventors, hardware startups, and small product manufacturers regarding the types of patents you can obtain for an invention, tips and tricks that optimize the process, and how to continue to protect your intellectual property as your hardware product evolves over the years.

Today you will hear us talk about:

EPISODE LINKS

Rich Goldstein / Goldstein Patent Law Links:

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

Kevin Mako Links:

Bryon Bhagwandin is a 20-year medical device entrepreneur with over a half dozen products in the market. He has won a number of awards, including the Top100 in R&D Magazine. He also has a PhD from the University of Washington in Medical Devices and Hardware. Today Bryon is going to share some valuable knowledge for hardware startups, inventors, and small manufacturers on the difference between a medical device and a wellness device, and if going the medical device route, what are the steps and best practices to get certified.

Today you will hear us talk about:

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Bryon Bhagwandin Link:

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Kevin Mako Links: