The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast

Ravi Kurani is the CEO and founder of Sutro, which is a water chemistry monitor company.

He grew up working for his dad who owned pool supply stores. He went to college for a mechanical engineering degree and after school worked for NASA. 

He left NASA to start his company Sutro. We discuss the entire series of steps he took to bring his company to life. From idea validation, to prototyping, to manufacturing and funding.

Number one tip:

Lessons learned: as a founder your number one focus is managing risk.

Across employees, investors, across customers.

2nd thing: your most important resource is people.

Contact info:

Email: [email protected]

Video Game Entrepreneur – Beau Button – Ep 126 

Beau Button President and CTO of Atlas Reality - Linkedin - Has a very interesting story and spends a majority of his time outside of work building through 3D printing. 

Beau has a background in computer hardware and software. Atlas Reality builds video games as a consultancy and builds their own games.  

We talked about the process of building location-based games. Beau says “It’s a nightmare building these games”. It’s refreshing to hear someone really tell you how it is. 

Then we talked about 3D printing for the 2nd half of our conversation. 

Number one tip: 

If you are an entrepreneur trying to start a software business, don’t try to teach yourself coding. Find a technical co-founder. 

Contact info:

Linkedin 

This week’s episode is Sponsored by Onshape. 

Onshape is the only cloud-native product development platform featuring professional-grade CAD and data management. With Onshape, you no longer need an expensive workstation - all of the heavy lifting is done in the cloud - things like rendering and creating large assemblies can be done on inexpensive devices. 

Onshape is a professional tool like Solidworks. It was actually created by the same founders as Solidworks.  

I have used Onshape and if feels just like Solidworks, with all the same commands. So, if you are a current Solidworks user, it’s a very easy transition.  

I highly recommend the engineers and product developers listening to consider using Onshape for their business. 

You can try it for free at Onshape.pro/EngineeringEntrepreneurPodcast or click the link in the description.

Liquid Instruments- Daniel Shaddock – Ep 125 

Daniel Shaddock is the CEO and Founder of Liquid Instruments (LI). LI makes high precision scientific equipment. 

They take the complexity of the physical world and push it into the digital world using software and high powered computers. 

Some of their devices are used by NASA on the space shuttle. They are measuring changes along the lines of a nanometer over the distance of a mile in space. 

Even though they have some very high-tech tools, they are also making simpler measurement tools used at the university level. One of their more popular tools is the Moku Go.  

Number one tip: Things will take longer than you expect but don’t lose hope. Set agressive goals, its better to set aggressive goals and miss by 20% than set easy goals you will hit.

Contact info: 

[email protected]

liquidinstruments 

This week’s episode is Sponsored by Onshape . 

Onshape is the only cloud-native product development platform featuring professional-grade CAD and data management. With Onshape, you no longer need an expensive workstation - all of the heavy lifting is done in the cloud - things like rendering and creating large assemblies can be done on inexpensive devices. 

Onshape is a professional tool like Solidworks. It was actually created by the same founders as Solidworks.  

I have used Onshape and if feels just like Solidworks, with all the same commands. So, if you are a current Solidworks user, it’s a very easy transition.  

I highly recommend the engineers and product developers listening to consider using Onshape for their businesses. 

You can try it for free at Onshape.pro/EngineeringEntrepreneurPodcast or click the link in the description. 

The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at [email protected].

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @caddesignhelp 

Launch Cart Ecommerce Platform – Greg Writer – Ep 124 

Follow me on Twitter/Instagram: @caddesignhelp

Wealth Advisement for Engineers – Bill Keen – Ep 123 

Bill Keen has a passion for helping others achieve their retirement dreams and founded Keen Wealth Advisors with this goal in mind. 

Bill specializes in advising those within the engineering community on issues related to ESOP plans, compensation, taxes and benefits planning.  

We talked about the differences in taxes and financial planning between employees and entrepreneurs. We talked about how much you should be saving for retirement and more.  

Check out Bill’s number one selling book: Keen on Retirement – Engineering the Second Half of Your Life, which is available on Amazon.com.  

Also check out Bill’s podcast, Keen on Retirement. 

Number one tip:  

Treat your own personal retirement plan as a project. 

Contact info: 

https://keenwealthadvisors.com/for-engineers 

[email protected]\ 

This week’s episode is Sponsored by Onshape. 

Onshape is the only cloud-native product development platform featuring professional-grade CAD and data management. With Onshape, you no longer need an expensive workstation - all of the heavy lifting is done in the cloud - things like rendering and creating large assemblies can be done on inexpensive devices. 

Onshape is a professional tool like Solidworks. It was actually created by the same founders as Solidworks.  

I have used Onshape and it feels just like Solidworks, with all the same commands. So, if you are a current Solidworks user, it’s a very easy transition.  

I highly recommend the engineers and product developers listening to consider using Onshape for their businesses. 

You can try it for free at Onshape.pro/EngineeringEntrepreneurPodcast or click the link in the description. 

The Engineering Entrepreneur podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at [email protected].

Follow me on Twitter/Instagram: @caddesignhelp

You can download here on Itunes:

Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast

Or directly on my site here:

CADdesignhelp.com

Ava Naeini is the Founder and Data Architect of Pulse Operations, which is an intelligent engine that uses machine learning and statistical processing with various heuristics to determine the healthiness and performance of distributed systems.

Many software engineers must constantly manually monitor their systems to see if there is a pattern developing that could lead to issues. Ava’s tool allows engineers to work on bigger issues while the system is monitored automatically.

We talk about all the challenges with starting a company after creating the product, including the challenges of getting a patent.

Number one tip: Creating a company was a challenge, for example setting up the platform, Corporation and LLC. Some tools she suggests:

Contact info:

Engineering Career Coach – Jeff Perry – Ep 121

Jeff is a leadership/career coach for engineers and tech professionals and the founder of More than Engineering.

He is also a host on the engineering career coach podcast.

He helps engineers by working with them on their mindset. 

Number one tip: to be intentional in what you are trying to become, whether an employee or entrepreneur.

Contact info:

https://www.engineeringcareeraccelerator.com/engineeringentrepreneur

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcperry/

ThingLogix Company – Rob Rastovich- Ep 120

Rob Rastovich is the CTO of ThingLogix, a company that provides a low-code platform built on AWS, Google, and Azure to accelerate innovation and system development by a factor of 50 or more. 

We talk about examples of how his company provides value. The refrigerator example of how the software monitors the temperature of a refrigerator explains it well.

Robs top tips: Business models that could not exist without technology.

Amazon could not have existed without the internet.

Take the blinders off. Imagine the things you can do in a subscription.

Contact info:

www.Thinglogix.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-rastovich-1560532/

Life Science Inventions and Patent Law– Kevin Buckley and Neil Thompson – Ep 119

Kevin Buckley is the founders of Torrey Pines Law Group and Neil Thompson is a patent agent with the firm.

The firm focuses on life science inventions that often have an AI component.

We discuss the differences between patent agents and patent attorneys. We also discuss the typical costs of getting a product patented.

We also discussed the steps involved in getting a patent. If you are a new inventor, this is one episode that you do not want to miss!

Number one tip: Get a provisional at least, even if it’s cheap and dirty.

Contact info:

Youngest Person to Fly a Rocket to Space – Jordan Noone – Ep 118

Jordan Noone is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Embedded Ventures. He has had a lifelong interest in aerospace, including designing and building spaceflight hardware at age 18 while at the University of Southern California. He is also the first student and youngest individual in the world to get Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly a rocket to space (150 km altitude) while leading USC’s Rocket Propulsion Lab.

He also created a brandnew CAD program called Kitty CAD. It is a totally different type of CAD that is programmable, not click based.

His main business, Embedded Ventures, is a next generation venture capital firm investing in dual-use space startups beyond launch.

Number one tip:

Find the top 3 areas of your life and do something where those areas intersect.

Contact info:

Twitter: @thejordannoone

Email: [email protected]

The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at [email protected]

Check out my new online course:

https://info9704710.wixsite.com/engineeringpreneur