The Hardware Entrepreneur

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]