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The Hardware Entrepreneur

“Software eats the world”, as one famous investor once said it. However, our Earth runs on resources and is based on atoms rather than bits. Our true progress therefore depends mainly on our producing, selling innovative physical products, that is hardware. Hardware is...different. Challenges abound in designing, manufacturing, getting funding, hiring, innovating, delivering to the customers. Resources are scattered around and only a few exist. Where do you get real, practical knowledge? This podcast is the first one for hardware entrepreneurs, where hardware entrepreneurs are interviewed from around the world, exceptional persons who founded startups or small and medium-sized enterprises. This show is for you with a desire to found and run a company in a global environment. Learn first-hand from hardware entrepreneurs who have already gone through the ups and downs of the business. During each episode the INDIVIDUAL stories are uncovered, following up with an ULTRAFAST round of questions at the end. Bringing you these stories is entrepreneur and cosmopolitan, Balint Horvath, based in Switzerland, the land of green pastures and fresh ideas.
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Now displaying: June, 2017
Jun 21, 2017

I’m back on the show, just me, and I’ll talk about an announcement, that is I’m changing the publishing frequency from weekly to bi-weekly.

Why do I do this?

I enjoy podcasting very much, it’s my passion, as well as helping you guys, connecting you with others and to sources of information. I love my guests as well and of course all of you, who take the time to listen to the episodes.

Instead of creating a kind of blog post out of answering the why question, I encourage you to listen to the episode as it’s a pretty short one - fast-forward it if you want to listen to it even faster.

Highlights can be seen below. A big thanks again for listening to this show! I can’t wait to bring you more inspiring guests and contents.

Further info at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

  • The announcement - [0:49]
  • The reason - [2:32]
  • What resources do you use in your entrepreneurial life? - [3:00]
  • My message to you - [4:12]
  • Outlook on next week’s episode - [4:54]
Jun 14, 2017

My guest is from the US, from Texas, Chris Hsiao, co-founder and leader of Gossamer, a startup for startups that became known for developing the Teal drone, the fastest production drone on Earth.

As for Gossamer, it is a full stack product design and engineering firm that focuses mainly on hardware startups. You’ll learn in this episode how Chris started his venture, their being acquired recently, the story of the Teal drone and another project that is important to him because of the potential impact.

Enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

  • Why is Gossamer not a conventional startup? – [2:08]
  • What makes the company different from hardware accelerators? – [3:48]
  • Gossamer’s geographical focus - [6:26]
  • His previous ventures and how it all started - [8:14]
  • A remarkable project example - Teal Drones – [11:55]
  • Another project example and Gossamer’s part in its development - [14:55]
  • What changes took place after the company was acquired by Tekzenit? - [18:24]
  • Mistakes the team made while they were growing the business - [20:54]
  • The stress issue of startup founders - [22:56]
  • If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [24:42]
  • Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [25:37]
  • “Never take your shoes off” and when do the great ideas come? – [27:49]
  • Some cultural differences that Chris had to overcome throughout his career – [29:58]
Jun 7, 2017

Again, I’ve interviewed Joshua Spodek, a professor at NYU and an entrepreneur. He was a guest in episode 22 of this podcast because of his hardware entrepreneurship background and his leadership teaching that we can all learn from. He’s back since we have something important to talk about which concerns Earth’s physical resources which I alluded to in episode 1 and I didn’t want to wait long to start to publicly discuss this topic.

Briefly about Josh: he’s a best-selling author (“Leadership Step by Step” book), holds five Ivy-League degrees, he runs regularly marathons, writes intensely (daily blog posts, articles on Inc magazine).

In this episode we’ll talk about leadership again but this time on applying it on one specific topic, on sustainability. We hear constantly about facts on climate change, the consequences of our not taking actions, the green technologies’ slow adoption. “If information was the answer, we’d all be millionaire with perfect abs” says Derek Sivers. Maybe there’s another, potentially more effective way to decrease climate change, by talking less and acting more, a certain point Josh makes, which he thinks has been almost completely overlooked.

Enjoy this episode.

Just one more thing since it’s a call to action: let me know or Joshua if you want to do something on this topic, e.g. joining an accountability group, or contributing in any way to this initiative.  

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

  • The importance of climate change topic - [2:40]
  • Joshua’s view on sustainability and climate change – [3:57]
  • Do you turn on the aircon on a hot summer day or you bear some uncomfortableness? – [5:10]
  • The most common perception of behavioural change for reducing climate change - deprivation - [7:05]
  • His practical recommendations - [8:36]
  • Joshua’s journey to becoming environmentally conscious - [15:11]
  • We need to do different things if we want to see different actions - [19:10]
  • A simple technique I developed for changing my behaviour even before facing pain - [21:28]
  • How about a website for the listeners to sign up for personal challenges to start taking action? - [23:25]
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