This is an episode on a topic that, I believe, should get more attention in entrepreneurship circles. My guest is Stephen Key of inventRight.

Stephen is literally one of the teachers of Tim Ferriss. He went to Stephen’s lectures and sought his advice on how he can make his business at that time, BrainQUICKEN more efficient.

Do you really need to found a company? This is the question we address in this episode. Stephen is a lifelong entrepreneur, inventor and a renowned intellectual property strategist.

This episode is split into 2 parts, because this way the topic can get more attention. In part 1 you will learn how Stephen helped Tim Ferriss and what he got in return unexpectedly. Stephen also discusses what the most important thing is today when you want to bring out a product to market. You can find out some guidelines from him on when to start a startup and when to license. And when you want to sell something, shall you sell the product first or something else?

Enjoy this episode.

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

Show highlights can be seen below:

• What do the Yoda of renting out ideas and the German Tim Ferris have in common? - [2:11]
• The Ferris effect - [5:25]
• Why has Stephen’s book gained such a tremendous success? – [7:52]
• The differences between starting a company versus renting out your idea - [10:38]
• A piece of plastic worth a quarter of a million dollars - [13:27]
• Do you want to stay creative or do you want to wear many hats? - [17:04]
• The benefits of selling the benefit first - [18:48]
• What are some safe approaches when communicating your idea to the licensee? - [22:34]

My guest is Alan Clayton of SOSV, who’s the Roaming Mentor at the VC and who’s been with the company since the beginnings.

You might know as SOSV as it’s the world’s top hardware VC. They’re special also in another aspect as unlike other VCs, SOSV runs accelerator programs, such as HAX, HAX Growth, RebelBio, IndieBio, Food-X, Chinaaccelerator, MOX. They are understandably very tech-focused and Alan Clayton is the person who understands people. This means he makes sure you have the right team to deliver the right results as otherwise things can and if they can, then they will go wrong.

The question we addressed in this episode is: how can you maximize your success with your team? You can learn in this episode about successful team’s composition, the Herrmann Brain
Dominance Instrument (HBDI) for testing what areas the team covers, and also how this knowledge can help you pitch your idea better. So in essence we’ll go deeper than just talking about the left and right brain thinking.

Enjoy this episode!

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

Show highlights can be seen below:

• Do you use your brain’s full capacity? - [3:27]
• What SOSV stands for and Alan’s role in the company – [6:38]
• Who is Ned Herrmann and how his work is helping startups work more effectively? – [7:48]
• At which phase of the startup process you will most surely need Alan? - [9:17]
• How does a startup founders’ assessment unfold? - [12:42]
• Which type of intelligence are you - Captain Kirk, Doctor Spock, Scotty the engineer or Doctor Bones? - [15:04]
• How to avoid conflicts and benefit from the team diversity at the early stages of a startup? - [21:38]
• What are the major success factors for hardware startups? - [24:58]
• What set of skills does a hardware startup CEO need to develop? - [27:20]
• A Star Trek crash course on pitching - [30:30]
• If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [34:54]
• Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [35:39]
• Some cultural differences that Alan observed throughout his career – [36:46]
• Alan’s recipe for a good start of the day - [38:55]
• What is the best way to reach Alan? – [42:20]