Recently I participated in IoT Tech Expo Europe in Amsterdam on 27-28 June. It was a fascinating event to feel the pulse of the industry, how things stand and where the industry is heading to. In this episode I want to bring you some of the highlights, essential take home messages.

This event is one of the biggest ones of its kind in Europe with nearly 9000 attendees. It had a few sections, including AI, IoT, Blockchain. At least half of the exhibitors were related to blockchain. However, in this episode in order to have some focus, I’ll concentrate more on the former two fields.

Enjoy this episode!

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

Enjoy and take a look at the highlights below to get a glimpse of topics discussed.

• What is the IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam all about?
• When expectations and investments rise (too) high in AI/IoT
• Some healthy developments in AI – Aiir Innovations
• Need for investments in AI – Asgard
• Another application of AI/IoT – predictive maintenance
• Emerging startups at IoT Tech Expo and their use cases
• Interview with Aiir Innovations on their AI innovation and how the future of AI looks like

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]