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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: August, 2018
Aug 29, 2018

This is a rerun episode after one month of no publishing. As mentioned in the last episode, I changed the publishing frequency to monthly. Why am I doing now a re-release of a past episode? Perhaps you’ve seen the recent report by HAX, the hardware accelerator based in Shenzhen, China and in San Francisco: their first hardware report in 2018. In the report they mentioned the importance of a great team when building a company and immediately this past episode with Alan Clayton came up in my mind, who’s the person assessing hardware startup teams’ healths. Since this is a very important topic, I wanted to bring it in focus again by re-releasing this episode.

Alan has been working for SOSV, the Venture Capital company, since its beginnings in 2010. 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]
Aug 1, 2018

My guest is Guy Zbarsky, co-founder of Keepgo, a firm that has been in business for about a decade.

Guy’s company is called Keepgo and this company name already suggests that they want you to keep going, everywhere you want to go to. Some of you know that well, I cannot live very long without traveling so their topic connected with me. I met their company via one of my trips at IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam at the end of June this year. Their business operates in a fast-moving field, in telecom. This also means that Guy will share some interesting tips and stories, how they’ve been riding the telecom wave.

Some of the topics we cover are: where telecom business is heading to, especially the data connectivity aspect. Guy mentions some timelines he expects for the virtual SIM technology’s adoption. He also brings up when and how each of us will be able to start making money based on the emergence of virtual SIM. He also talks about the beginnings of his company and their pivoting a few times. Guy drops some tips too on project management-related tools he uses and is considering using soon.

I have an additional announcement in this episode regarding the publishing frequency. This is happening as I’ll be focusing on some other projects, too in the future. Are you angry or happy about it? Let me know by sending an email or via social media.

Enjoy this episode.

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

Show highlights can be seen below:

  • Why Keepgo is an exciting company (for me)
  • Problem they’re targeting – offering an alternative to the rip-off scheme by others
  • Beginnings of Keepgo and its multiple pivots
  • Virtual SIM technology to replace plastic SIM cards?
  • Different virtual SIM technology standards
  • What virtual SIM technology has to do with Airbnb
  • Timeline Guy expects for virtual SIM’s adoption by the public and the bright future for all of us to make extra money
  • Keepgo’s past and current uniqueness on the market
  • Business tools Guy uses to manage his company
  • The wisdom Guy would take back to his 20-year-old self
  • His favorite book he uses for his business
  • Guy’s daily habits and how they help him (re-)focus
  • Cultural differences he highlights and how he thinks we can overcome those
  • Guy’s last bit of advice, take home message – why you should start a business
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