✍️ Show Notes Joining us this week is Ethan Pollak, co-founder of Pulse Device, a small nifty device that incorporates the idea of muscle tapping to help you get the most of your weightlifing workouts. Ethan quit his job in finance to go full-time on his idea, partnering with a design studio and building his network along the way. As a non-technical founder, he shares a lot of valuable insights into how he brought this hardware to life by being consistent, helpful, and always willing to learn. 🔗 Check out Pulse Device: pulsedevice.com 🔗 Give their IG a follow: @pulsedevice 🔑 Bytes: Have a solid plan ahead of time, and don't expect overnight success. Take a value-add approach to networking: Reach out to interesting people and always add value. If you're a perfectionist and it's getting in the way of shipping your product, think of 5 everyday products that you (and millions around the world) use. You can probably think of a few things that need improvement right? So ship your product and then build upon it. Keywords: hardware, tech, entrepreneur, startup, founder, fitness, fittech, product development

✍️ Show Notes: Loewen Cavill joins us this week to share her story as the founder and CEO of Amira, a health tech company helping women unlock their full potential. We touch on all things product development including prototyping, meeting manufacturers, and raising venture capital. It's an exciting time for Amira as they begin to ramp up manufacturing and start seeing their product improve lives around the world. 🔗 Check them out here: www.amira.care 🔑 Bytes: If you're a curious person, be disciplined about where your curiosity goes, and trust your team. Prioritize face to face conversations when building relationships, like initially reaching out to manufacturers. Don't get caught up in R&D before you prove your core business proposition, focus on building a sustainable business with revenue prioritized. 🔍 Keywords: product development, hardware, wearable, prototyping, manufacturing, founder story, women's health, hotflash

✍️ Show Notes Cade Spector was just a sophmore in college when his brother tragically took his own life due to substance abuse. With no formal engineering or business background, Cade knew he had to find a way to honor his brother's legacy, and he has done exactly that. He is now a college graduate working full-time on GreySun Technologies, and is gearing up to run a Kickstarter campaign and help improve people's relationship with alcohol. 🔑 Bytes: When two things that don't usually go together, go together, there's an opportunity. Example: safety and fun. Reach out to family and friends as a strong support system for initial feedback and testing. Keep high standards for quality but at the same time don't get paralyzed seeking perfection. 🔗 Reserve yours at ⁠get.greysuntechnologies.com⁠ 🔗 Check out ⁠Greysun Technologies⁠ 🔍 Keywords: product development, business, hardware, technology, startup, tech, hardtech, engineering

Jon Fawcett created Sugar Pixel: He saw a problem at home, solved it for his family, and then discovered it would help millions of people around the globe. ✍️ Show Notes: Jon Fawcett went from running an engineering design company to accidentally creating an iPhone accessories company that shipped globally. He then channeled all those learnings into Sugar Pixel, his newest creation that provides reliable, phone-free, blood glucose monitoring and alerts, aiming to help improve the lives of millions of people around the world. 🔑 Bytes: Solve your own problem, so you will know the product best instead of spending money on focus groups or upfront customer research. To create awareness and demand, go where your users are. In Jon's case, Facebook support groups knew the pain point well and gave Sugar Pixel virality with just two posts! Whatever past experience and knowledge you have, use it to your advantage! It will give you an edge in one way or another. For everything else, use the Internet. 🔎 Keywords: product development, engineering, SugarPixel, continuous glucose monitors, alarm system, audible alerts, visual alerts, vibration alerts, randomized audio tones, vibration patterns, habituation, hardware, iPhone accessories, manufacturing, distribution, solving real needs, future roadmap

✍️ Show Notes: While working from home during COVID, Greg Klein wanted to sit on the floor. But he couldn't find a desk that actually allowed for that. So, he scratched his own itch and brought to life the world's first electric floor-sitting to standing desk. Listen to Greg's entrepreneurship journey as well as his advice for those looking to build and sell their own hardware products. 🔑 Bytes: Get validation as early as you can by talking to everyone around you. Don't hide your product idea behind polished design and marketing - get true validation! It's lonely being a founder, and even more so in consumer hardware, so if you don't have a co-founder, find mentors and other founders in a similar space - most are happy to give advice! Unforseen costs are always going to come up, especially in hardware dev, so give yourself some buffer. 🔎 Keywords: Uppeal Design, mobility, workspace, standing desk, differentiation, validation, manufacturing, shipping, customer needs, wellness, hardware, consumer

✍️ Show Notes: Dan Casciato and his team at Lightbrite are building mostly in stealth, but Dan has some strong perspectives on the interplay between engineering and the Earth - our environment, our home, and our place in it. This is a thought-provoking episode about sustainable product development. 🔑 Bytes: There's no work life and personal life. There is only one life. Make sure the problem you're solving is truly worth solving. Is it worth the externalities? Think about Right Action, not Reaction. 🔎 Keywords: mental health, emotional well-being, mindfulness, sound and vibration, technology, engineering, communication, sustainability, manufacturing, holistic approach

Greg from Helight joins this week and talks about his background as an audio engineer, and how that translates over to light engineering, as well as some of the challenges and lessons learned while building and shipping Helight (over 70,000 units sold in the past few years!). The science behind this is fascinating, and what really caught my attention was their attention to customer detail. Greg flat out says “if we can’t help you, we don’t want your money” which is the only way to approach consumer health tech! 🔗 Check out Helight at helight.com 🔑 Bytes: Focus on your core expertise for the problem you’re solving. Packaging, charging, etc are important but first find validation by focusing on your core offering. After initial launch, listen to your customers to figure out what’s next on the roadmap Be as precise as possible with your product requirements doc up front! Know what you want to have better conversations with vendors and suppliers. Keywords: #startups #hardware #prototyping #engineering #productdevelopment #podcast

Karl joins us with his amazing storytelling to share how he manifested fun and wonder into his latest invention, the Truest North Compass. 🔗 Check out truestnorthcompass.com 🔑 Bytes: Do childish things with an adult focus and energy :) Use storytelling to capture your audience and truly reach them. Find your core principle (e.g. not another app) and problem-solve around it (mobile browser)

Mitch joins the show this week to talk about his journey hopping between corporate and startups, and now starting his own venture — GreenPWR. His first product, the SunHopper-D, aims to utilize existing water tanks as thermal batteries. Their goal is to make products that work with renewable energy sources when available, and fall back to other sources if needed. 🔑 Bytes: Look for inspiration from your studies to find business opportunities. Try to put all critical functionality in hardware (programmable or otherwise). Know what you're getting into when it comes to certification. 🔗 Learn more at greenpwr.com Chapters (thanks AI) 00:00 Introduction and Overview of Green Power 08:48 Mitch's Journey in the Renewable Energy Space 16:23 Lessons Learned in Startups and Corporate 29:06 Targeting Installers and Educating Consumers

This week I'm chatting with Jonathan, who is reimagining fitness tracking specifically for sports in order to measure things like steps, jumps, and pivots. The origin story is a fun one - sometimes building hardware just happens serendipitously! Takeaways: Go after the underserved. For example: Fitness tracking for youth sports. Think about who the purchasing decision maker is for your product. In this case: parents & coaches. Build a community to empower users to compare their data with friends, creating a sense of competition and motivation. 🔗 Check out Laceclips at laceclips.com (Sorry for the audio - this is the last episode without a real mic! Thanks for being here so early on my journey ❤️) Chapters (thanks AI) 00:00 Introduction and Product Overview 01:34 Target Audience and Market Need 04:53 Sports-Specific Tracking 05:49 Differentiating Factors and Software Features 07:16 Competition and Motivation 08:46 Coaches and Team Usage 10:26 Personal Impact and Data Analysis 12:27 Manufacturing and Production 14:35 Customer Feedback and Iterative Process 23:55 Challenges and Advice for Hardware Startups 31:52 Expanding Beyond Sports and GPS Integration 33:01 Where to Find More Information and Support Keywords: hardware, engineering, product development, business, fitness, tracking, wearables, sensors