# The Anatomy of a Hardware Product Recall

- Show: [Over the Air](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air)
- Published: 2022-03-17
- Length: 27m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall
- Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/over-the-air/episodes/The-Anatomy-of-a-Hardware-Product-Recall-e2l43qn

## Summary

Brandon Van Blerk, CEO of Tether, discusses the company's journey from a failed crypto venture to building the EnviroQ indoor environmental quality sensor. He details a critical product recall caused by a CO2 sensor draining the battery life of 750 units deployed in state housing, forcing him to manually flash firmware in hotel rooms. Van Blerk explains how treating early customers as partners and finding product-market fit through direct engagement helped Tether survive the crisis and pivot towards a comprehensive building performance platform.

## Chapters

- [0:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall#t=3) Introduction and Tether's Origin Story
- [2:41](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall#t=161) Finding Product-Market Fit and the Market Gap
- [12:51](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall#t=771) The Hardware Recall and Firmware Crisis
- [17:42](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall#t=1062) Lessons on Customer Partnership and Scaling
- [23:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall#t=1396) Future Roadmap and Industry Mentions

## Topics

- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Connected products & IoT](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/connected-products-and-iot)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Tether (company)
- EnviroQ (product)
- SigFox (other)
- Kangora (company)
- Utility (company)
- Whoop (product)
- Drone Deploy (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Bringing IoT Products to Market | Soracom's Ryan Carlson & Kenta Yasukawa | Internet of Things Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2023-02-28-bringing-iot-products-to-market-soracoms-ryan-carlson-kenta-yasukawa-internet-of) (IoT For All Podcast)
- [User Testing IoT Products | Centercode's Luke Freiler | Internet of Things Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2023-11-14-user-testing-iot-products-centercodes-luke-freiler-internet-of-things-podcast) (IoT For All Podcast)
- [All-in-One Hardware, Software, & Connectivity | Particle's Zach Supalla | Internet of Things Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2022-11-17-all-in-one-hardware-software-connectivity-particles-zach-supalla-internet-of-thi) (IoT For All Podcast)
- [The EEVblog Sparkgap Generator](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2017-11-20-the-eevblog-sparkgap-generator) (The Amp Hour)
- [How to Build a Successful IoT Solution | Intent's Peter Tuszynski and Przemysław Łagód | Internet of Things Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2023-04-20-how-to-build-a-successful-iot-solution-intents-peter-tuszynski-and-przemys-aw-ag) (IoT For All Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-03-17-the-anatomy-of-a-hardware-product-recall. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Over the Air.