# Competing with Tech Giants: Approaches and Challenges with Morgan Teachworth of Cisco

- Show: [Over the Air](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air)
- Published: 2023-03-02
- Length: 42m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c
- Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/over-the-air/episodes/Competing-with-Tech-Giants-Approaches-and-Challenges-with-Morgan-Teachworth-of-Cisco-e2l43rv

## Summary

Morgan Teachworth, VP of Engineering at Cisco Meraki, recounts the company's journey from a 5-year-old startup focused on mesh networking to its 2012 acquisition by Cisco. He details how Meraki identified an underserved market of small businesses and low-income housing, leveraging cloud management to compete with enterprise incumbents like Cisco itself. Teachworth also discusses the strategic pivot away from the failed Meraki phone product to the highly successful Meraki security camera line, emphasizing the importance of product-market fit and managing customer expectations for hardware sold with recurring software licenses.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c#t=0) Introduction and Meraki's Origin Story
- [7:17](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c#t=437) Finding a Toehold in the Market
- [14:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c#t=873) The Meraki Phone Failure and Lessons Learned
- [23:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c#t=1429) Hardware Innovation and Manufacturing Risks
- [30:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c#t=1816) Hardware Development in 2023 vs. 2005
- [40:13](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c#t=2413) Future Outlook and Industry Shout-outs

## Topics

- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Connected products & IoT](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/connected-products-and-iot)
- [Growth, exits & acquisitions](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/growth-exits-and-acquisitions)
- [Pricing, margins & unit economics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pricing-and-unit-economics)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Cisco (company)
- Meraki (company)
- Amazon AWS (company)
- Microsoft Azure (company)
- Google Wi-Fi (product)
- Samsara (company)
- Polycom (company)
- Arduino (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [147: Transition from Hardware Product Startup to Hardware Scaleup](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2022-10-26-147-transition-from-hardware-product-startup-to-hardware-scaleup) (Product Startup)
- [063: Hardware Startup Tips from a 22 Year Apple Exec](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2021-02-17-063-hardware-startup-tips-from-a-22-year-apple-exec) (Product Startup)
- [Sonos: John MacFarlane](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-02-19-sonos-john-macfarlane) (How I Built This)
- [#049 - RERUN - Elements of building a successful tech business, with (proven) serial entrepreneur Milton Chang of Incubic Venture Fund, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2018-02-28-049-rerun-elements-of-building-a-successful-tech-business-with-proven-serial-ent) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-05-02-strava-mark-gainey-and-michael-horvath) (How I Built This)

## 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/2023-03-02-competing-with-tech-giants-approaches-and-challenges-with-morgan-teachworth-of-c. 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.