Hardware Podcasts

034: Staying Motivated & Overcoming Lack of Money, Time & Skills

Product Startup · 3 Jan 2017 · 34m

What this episode covers

Filip Valica, founder of Mako Design + Invent, discusses overcoming the limiting beliefs of lacking money, time, and skills when launching a product startup. He shares his personal journey from a corporate engineer to founding Mako Design + Invent, emphasizing the importance of deep core motivation and using failure as data to validate ideas. Valica outlines practical strategies for managing time, such as blocking calendars and saying no, and advocates for a DIY approach using tools like Canva, Inkscape, and Jungle Scout to minimize upfront costs. He argues that perfectionism is the enemy of progress and encourages founders to start small, iterate, and surround themselves with supportive communities to avoid burnout.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Mako Design + Invent, Amazon, Small Business Administration
Tools
Jungle Scout, Unicorn Smasher, WordPress, Canva, Inkscape, Gimp
Also
Indiegogo, Kickstarter, Shark Tank, SCORE

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • How I Built This · 42m

    Live From HIBT Summit: Payal Kadakia, Tristan Walker, and Perry Chen on Innovation

    In a panel discussion from the 2021 How I Built This Virtual Summit, Guy Raz speaks with Payal Kadakia of ClassPass, Tristan Walker of Walker and Company, and Perry Chen of Kickstarter about the nature of innovation. The founders argue that innovation does not require newness but rather authenticity, soul, and solving personal frustrations, such as Walker’s experience with razor bumps or Kadakia’s difficulty finding dance classes. They discuss their early struggles, including ClassPass’s initial product failure and Kickstarter’s long development cycle, emphasizing the importance of resilience, specific metrics like ClassPass’s reservation count, and the value of continuous improvement in hardware.

    Validation & product-market fitStarting a product company
    9 chapters

  • Making It · 52m

    Making It #006 : How do I quit my job, and do what you do?

    Jimmy Diresta, Bob Clagett, and David Picciudo discuss the practical and psychological steps required to quit a day job and become a full-time maker. They cover financial realities like managing debt and health insurance, the importance of building a portfolio through speculative projects, and the necessity of surrounding oneself with a supportive network. The hosts also emphasize the value of exceptional customer service and leveraging online communities to sustain a creative career.

    Starting a product companyPricing, margins & unit economics
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 1h 10m

    10 Years of How I Built This: A Decade of Innovation, Risk and Reinvention

    Guy Raz and Jamie Siminoff, founder of Ring, review highlights from ten years of 'How I Built This,' discussing the emotional and financial struggles of founders like Sam Kalagani of Dogfish Head, Eileen Fisher, and Sarah Blakely of Spanx. They explore the distinction between scary and dangerous decisions, the importance of scrappy experimentation in products like Justin's Nut Butters and Liquid Death, and the psychological toll of fundraising rejections faced by founders of Whole Foods and Airbnb. The conversation emphasizes that failure and doubt are integral parts of building physical products, often requiring founders to persist through cash flow crises and technical failures before achieving market success.

    Starting a product companyFundraising & investors
    16 chapters

  • Being an Engineer · 50m

    S2E37 Defied the odds: A Physical Product Development Firm That Focuses on Startups & Small Businesses, Mako Design + Invent –Kevin Mako

    Kevin Mako, Founder of Mako Design + Invent, explains how his firm supports hardware startups and small manufacturers by guiding products from initial concept to first production run. He details the financial journey for inventors, emphasizing the use of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to bridge the gap between prototyping and manufacturing, while advising on the importance of a 'Smart Minimum Viable Product' (SMVP) to manage complexity and cost. Mako also discusses his company's strict ethical policy of never taking equity in client products to avoid conflicts of interest, and highlights the role of his podcast, The Product Startup, in educating the hardware community.

    Crowdfunding & preordersValidation & product-market fit
    10 chapters

  • Open Hardware Manufacturing Podcast · 1h 21m

    Ep. 39 - Starting a Hardware Company

    Stephen Hawes and Lucian Chapa, founders of Opulo, discuss the realities of starting a hardware company, emphasizing the necessity of accepting failure and overcoming imposter syndrome. They share personal anecdotes about failed projects, such as a 3D scanner and wedding cake toppers, to illustrate that iteration is key. The hosts also detail their strategy for building traction through authentic social media content, specifically YouTube, and the importance of validating product-market fit by engaging directly with early users.

    Starting a product companyValidation & product-market fit
    9 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Product Startup. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.