The Amp Hour · 8 Apr 2019 · 1h 08m · Episode 437
Chrissy Meyer, partner at Root Ventures, discusses her career at Apple and Square, detailing the massive scale of manufacturing for products like the iPhone and Apple Watch, and the critical importance of Design for Manufacturing (DFM). She explains how her experience debugging production lines and managing supply chains informs her current role investing in and advising early-stage hardware startups, emphasizing the need for technical founders to understand production realities. Meyer also highlights Root Ventures' focus on deep technical due diligence and their investment in companies like Instrumental that bring machine learning to factory floors.
Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.
Quality & testInstrumental
Instrumental deploys stations on manufacturing lines to capture images of every product and automatically flag anomalies like missing screws or excess glue, replacing manual visual inspection.
“instrumental instrumental is, is an amazing, amazing company, um, that is taking machine learning and bringing it to the manufacturing line. So when people, when people think of manufacturing, they think of like automated lines.”
Chrissy Meyer · Hear it at 58:11
large enterprises and early-stage companies
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Tony Fadell, creator of the iPod and founder of Nest Labs, discusses the critical balance between vision and detail in product development, emphasizing that AI is a technology, not a product, and requires rigorous productization for critical applications. He reflects on the manufacturing challenges of scaling the iPod and iPhone, noting the transition from loose early designs to highly integrated, high-volume production. Fadell also explains how Nest solved a neglected pain point by integrating early AI into a constrained hardware environment, avoiding the 'AI' label to ease consumer adoption. The episode concludes with a review of recent supply chain news, including tariff impacts on screws and shipping, and a deep dive into the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery recall, highlighting specific design flaws from multiple suppliers.
Devon Copeland, Co-founder and CTO of Serial, discusses his journey from student solar car competitions to engineering roles at Apple and Tesla, and his current work building a traceability-first Manufacturing Execution System (MES). He explains how Serial’s Grid Builder and Graph Builder tools help manufacturers aggregate sub-assembly data to perform commonality analysis and root cause failure analysis. Copeland emphasizes that engineering decision-making is an art and science, advocating for side projects and visual storytelling to accelerate engineering speed and career growth.
Tyler Mincey, Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst, discusses his journey from mechanical engineering at Apple to leading a creative technologist collective. He details the complex manufacturing of the original iPhone's touchscreen, including custom silicon, ITO patterning, and rigid lamination, emphasizing the deep partnerships required. Mincey also shares findings from Baukunst's research on AI in manufacturing, outlining stages of adoption from context provision to autonomous tools, while arguing for a human-centric approach to technological integration.
Brogan Miller, founder of Doula Studios, describes his role as a 'doula for hardware startups,' helping early-stage companies navigate new product development and manufacturing. He shares insights from his career at companies like Sensel, AliveCor, and GaeaStar, including designing a 200-pound electromechanical charcoal barbecue and managing supply chains in Asia. Miller discusses the cultural nuances of sourcing in Vietnam versus China, the importance of networking for career growth, and the challenges of balancing perfection with shipping viable products.
Karen Kerr, Managing Director at Exposition Ventures and former Executive Managing Director at GE Ventures, discusses the state of venture capital in manufacturing and the early stages of Industry 4.0 adoption. She highlights specific investments in agile manufacturing and supply chain technologies, including companies like Azul 3D, Zometry, and GuardHat, while explaining why cross-industry value chain challenges are key investment criteria. Kerr also reflects on her career transition from physical chemistry to VC, the importance of executive sponsorship in corporate venture groups, and her personal interests in baseball and single malt scotch.
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