Hardware Podcasts

Ep 3 -The Hardware Story of Miko Robotics w/ Sneh | Building Conversational learning Robots for Kids

The Hardware Story · 15 Jan 2025 · 1h 27m

What this episode covers

Sneh Vaswani, Co-Founder and CEO of Miko Robotics, details the journey of building a conversational learning robot for children, from prototyping in Mumbai to scaling global retail distribution. He explains how the team used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and 23 product pilots with 50,000 kids to validate the product before launching, and discusses the strategic importance of IP defensibility and raising venture capital from operator-investors. Vaswani also shares insights on navigating manufacturing partnerships, overcoming supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, and achieving profitability with over half a million devices shipped.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Miko Robotics, Hamleys, Flipkart, Siemens, Altair, IIT Bombay, Chroma, Amazon
Products
Miko 1, Miko 3, Alexa, Google Home
Chips
Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone
Tools
PCT

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Predictable Designs Podcast · 53m

    From Corporate World to Freelancing to Running a Hardware Startup with Roberto Weiser of Developpa

    Roberto Weiser, founder of Developpa and Air Develop, explains his transition from corporate engineering roles at Lear and Cambridge Audio to freelancing and launching a low-cost air purifier in Thailand. He details the decision to use off-the-shelf components to minimize costs and the challenge of manufacturing in Thailand with Western management to balance cost and communication. Weiser describes a critical supply chain failure during the coronavirus pandemic, where delayed molds forced an improvised CNC-machined enclosure solution to fulfill pre-orders. Finally, he outlines his strategy to pivot from direct retail sales to wholesale distribution in Thailand and internationally to achieve business stability.

    Starting a product companyDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    6 chapters

  • The Builder Circle · 1h 14m

    S1 E4: Cracking the Code of Hardware Manufacturing with Scott Miller

    Scott Miller, a hardware expert who worked on the early Roomba program and Dragon Innovation, explains how startups should navigate manufacturing decisions, emphasizing that the first 100 units should be built in-house to capture domain knowledge before outsourcing. He advises startups to target tier-two or tier-three contract manufacturers, use dual-sourcing for leverage at $50 million in business, and treat factories as partners by sharing founder bios and VC backing to mitigate their risk. Miller also details the importance of robust Manufacturing Service Agreements (MSAs), lifecycle testing, and quality assurance to avoid catastrophic field failures like the Roomba's early optical encoder dust issue.

    Manufacturing partners & offshoringQuality & yield
    8 chapters

  • How I Built This · 52m

    KiwiCo: Sandra Oh Lin

    Sandra Oh Lin, founder of KiwiCo, explains how she transitioned from a high-level career at eBay and PayPal to launching a subscription box company for kids' science and craft projects. She details the early challenges of prototyping in her garage, securing seed funding despite being a 'mompreneur' in Silicon Valley, and the critical pivot to expanding product lines (Tinker Crate, Doodle Crate, Quala Crate) to achieve profitability. Oh Lin highlights the operational evolution from domestic sourcing and internal kitting to overseas manufacturing, resulting in over 50 million crates shipped and a self-sustaining business model.

    Starting a product companyValidation & product-market fit
    10 chapters

  • The Builder Circle · 55m

    S3 E7: Building Bootstrapped Hardware That Sells with Christian Reed

    Christian Reed, CEO of Reekon Tools, explains how he bootstrapped the company from a side project to an 8-figure business without VC funding, validating the idea with a $1.2M Kickstarter campaign. He details the manufacturing lessons learned at Formlabs, including how a supplier's factory fire forced a mid-cycle component swap, and describes building a 3M+ social media following through consistent, raw content creation. Reed emphasizes the importance of engineers thinking like entrepreneurs, focusing on product benefits and brand building rather than just invention.

    Crowdfunding & preordersManufacturing partners & offshoring
    9 chapters

  • The Robot Report Podcast · 1h 35m

    Fictiv’s Dave Evans on designing robots for manufacturability; inside Jibo’s revival

    Dave Evans, founder and CEO of Fictiv, discusses how robotics companies like Hebi Robotics and Gecko Robotics overcome supply chain bottlenecks and inventory risks by using Fictiv’s digital manufacturing platform for on-demand, high-tolerance parts. He explains Fictiv’s ‘radical transparency’ tool, which provides real-time visibility into the manufacturing process, and details the company’s origin story rooted in Ford’s slow product development cycles. The episode also features Marc Alba of NTT Disruption, who outlines the revival of the Jibo social robot, detailing its strategic pivot from a consumer product to an enterprise-focused platform for healthcare and education, leveraging Microsoft Azure and a ‘dual’ physical-virtual presence.

    Manufacturing partners & offshoringScaling production
    11 chapters

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