Industrial Design, Manufacturing Barbells, and B2B Sales with Chris Michaud Hacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB

Building products from scratch is hard. Building a business is at least as difficult. A lot of young founders and entrepreneurs lose their minds trying to grapple with the interwoven complexities of these disciplines.
Chris Michaud has figured them both out.
Chris is a rising phenom in the world of industrial design and manufacturing. In 2015 he left a full-time gig and started First Summit Design, a product consulting group with a focus on industrial design for cool products. He's since become involved with a number of other design-focused companies that we discuss in some depth.
We had a great conversation about hardware design and manufacturing, serial entrepreneurship and work/life balance. 
I hope you enjoy this episode of Hacker Practice with Chris Michaud
Notes [01:30] Justus and Chris met when they came together to work on an IoT project for a somewhat obscure sport.
[04:30] What is industrial design?
[06:15] Why Chris focuses on the ideas behind design rather than influential design figures.
[07:30] How Chris designed his fiancee’s engagement ring.
Research first: materials then user Sketching [09:15] Is design easier for one person or for a group?
[11:00] How did Chris develop the skill of sketching products
Education helped [12:30] Chris’s first big product and how he went about designing it
[14:00] Good barbells vs GREAT barbells
[16:40] Why kettlebells might be an easier place to start designing for fitness equipment than a barbell
[17:45] Where is materials research important?
[18:45] Discussion on steel quality and impacting variables
Tensile strength Yield strength The weight at which steel will permanently Percent elongation [23:12] Why it’s important to think about manufacturing and assembly concerns during the design phase of a product
Design for Manufacturing Design for Assembly [27:30] Domestic vs international manufacturing
It depends on the thing you’re manufacturing Chris likes to design where he manufactures [31:10] Chris goes to a wedding in China
[33:00] Different regions in China do different kinds of manufacturing
[35:00] How does Chris vet new manufacturing relationships
Start with ten vendors Rate each vendor on various aspects (price, social responsibility, etc) [36:00] How Chris got a local Chinese government to shut down a chrome plating facility for unsafe labor practices
[38:45] Chris is a partner in four businesses
First Summit Design Pragmatc Blue Sky design Cove Manufacturing Interior Design for Retail Working on the NBA Store on 5th Ave in New York Hash Product Development Medical marijuana product development [46:00] How does Chris get big clients
Know your stuff Always be meeting people. “Word of mouth should be good enough, if you’re good enough.” [50:00] Chris describes his sales process
Get to know them, ask invasive questions Never tell them what you’re gonna do for them, tell them what you’re about [52:00] Chris tells a horror story from a pitch that went wrong
[57:30] The future of the cannabis industry in Massachusetts
Focus on auxilary market [1:00:00] Chris reveals a cannabis product idea
[1:01:00] What does serial entrepreneurship mean to Chris
Chris has a financial interest in 14 companies Diversity is fun and freeing Learn something new every day [1:02:00] How does Chris prioritize?
Stay organized Have a strong support team. What does that team look like? [1:03:50] What does Chris’s next hire look like?
A controller With culture fit Humility [1:07:30] What’s the biggest challenge Chris deals with on a daily basis
Working too long How the fiancee deals with Chris working late [1:09:00] Chris’s biggest lesson learned in the last two years building several companies
What he does in his free time [1:11:00] Last requests and contact information
chris@hashpd.com “Don’t be afraid to do exactly what you want”