Fika Bytes: Tales of Hard Tech Vigs

Jon Fawcett created Sugar Pixel: He saw a problem at home, solved it for his family, and then discovered it would help millions of people around the globe.



✍️ Show Notes:
Jon Fawcett went from running an engineering design company to accidentally creating an iPhone accessories company that shipped globally. He then channeled all those learnings into Sugar Pixel, his newest creation that provides reliable, phone-free, blood glucose monitoring and alerts, aiming to help improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

🔑 Bytes:


Solve your own problem, so you will know the product best instead of spending money on focus groups or upfront customer research.
To create awareness and demand, go where your users are. In Jon's case, Facebook support groups knew the pain point well and gave Sugar Pixel virality with just two posts!
Whatever past experience and knowledge you have, use it to your advantage! It will give you an edge in one way or another. For everything else, use the Internet.


🔎 Keywords: product development, engineering, SugarPixel, continuous glucose monitors, alarm system, audible alerts, visual alerts, vibration alerts, randomized audio tones, vibration patterns, habituation, hardware, iPhone accessories, manufacturing, distribution, solving real needs, future roadmap


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Featuring Greg Klein from Uppeal Design.

✍️ Show Notes:
While working from home during COVID, Greg Klein wanted to sit on the floor. But he couldn't find a desk that actually allowed for that. So, he scratched his own itch and brought to life the world's first electric floor-sitting to standing desk. Listen to Greg's entrepreneurship journey as well as his advice for those looking to build and sell their own hardware products.

🔑 Bytes:


Get validation as early as you can by talking to everyone around you. Don't hide your product idea behind polished design and marketing - get true validation!
It's lonely being a founder, and even more so in consumer hardware, so if you don't have a co-founder, find mentors and other founders in a similar space - most are happy to give advice!
Unforseen costs are always going to come up, especially in hardware dev, so give yourself some buffer.



🔎 Keywords: Uppeal Design, mobility, workspace, standing desk, differentiation, validation, manufacturing, shipping, customer needs, wellness, hardware, consumer


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✍️ Show Notes:
Dan Casciato and his team at Lightbrite are building mostly in stealth, but Dan has some strong perspectives on the interplay between engineering and the Earth - our environment, our home, and our place in it. This is a thought-provoking episode about sustainable product development.

🔑 Bytes:


There's no work life and personal life. There is only one life.
Make sure the problem you're solving is truly worth solving. Is it worth the externalities?
Think about Right Action, not Reaction.



🔎 Keywords: mental health, emotional well-being, mindfulness, sound and vibration, technology, engineering, communication, sustainability, manufacturing, holistic approach


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Greg from Helight joins this week and talks about his background as an audio engineer, and how that translates over to light engineering, as well as some of the challenges and lessons learned while building and shipping Helight (over 70,000 units sold in the past few years!). The science behind this is fascinating, and what really caught my attention was their attention to customer detail. Greg flat out says “if we can’t help you, we don’t want your money” which is the only way to approach consumer health tech!



🔗 Check out Helight at helight.com



🔑 Bytes:


Focus on your core expertise for the problem you’re solving. Packaging, charging, etc are important but first find validation by focusing on your core offering.
After initial launch, listen to your customers to figure out what’s next on the roadmap
Be as precise as possible with your product requirements doc up front! Know what you want to have better conversations with vendors and suppliers.



Keywords:

#startups #hardware #prototyping #engineering #productdevelopment #podcast


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Karl joins us with his amazing storytelling to share how he manifested fun and wonder into his latest invention, the Truest North Compass.



🔗 Check out truestnorthcompass.com



🔑 Bytes:


Do childish things with an adult focus and energy :)
Use storytelling to capture your audience and truly reach them.
Find your core principle (e.g. not another app) and problem-solve around it (mobile browser)


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Mitch joins the show this week to talk about his journey hopping between corporate and startups, and now starting his own venture — GreenPWR. His first product, the SunHopper-D, aims to utilize existing water tanks as thermal batteries. Their goal is to make products that work with renewable energy sources when available, and fall back to other sources if needed.



🔑 Bytes:


Look for inspiration from your studies to find business opportunities.
Try to put all critical functionality in hardware (programmable or otherwise).
Know what you're getting into when it comes to certification.



🔗 Learn more at greenpwr.com



Chapters (thanks AI)

00:00 Introduction and Overview of Green Power

08:48 Mitch's Journey in the Renewable Energy Space

16:23 Lessons Learned in Startups and Corporate

29:06 Targeting Installers and Educating Consumers


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