No Followers Podcast: for Inventors, Builders, Entrepreneurs

This is an instant traction myth episode ** Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis found Wilsdorf & Davis in 1905 ** Fashion in 1905 was for pocket watches ** It was called the wristlet watch ** The entrepreneurial journey; wrong...wrong...wrong...right ** Hans knew wristwatches were the future ** They were the first to focus on precision movements in wristwatches ** W&D watches are white labeled...

In This Episode: T's voice and favorite music ** What the "one" means to us ** Your product can do one thing really well but not many things really well Doing one thing really well to start can be the differentiator ** Validation will make the biggest difference to your growth ** The importance of having a paid program or pilot ** Learn from the "one" to get to another ** I...

In this episode: What do people at idea stage need to know to get started? ** Focus on the immediate task ahead of you. ** I had a call with someone that wanted to start a vehicle company ** There are a lot of things you can do before you think about raising capital ** I you have an idea go through our 3-step model ** What issue are you solving? ** Validate that someone cares about it ** Not every...

In This Episode: Why focus on products/hard goods? ** We see most of the mistakes in the manufacturing space ** There has to be more focus on the user experience, safety, and the way it is built Manufacturing goods is a very different beast ** You have to figure out all these manufacturing challenges ** If your plan is just to have a website ... good luck ** You have to know how and where your cus...

In This Episode: What is the First Strike Incubator? * We help people with hard good products tackle branding, market fit and prototyping design ** You can say anything you want; you have to prove it ** Why are you two working together? ** You two think differently and look at the same problem from different angles ** Who should apply to the incubator ? ** At the incubator level, we are vetting pr...

In This Episode: A NO Prepisode ** What are deal breakers for you? ** I think you are using the term "partner" incorrectly. It is more of a collaboration ** We have to separate customer from partner as they are different levels of deal break ** Our joint customer was not appreciative off all the bending over backwards we did ** They should have seen beyond the dollar amount. We created m...

In this Episode: What is the UVP of you and your company? ** I'll speak specifically ** Our equipment is set up for prototyping. It is perfect for what we do ** Things to ask a manufacturer ** Most contract manufacturers build to a blueprint. They do not check if it actually works ** We approach your product like it is our product ** It's about your capacity and resources and where you are...

In This Episode: You should know your product market fit ** Do not go to market without knowing who the customer is ** Your definition of perfect might have nothing to do with what your customer wants ** Set clear design goals ** More features do not mean more market share ** Find the features your customer will pay you for ** Set your design goals. Get your product in the hands of your target mar...

In This Episode of the NO Follower Podcast: Specific not Pacific ** T's Mike Tyson impression (apologies to Mr. Tyson) ** Second Intro ** Process is the great unifier ** What can we impart to you that will get you to a decision faster ** Do a process map ** Step 1 is to do a journal ** An example of a process ** To set out a realistic calendar you need time stamps ** With a hard good it is eas...

This episode is about: INVENTORY The big thing with inventory is it depends on what stage of development you are at ** If you are stacking inventory, you should have sales scaled to your demand ** I'm an "on-demand" person ** Every step you go, you need more ** Don't order 2,000 if you only need 100 ** A lot of people think you have to have the product on hand to begin selling **...

In This Episode: The idea of "You just need the ONE" ** Business like everything else in life is not static. It's constantly shifting and moving ** That comes back to knowing your market ** You have to go as far as possible on as little as possible ** A lot of people said to me, "If you could just get your bike to Brad Pitt" ** Being on tv alone isn't going to make or b...

In this Episode: That's the mindset we want to work with ** Very successful companies are usually not the first mover ** A substitute is still a competitor ** Launching a new product you can run into group think or be overzealous ** In a big company group think is usually a hurdle to innovation ** Have the mindset of doing research to find your market fit ** The answer is never what you want,...

In This Episode: I have a rant, stop using the word "I" ** If you can't give me real metrics, you don't know ** It's the difference between theory and hypothesis ** Here's where I differ from you a little bit ** It always starts with "I" but has to quickly move on to who you are going to serve ** If I hear a certain amount of "I"s in an interview, I&#3...

In this episode: If your whole business plan is to raise money, get a new plan. I thought it was time to fundraise ** You have no market intelligence to share with an investor ** People don't usually invest in a business. They invest in people and look for a team ** How can I get market validation if I can't make my product? ** Your time is better spent building a team instead of fundraisi...

Welcome to another episode of what grinds my gears. I'm sick of people saying that entrepreneurs need grit ** Grit is more brawn than brains ** What you need is passion ** Grit is a short-term strategy ** It's not always Fun Dip and rainbows ** Passion alone does not make you successful ** It's about the vision that we need to get somewhere ** People are always trying to sell you somet...

In this episode: How do you get through to people who are combative towards coaching? ** If you knocked it out of the park on your first design iteration, you are the best there is ** If we don't tell you now, the market will tell you later ** Sometimes you don't go to market. ** Our main goal here is finding the right products to take to market ** It's about the right resources at the...

In this Episode: Can I tell you a brief story? ** You Big Timed me! ** Sometimes you have to take the client because you need the money ** I try to treat everyone like they are family ** Respect is a two-way street ** So is business ** Running and owning a small business is personal ** I don't view business as a zero-sum game ** True Capitalism means you have to be honest in relationships ** W...

In this Episode: Signs that it is the right consultant for you ** Build your internal dev team first ** A startup going to a consultant first thing off the bat is taking a long road ** Every business owner needs to do research ** A consultant can reveal team inefficiencies ** You should be the expert about your own business ** Most entrepreneurs don't build teams right the first time ** Having...

Most times consultants are not the answer ** I do think there are some people who consultants are not right for ** I think you are both right and wrong ** I got into consulting because I disliked the consultants we were working with ** I knew there was a better way to do this ** If you can't put it into practice, it's worthless ** There's a couple of considerations that come into play...

In This Episode: My dog Tig has social anxiety ** Raising Capital vs. Revenue ** Raising Money is a tool to get to Revenue ** We love traction ** People have fallen in love with the raise ** First check, first client is our goal ** I thought at first, I should be raising capital ** Deconstruct the idea in practical ways ** The right resources at the right time ** Some valuations are insane ** Comm...

In this Episode: I wanted the candy! ** Our incubator brought in a number of prototype companies ** Switch Blade Systems ** What he was missing was the product market fit ** We found the faster to market fit ** Economies of scale ** The high potential to license his product ** He pushed against what we were saying ** Get to manufacturing faster ** We go back to the data and metrics ** The product...

In This Episode Morsels of Manufacturing ** SLiiDES came to us as an MVP ** Proof of Concept vs. Prototype ** Get feedback on how people will actually use the product ** As the inventor you think it is clear to you ** What's the product market fit ** Folds add rigidity and strength ** Understanding cost of up-front manufacturing vs. down the road ** Your prototype is not a fair assessment of w...

Guest: Mike Argosh of HYDROPORE Have you been shocked by anything? ** The USA's biggest asset and export is education ** It's hard. A lot of companies won't make it. ** Knowing your competitors ** Take an honest view of the landscape and know where you fit. ** The trap of early-stage development with lithium-ion battery example. ** Focusing on perfection can miss market dominance. ** T...

In this Episode: Mike Argosh, CEO and Co-Founder of HYDROPORE ** I spent most of my career so far in the renewable energy industry ** We are focused on zero emission fuels ** Academia to the real world ** Making it not just efficient but economically viable ** Know and plan your design goals ** The first mover, the alpha product ** I see a gap in the market ** We really shifted how we are going to...

In This Episode: The power of testing ideas ** We have to break it to make it successful ** Viagra ** Most people aren't one trick ponies ** Hyper focus on one target market to get started ** We live it with our products ** Focus on doing one thing extremely well ** Dyson vacuums ** People will say you are an instant success ** They don't share their failures ** Ten steps to instant succes...