YC Partner Adora Cheung talks to Pebble founder and YC Partner Eric Migicovsky about hard tech. Learn more at https://startupschool.org Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:37 How did you end up with the name Pebble? 00:01:52 Quick story of when you came to YC? How big were you? What did you do in YC? 00:03:29 So $15,000 thousand dollars let you manufacture, was it the first 100 units? 00:05:38 How many units had you sold before you actually went through the entire manufacturing process? 700 to 800 units 00:05:58 What happens if I have to move my business to Mountain View? Its gonna interrupt my production process 00:06:44 Hardest part in the whole journey with Pebble? 00:08:28 But now that you've done it do you think it's possible now? 00:10:50 It's often people get really creative with no money but forget once raised money 00:12:14 Advise on right time to do crowdfunding campaign, is a real product required and should it align with the campaign? 00:16:00 In the first route, delivery of product within six months is unknown. Should I use crowdfunding platform only if I know I can deliver? 00:16:53 Sometimes there's a group (Facebook, Subreddits) before the early adopters on Kickstarter 00:17:27 What's the right call in terms of outsourcing the various components? 00:19:46 Belief in “hardware without software (subscription instead of one off)” and thoughts on people who say that? 00:23:11 How do you define hard tech, deep tech? What does that really involve? 00:24:35 Crazy rocket idea but have no money, where do I even start? What do I do? 00:24:53 What will be an MVP in this case? 00:26:51 What do you encourage startups accomplish by demo day? 00:27:45 Sales and talking to users gives more confidence that your on the right track 00:29:58 Advice to scientist in Ph.Ds. at school who want to make the jump and commercialize their product. What should they consider? 00:32:15 Users interested in your product but need lot of money. What do you need to show to investors? 00:33:59 What's an idea that sounded so crazy when you heard but when you met the founder you were like this is totally possible? 00:37:17 Q1 - How do you get your first customers? How do you get 1-50? 00:39:40 Q2 - Bunch of software engineers, we have an idea that includes software and hardware, how do we get started on the hardware? 00:42:55 Q3 - Pre product market fit, do you recommend move closer to suppliers? 00:44:12 Q4 - Do we have to protect (IP/Trademark) our products or how can we protect? 00:47:02 Q5 - Building Hard-Tech and solving a long term problem but first problem looks too small? Marginal markets are great 00:48:58 Q6 - Should I pick a recurring business model or just sell the product? 00:50:48 Q7 - How do you do hiring, especially when you're scaling? 00:54:23 Q8 - For some project problems, they can be solved exclusively by software, how do you know when to involve hardware in it? 00:56:05 Q9 - How do we demo really complex product or how do we convey it to people? 00:57:21 Q10 - Why hardware companies need financing?
Eric Migicovsky at Startup School Silicon Valley 2014 View the annotated transcript, and add annotations of your own, on Genius: http://tech.genius.com/Eric-migicovsky-eric-migicovsky-at-startup-school-sv-2014-annotated
YC Partner Eric Migicovsky outlines a framework for asking questions and collecting feedback from your users. This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and join the community at https://www.startupschool.org/ Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:27 Best founders maintain a direct connection to users 00:02:03 Write code and talk to users 00:02:43 The Mom Test book - Three common errors when conducting user interviews 00:03:22 1. Talk about their life, not your idea 00:03:58 2. Talk specifics, not hypotheticals 00:05:16 3. Listen, don’t talk 00:05:56 Five great questions that everyone can ask during their early customer interviews 00:06:05 1. What is the hardest part about [doing this thing]? 00:08:16 2. When is the last time you encountered this problem? 00:09:15 3. Why was this hard? 00:11:14 4. What, if anything, have you done to solve this problem? 00:13:06 5. What don’t you love about the solution you already tried? 00:14:16 Three critical phases to a early-stage company – Talking to users is extremely beneficial 00:14:58 1.1. Idea stage - Find first users with problem 00:18:08 1.2. Idea stage – Tips 00:19:30 2.1. Prototype stage - Identify your best first customer 00:20:01 2.2. Prototype stage – Framework to identify your best first customer 00:25:21 3.1. Launched stage – Superhuman Product-Market Fit Engine (https://app.chapterme.co/player/video/19WpIbBhxJU) 00:28:24 3.2 Launched stage – Tips 00:30:55 conclusion
Pebble Watch founder and Y Combinator partner Eric Migicovsky on shares advice on qualities to look for when hiring for your startup Eric is a Partner at YC. He was the founder and CEO of Pebble. https://twitter.com/ericmigi Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
Y Combinator Partner and Pebble Founder Eric Migicovsky answers, should you move your company to Silicon Valley? https://twitter.com/ericmigi Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/
Pebble Watch founder and Y Combinator partner Eric Migicovsky on how he found startup advisors, how his advisors helped Pebble, and how he compensated his advisors with equity. https://twitter.com/ericmigi Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/