The Lager Podcast: Recent Episodes
Lager Data
Interviewing hardware industry leaders on their personal journeys and career-defining hardware projects.
Benson Tsai details his career journey, from starting a company out of school to building batteries for the next great American spaceship. He talks about the invaluable business acumen he picked up from his parents, taking leadership cues from Captain Picard, and how he's brought it all together to lead small teams to great things throughout his career.
- 1:31 After-school startup & taking on Big EV
- 8:22 Lessons abroad at Lucid Motors
- 18:13 Building the next great American spaceship
- 22:31 A culture of autonomy at SpaceX
- 28:57 Small-team mentality in a larger org
- 35:01 To infinity and beyond...
- 39:51 Evaluating your impact as a leader
Michael tells us about working in different environments as an engineer, from startups to agencies, and how that led to Duro Labs. He offers up invaluable advice to aspiring engineers and a very practical roadmap of priorities for new hardware startups.
- 3:47 SRI, the secret of Silicon Valley
- 11:21 Career trade-offs and polishing rocks
- 15:42 Adura and negotiating an exit
- 22:55 Challenging misconceptions about US manufacturing
- 31:34 Structural hurdles in hardware
- 38:49 Duro Labs and building a better mouse trap
- 47:53 Giving the power back to engineers
Christina tells us how she landed on the idea for Ringly, what it's like to get big-name backing like Andreessen Horowitz, and some of the missteps and triumphs along the way.
- 1:23 Early career and projects
- 5:37 Light bulb moment
- 9:24 One form factor to rule them all
- 13:37 The Andreessen Horowitz factor
- 20:23 Manufacturing gems
- 30:08 Industry trends & warning signs
- 39:47 Getting off the hamster wheel
Jake Levine, founder of Electric Objects, talks about how he got started in tech & entrepreneurship, the unique challenges of fundraising for a hardware startup, learning to "lose your religion," and what he's taken away from his experiences in the hardware industry.
- 1:22 Breaking into the tech industry
- 6:34 Digg & losing your religion
- 10:57 Naïveté, ambition and creative energy
- 12:55 The 'Aha' moment
- 18:51 Building out your initial team
- 21:17 Fundraising challenges & expectations
- 27:38 Hardware vs. software contrasts
- 32:07 Making a V2
- 36:55 Balancing your vision with what customers want
- 40:51 The process of winding down & what comes after
- 54:32 Stumbling on the right ideas
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3-electric-objects-with-jake-levine/id1585976991?i=1000538412554
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LRBpI1Fn5OnWhgKBIYYqE?si=Qso6sKfGQF-VQEGgs410Ng&dl_branch=1
- 1:18 "A poorly architected way to learn..."
- 10:30 Find your people and talk to them
- 13:10 Running a successful Kickstarter campaign
- 16:09 Manufacturing speed bumps in China
- 22:40 Searching for product/market fit
- 28:27 Pivoting to survive
- 33:08 Takeaways from running a hardware startup
- 36:36 Sending the elevator back down
Check out Jewelbots: https://jewelbots.com/
Follow Sara on twitter @sarajo.eth
- 1:02 Why Apple?
- 8:02 First day on the job
- 12:02 Working on the first iPhone
- 17:34 Lessons from manufacturing in China
- 21:15 Craftsmanship throughout the organization
- 30:22 Why you didn't want to run into Steve Jobs
- 32:19 Managing a product launch at Apple
- 36:01 Product experience > bells & whistles
- 41:36 Production lifecycle of an Apple product
- 44:20 Leaving Apple in the rearview mirror