147: Transition from Hardware Product Startup to Hardware Scaleup

Published: Oct. 26, 2022, 12:42 p.m.

b'Morgan Teachworth was the head of Hardware at Meraki, a company that was acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion dollars, and is now the VP of Engineering & Supply Chain there.\\xa0He has been involved in the development of hundreds of physical mass-manufactured products leading to approximately 16 million units of his products being sold around the world in his 15-year tenure with the organization.\\xa0Today Morgan is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand the difference between developing a product to sell as a startup to then developing products to sell as a growing scale-up brand, and what you can do to best strategize for this kind of explosive hardware company growth in the product space.\\n\\nToday you will hear us talk about:\\n\\nHow the customer changes as you scale your hardware product business\\n\\nYour customers become your salesforce in the very early stages\\n\\nYour next tier of customers are the wholesalers, distributors, resellers, etc.\\n\\nWhat are some new stakeholders\\n\\nThink about the factory, the installers, the resellers,\\xa0\\n\\nMicro stakeholders and macro stakeholders\\n\\nYou can tune the product design, the packaging, the product experience, the manufacturing, all around multiple stakeholders\\n\\nSimplicity is an important part of design considerations, but also in all other stakeholders this should be considered too.\\n\\nKeep your product simple, it\\u2019s actually easier to do as a small physical product business than it is as you grow, so start now.\\n\\nAs you grow, you become the big incumbent now that other small innovators are trying to take on.\\n\\nCross-functional initiatives help as you scale.\\n\\n\\nEPISODE LINKS\\nMorgan Teachworth Links:\\n\\n\\nWebsite: https://meraki.cisco.com/\\n\\n\\n\\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mteachw/\\n\\n\\n\\nThe Product Startup Podcast Links:\\n\\n\\nWebsite: https://www.ProductStartup.com/\\n\\n\\n\\nInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ProductStartup/\\n\\n\\n\\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ProductStartup/\\n\\n\\n\\nFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ProductStartup/\\n\\n\\n\\nFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProductStartup/\\n\\n\\n\\nPinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ProductStartup/\\n\\n\\n\\nTwitter: https://twitter.com/ProductStartup\\n\\n\\n\\nYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent\\n\\n\\n\\nMako Design Links:\\n\\n\\nWebsite: https://www.makodesign.com/\\n\\n\\n\\nYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent\\n\\n\\n\\nInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/MakoInvent/\\n\\n\\n\\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MakoDesign/\\n\\n\\n\\nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakoInvent/\\n\\n\\n\\nPinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MakoInvent/\\n\\n\\n\\nTwitter: https://twitter.com/MakoInvent/\\n\\n\\n\\nKevin Mako Links:\\n\\n\\nInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/Entrepreneurs/\\n\\n\\n\\nLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/KevMako/\\n\\n\\n\\nQuora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kevin-Mako\\n\\n\\n\\nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevMakoPage/\\n\\n\\n\\nTwitter: https://twitter.com/KevMako/\\n\\n\\n\\nAbout: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry\\u2019s leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about Mako Design + Invent!'