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Zach Supalla. He\\u2019s the CEO and co-founder of Particle, a venture backed startup that\\u2019s making it easier to build internet connected hardware and other things. Particle is the most, widely used IoT platform with a developed community of a hundred thousand users and is listed as one of Fast Company\'s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in 2015, of the Internet of Things. Zach has been featured on CNN, The Wall street Journal, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Mashable and more.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \\u2013 The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2013\\xa0 Jeff Lawson
• Favorite online tool? \\u2014 Slack and Asana
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\\u2014 No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cYou don\\u2019t have to be an engineer to be an engineer\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:35 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Zach to the show
• 02:16 \\u2013 Zach used to be a management consultant
• 02:45 \\u2013 While Zach was doing his MBA, he interned in Groupon\\u2019s sales operation
• 03:07 \\u2013 Zach did engineering
• 03:21 \\u2013 Particle is an IoT platform
• 03:44 \\u2013 Particle helps manufacturers connect their physical product to the internet
• • 04:11 \\u2013 Particle does the whole communication stack between the physical device and web
• 04:40 \\u2013 Particle has raised $10M
• 04:50 \\u2013 Particle generates revenue in 4 ways
• • 04:55 \\u2013 Particle works with large companies and sells them subscriptions, data plans, hardware, and professional services
  • 05:24 \\u2013 Main revenue stream is from the hardware
  • 05:54 \\u2013 Hardware pricing ranges from $5-50
• 06:09 \\u2013 For Keurig, they added hardware to plug into the back of the coffee maker
• 06:45 \\u2013 The hardware volume for Keurig is in the thousands
• 07:00 \\u2013 Particle has customers who will be deploying millions of hardware products by 2018
• 07:28 \\u2013 Security is part of Particle\\u2019s story
• 07:37 \\u2013 Zach shares about the webcam botnet incident
• • 08:09 \\u2013 The Mirai botnet in Liberia explained
• 08:32 \\u2013 Zach shares how Particle works to secure everything from the device to the in between communication
• 08:50 \\u2013 Typical, cheap webcams that are in the market and manufactured in China are not secure
• 09:23 \\u2013 There are products that people aren\\u2019t unplugging and are considered unsecure
• 09:45 \\u2013 Particle started in 2012
• 09:59 \\u2013 Zach first launched a product in Kickstarter named Spark Socket
• • 10:07 \\u2013 The product was unsuccessful
  • 10:21 \\u2013 It was frustrating, but it turned to be a huge benefit
• 10:51 \\u2013 Zach relaunched a new product in Kickstarter, in 2013, called Spark Core
• 11:20 \\u2013 Zach was inspired by his dad who is deaf to create the first product
• 12:20 \\u2013 Zach shares what is important in launching a Kickstarter campaign
• • 12:28 \\u2013 Zach looks at any Kickstarter campaign as an experiment
  • 12:33 \\u2013 Zach made sure that they nailed the marketing on their first launch
  • 13:43 \\u2013 \\u201cWe\\u2019re definitely advocates of the lean startup mentality\\u201d
• 14:13 \\u2013 2013 revenue
• 14:41 \\u2013 2014 revenue
• 15:43 \\u2013 Zach shares where the scale is coming from
• • 15:58 \\u2013 When Zach launched the product, they weren\\u2019t targeting enterprise stores
  • 16:28 \\u2013 Zach was originally creating development tools then shifted to management tools
  • 16:43 \\u2013 The growth started in selling deaf kits
  • 17:00 \\u2013 They started making modules, then the software platform
  • 17:26 \\u2013 One of the challenges a hardware startup faces is going from being a product to a company
• 17:56 \\u2013 2017 revenue goal
• 18:08 \\u2013 Team size is 35
• 18:21 \\u2013 Half of the team is from San Francisco and the other half are all over
• 18:50 \\u2013 Particle is not facing a problem yet with their people who work in China
• 19:03 \\u2013 Zach created a program while he was in China, where he lived for 4 months
• 19:22 \\u2013 Zach has a deep trusting relationship with their people in China
• 21:14 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Solve your own problems and make the people around you, your inspiration.
• See the beauty in a failure \\u2013 it can be a way for you to create something better.
• One of the most difficult challenges a hardware startup faces is going from being a product to a company.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling \\u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \\u2013 Nathan uses Drip\\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal\\xa0\\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator\\xa0\\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible\\xa0\\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox\\xa0 \\u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf \\u2013 Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11\\u201d secure even when he left it in the airplane\\u2019s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks \\u2013 Nathan doesn\\u2019t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives