Follow along the crazy journey of trying to start a tech company from scratch while also having a full time job and family. Whether I succeed or fail you'll get to experience the ups and downs right along with me.
What was supposed to be a drop-in replacement display has turned into a nightmare. Goals for the Week Ahead Truly Launch the Pre-Order Site Test OpenOCD debugging in VSCode Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about how my job almost pushed me over the edge. I lost my way exploring alternatives and I talk through those and how ultimately I landed in a great place. Goals for the Week Ahead Finish testing hardware and fix issues. For real this time Test the new e-paper display....for real this time Submit next prototype order Launch pre-orders website for holders Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
We finally have ESP32 hardware to test with. I made a few stupid mistakes on the layout that I discuss and we also got accepted into the AWS Founder program which gives us $1000 in AWS credits. I also give an update on how the "sawdust" project is going. Goals For the Week Ahead Test the new e-paper display Test JTAG debugging Have several biz dev meetings Fix the PCB issues on the new hardware Sell more dev kits AWS Founder Program Link - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/02/aws-launches-activate-founders-package/ Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
Smart Pucks are out for now so we need another direction. In this episode I talk about what that direction is and how we plan to move forward with it. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
How do you balance "fake it till you make it" with being true to yourself and leaning into your identity as a small business? Honestly, I don't know but I talk about it for 10 minutes in this episode. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
You want to make money but at what point are you exchanging your happiness for that money. In this episode I talk about the precarious balance between seeking revenue and getting trapped in doing things just for the money. I also touch on why this balance is causing me to rethink the direction of the company. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about navigating the emotions of the coronavirus and what I'm doing during this time of lockdown. Also an update on things that are going on. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/SfZnKMC Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In a previous episode I talked about the mental rollercoaster you go through trying to start a company and thinking about quitting your job. This episode is an update to that view and how it's not as binary as I thought. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
Recently I've been thinking a lot about this question. Do I want to turn my work into my hobby or do I want to turn my hobby into work? Tune in on this episode as I dissect that question and where I stand on it. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
I'm upping my content game across all of my distribution channels. I'm a big believer that you can give away helpful content for free while also getting something in return in the form of attention and future sales. In this episode I talk about how I'm approaching my content right now and also give an update on how things are going with the redesign and dev kit creation. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
All the crappy Silicon Valley mantras about how to run a hardware startup company are not only bad cliches but they are simply impractical for most people. In this episode I talk about some of the advantages of taking the road less traveled. The boring road as it were. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
The first attempt at monetizing the StatFeedr "sawdust" is going to be in the form of an e-paper dev kit based around the ESP32 module. In this episode I talk about the thought process around pursuing this as a potential revenue source. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about what the "sawdust" is from the StatFeedr product. I break down all the things I've created as part of the product that aren't really the main value-add. I also cover why this might be valuable to other pro makers and startups. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about why I'm ditching Particle and moving to the Espressif ecosystem. I talk about why I originally chose Particle, why I'm making the decision to leave and why ESP32 is my choice going forward. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinsidwar Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about the consumer psychology around pricing Internet of Things products. There are essentially 2 basic models and both are extremely difficult to make profitable. This and other insight into why making a consumer hardware product is really really hard. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
I'm going to officially call this season 2 of the podcast as we slightly switch the focus of the podcast to something I'm super excited about. In this episode I talk about what that change is and what to expect going forward. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
We attended our first industry show in Las Vegas to introduce the StatFeedr tech to the industry. In this episode I talk about how it went and what we learned. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
Oftentimes when you think of attending industry shows you think about the excitement of walking the floor and making that key contact and scoring that perfect partnership or contract. That makes for great episodes of Silicon Valley but there is a lot of boring work that is required ahead of time that nobody is making TV episodes about. Tune in to this episode as I cover the slog of prepping for our first industry show. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I share the excitement I'm feeling of doing mundane stuff to ship pucks. No flashy VC-funded process here. I'm literally cutting out thank you cards with scissors. Hear about this and more boring stuff that goes into delivering product to customers. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about a very important milestone. The StatFeedr store is live and pucks are shipping. It's simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying that people are paying money for a product I made. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In the quest to get team pucks into customers hands I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase a CNC mill. Screw the machine shops that won't return my calls or want to charge me an arm and a leg. We're going to try to machine the pucks ourselves to get started. I have no idea if this will work or if it's a good use of very limited funds but we have to try. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
Recently someone approached us about pitching the puck to an unnamed company to see if they wanted to license the product. If successful this would be a royalty arrangement. We ultimately decided to turn down the offer but the interaction brought up some very interesting questions about how a royalty contract works for a smart product that needs constant cloud support. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
So many people think social media is just a self-indulgent kid's toy. If you can see through the noise you'll find that all of the platforms give infant businesses a huge advantage. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
Time for a nerdy tech episode. Using C or C++ for firmware development is a hotly debated topic in the engineering community. This episode is my take on "Why not both?" Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
This episode is a raw look into everything that's going on inside my head around finding time to start a company while having a full time job and family. Some days quitting the day job seems obvious and other days my brain convinces me it's stupid even to think about it. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about what I like about the ESP32 module and Espressif ecosystem and what are some things that might be roadblocks. I do some comparisons with the Particle P1 module which is currently being used in the puck project. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
On this episode I talk about counterfeit capitalism and how it affects what kind of company I'm trying to build. I also muse on what's holding me back from selling the puck inventory I have sitting in my office. Here is a link to the article referenced in this episode: https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/wework-and-counterfeit-capitalism Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
As a technical person I tend to think too big too soon. In this episode I talk about how I try to balance planning for the future while maintaining development velocity in the present. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about the reasons why I've started to investigate swapping out the main chip from a Particle P1 module to an Espressif ESP32 module. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about what I've been up to and where we're headed from here. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I talk about trying to break out of the gold handcuffs and the future of smart pucks. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I answer some basic questions in an attempt to reverse engineer my path. Why am I starting a business? What does success look like? What do I need to get there? Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
I lost my way a little and now I find myself still needing to answer some basic questions before moving forward. In this episode I talk about how failing robot companies got me back on track and how I'm going to find the path I need to take. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In this episode I share some raw thoughts on the value of Kickstarter for "just a regular person". It's a bit of a rant but I try to objectively look at the value Kickstarter provides (or doesn't) in a world where successful projects hardly seem to need the platform and the failures get lost in the noise. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
In The Puck Stops Here episode I talked about GaryVee's $1.80 strategy and how I wanted to implement it. Well, a few weeks down the road and $1.80 is a whole lot more than it sounds especially as I try to apply it across multiple platforms. In this episode I talk about some of the trials in implementing it and also share my thoughts on the value of social media in general. Let's Connect! I would love to hear from you. Thoughts, opinions, or even just to introduce yourself so I can get to know you better. You can find me in the following places: Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinsidwar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidwarkd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sidwarkd Email: kevin@sidwar.com
It's easy early on to leave all the idea doors open until you find one that works. I've found that in a two person startup that time and resources are too thin to do that effectively. We recently focused in on what we want the company to be and will move forward basing every decision on that North Star.
In this episode I go deep on the emotional turmoil and self doubt I've experienced as the Kickstarter campaign struggles. It's not easy being the founder and a lot of voices creep into your mind. Part of pushing through it is deciding which ones to listen to and which ones to force out so you can focus on your goals.
One of the most amazing effects of the internet was it's ability to wrestle power and influence from a concentrated group of gatekeepers. The barrier to entry for so many creators is as low as it's ever been. But with the teardown the internet also enabled a new generation of gatekeepers. Some standing at the gates of real value and some that are just looking to earn a quick buck. In this episode I talk about an experience with a specific site that has positioned itself as a gatekeeper in the hopes of getting some of your money.
In this episode I give you an inside look into what hiring a PR firm looked like for me. I cover the pros and cons and discuss whether I felt like it was worth the $585 or not.
In this episode I do a play by play of trying to solve a problem called "the end of the hockey season". Sometimes it gets ugly on the tech side of things and this episode is no exception. Basically I'm a terrible person and take the cheater's way out in the end but you can follow the process of how I got there.
In this episode I break down a comment I got on a recent Facebook ad I ran. The product I've created is something people have never seen before. That's making for some interesting perceptions of what it is based on static images. Listen as I talk about why it's my fault and how I can make it better. Here's a link to the image I referred to in this episode. http://www.ultrafeel.tv/wp-content/uploads/image/humor/hightech/steve-jobs-ipad-4-iphones.jpg
In this episode I talk about what product/market fit is and how I'm grappling with that concept currently.
In this episode I dive deeper on my thoughts around messaging the business in both B2B and B2C contexts and how maybe it's time to start tweaking that messaging as part of improving the Kickstarter support. It's a hot brain dump of what I've been considering the last few days as to why people may be misunderstanding the Smart Puck.
In this episode I talk about how trying to be a little better every day at all the things involved in trying to market and grow the business. Learning something new or finding a productivity hack in using hashtags. Little things that will help push me and the business in the right direction.
A recap of all the in-the-dirt work I did today to get more exposure for The Smart Puck. It's a grind and I'm in it for the long haul. One of the things I started today was implementing the $1.80 strategy from Gary Vaynerchuk. If you're not familiar with it I highly recommend you check it out. The biggest lesson learned today is that this is on me. I don't have a boss or middle level manager to blame failure on. If this doesn't work it's because I didn't make the right decisions. It's on.
Day 2 of the Kickstarter campaign saw a very steep drop off in backers. This doesn't really come as a surprise but in this episode I talk about why it happened and what I'm going to do to try to address it. I cover the different data sources I'm looking at to target advertising for the project and present some ideas I'm going to move forward with to right the ship.
Today I launched the Smart Puck on Kickstarter. In this episode I talk about some of the things I experienced, where I landed at the end of the day, and what comes next now that the project is live.
In this episode I talk more about the build up for launch on Kickstarter. I talk about the key things I've been tracking and how it would help to have an entire team of people. Alas, it's just me with the help of some amazing people that got it done.
In this episode I talk about why I eventually decided to use Kickstarter to launch the puck despite strongly resisting it at first. I also talk about how it's been a harder process than I expected.
In this episode I talk about how my decision making process is slowed by my fear of choosing a suboptimal option. You don't know what you don't know and sometimes that can cripple your ability to get things done quickly.
In this episode I talk about what it means to bootstrap your company, some decisions I've made because I'm bootstrapping, and also cover some of the pros and cons of this approach to funding a business.
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