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Home > The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast > #402 – An Interview with Ben Einstein


	Podcast:		The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast
	Episode:		#402 – An Interview with Ben Einstein
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		01:36:48
	Publish Date:		2018-08-06 02:47:00
	Description:		This week’s show was sponsored by Arrow.com, who want to hear from engineers like you. They’re offering 30% off a first order for new customers and free overnight shipping for everyone. Check out their online selection for your next project! Welcome Ben Einstein, founder of Bolt! Bolt is a Pre-Seed 0h 1m 10s Downtown Boston 0h 1m 47s They started around 2011/2012 0h 2m 30s Twiddle with atoms instead of bits 0h 3m 13s Went to school in Boston 0h 3m 42s Inherited a product consultancy 0h 3m 57s Maury Ballstein 0h 7m 12s Startup within a startup 0h 8m 6s Lightbulb went off 0h 8m 28s First iphone bluetooth accessory 0h 9m 6s Sometimes the lucky thing is picking Apple instead of picking Palm 0h 10m 36s Brad Feld of Foundry Group based out of Boulder CO 0h 13m 14s Institutionalized hardware/software investing 0h 13m 48s Makerbot/Sphero 0h 14m 0s Invested in first fund 0h 15m 2s Ben is a big introvert 0h 16m 59s Trust and intimacy 0h 17m 41s Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends” 0h 17m 50s Raising Venture Capital (VC) wasn’t right from first fund 0h 22m 41s In early VC started where it was their money 0h 23m 52s Vast majority is a management fee 0h 23m 58s GP = General partner 0h 25m 19s LP = Limited partner 0h 25m 29s Why didn’t this hardware model exist previously? 0h 26m 51s Bill Gross at IdeaLab 0h 27m 6s “Hardware by itself is not an attractive business” 0h 27m 39s Software breaking out of the screen 0h 29m 26s Number of companies pitching has increased 0h 31m 44s Bolt.io 0h 32m 4s Looking for companies that will be worth 100M in 5-7 years 0h 32m 55s Early meetings with prototype 0h 33m 56s Bolt provides an early investment with a 100K to 1M check 0h 34m 5s Nutty things pitched 0h 35m 27s Spherical iphone 0h 35m 58s Only been around for 5 years 0h 36m 34s They spend 18 months with companies 0h 41m 8s 80% of the founders at Bolt companies haven’t done hardware 0h 43m 45s The best companies are built from the best product, not just hardware 0h 44m 38s They have a strong belief that companies should not build the perfect product 0h 46m 3s Consumer vs industrial 0h 49m 3s Everyone talks about consumer connected hardware companies 0h 50m 15s 20% are consumer 0h 50m 26s Recurring revenue is a very strong theme. 0h 52m 9s Why Juicero’s press is so expensive 0h 56m 22s AvE’s take on the Juicero 0h 57m 32s Product development 1h 1m 56s Suggested reading: The Illustrated Guide To Product Development 1h 2m 4s Suggested reading: The Complete Guide To Building Hardware Startup Teams 1h 3m 57s Team is more than just the employees 1h 4m 0s Teams coming in are 2-4 founders 1h 7m 30s Proof of concept prototype 1h 7m 48s Sometimes they invest in people instead of companies, like Mike Phillips from Sense 1h 8m 51s Joe Bamburg from Sense has been on the show before. 1h 9m 11s Tyler runs engineering at Bolt, former iPhone engineer 1h 12m 3s Thinking about Industrial Design (ID) early on 1h 14m 0s Prototyping engineers in the shop 1h 14m 8s Tempo automation 1h 14m 45s Dragon Innovation / Scott Miller 1h 15m 34s A $200 Roomba vs a Dyson 1h 18m 46s James Dyson on “How I Built This” 1h 19m 27s Looks like / works like prototypes 1h 21m 20s Engineering prototype 1h 21m 30s How far are people expected to go on that check from Bolt? 1h 23m 36s Silcon Valley (the show) is a farce and has truth 1h 26m 59s Bolt is like the bumpers at the bowling alley 1h 35m 48s Want to reach Ben? You can email him 1h 36m 35s If you’re looking to pitch, it’s better to reach out via Bolt.io/pitch 1h 36m 45s Follow Ben on Twitter as @BenEinstein 1h 37m 23s Follow their fantastic blog as well! 1h 37m 59s.
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