MARTIN OMANDER: My guest today is Joe Born, co-founder
of the startup responsible for the Hale Dreamer alarm clock.
Joe, thanks for coming on the show.
Would you tell us a bit about your startup?
JOE BORN: Thanks for having me.
So yeah, we're a hardware company that
was started to support the underserved Android accessory
market, particularly on speaker docks and nightstand docks.
So we released the first speaker dock for Android plug-in
with a remote control.
And we released the Hale Dreamer.
So a nightstand dock with a smart silence,
do not disturb feature, and a working snooze bar.
And we recently became [? Iowa ?] USA,
so there will be lots of announcements coming up
with that.
MARTIN OMANDER: Oh, cool.
Congratulations.
So how can a domestic hardware startup like yourselves
compete with overseas commoditized hardware?
JOE BORN: Yeah, so it's a great question.
My biggest piece of advice is don't
compete with commoditized hardware.
Add your value on top of that commoditized hardware.
And then leverage that supply chain
so that you're adding value and not getting too bogged down
in the details of the hardware and competing
with the commoditized side of the hardware, if you will.
MARTIN OMANDER: So are you following
your own advice for this device?
JOE BORN: Yeah, so if you look at this from a hardware
perspective, this is largely an average commoditized speaker
dock, if you will.
It has got great sound and buttons and charges your phone.
But the real value added, what's really unique is in the app.
So the app has this included alarm clock app
that actually silences your phone at night
with smart sound.
So at a touch of a button all your notifications
are silenced.
It can even reach back to callers and say,
is this an emergency?
If they say yes, then it rings.
All that stuff is in software.
And so we really did stub out a lot
of the details of the hardware.
Now in this case, it's not just a sensor.
The speaker quality was really important.
So we had to get kind of more involved
than potentially some other app with sensor app wrapped
in plastic might have to.
But we definitely leveraged a factory and their expertise
to get this product to market.
And we didn't put huge investments
on just the commoditized side of the hardware, if you will.
MARTIN OMANDER: Tell me more about that.
You said you leveraged the factory's expertise.
So you are not just using any old factory out there.
You go for specific hardware partners?
Tell me more.
JOE BORN: Yeah, that's right.
The factory, for example, that produces this,
supplies some very big-name tier one acoustic manufacturers.
So a lot of acoustic expertise.
A lot of acoustic equipment that they
bring to bear on our products.
And in fact, our manufacturing arrangement
is much more of a partnership than just a straight contract
manufacturing sourcing.
And the reason we do that is because we do
get to leverage so much of that expertise and the resources
that they have.
And that allows us to focus on the things
that we really feel we're adding values.
The details of this app, the user experience, the design,
the things that really touch consumers.
And that focus is what allows us to do well at that.
MARTIN OMANDER: So then does that mean you actually
have to pitch your product not just to investors
and consumers, but to hardware partners as well?
JOE BORN: Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, most of the factories that we
work with are full-service factories that really
are seeking high-volume successful products.
They don't make money from design fees.
They don't make money just from upfront stuff.
They really make money by having successful products.
And so it's our job to convince them
we have a winner with this product concept.
And you should work with us and partner.
And bring your resources to bear and help us
so that we'll have a successful product together.
We'll all make money.
There are whole categories of factories that work that way.
MARTIN OMANDER: Really?
So you've been in hardware.
You have 20 years of hardware experience.
How have you seen the hardware field change in that time, Joe?
JOE BORN: It's absolutely night and day.
To the extent that my experience of a decade
ago is almost irrelevant.
And I would counsel any of your viewers
to be very careful who they're getting experience from.
Because if it's old, it's much less relevant.
We have seen barriers drop from what
cost us millions of dollars to bring a hardware
product to market even 10 years ago
to what's almost nothing today.
We used to have to do all this engineering work ourselves.
Hardware, electrical.
And today you can put together components
from Arduino, Raspberry Pi, all this off-the-shelf hardware
and software that allows you to assemble
a product in a fraction, a real fraction of the time it
used to cost.
And then on the sales side, you've
now got all these self-service marketplaces like Amazon
and eBay and so on and so forth.
And crowd funding.
Whereas it used to be all big brick
and mortar national retailers.
Altogether the barriers to entry have dropped so
precipitously as a result of those factors
that there really is no comparison.
MARTIN OMANDER: Really?
So how are you using those trends
to your advantage for your startup?
JOE BORN: Well, we certainly put together
the prototype using Arduino and off-the-shelf speakers.
And that got us in front of consumers and customers
much, much earlier than we would have previously.
And then we did do a crowdfunding campaign
to get feedback from the market even before the product was
in production.
So we're using a lot of those tools to our advantage
just like any other startup should.
MARTIN OMANDER: So are we looking
at a piece of Arduino technology here?
JOE BORN: It was.
The original prototypes were made that way.
We actually did shift to an even lower cost microprocessor
because pennies do matter when you get into mass production.
And another thing is that, again, working with the factory
and they're leveraging your supply chain,
managing your parts, it's good to have parts
that they're familiar with, relationships
that they have with microprocessors.
Many of these silicon parts have 16-week lead times.
So if you're working with something
that they're familiar with and a distribution chain
they're familiar with, it's much easier
to get flexibility out of it than if it's an unknown silicon
supplier, for example.
MARTIN OMANDER: So yet another reason
to pick your hardware partner with care
and make them a partner rather than just
a manufacturer for you.
JOE BORN: Absolutely.
I mean, their ability to apply financial resources,
their ability to apply the relationships
are all crucial to things.
Imagine a new product with an unknown demand
managing a four-month lead time on it.
Virtually impossible.
So your factory really can facilitate things
like that if you work with them properly and choose
the right partners, you see.
MARTIN OMANDER: So is your advice to other hardware
startups to use Arduino, Raspberry Pi,
that sort of ready-made technology for the prototype?
And then in production, move over
to cheaper hardware like you did?
JOE BORN: Absolutely.
And the other piece of advice I'd give-- if you can,
use standard interfaces.
So we had a proprietary interface
because we wanted a plug-in dock and the details
of our implementation.
But if you can use something that's cleaner like a Bluetooth
low energy, it makes it that much easier
to manage the factory at a high level.
So I don't need to know all the details of what's
under the hood on my pedometer, my scale,
or whatever it might be, because the interface
is so well established.
And that, again, allows you to give the factory
the flexibility to do their thing under the hood, which
helps them manage their supply chain and their inventory
costs, and their engineering time,
and all that kind of stuff.
MARTIN OMANDER: Great.
Very good.
Thank you so much for coming on the show
and sharing your experiences with us, Joe.
JOE BORN: Absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
MARTIN OMANDER: We hope you found something
you can use in your startup.
Your input matters.
Please leave your comments below.
We read all of them.
To learn how Google can help your startup,
go to developers.google.com/startups.
If you would like to be on the show,
go to bit.ly/applyrootaccess.
That's it.
See you next time.