The Boring Startup

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

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

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 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.

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.