Build Builds

Knowledge is an infinite resource. When we learn something, it doesn’t reduce the amount of what others can learn.

For a while now, I have been building builds in hopes to help make the world a more inclusive place. I have always thought that it would be nice if more of us knew Braille, which is a tactile writing system designed for people who are visually impaired.

A little over a year ago, I 3D-printed some prototypes of a set of Lego-sized Braille bricks, which can be used for 2 main purposes:

1. To be arranged as physical labels, and can therefore communicate messages in real life.

2. A simple and interactive way for everyone to learn Braille.

On a more technical front, I put together a simple app to let people easily translate English characters into Braille letters.

Much to my delight, this app also won a runner up spot at the 2019 Product Hunt Makers Festival, under the Social Impact category.

As per the rules of the Makers Festival, the app was built on a no-code platform called Coda. And for some reason, all of the projects from the festival are no longer available on Coda.

So I’ve decided to build the app from scratch again. This time, it will be a hybrid app that is available on both Android and iOS.

This episode outlines how I am — once again — challenging myself to take the project to the next level.

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Music is by: Peter Spacey and Macifif on Artlist

Episode cover photo is by: Kathy

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Change stems from challenging the status quo to determine if something needs to be done differently.

As the human race, we were only able to get to where we are today because innovators throughout history had the foresight to tackle problems, many of which might be considered impossible by the rest of the world at the time.

Over the last few months, I have been researching on how to best implement contact-free controls to help reduce the spread of germs amid the pandemic. Some progress has been made on early prototypes designed for elevators (as a starting point).

Along the way, I came to the realization of something.

There is still a lot of room to optimize the performance of elevators. Considering the technologies we have now, elevators are not operating as well as they should be. And I want to contribute to what needs to be done, especially what needs to be done *differently*.

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Music is by: Peter Spacey and Macifif on Artlist

Episode cover illustration is originally by: Ebweb on Pixabay

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Elevator pitch got its name from the concept that if you had a chance to ride in the same elevator as someone you really wanted to pitch to, you would get about a minute’s time to impress them with your idea.

My latest R&D project has an MVP that can be installed in an elevator. Is it going to help kill two birds with one stone? Probably not. But an “elevator pitch about an elevator product” sure has a nice ring to it.

Since the early onset of the global pandemic, I have started imagining what some of the “new normals” would be, and also what my tech startup can contribute to help.

I envisioned a world where we wouldn’t have to physically touch buttons in our surroundings; a world where we could remotely control everything when we are out and about.

In this episode, I’ll share more about the progression of my ideas, as well as how it relates to an elevator pitch.

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Music is by: Peter Spacey and Macifif on Artlist

Episode cover illustration is by: hans-2 on Pixabay

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Cloud services, particularly 3rd-party ones, have infiltrated so much into our everyday lives.

But there is a problem. A lot of tech firms don’t consider protecting our data privacy and integrity to be their best interest. Worse yet, some exploitative firms would even deliberately collect our personal data just to sell it off for their own gains.

I fervently believe that there is a better way to go forward from here. And I’ve decided to take the initiative to build an ecosystem that supports — what I call — “de-clouding,” or decentralizing clouds.

This sprint will be about the first steps we need to take in order to build an ecosystem of private clouds.

I think a good moniker for the private clouds would be — reservoirs — as in, having your own places to collect and store raindrops fallen from clouds, and then to provide water anywhere else you want.

Other than this main story, we are also putting something on the sprint backlog: The possibility of joining an online elevator pitch competition.

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Music is by: Peter Spacey and Macifif on Artlist

Episode cover illustration is by: talhakhalil007 on Pixabay

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Can sprint meetings be hosted over the air in podcasting format? That’s right, the kind of sprint meetings that’s gaining a lot of traction among tech companies, or generally any company that uses the Agile Scrum project management methodology.

I intend to find out by experimenting.

In the last few episodes, I’ve interviewed several leaders in the tech space. My guests all gave valuable insights into what it takes to build and grow a successful startup business.

Beginning this episode, I thought I would move on to something a little different.

As remote work is becoming increasingly common around the world, especially given our current situation in Year 2020, many of us are getting more and more used to virtual meetings.

And this is where my idea of a new podcasting format comes in.

I was thinking I could turn the sprint meetings of my tech startup into podcast episodes. So in other words, it will be like you are all sitting in on our sprint meetings, no matter where you currently are in the world.

In this episode, let’s dive right into our very first sprint planning meeting together. It’ll also give everyone a sneak peek into what I’m working on — building the world's first ever supersized internet of things with fellow Micro:bit makers.

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Music is by: Peter Spacey and Macifif on Artlist

Episode cover illustration is by: geralt on Pixabay

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Our guest today is the founder and CEO of Code Ninjas, David Graham. A Code Ninjas center, or Dojo, is what David would have wanted as a kid — a place that’s kind of like a gym for the brain to stretch his mind, and to come up with creative solutions to tackle problems. And most importantly, a place to feel safe and have fun.

After working professionally as a software engineer for close to two decades and having built a successful adult coding school business, David is now building that place where children can call their own. And not just in a single location. David and the Code Ninjas team have grown the brand into a multinational business with centers across the United States, Canada — and most recently — the United Kingdom.

You can always tell when an entrepreneur has put a lot of passion into their business. Every detail, from the Taekwondo-inspired infrastructure to every student’s possible future path, has been so well planned out. In the product world, it’s the equivalent of employing a design principle that prioritizes user experience, putting users first.

But good planning is far from the only ingredient of building a successful business. You’ll have a chance to hear more of David’s expert advice in his interview.

You’ll also get to hear more about David’s journey, Code Ninjas’ journey, as well as the possible scenarios of growing up as an individual ninja.

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Our guest today is Alex Chung, co-founder and CEO of Giphy. You may already be familiar with Giphy: It’s an online search engine like Google, but for animated GIFs. And seeing as how they currently serve 500 million users around the globe every day, chances are you may even be an avid user of the platform.

I really enjoyed talking to Alex and picking his brain, and that’s largely because while Giphy is such an internationally acclaimed tech company, Alex is very down-to-earth. He genuinely thinks of himself as a part of the startup community, and doesn’t shy away from networking with other founders, offering help and advice.

The story of how Giphy grew to where it is now is almost like a textbook example of how to make it in the digital era. The founders saw a gap in the market — more specifically, the fact that the #1 search engine Google hasn’t indexed animated GIFs yet — so they set out to build their own platform to solve the problem, while having fun along the way. They then focused on populating the site with quality content, growing their user base, raising several rounds of funding, building out the revenue systems, and even acquiring a few other startups. And now they are continuing to grow the business, and on a global scale at that.

It’s interesting to note that Giphy isn’t Alex’s first startup. During our chat, he likens building startup companies to making music records. If this one fails, learn from your mistakes, move on, and make another one.

People like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are extremely rare examples of successful first-time founders. For a much more realistic case that involves a lot of trial and error, I think Alex is a great role model.

When I talked to Alex during our remote interview, there was a 12-hour time difference between us. As we were chatting, I couldn’t help but be amazed by how technology was making it possible.

Unlike traditional product prototyping, the cost associated with building digital products these days is virtually negligible. Plus, there are a ton of tools out there to help with the process. Even hardware prototyping is so much more affordable now, thanks to 3D-printing and other cutting-edge technologies.

Do you have a product idea that you think will help make the world a better place? Have you taken the plunge to start building it yet? What’s stopping you from going forward? Nothing, I hope.

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Hi Build-llionaires, welcome to the first episode of Build Builds. Our very first guest is Cody Simms, a Partner from Techstars. Techstars is an American seed-stage accelerator with over 1,600 startup companies in their portfolio. Some of their more prominent alumni include SendGrid, DigitalOcean, Zipline, and many more.

I was fortunate enough to be able to get a hold of Cody in person after he gave a couple of talks at a tech conference, right here in Hong Kong.

Cody was invited by the organizer to be a guest speaker at more than one panels, covering topics like:

“From zero to one hundred: Accelerating your first idea” and “Southeast Asia: Silicon Valley of the East?”

So I thought he would make a great inspirational guest on this podcast as well.

After our chat, I was especially fascinated by Cody’s story of how he got his start in tech, and how he worked his way up to where he is today.

Cody’s been studying the Chinese language for a long time, and his original career goal was more along the lines of something that would require his special language skills. And when that didn’t pan out at first, he’s not afraid to adapt to the next best opportunities that presented themselves.

This mindset is definitely helpful for when we are building builds. Things don’t always turn out the way you want them to, and so being adaptive to changes is a really important virtue.

And hey, look at Cody now. Who’s to say his language skills aren’t paying off as he’s traveling all around the world, including Asia.

So if there’s something you’ve been meaning to learn, or a new skill you’ve been wanting to pick up, do it as soon as you can. And keep going even if you don’t think you’ll see results right away. In the greater scheme of things, pretty much nothing we go out of our way to learn is ever “wasted” per se.

I’ll let you listen to the rest of Cody’s journey for yourself when I play the clip in just a little bit.

I do have to apologize in advance for the sound quality, since our chat was recorded in a tech conference environment, where it’s nowhere near soundproof.

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Hi Build-llionaires, welcome to Build Builds, a new podcast show about building innovative technology to make the world a more beautiful and more sustainable place.

In this introductory episode, you will hear a summary of my background and journey in tech, as well as what's waiting in store for you in future episodes.

Spoiler: I have been — and will continue to be — interviewing tech leaders and innovators from all around the world.

Hopefully our conversations will be insightful and inspirational for you as well.

Occasionally I will also share updates on my own tech experiments.