147: Transition from Hardware Product Startup to Hardware Scaleup

With Morgan Teachworth, VP of Engineering at Cisco Meraki

Hosted by Kevin Mako of MAKO Design + Invent

Morgan Teachworth was the head of Hardware at Meraki, which was acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion dollars, and is now the VP of Engineering & Supply Chain there.  He has been involved in the development of hundreds of physical mass manufactured product leading to approximately 16 million units of his products being sold around the world in his 15-year tenure with the organization.  Today Morgan is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand the difference between developing a product to sell as a startup to then developing products to sell as a growing scale-up brand, and what you can do to best strategize for this kind of explosive hardware company growth in the product space.

Today you will hear us talk about:

• How the customer changes as you scale your hardware product business
• Your customers become your salesforce in the very early stages
• Your next tier of customers are the wholesalers, distributors, resellers, etc.
• What are some new stakeholders
• Think about the factory, the installers, the resellers, 
• How do the stakeholders
• Micro stakeholders and macro stakeholders
• You can tune the product design, the packaging, the product experience, the manufacturing, all around multiple stakeholders
• Simplicity is an important part of design considerations, but also in all other stakeholders this should be considered too.
• Your values have to be pushed through your supply chain
• Keep your product simple, it’s actually easier to do as a small physical product business than it is as you grow, so start now.
• As you grow, you become the big incumbent now that other small innovators are trying to take on.
• Cross-functional initiatives help as you scale.

EPISODE LINKS

• Website: https://meraki.cisco.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mteachw/

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

• Website: https://www.ProductStartup.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ProductStartup/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ProductStartup/
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ProductStartup/
• Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProductStartup/
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ProductStartup/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProductStartup
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent

Mako Design Links:

• Website: https://www.makodesign.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MakoInvent/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MakoDesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakoInvent/
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MakoInvent/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MakoInvent/

Kevin Mako Links:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Entrepreneurs/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/KevMako/
• Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kevin-Mako
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevMakoPage/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevMako/

Thanks for tuning in! See you next time.

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!