The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast

Robotic Industrial Process Automation – Vicki Knott – Ep97

Robotic Industrial Process Automation – Vicki Knott – Ep97  Vicki is a Chemical Engineer and the CEO and Co-founder of Crux OCM which is a software start-up automating control room operations for major oil and gas assets.  Vicki started her career by commissioning control systems in the field and found out that controls systems require an operator to go through thousands of button pushes and 3 hours of work to start up a pipeline, for example. She knew there would be a way to automate this process.  We discuss how she and her co-founder started their business by first creating a scaled model and pitching it to potential clients. They are both engineers so the selling part of this was new to them and they joined a start-up accelerator to help them learn this part of running a business.  They now have their first 2 clients.  Vicki’s number one tip: “Learn how to sell. “  Pretty good advice!  Contact info:  vicki@cruxocm.com  The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com  Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp

Crash Octopus Board Game Invention- Nozomi Obinata – Ep96

Crash Octopus Board Game Invention- Nozomi Obinata – Ep96  Nozomi works at a company, Itten from Japan and they design board games. The Crash Octopus game is their 2nd game released using crowdfunding (Kickstarter).  We discussed how the idea was formed. Then how the prototypes were made by laser cutting wood.   Nozomi explains that the process of developing games is first by prototyping some pieces, then figuring out how to move them around in the game, and finally figuring out how to best mass-produce the game.  Contact info:  http://www.itten-games.com/  The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com 

Making Creative Facebook and Instagram Ads - Kevin Urrutia - Ep 95

Making Creative Facebook and Instagram Ads - Kevin Urrutia - Ep 95   Kevin Urrutia is the co-founder of New York-based Voy Media who specializes in creating for clients Facebook and Instagram ads that are sophisticated and super creative.  Kevin studied computer science and was good at creating software products, but didn’t have a lot of knowledge in marketing and therefore didn’t get a lot of traction on his products.  He tells a story of creating a maid service/cleaning company and it was almost entirely a marketing play. He found other people to do the actual work and he just took care of booking the jobs.  He now runs voymedia.com and helps other people with their digital marketing.  His number one tip is:  He thought marketing was a bad thing, but being your own marketer is important.   Contact info: kevin@voymedia.com 

Pro Basketball Combine Entrepreneur - Jake Kelfer – Ep 94

Pro Basketball Combine Entrepreneur - Jake Kelfer – Ep 94  Jake is a 2x bestselling author, global speaker, and founder of Pro Basketball Combine, which has helped 70+ NBA draft prospects sign their first contract, and coach to entrepreneurs and freedom seekers.  Jake had a love for basketball and wanted to work in the industry. He worked for one season at the Lakers and while he was there, he made many important connections in the industry.   He wanted to start his own business and he came up with the idea for the basketball combine. He found a need: players who are coming up the ranks needed more exposure and the NBA had just created a special contract category for 60 players. His event fulfilled this need and kickstarted his business which has led to other opportunities.   We covered many important topics related to any type of entrepreneur. And Jake’s number one tip is:  The ability to grow your business will be in direct correlation to the relationships you can build.  Contact info:  IG: @jakekelfer  FB: facebook.com/jakekelferjourney  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jakekelfer  Twitter: @jakekelfer    Website: jakekelfer.com 

Build What Matters - Rajesh Nerlikar – Ep 93

Build What Matters - Rajesh Nerlikar – Ep 93  Rajesh is a product advisor and coach. Having worked with 25 companies in the past 3 years and recently released a book called “Build What Matters” to share best practices from that experience.  Prior to that, he was an engineer turned MBA and worked in product management at a few startups and a larger enterprise company.  We discussed how important it is to know what the customer wants (hence the title, build what matters). There are many ways to find out what your customers want, like interviews and getting a waitlist for a new product.  Then we discussed his new book (Build What Matters).   His number one tip: Talk to people who might need your product.  Contact info:  rajesh@prodify.group 

World’s Smallest 200W USB Charger - Vinson Leow – Ep 92

World’s Smallest 200W USB Charger - Vinson Leow – Ep 92  Vinson is from Sydney, Australia and runs his company ChargeASAP, which is a startup originating from Sydney and has been creating highly innovative mobile phone accessories since 2016.  His latest product is the world’s smallest portable charger for mobile phones. The product is called Omega. It uses Gallium nitride technology, and we get into this during the show.  They just completed a Kickstarter campaign. Their goal was $10,000 but raised over $1M. We discussed how he ran the campaign, how prototypes were made and more.   Finally, we discussed some new products he has in the pipeline. One product is an improved flash powerbank.  Vinson’s Number one tip:  Spend less time designing, more time creating prototypes.  Contact info:  Customer service team  help@chargeasap.com  www.chargeasap.com 

Mobile Grip Gear and Inventor Coach - Donteacia Seymore - Ep 91

Mobile Grip Gear and Inventor Coach - Donteacia Seymore - Ep 91  Donteacia Seymore was starting a career in politics but had an idea for an invention. It was a way to put your phone on your hand when working out.   She created initial prototypes herself and created a Kickstarter campaign. After successfully selling for a while she sold the entire business and is now an inventor coach.  If you need help with your invention, you should check out her website.  Number one tip for inventors: find someone to help you that has already done it and make sure you get prototypes made before production  Contact info:  www.Freeinventiontraining.com 

Photography Card Deck Invention - Eric Bohring – Ep 90

Photography Card Deck Invention - Eric Bohring – Ep 90   Eric used to work in a corporate job, then set off to travel the world to follow his passion for photography.   Eric invented a playing card deck that doubles as a cheat sheet for photography. Each card has tips and tricks for taking great pictures. He also had a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch the product.     We talk through his entire process, from initial concept to prototypes, to the Kickstarter campaign and final production.   Contact info:   Youtube and Instagram: travel9to5   Website:  https://travel9to5.com  Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/travel9to5/photography-deck   

Machine learning, Artificial intelligence and the OAK Project - Brandon Gilles - Ep 89

Machine learning, Artificial intelligence and the OAK Project - Brandon Gilles -  Ep 89  Brandon is the founder and CEO of Luxonis and Chief Architect of the OpenCV AI Kit (OAK).  He's driven to build things that materially impact the world - and views OAK as his biggest opportunity to do so."  The OAK kit is a small chip with a camera that can be used to build your own AI machines. Say you want to remove a bad apple from a large pile? With OAK, you will be able to automate a robot to control this process.  We discuss a lot about how AI and machine learning work. If you are new to these topics, this will fill you in a lot.  We then discussed the specifics of Brandon’s background and how he created OAK.   His Kickstarter campaign just finished up and we discussed how that went as well.  Contact info:  Discussion Forum: https://discuss.luxonis.com/  Slack Community Invite: https://join.slack.com/t/luxonis-community/shared_invite/zt-emg3tas3-C_Q38TI5nZbKUazZdxwvXw  Email: brandon@luxonis.com 

Cybersecurity and Hackers - Raffi Jamgotchian – Ep88

Cybersecurity and Hackers - Raffi Jamgotchian – Ep88  Raffi Jamgotchian is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional who has helped thousands of small companies with their cybersecurity and he is the President of https://triadanet.com. We discussed many of the realities of cybersecurity in the modern business world. How to prevent getting hacked? What are ways to prevent critical information, like your intellectual property, safe?  We also discussed what is the dark web, what is ransomware, and some other related topics.  Contact info:  contact:  triadanet.com  triadanet on Twitter, Instagram   The Engineering Entrepreneur Podcast is produced by Scott Tarcy, President of CADdesignhelp.com. You can reach me at info@caddesignhelp.com  Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @caddesignhelp