April 30, 2024 • 37 mins
In this episode of The Bom: Engineering a Path Forward, we welcome Sera Evcimen, Founder of the startup consulting firm Pratik. Pratik focuses on finding practical solutions to finish hardware stacks and help get their product to market. Sera’s unique insight into the process of fleshing out a product’s design and manufacturing explains why she chooses to only work with companies that are designing meaningful and impactful hardware. If you’re curious about the best path forward for an engineer in the startup space, Sera has some advice, so tune in.
Pratik
The views and opinions expressed within this content are solely the speaker's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Supplyframe or its affiliates.
Pratik
The views and opinions expressed within this content are solely the speaker's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Supplyframe or its affiliates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've seen so many startups do tests and they don't
know why they're doing it because it's like kind of
industry standard or that's what they assume they need to
be doing. Just start with a question and if you're
making a lot of assumptions or imagination of mechanical components,
if it's not too complex, just go into the lab
and do it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome back to the bomb engineering a path forward and
the world of startups. New companies might seem to come
and go with the changing of the seasons. Even some
of the brightest minds and best solutions to complex problems
can find themselves struggling to get their company off the ground.
So how does a startup with a great idea pull
off an effective launch. Today's guest, Sarah Edgeman of the
startup consulting firm Critigue, is trying to answer that question.
(00:44):
Critique focuses on finding practical solutions to finish hardware stacks
and help teens get their product market set as unique
insight to the process of fleshing out of products design
and manufacturing. Explains why she chooses to only work with
companies that are designing meaningful and impactful hardware curious about
the best path forward for an engineer in the startup space.
Seta have some advice, so stay tuned. This is my
(01:05):
conversation with Seta Edgeman, and this is the Bomb. We
live in a time where design and technology touch every
aspect of our lives. But where did it all come from?
Who designed it? How is it built and brought to market?
What will look like in a year, two years, one
(01:27):
hundred years. From the phones and smartwatches that help us
in our day to day to the cutting edge spaceships
and three D printers that are leading us into the future.
Modern design is constantly shaping the way we work, communicate,
problem solve, and play. And every new design, bigger, small,
starts with an idea and a bill of materials. I'm
agenta strongheart and this is the Bomb where we talk
to leading innovators in the tech world and celebrate the
(01:48):
transformational power of design. So before we get into kind
of your back and what brought you to where you
are today, I love for you to introduce your practice
and tell us more about Critique and what you all
do there and what kind of clients you're working with.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Pritique has been such a lovely journey thus far. A
lot of people maybe don't know this is that pritik
is actually a Turkish word. It means practical, and that's
kind of the brand of me in a way. I
always love practical solutions. I like to be very efficient
with what I do and always the practice that I do.
(02:33):
It's a consulting business, so I work with a lot
of startups. I partner with them and try to clarify
the next steps of what they need to do so
that their hardware product can be successful. And it's not
this daunting task or lack of clarity and tasks that
are ahead of them. And to answer your second question
of who do I work with, I work with a
(02:53):
pretty large swath of different types of products. Currently I'm
working on a company that's working on power transmission cables,
another company that's working on a very novel kind of
life's treatment for kids, and I'm just it's just such
(03:14):
a weird thing to care a lot about, but I
do because I feel like the current, the current way
of that happening seems terrible from what I can understand.
So that and then I worked with a company that
was working on cold fusion to decontaminate seeds, and it
just kind of varies. My passion lies and impact projects,
(03:38):
So anything that has either social impact or make something
more efficient or solves climate change in some way, that's
where I like to focus my efforts on.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Great, No, that's a lot to kind of dive into.
Just to clarify, I think it'd be helpful to have
a little bit if you could tell us some specific
kind of whether you want to do it through anecdotes
or just kind of types of expertise that you're offering
to these teams. I know you kind of range between
some of the engineering and design points to kind of
(04:12):
project management, systems design, and all the way I think
into kind of the design for manufacturer and engineering for manufacturers,
So if you can tell us a little bit more
specifically what you're consulting on.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Of course, yes, so the types of engagements that I
have really focused around product development, execution, manufacturing development, and
supply chain. So product development includes all of the things
that you just mentioned where it could be the systems
(04:47):
engineering that goes into product development, So understanding your requirements
and having pretty robust verification and validation testing, robust but
low touch, which I feel like that is really important
in startups because you need to learn as quickly as
you can, but also can't go super deep into the
(05:07):
weeds because you don't have time. And then DFS, where
it's a lot of the companies that I'm working with
are going to build multiple of these things, or it's
an industrial application, so it's just really important for it
to be deployable, So kind of bringing that perspective into
product development. And then on the manufacturing side, which is
(05:30):
my personal passion. I love thinking about manufacturing, So it's
about manufacturing development, understanding manufacturability from kind of carryover from
product development, setting up kind of low touch operations, quality infrastructure,
and working with a lot of suppliers, whether if they
(05:52):
are outsourcing the manufacturing and sourcing it, kind of working
through those decisions and then kind of follow through in management.
So I tried to help startups really navigate those slightly
uncharted territory of that because big companies really dominate a
lot of the capacity of really product development and suppliers
(06:17):
in the world, so it's really hard to navigate it
as a startup knowing you're coming from a low leverage standpoint.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Definitely, that's funny that that came up that recently came
up on another interview I did with Madison Maxie, and
we were talking about professionalism and how to kind of
instill that and keep it up throughout changes and growth
of a startup and that sort of thing. So I
love those moments when kind of like themes, you know,
(06:45):
keep coming up between across conversations. Obviously, it's relevant and
important to a lot of folks in the industry, so
you covered a lot of ground there. I really love
the way you're talking kind of holistically about supporting these
startups and the product development process, and I think it'd
be really interesting to just hear kind of where you
(07:06):
came from and how you gain all this knowledge to
be able to work across these different aspects of building
a company and building a product.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Sure, I mean it started when I was three years old.
I'm just kidding. I was a mechanical engineer by trade,
and my entire career started in a startup world. I
worked at a company out at the engine one of
the first investments they made actually, and there I really
learned to wear a lot of hats. In every single
(07:36):
startup employment that I had, I always tried to absorb
and do as much as I can to help the company,
and I just naturally loved doing that. So in my
first job, I was a mechanical engineer, but I was
also a sales engineer, so I worked on business development
and I was in a clean room building a satellite.
In the second job I held, which is how I
(07:57):
actually got acquainted with Balcoon's, was a bolt company, and
there I was the only mechanical engineer, so I was
doing supply chain management and mechanical engineering and test engineering
and like kind of all of those things, and they
had really good resources of people I could ask questions too,
because I was still pretty early career and I was
just sponging as much as I possibly could. And each
(08:18):
of the startups that I went to had completely different
cultures to completely different founders, very different products, with very
different backgrounds. So I started to kind of build almost
like a portfolio career as I went through it because
they were just in very different industries. The first was space,
second was consumer electronics, and then from there I went
to fusion Energy, which has nothing to do with either
(08:39):
of those things. Well, I guess space maybe because you're
trying to build a star on Earth. But there I
did was I started as a mechanical engineer and then
quickly became a system's integration lead, where I was doing
systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, a little bit of
test engineering. I worked on procurement and like was the
technical liaison for those so as I said, like I
(09:01):
was just trying to always get this broader view and
like connecting all of the dots together, and there I
really learned how to be a systems level thinker. After that,
I worked on ion thrusters and then robotics, so it
was like I just was able to cover a lot
of industries, which gave me this really inherent understanding of
(09:23):
like what is the equation that makes certain products successful
or like not great? What types of founders are there? Like,
I just met so many people, so my like data
of people increased every single time I met someone new,
and that contributed, I think to me having very strong
(09:43):
opinions of what to do and very much what not
to do.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You are like making my job too easy. That's like
the perfect segue into what I was going to ask
you next, which makes sense of course, because we had
discussed this earlier in some of the work that you do,
that your kind of dues and don'ts and pro tips
are really what you bring to the table, of course,
and so I'd love to get into some of those.
What would you say generally, you know, if you're willing
(10:09):
to share, are the top kind of points that you're
sure to call out or maybe even be aware of
when you're first meeting a company you might work with
and maybe see some green flags or red flags about
what they might be up against.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Totally. I mean the way that I guess judge any
startup is what I care about is that they're working
on hardware, that they are aware and ready to get better,
and want advice because some people think they want advice
but they don't, so that and that they're impactful. Those
(10:47):
are the main kind of criteria when I look at
the startups that I work with, and in terms of
kind of I guess dos and don'ts the dues for me,
I guess maybe this is too specific on the engineering side,
but some of them are specific in some of them
are high level. One is, please write requirements, any requirement
at all. It doesn't have to be a super in
(11:09):
depth document, but you need requirements to know what you're
kind of striving towards focus and prioritization is something that
is inherently important and often overlooked. It's always very fun
to drive forward multiple ideas and multiple product lines, but
you have to learn. In order to learn, you need
(11:31):
to focus. And this kind of is almost like a
sub bullet where it's like systematically get rid of optionality. Again,
very fun to work on a bunch of stuff, but
also it can kill you kill your schedule and you're learning.
Make sure that your tests are linked to either requirements
or discovery that you need or a risk that you're
(11:55):
trying to de risk. I've seen so many startups do
tests and they don't know why they're doing it because
it's like kind of industry standard or that's what they
assume they need to be doing. Just start with the
question and if you're making a lot of assumptions or
imagination of mechanical components, if it's not too complex, just
go into the lab and do it and make it
(12:16):
sample and like you don't have to have a very
robust plan with it, just like kind of just play
around with it, see what it looks like, and your
assumptions will be humbled with that experience.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Those are really great. Thank you so much for sharing.
I think there's a really nice range there of kind
of super tangible takeaways and also more like mentality and
how to reproach the thinking around some of these things.
I'm interested in what you're saying around the prioritization. I
think that's a huge challenge for not just companies but
(12:48):
even individuals in this field. Right, And how do you
have if you have any kind of steps that people
can go through to really stay away from, you know,
being overwhelmed or kind of multitasking, trying to go between
issues or different ideas.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I think it's important to note that if like you're
trying to do so much at once, it means that
you're probably a pretty like high achieving person because if
and you want to do things well and you want
to complete stuff, I think one step is like almost
like a metacognition of if you're spreading yourself that then
none of the things you're going to do or going
to be the quality that feels good. So like kind
(13:28):
of just like that could help you stop that because
I tend to do that too, and I think the
way to actively prioritizees like obviously, like number one is
to understand what the key stakeholders care about. And this
could be your manager, it could be your team that's
waiting on something, it could be your customer, or it
(13:49):
could be like the end product or another system that's
neighboring your system. And then from there, when you understand
what kind of blocker you're becoming, I think, then you
can think about it in the framework of risk. It's
just like, if I don't do this by this time,
what is the risk? And maybe you're working on three
(14:10):
systems at once, It's like, what are the risks and
which one has the least amount of risk? I could
kind of back put that in the back burner, and
then the ones that have the highest risk I can
work on And then you can check your assumption with
other people, being like I feel like these are the
most risky and I'm going to like work on these.
And actually I've been really good at monotasking recently. And
(14:32):
what I do. Another like tangible step is on my calendar,
I have color quoted blocks where I mentally know like
a color coate means one client, second color coate means
another client, And I put my to do item in
the title, so I know that in the next two hours,
I'm not thinking about anything but that one thing, and
(14:53):
I give my spell space for that, and I say,
I'm not going to look at my email. I'm going
to open like I actually get rid of my monitor
because monotasking is better when you have one screen. And
I just I finished that. Once the hour's up, then
I can look at my email and do all the things.
But that's how I do it personally.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And this reminds me of a conversation actually another episode
we did with Valentina Ratner, and she was talking about
kind of the massive It was also similar around you know,
avoiding feature creep and how do they prioritize what issues
they need to get to. Mostly, I think it was
around kind of customer feedback and things that were being
you know, being brought up every day from the customer
(15:33):
or the test they were doing, and they just had
this one massive central to do list that several of
the you know, kind of team leads at the company
would look over and move things up and down the list,
and you know, it wasn't like you were going to
get through the list in one day or a week
or a month. It was kind of never ending, but
(15:55):
they were able to kind of I think, you know,
vote up and down the different tasks and like you said,
really think about out what was going to be the
greatest impact or risk if they didn't get to it
by a certain time, right. I also wanted to touch
on something you mentioned around your background. You know, you're
saying that it sounds like a lot of these different startups,
you're wearing a lot of hats, right, even if you
(16:16):
might have come in as a specific engineering role, you
ended up taking up sales or learning about larger systems
or other aspects of the company. And for folks who
are coming out of school in engineering and really do
want to be competitive and trying to get those startup roles,
what would you recommend as far as preparing for that
(16:39):
or how they can hone some of those skills. I mean,
something you mentioned obviously is being a sponge, so like
once you're there, learning everything you can from different aspects.
And I think we all know obviously startups are small,
lean teams, so they want folks they can wear those
different hats and can really take on more than one
role if possible. But how can someone and you know,
(17:00):
outside of the technical things they're focused on in their
you know, engineering education. If you have any tips on
kind of how they can prepare for that role and
to be competitive in that way.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, I think. I mean I'll take one like meta
step back is that I think there needs to be
a decent amount of reflection to make sure that you
know what you're going into, because it's really not for everyone.
Like I think working at a startup has this like
kind of cool factor to it and like it's the
new thing and you do get really good experience. It's
(17:34):
like they always say, one year at a startup is
like three years in the industry, and so it's it's
really about how you feel like you produce the best results.
I for example, I like creating my own structure rather
than going into one. So startups are really great grounds
for that because they really are looking for people to
(17:56):
be incredibly autonomous and to like see problems and solve
them with like low touch structure, as you said, like
be able to wear wear hats. So it's like I
guess like step number one is to make sure that
you would be either doesn't necessarily need to be that
you're comfortable with it, but you want to do it
and like that's okay that you're going into that and
(18:20):
potentially just like going to be like thrown into the
deep end of it. I think honing in skills for
successful career in startup is having very good kind of
hands on skills. The only reason that I got the
first job at the startup that I was, I think
is because I did my internship there. And I think
(18:42):
the reason I got my internship is because I worked
at a machine shop and that was definitely what kind
of put me aside from other candidates. I think that
applied to the internship because I know that it was competitive.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
We're going to take a quick break. But when we
were Seda tells us about some of the challenges she
faces working in a startup environment and how deciding where
she spends her time has ready fined the impact she
makes in her work. Welcome back to the MOMB Engineering
(19:21):
A Path Forward. I'm your host, Magenta Strongheart. When we
left off, Seda was sharing her experience and advice to
the new generation of engineers looking to get their foot
in the door and the flexibility required to stake your
claim in the hardware industry. I also wanted to highlight
what you were saying about kind of the romanticizing roles
(19:41):
within the startup world. Of course, there's a lot of excitement.
There's a lot of things that are very appealing that
young engineers get super stoked about, or not even exclusively
you know, to engineers, but people get excited about joining
a startup without really knowing what they're getting into. Like
you said, so, I think it's great to call out
some of those things. Being able to be kind of
(20:02):
proactive and independent, you're most likely, unless maybe you have
a certain type of founder, not going to be to
micromanaged because everyone just has too much to work on
and focus on, and so that doesn't work for everyone.
And I think it is important to remember that that
there's pros and cons of course, And again I think
this leads really nicely into another question I wanted to
(20:24):
ask you around what do you think have been the
major kind of differences and things you like, things you've
had to get used to a little bit between going
from your day job to founding this, you know, consulting
company and working with so many different companies with different
challenges all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
As everything it has its pros, it has its cons.
I think pros outweigh the cons and that's why I'm
still here, still standing. The pros I'd say is I
really love being able to dictate my own time. That's
not my main reason why I did it, but it
was a wonderful byproduct of doing it. I just have
(21:04):
more time for my art, my family, and yoga. That
was the first, like kind of unfiltered pro that I
could think of. Secondly is that I've definitely five to
ten xt my impact. I think by being able to
shift around different companies and work with different products and
(21:25):
really just like continuously learn about different industries, different markets
and help all of these founders. So that's super important
to me because I've always been like, how can I
do more for the community. I'd say the dynamic really
works in my favor because in past roles I've i
was saying some of the same stuff I say today
(21:47):
to my clients, where I'd be like, we should do
this better, we should do this differently, and we should
have this consideration upfront. And I think because I was
an employee, it was harder to implement. But when you
come at it from this outside perspective, consultant and advisor
position people are more likely to implement it and see
(22:08):
the positive results. So it's a little bit more satisfying
in that way, because it's really hard to constantly say
something that you know to be true and it not
get implemented because of reasons. And now I really do
see the direct impact I have because I work with
clients for long periods of time, so I actually get
to see the life cycle of the decisions or the
(22:30):
risks that I help them de risk and all of
that and how it pans out. So it's just it's
great to be able to note that, and it also
gives me time to do workshops and talks and build
the community and do my podcast, which is again along
the line of increasing the impact. So I've really loved it,
(22:50):
and those have been the things that are going in
my way. CON's is I'm a lab person, as I said,
like my entire career journey started in machines, so it's
really hard for me sometimes to be a little bit
more removed than I would as an engineer. I do
have the privilege of going into client sites and working
(23:11):
in their labs with them to train their engineers and stuff,
but it's not something that I very commonly or like
every day do so I miss that, and I think
that's a big con for me. I'm a part of
many teams, but also not a part of any, so
it's that that part always is just I'm a sole
(23:33):
proprietor LLC. When I have all hands, it's just me
with the different wigs around a table. So there's that.
And then obviously, I mean, this is not a con,
but this is I guess something where I feel like
there's this concept of you feel like you never know enough,
and so I'm just like, as I learn more about
(23:55):
and work with new products, I feel like there are
just so many other ones and it gives me this
kind of hunger but also dissatisfaction because I'm like, I
want to know everything, but I will never know everything
and there will always be more to learn. So that's
a pro anacon, I guess, and that's kind of been
my experience with the Transition recently.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
That's super great. And I can't let another moment go
by where you mentioned your podcast and we don't plug it.
Let the people know what's name of your podcast and
what do you talk about on the pod?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Oh? Of course, Yeah, So my podcast is called the
builder circle by critique, and the whole promise of it
is again with the mission statement that I said earlier,
is that I want to make sure that hardware is
more accessible and successful. And the episodes really really hyper
focus on specific areas within product development, manufacturing, supply chain,
(24:50):
and launch, even a little bit of fundraising and pitch
deck creation for hardware specifically, and each episode dives into
how to implement that in a we're innovation or hardware
startup environment with very narrowed in questions that I ask
experts that I find in that specific field and we
have a discussion around it. And every episode's end with TLDL,
(25:14):
which is basically too long didn't listen, because the episodes
are an hour long, which is too much for some folks,
and I want to get the information out to them.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And just listen them on one point five speed or
whatever people.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Exactly, they definitely should I speak slowly, is what I've learned.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
I love that there's a super practical too long didn't
listen round up at the end goes along with everything
you've been saying so far. If anyone doubts that you
are practical, they can't. After this episode definite least, so
check out the Builder Circle. We can definitely link that
in the show notes as well, so it'll be easy
for folks to find because I have a feeling there's
a lot of overlap with our audiences and I'm sure
(25:53):
a lot of your conversations will be relevant to whoever's
listening to this, So definitely check it out. And I
want to be conscientious of our time. But something you
mentioned was kind of perfect for one of our last
questions here is, as you mentioned, you're trying to make
things more accessible, you're sharing the knowledge in all these
different ways, and in that you're also a tech Star advisor.
(26:17):
I'm not sure exactly what the official role is.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I'm a mentor in residence.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Mentor in residence even better titled and advisor, and I'd
love for you to just tell us quickly kind of
what that means mentor and residence and if there's anything
you've been super excited about recently by what you've seen
with some of the tech Stars startups.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So the role itself basically entails that startups have direct
kind of office hours in a direct line of communication
with me when it comes to anything that's related to
their product development. The tech Star's main office that I
work with is Paris, and I also mentor for the
Boston office as well. I'm the hardware gal like that's
(26:56):
kind of the role that I play there. And usually
the arrangement is that I work with some of their
software startups do specifically if they have like a hardware edge,
or if they're just really interested in creating a product roadmap.
That's been kind of my contribution to most of them,
just to systematically think of what they're going to build
(27:18):
and how they're going to build it, and what they're
going to focus on. And the arrangement is pretty simple.
They come to me, they come with their product, they
come with their perceived problems. I help them identify more problems,
and then we work together on usually like a weekly
cadence depending on the program and depending on how many
people there are, weekly or bi weekly, and we work
(27:41):
through each of those We kind of comb through those problems.
I give them homework to do so that the next
time we can see how if the problem was resolved
and set them up so that once they exit the
program they have a pretty clear notion of where they're
going with their product, what tests they're doing, what pilots
they should should take on, and a really good plan
(28:03):
of how they can articulate this to investors so that
they can get the funds that they need to progress forward.
So it's been a great experience because it's really given
me the entire clarity around the entire life cycle of
what it takes to build a company and a product
rather than just like focusing on the hardware development part.
(28:23):
And I've personally really loved it. And the European offices
tend to invest more in hardware, which is great. And yeah,
that's been that's been my experience there.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
All right, So we're going to wrap up shortly here
if you could just these will kind of we'll think
of them more as like rapid fire questions. What's your
favorite part of your job?
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Favorite part of my job is clearing the fog, So
basically making sure and helping people who don't know what
the next step is to have extreme clarity on what
the next three steps are and knowing exactly who they
should talk do, how they should go about it. Again,
I feel like I am beating this dead horse on practicality,
(29:05):
but it's just like really giving a practical pathway, like, as.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
You mentioned before, when you're getting to come in kind
of from this outside roller perspective, it can be really
I think a relief probably to folks who might have
been like they need that clear scent of eyes to
help them have clarity. And I think it makes sense
that that's like, you know, the kind of value you're
able to add in your role, and I love the
(29:30):
way you put that. The defogging. I think that's huge
and super helpful when you're just kind of into deep
to your own own problems. All right, and what's one
non technology thing that is inspiring you these days?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I mean, this is going to be such a lamb answer,
but I've been really into cooking recently.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
And not on an answer.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Okay, well good then it's it's kind of funny because
my partner always jokes that the reason I really like
cooking is because it resembles an assembly line, and I'm like,
now you've ruined it for me. I was trying to
make it not related to anything I do on the daily,
but here we are. But I'm Turkish, so I really have.
(30:14):
I have these amazing Turkish cookbooks that I've been kind
of dog earing and trying to find different recipes because
I'm just bored of what I always do and just
trying more eclectic, new new things, different types of vegetables
and stuff. So that's been my non technology super fun
(30:35):
chopping and seasoning.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
No, I love that, and I can relate to that
as well, and don't worry about the assembly line common
I feel like cooking is still super creative. But yes,
of course there can be that aspect if you make
it super organized, which again I think is like why not,
it will make it that makes it more fun for
some people to be more organized, exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
That's what I tell myself. I want to ask what.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
The cookbooks, because I'm someone who this is a problem.
Like I collect cookbooks. I get gifted them. I love them.
It's like one of my favorite kinds of gifts to get.
I love cooking. I cook all the time. But I
am not great about actually going to the cookbooks when
I want a recipe. Like I've been telling myself recently,
I need to just go through and be like, I'm
(31:21):
doing this cookbook, you know, for the next two months,
until I go through everything and then go to the
next cookbook. Are you good about really like going back
to the cookbook again and again, or have you made
it like a goal, you know, to do one recipe
a week from this cookbook or something. I feel like
I would actually need to really like make a specific
goal or structure around it, otherwise I'll end up looking
something quickly up on my phone or just like going
(31:43):
back to you know, recipes I know that are quick
and easy and I don't have to follow instructions.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
For You're gonna love my approach to this so much
from what we've talked about.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
There's a gam chart for it.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Now, there is a gaant chart. There is a risk matrix. No,
but there is color coded post its. So what I
do is instead of because I think at the moment
where you're like, I want to cook a meal, I
think the I don't know about you, but I tend
to be quite lazy sometimes specifically in those like when
I have to cook, and so the barrier of entry
(32:19):
is already pretty high. And if I also have to
learn like what I need to buy and then also
carry out a recipe, I'm definitely more of like a
wing it person. So so you don't do that part then,
So what I do is when I'm feeling I don't
know either. Bored, I like, I want to do something.
I grab a cookbook and I go through it and
(32:40):
like mark what I would like, And then each kind
of recipe has a different color, where it's like this
is for lunch, this is for dinner, this is like vegetarian,
this is more like a snack or something like that,
because there's like all kinds of recipes. And then when
I'm feeling this like creativity boost and I want to
(33:03):
cook something new that week, that's when I go back
and it's like already like filtered out. I know like
which ones I like. Rather than like flipping through the
entire book, I can just like kind of pick one
of the post its and be like, oh, not that much,
but this one yes, and kind of go from there.
Love it.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You've made it less overwhelming, you made it color coded,
you do the grocery shopping in advance.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
You've taken out all the guesswork and the annoying parts
that get overwhelming. And last but not least, what is
on your personal bill of materials?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
All right? So this was the question that struss me
out the most. I was like, I'm gonna get it
wrong and it's going to be just like, you know,
there's this like Demi Levado meme where they're like, what's
your favorite dish? And she's like, I like cups, Like
I really didn't want to. I didn't want to kind
of hit that part of the spectrum. I have not
(33:57):
seen that, but I need to buy it.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That's me.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
She like goes off. She's like, I like cups because
you know you can hold that. It's just like you're
talking about food. Oh so I was really stressed out
about this particular question. But I'm going to start with
what my interpretation of the question is so that I
don't look like a fool. Not that Demi Lavada was
a fool, I understand I probably would have answered the
same way. But my interpretation is that what do I
(34:22):
need to obtain for myself is kind of how I
received the question, and I have I have a list
and I will finish off the list.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Go for it, let's hear. I think that's a great
interpretation of it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So amazing. Okay, So number one is more opportunities to
speak and increase my impact. I love I love giving talks,
I love kind of giving workshops, and I have a
few of them lined up for the for the year,
which I'm super excited about. I'm going to write an
ebook that's going to be about what startups should avoid
(34:57):
and hardware horror stories and the promise of the That
is a lot of content out there is how to
build the perfect business, build the perfect product, like what
steps to follow there, but a lot of people don't
talk about the cautionary tales and what not to do.
So I'm flipping it on its head and I'm going
to make a very very much like a negative a
(35:18):
negative version of that, but to provide positive impact, I
really want to obtain a bigger network of suppliers and
good engineering firms. I feel like that's like an extension
to my services. So I love to kind of build
that ecosystem within my company. I want to paint more,
(35:39):
want to be a nature more, and I want to
volunteer more. So those were those were what came out
when I thought about it.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
That way beautiful nailed it. We have not had someone
use it as like a list of goals, and I
think that's a great interpretation and again totally on brands,
so way to just drive it all home. And I
couldn't agree more. Those are actually a lot of my
own goals for this year, so it's great to hear
someone else in the ecosystem working on those kinds of things.
(36:08):
I'm sure a lot of people can relate to them,
and we'll definitely have to keep an eye out for
the events You're going to be speaking at, your ebook
coming out, and of course checking out the Builder Circle.
We are running out of time here, so I'm going
to say thank you so much. Seta is so great
to just like geek out with a fellow fabrication nerd
and organizational nerd, and I really got some helpful practical
(36:31):
tips and I'm sure our listeners did as well. So
thank you for your time today.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Thank you so much for having me. It was a
pleasure that was Seta.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Evjamin, founder of the startup consulting firm Critique. There are
a million startups out there, but Seta's processes help bring
the most useful ones to our world. This has been
the Bomb engineering a path forward. If you like the Bomb,
don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever
(37:05):
you get your podcasts. You can follow supply Frame and
Hackaday on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and design Lab at
supply Frame Design Lab on Instagram and Twitter. The Bomb
is a supply Frame podcast produced by Me, Magenta Strongheart
and Ryan Tillotson, written by Maggie Bowles and edited by
Daniel Ferrara. Theme music is by Anna Hogman. Show art
by Thomas Schneider. Special thanks to Giovanni Selinas, Bruce Dimingez,
(37:28):
Thomas Woodward, Jin Kumar, Jordan Clark, the entire supply Frame
team and you are wonderful listeners. I'm your host, Magenta Strongheart.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
See you next week.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
What
I've seen so many startups do tests and they don't
know why they're doing it because it's like kind of
industry standard or that's what they assume they need to
be doing. Just start with a question and if you're
making a lot of assumptions or imagination of mechanical components,
if it's not too complex, just go into the lab
and do it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome back to the bomb engineering a path forward and
the world of startups. New companies might seem to come
and go with the changing of the seasons. Even some
of the brightest minds and best solutions to complex problems
can find themselves struggling to get their company off the ground.
So how does a startup with a great idea pull
off an effective launch. Today's guest, Sarah Edgeman of the
startup consulting firm Critigue, is trying to answer that question.
(00:44):
Critique focuses on finding practical solutions to finish hardware stacks
and help teens get their product market set as unique
insight to the process of fleshing out of products design
and manufacturing. Explains why she chooses to only work with
companies that are designing meaningful and impactful hardware curious about
the best path forward for an engineer in the startup space.
Seta have some advice, so stay tuned. This is my
(01:05):
conversation with Seta Edgeman, and this is the Bomb. We
live in a time where design and technology touch every
aspect of our lives. But where did it all come from?
Who designed it? How is it built and brought to market?
What will look like in a year, two years, one
(01:27):
hundred years. From the phones and smartwatches that help us
in our day to day to the cutting edge spaceships
and three D printers that are leading us into the future.
Modern design is constantly shaping the way we work, communicate,
problem solve, and play. And every new design, bigger, small,
starts with an idea and a bill of materials. I'm
agenta strongheart and this is the Bomb where we talk
to leading innovators in the tech world and celebrate the
(01:48):
transformational power of design. So before we get into kind
of your back and what brought you to where you
are today, I love for you to introduce your practice
and tell us more about Critique and what you all
do there and what kind of clients you're working with.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Pritique has been such a lovely journey thus far. A
lot of people maybe don't know this is that pritik
is actually a Turkish word. It means practical, and that's
kind of the brand of me in a way. I
always love practical solutions. I like to be very efficient
with what I do and always the practice that I do.
(02:33):
It's a consulting business, so I work with a lot
of startups. I partner with them and try to clarify
the next steps of what they need to do so
that their hardware product can be successful. And it's not
this daunting task or lack of clarity and tasks that
are ahead of them. And to answer your second question
of who do I work with, I work with a
(02:53):
pretty large swath of different types of products. Currently I'm
working on a company that's working on power transmission cables,
another company that's working on a very novel kind of
life's treatment for kids, and I'm just it's just such
(03:14):
a weird thing to care a lot about, but I
do because I feel like the current, the current way
of that happening seems terrible from what I can understand.
So that and then I worked with a company that
was working on cold fusion to decontaminate seeds, and it
just kind of varies. My passion lies and impact projects,
(03:38):
So anything that has either social impact or make something
more efficient or solves climate change in some way, that's
where I like to focus my efforts on.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Great, No, that's a lot to kind of dive into.
Just to clarify, I think it'd be helpful to have
a little bit if you could tell us some specific
kind of whether you want to do it through anecdotes
or just kind of types of expertise that you're offering
to these teams. I know you kind of range between
some of the engineering and design points to kind of
(04:12):
project management, systems design, and all the way I think
into kind of the design for manufacturer and engineering for manufacturers,
So if you can tell us a little bit more
specifically what you're consulting on.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Of course, yes, so the types of engagements that I
have really focused around product development, execution, manufacturing development, and
supply chain. So product development includes all of the things
that you just mentioned where it could be the systems
(04:47):
engineering that goes into product development, So understanding your requirements
and having pretty robust verification and validation testing, robust but
low touch, which I feel like that is really important
in startups because you need to learn as quickly as
you can, but also can't go super deep into the
(05:07):
weeds because you don't have time. And then DFS, where
it's a lot of the companies that I'm working with
are going to build multiple of these things, or it's
an industrial application, so it's just really important for it
to be deployable, So kind of bringing that perspective into
product development. And then on the manufacturing side, which is
(05:30):
my personal passion. I love thinking about manufacturing, So it's
about manufacturing development, understanding manufacturability from kind of carryover from
product development, setting up kind of low touch operations, quality infrastructure,
and working with a lot of suppliers, whether if they
(05:52):
are outsourcing the manufacturing and sourcing it, kind of working
through those decisions and then kind of follow through in management.
So I tried to help startups really navigate those slightly
uncharted territory of that because big companies really dominate a
lot of the capacity of really product development and suppliers
(06:17):
in the world, so it's really hard to navigate it
as a startup knowing you're coming from a low leverage standpoint.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Definitely, that's funny that that came up that recently came
up on another interview I did with Madison Maxie, and
we were talking about professionalism and how to kind of
instill that and keep it up throughout changes and growth
of a startup and that sort of thing. So I
love those moments when kind of like themes, you know,
(06:45):
keep coming up between across conversations. Obviously, it's relevant and
important to a lot of folks in the industry, so
you covered a lot of ground there. I really love
the way you're talking kind of holistically about supporting these
startups and the product development process, and I think it'd
be really interesting to just hear kind of where you
(07:06):
came from and how you gain all this knowledge to
be able to work across these different aspects of building
a company and building a product.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Sure, I mean it started when I was three years old.
I'm just kidding. I was a mechanical engineer by trade,
and my entire career started in a startup world. I
worked at a company out at the engine one of
the first investments they made actually, and there I really
learned to wear a lot of hats. In every single
(07:36):
startup employment that I had, I always tried to absorb
and do as much as I can to help the company,
and I just naturally loved doing that. So in my
first job, I was a mechanical engineer, but I was
also a sales engineer, so I worked on business development
and I was in a clean room building a satellite.
In the second job I held, which is how I
(07:57):
actually got acquainted with Balcoon's, was a bolt company, and
there I was the only mechanical engineer, so I was
doing supply chain management and mechanical engineering and test engineering
and like kind of all of those things, and they
had really good resources of people I could ask questions too,
because I was still pretty early career and I was
just sponging as much as I possibly could. And each
(08:18):
of the startups that I went to had completely different
cultures to completely different founders, very different products, with very
different backgrounds. So I started to kind of build almost
like a portfolio career as I went through it because
they were just in very different industries. The first was space,
second was consumer electronics, and then from there I went
to fusion Energy, which has nothing to do with either
(08:39):
of those things. Well, I guess space maybe because you're
trying to build a star on Earth. But there I
did was I started as a mechanical engineer and then
quickly became a system's integration lead, where I was doing
systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, a little bit of
test engineering. I worked on procurement and like was the
technical liaison for those so as I said, like I
(09:01):
was just trying to always get this broader view and
like connecting all of the dots together, and there I
really learned how to be a systems level thinker. After that,
I worked on ion thrusters and then robotics, so it
was like I just was able to cover a lot
of industries, which gave me this really inherent understanding of
(09:23):
like what is the equation that makes certain products successful
or like not great? What types of founders are there? Like,
I just met so many people, so my like data
of people increased every single time I met someone new,
and that contributed, I think to me having very strong
(09:43):
opinions of what to do and very much what not
to do.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You are like making my job too easy. That's like
the perfect segue into what I was going to ask
you next, which makes sense of course, because we had
discussed this earlier in some of the work that you do,
that your kind of dues and don'ts and pro tips
are really what you bring to the table, of course,
and so I'd love to get into some of those.
What would you say generally, you know, if you're willing
(10:09):
to share, are the top kind of points that you're
sure to call out or maybe even be aware of
when you're first meeting a company you might work with
and maybe see some green flags or red flags about
what they might be up against.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Totally. I mean the way that I guess judge any
startup is what I care about is that they're working
on hardware, that they are aware and ready to get better,
and want advice because some people think they want advice
but they don't, so that and that they're impactful. Those
(10:47):
are the main kind of criteria when I look at
the startups that I work with, and in terms of
kind of I guess dos and don'ts the dues for me,
I guess maybe this is too specific on the engineering side,
but some of them are specific in some of them
are high level. One is, please write requirements, any requirement
at all. It doesn't have to be a super in
(11:09):
depth document, but you need requirements to know what you're
kind of striving towards focus and prioritization is something that
is inherently important and often overlooked. It's always very fun
to drive forward multiple ideas and multiple product lines, but
you have to learn. In order to learn, you need
(11:31):
to focus. And this kind of is almost like a
sub bullet where it's like systematically get rid of optionality. Again,
very fun to work on a bunch of stuff, but
also it can kill you kill your schedule and you're learning.
Make sure that your tests are linked to either requirements
or discovery that you need or a risk that you're
(11:55):
trying to de risk. I've seen so many startups do
tests and they don't know why they're doing it because
it's like kind of industry standard or that's what they
assume they need to be doing. Just start with the
question and if you're making a lot of assumptions or
imagination of mechanical components, if it's not too complex, just
go into the lab and do it and make it
(12:16):
sample and like you don't have to have a very
robust plan with it, just like kind of just play
around with it, see what it looks like, and your
assumptions will be humbled with that experience.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Those are really great. Thank you so much for sharing.
I think there's a really nice range there of kind
of super tangible takeaways and also more like mentality and
how to reproach the thinking around some of these things.
I'm interested in what you're saying around the prioritization. I
think that's a huge challenge for not just companies but
(12:48):
even individuals in this field. Right, And how do you
have if you have any kind of steps that people
can go through to really stay away from, you know,
being overwhelmed or kind of multitasking, trying to go between
issues or different ideas.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I think it's important to note that if like you're
trying to do so much at once, it means that
you're probably a pretty like high achieving person because if
and you want to do things well and you want
to complete stuff, I think one step is like almost
like a metacognition of if you're spreading yourself that then
none of the things you're going to do or going
to be the quality that feels good. So like kind
(13:28):
of just like that could help you stop that because
I tend to do that too, and I think the
way to actively prioritizees like obviously, like number one is
to understand what the key stakeholders care about. And this
could be your manager, it could be your team that's
waiting on something, it could be your customer, or it
(13:49):
could be like the end product or another system that's
neighboring your system. And then from there, when you understand
what kind of blocker you're becoming, I think, then you
can think about it in the framework of risk. It's
just like, if I don't do this by this time,
what is the risk? And maybe you're working on three
(14:10):
systems at once, It's like, what are the risks and
which one has the least amount of risk? I could
kind of back put that in the back burner, and
then the ones that have the highest risk I can
work on And then you can check your assumption with
other people, being like I feel like these are the
most risky and I'm going to like work on these.
And actually I've been really good at monotasking recently. And
(14:32):
what I do. Another like tangible step is on my calendar,
I have color quoted blocks where I mentally know like
a color coate means one client, second color coate means
another client, And I put my to do item in
the title, so I know that in the next two hours,
I'm not thinking about anything but that one thing, and
(14:53):
I give my spell space for that, and I say,
I'm not going to look at my email. I'm going
to open like I actually get rid of my monitor
because monotasking is better when you have one screen. And
I just I finished that. Once the hour's up, then
I can look at my email and do all the things.
But that's how I do it personally.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And this reminds me of a conversation actually another episode
we did with Valentina Ratner, and she was talking about
kind of the massive It was also similar around you know,
avoiding feature creep and how do they prioritize what issues
they need to get to. Mostly, I think it was
around kind of customer feedback and things that were being
you know, being brought up every day from the customer
(15:33):
or the test they were doing, and they just had
this one massive central to do list that several of
the you know, kind of team leads at the company
would look over and move things up and down the list,
and you know, it wasn't like you were going to
get through the list in one day or a week
or a month. It was kind of never ending, but
(15:55):
they were able to kind of I think, you know,
vote up and down the different tasks and like you said,
really think about out what was going to be the
greatest impact or risk if they didn't get to it
by a certain time, right. I also wanted to touch
on something you mentioned around your background. You know, you're
saying that it sounds like a lot of these different startups,
you're wearing a lot of hats, right, even if you
(16:16):
might have come in as a specific engineering role, you
ended up taking up sales or learning about larger systems
or other aspects of the company. And for folks who
are coming out of school in engineering and really do
want to be competitive and trying to get those startup roles,
what would you recommend as far as preparing for that
(16:39):
or how they can hone some of those skills. I mean,
something you mentioned obviously is being a sponge, so like
once you're there, learning everything you can from different aspects.
And I think we all know obviously startups are small,
lean teams, so they want folks they can wear those
different hats and can really take on more than one
role if possible. But how can someone and you know,
(17:00):
outside of the technical things they're focused on in their
you know, engineering education. If you have any tips on
kind of how they can prepare for that role and
to be competitive in that way.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, I think. I mean I'll take one like meta
step back is that I think there needs to be
a decent amount of reflection to make sure that you
know what you're going into, because it's really not for everyone.
Like I think working at a startup has this like
kind of cool factor to it and like it's the
new thing and you do get really good experience. It's
(17:34):
like they always say, one year at a startup is
like three years in the industry, and so it's it's
really about how you feel like you produce the best results.
I for example, I like creating my own structure rather
than going into one. So startups are really great grounds
for that because they really are looking for people to
(17:56):
be incredibly autonomous and to like see problems and solve
them with like low touch structure, as you said, like
be able to wear wear hats. So it's like I
guess like step number one is to make sure that
you would be either doesn't necessarily need to be that
you're comfortable with it, but you want to do it
and like that's okay that you're going into that and
(18:20):
potentially just like going to be like thrown into the
deep end of it. I think honing in skills for
successful career in startup is having very good kind of
hands on skills. The only reason that I got the
first job at the startup that I was, I think
is because I did my internship there. And I think
(18:42):
the reason I got my internship is because I worked
at a machine shop and that was definitely what kind
of put me aside from other candidates. I think that
applied to the internship because I know that it was competitive.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
We're going to take a quick break. But when we
were Seda tells us about some of the challenges she
faces working in a startup environment and how deciding where
she spends her time has ready fined the impact she
makes in her work. Welcome back to the MOMB Engineering
(19:21):
A Path Forward. I'm your host, Magenta Strongheart. When we
left off, Seda was sharing her experience and advice to
the new generation of engineers looking to get their foot
in the door and the flexibility required to stake your
claim in the hardware industry. I also wanted to highlight
what you were saying about kind of the romanticizing roles
(19:41):
within the startup world. Of course, there's a lot of excitement.
There's a lot of things that are very appealing that
young engineers get super stoked about, or not even exclusively
you know, to engineers, but people get excited about joining
a startup without really knowing what they're getting into. Like
you said, so, I think it's great to call out
some of those things. Being able to be kind of
(20:02):
proactive and independent, you're most likely, unless maybe you have
a certain type of founder, not going to be to
micromanaged because everyone just has too much to work on
and focus on, and so that doesn't work for everyone.
And I think it is important to remember that that
there's pros and cons of course, And again I think
this leads really nicely into another question I wanted to
(20:24):
ask you around what do you think have been the
major kind of differences and things you like, things you've
had to get used to a little bit between going
from your day job to founding this, you know, consulting
company and working with so many different companies with different
challenges all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
As everything it has its pros, it has its cons.
I think pros outweigh the cons and that's why I'm
still here, still standing. The pros I'd say is I
really love being able to dictate my own time. That's
not my main reason why I did it, but it
was a wonderful byproduct of doing it. I just have
(21:04):
more time for my art, my family, and yoga. That
was the first, like kind of unfiltered pro that I
could think of. Secondly is that I've definitely five to
ten xt my impact. I think by being able to
shift around different companies and work with different products and
(21:25):
really just like continuously learn about different industries, different markets
and help all of these founders. So that's super important
to me because I've always been like, how can I
do more for the community. I'd say the dynamic really
works in my favor because in past roles I've i
was saying some of the same stuff I say today
(21:47):
to my clients, where I'd be like, we should do
this better, we should do this differently, and we should
have this consideration upfront. And I think because I was
an employee, it was harder to implement. But when you
come at it from this outside perspective, consultant and advisor
position people are more likely to implement it and see
(22:08):
the positive results. So it's a little bit more satisfying
in that way, because it's really hard to constantly say
something that you know to be true and it not
get implemented because of reasons. And now I really do
see the direct impact I have because I work with
clients for long periods of time, so I actually get
to see the life cycle of the decisions or the
(22:30):
risks that I help them de risk and all of
that and how it pans out. So it's just it's
great to be able to note that, and it also
gives me time to do workshops and talks and build
the community and do my podcast, which is again along
the line of increasing the impact. So I've really loved it,
(22:50):
and those have been the things that are going in
my way. CON's is I'm a lab person, as I said,
like my entire career journey started in machines, so it's
really hard for me sometimes to be a little bit
more removed than I would as an engineer. I do
have the privilege of going into client sites and working
(23:11):
in their labs with them to train their engineers and stuff,
but it's not something that I very commonly or like
every day do so I miss that, and I think
that's a big con for me. I'm a part of
many teams, but also not a part of any, so
it's that that part always is just I'm a sole
(23:33):
proprietor LLC. When I have all hands, it's just me
with the different wigs around a table. So there's that.
And then obviously, I mean, this is not a con,
but this is I guess something where I feel like
there's this concept of you feel like you never know enough,
and so I'm just like, as I learn more about
(23:55):
and work with new products, I feel like there are
just so many other ones and it gives me this
kind of hunger but also dissatisfaction because I'm like, I
want to know everything, but I will never know everything
and there will always be more to learn. So that's
a pro anacon, I guess, and that's kind of been
my experience with the Transition recently.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
That's super great. And I can't let another moment go
by where you mentioned your podcast and we don't plug it.
Let the people know what's name of your podcast and
what do you talk about on the pod?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Oh? Of course, Yeah, So my podcast is called the
builder circle by critique, and the whole promise of it
is again with the mission statement that I said earlier,
is that I want to make sure that hardware is
more accessible and successful. And the episodes really really hyper
focus on specific areas within product development, manufacturing, supply chain,
(24:50):
and launch, even a little bit of fundraising and pitch
deck creation for hardware specifically, and each episode dives into
how to implement that in a we're innovation or hardware
startup environment with very narrowed in questions that I ask
experts that I find in that specific field and we
have a discussion around it. And every episode's end with TLDL,
(25:14):
which is basically too long didn't listen, because the episodes
are an hour long, which is too much for some folks,
and I want to get the information out to them.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And just listen them on one point five speed or
whatever people.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Exactly, they definitely should I speak slowly, is what I've learned.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
I love that there's a super practical too long didn't
listen round up at the end goes along with everything
you've been saying so far. If anyone doubts that you
are practical, they can't. After this episode definite least, so
check out the Builder Circle. We can definitely link that
in the show notes as well, so it'll be easy
for folks to find because I have a feeling there's
a lot of overlap with our audiences and I'm sure
(25:53):
a lot of your conversations will be relevant to whoever's
listening to this, So definitely check it out. And I
want to be conscientious of our time. But something you
mentioned was kind of perfect for one of our last
questions here is, as you mentioned, you're trying to make
things more accessible, you're sharing the knowledge in all these
different ways, and in that you're also a tech Star advisor.
(26:17):
I'm not sure exactly what the official role is.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I'm a mentor in residence.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Mentor in residence even better titled and advisor, and I'd
love for you to just tell us quickly kind of
what that means mentor and residence and if there's anything
you've been super excited about recently by what you've seen
with some of the tech Stars startups.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So the role itself basically entails that startups have direct
kind of office hours in a direct line of communication
with me when it comes to anything that's related to
their product development. The tech Star's main office that I
work with is Paris, and I also mentor for the
Boston office as well. I'm the hardware gal like that's
(26:56):
kind of the role that I play there. And usually
the arrangement is that I work with some of their
software startups do specifically if they have like a hardware edge,
or if they're just really interested in creating a product roadmap.
That's been kind of my contribution to most of them,
just to systematically think of what they're going to build
(27:18):
and how they're going to build it, and what they're
going to focus on. And the arrangement is pretty simple.
They come to me, they come with their product, they
come with their perceived problems. I help them identify more problems,
and then we work together on usually like a weekly
cadence depending on the program and depending on how many
people there are, weekly or bi weekly, and we work
(27:41):
through each of those We kind of comb through those problems.
I give them homework to do so that the next
time we can see how if the problem was resolved
and set them up so that once they exit the
program they have a pretty clear notion of where they're
going with their product, what tests they're doing, what pilots
they should should take on, and a really good plan
(28:03):
of how they can articulate this to investors so that
they can get the funds that they need to progress forward.
So it's been a great experience because it's really given
me the entire clarity around the entire life cycle of
what it takes to build a company and a product
rather than just like focusing on the hardware development part.
(28:23):
And I've personally really loved it. And the European offices
tend to invest more in hardware, which is great. And yeah,
that's been that's been my experience there.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
All right, So we're going to wrap up shortly here
if you could just these will kind of we'll think
of them more as like rapid fire questions. What's your
favorite part of your job?
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Favorite part of my job is clearing the fog, So
basically making sure and helping people who don't know what
the next step is to have extreme clarity on what
the next three steps are and knowing exactly who they
should talk do, how they should go about it. Again,
I feel like I am beating this dead horse on practicality,
(29:05):
but it's just like really giving a practical pathway, like, as.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
You mentioned before, when you're getting to come in kind
of from this outside roller perspective, it can be really
I think a relief probably to folks who might have
been like they need that clear scent of eyes to
help them have clarity. And I think it makes sense
that that's like, you know, the kind of value you're
able to add in your role, and I love the
(29:30):
way you put that. The defogging. I think that's huge
and super helpful when you're just kind of into deep
to your own own problems. All right, and what's one
non technology thing that is inspiring you these days?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I mean, this is going to be such a lamb answer,
but I've been really into cooking recently.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
And not on an answer.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Okay, well good then it's it's kind of funny because
my partner always jokes that the reason I really like
cooking is because it resembles an assembly line, and I'm like,
now you've ruined it for me. I was trying to
make it not related to anything I do on the daily,
but here we are. But I'm Turkish, so I really have.
(30:14):
I have these amazing Turkish cookbooks that I've been kind
of dog earing and trying to find different recipes because
I'm just bored of what I always do and just
trying more eclectic, new new things, different types of vegetables
and stuff. So that's been my non technology super fun
(30:35):
chopping and seasoning.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
No, I love that, and I can relate to that
as well, and don't worry about the assembly line common
I feel like cooking is still super creative. But yes,
of course there can be that aspect if you make
it super organized, which again I think is like why not,
it will make it that makes it more fun for
some people to be more organized, exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
That's what I tell myself. I want to ask what.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
The cookbooks, because I'm someone who this is a problem.
Like I collect cookbooks. I get gifted them. I love them.
It's like one of my favorite kinds of gifts to get.
I love cooking. I cook all the time. But I
am not great about actually going to the cookbooks when
I want a recipe. Like I've been telling myself recently,
I need to just go through and be like, I'm
(31:21):
doing this cookbook, you know, for the next two months,
until I go through everything and then go to the
next cookbook. Are you good about really like going back
to the cookbook again and again, or have you made
it like a goal, you know, to do one recipe
a week from this cookbook or something. I feel like
I would actually need to really like make a specific
goal or structure around it, otherwise I'll end up looking
something quickly up on my phone or just like going
(31:43):
back to you know, recipes I know that are quick
and easy and I don't have to follow instructions.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
For You're gonna love my approach to this so much
from what we've talked about.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
There's a gam chart for it.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Now, there is a gaant chart. There is a risk matrix. No,
but there is color coded post its. So what I
do is instead of because I think at the moment
where you're like, I want to cook a meal, I
think the I don't know about you, but I tend
to be quite lazy sometimes specifically in those like when
I have to cook, and so the barrier of entry
(32:19):
is already pretty high. And if I also have to
learn like what I need to buy and then also
carry out a recipe, I'm definitely more of like a
wing it person. So so you don't do that part then,
So what I do is when I'm feeling I don't
know either. Bored, I like, I want to do something.
I grab a cookbook and I go through it and
(32:40):
like mark what I would like, And then each kind
of recipe has a different color, where it's like this
is for lunch, this is for dinner, this is like vegetarian,
this is more like a snack or something like that,
because there's like all kinds of recipes. And then when
I'm feeling this like creativity boost and I want to
(33:03):
cook something new that week, that's when I go back
and it's like already like filtered out. I know like
which ones I like. Rather than like flipping through the
entire book, I can just like kind of pick one
of the post its and be like, oh, not that much,
but this one yes, and kind of go from there.
Love it.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You've made it less overwhelming, you made it color coded,
you do the grocery shopping in advance.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
You've taken out all the guesswork and the annoying parts
that get overwhelming. And last but not least, what is
on your personal bill of materials?
Speaker 1 (33:36):
All right? So this was the question that struss me
out the most. I was like, I'm gonna get it
wrong and it's going to be just like, you know,
there's this like Demi Levado meme where they're like, what's
your favorite dish? And she's like, I like cups, Like
I really didn't want to. I didn't want to kind
of hit that part of the spectrum. I have not
(33:57):
seen that, but I need to buy it.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That's me.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
She like goes off. She's like, I like cups because
you know you can hold that. It's just like you're
talking about food. Oh so I was really stressed out
about this particular question. But I'm going to start with
what my interpretation of the question is so that I
don't look like a fool. Not that Demi Lavada was
a fool, I understand I probably would have answered the
same way. But my interpretation is that what do I
(34:22):
need to obtain for myself is kind of how I
received the question, and I have I have a list
and I will finish off the list.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Go for it, let's hear. I think that's a great
interpretation of it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So amazing. Okay, So number one is more opportunities to
speak and increase my impact. I love I love giving talks,
I love kind of giving workshops, and I have a
few of them lined up for the for the year,
which I'm super excited about. I'm going to write an
ebook that's going to be about what startups should avoid
(34:57):
and hardware horror stories and the promise of the That
is a lot of content out there is how to
build the perfect business, build the perfect product, like what
steps to follow there, but a lot of people don't
talk about the cautionary tales and what not to do.
So I'm flipping it on its head and I'm going
to make a very very much like a negative a
(35:18):
negative version of that, but to provide positive impact, I
really want to obtain a bigger network of suppliers and
good engineering firms. I feel like that's like an extension
to my services. So I love to kind of build
that ecosystem within my company. I want to paint more,
(35:39):
want to be a nature more, and I want to
volunteer more. So those were those were what came out
when I thought about it.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
That way beautiful nailed it. We have not had someone
use it as like a list of goals, and I
think that's a great interpretation and again totally on brands,
so way to just drive it all home. And I
couldn't agree more. Those are actually a lot of my
own goals for this year, so it's great to hear
someone else in the ecosystem working on those kinds of things.
(36:08):
I'm sure a lot of people can relate to them,
and we'll definitely have to keep an eye out for
the events You're going to be speaking at, your ebook
coming out, and of course checking out the Builder Circle.
We are running out of time here, so I'm going
to say thank you so much. Seta is so great
to just like geek out with a fellow fabrication nerd
and organizational nerd, and I really got some helpful practical
(36:31):
tips and I'm sure our listeners did as well. So
thank you for your time today.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Thank you so much for having me. It was a
pleasure that was Seta.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Evjamin, founder of the startup consulting firm Critique. There are
a million startups out there, but Seta's processes help bring
the most useful ones to our world. This has been
the Bomb engineering a path forward. If you like the Bomb,
don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever
(37:05):
you get your podcasts. You can follow supply Frame and
Hackaday on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and design Lab at
supply Frame Design Lab on Instagram and Twitter. The Bomb
is a supply Frame podcast produced by Me, Magenta Strongheart
and Ryan Tillotson, written by Maggie Bowles and edited by
Daniel Ferrara. Theme music is by Anna Hogman. Show art
by Thomas Schneider. Special thanks to Giovanni Selinas, Bruce Dimingez,
(37:28):
Thomas Woodward, Jin Kumar, Jordan Clark, the entire supply Frame
team and you are wonderful listeners. I'm your host, Magenta Strongheart.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
See you next week.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
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