The Post Strados Labs Teams Up With Brinc, Internet of Things first appeared on mitchellchadrow.com

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01:07
this is Mitchell Chad row on today show
01:09
0 5 3 you remember Nick Delmonico from
01:13
show 0 3 1 Nick is the founder of
01:16
Stratis labs his website Stratis IO and
01:20
Twitter at Stratis labs let’s remind
01:23
everyone that Stratis is the only
01:26
wearable that listens to each and every
01:29
breath you take Stratis checks how well
01:32
your body and activities synchronize
01:34
with your breaths and through the touch
01:36
activity sensors and on-board vibrations
01:39
Stratis actually provides you with
01:41
discreet notification in god you mindful
01:44
breathing that improves performance and
01:47
health Nick I see that brink has
01:49
actually invested in your company so can
01:51
you tell us about that exciting news yes
01:56
or a thing and thanks again Mitchell for
01:58
having us on the show
01:59
so brink is a hardware accelerator in
02:01
Hong Kong they also have some offices
02:04
here in the United States and their core
02:06
focus is on hardware technologies
02:09
specifically our track is Internet of
02:11
Things so how do we incorporate
02:13
connected devices with with software to
02:16
improve the way that people interact
02:19
with technology and so we were fortunate
02:22
enough to go through the brink ramped up
02:24
program this summer and it’s about a
02:28
month-long program where you know we’re
02:30
we’re really going through due diligence
02:31
building relationship with the folks at
02:33
brink talking to them about our business
02:35
what are our strengths are what are our
02:37
challenges our and then we had an
02:40
opportunity to pitch their investor
02:42
committee and they were excited by the
02:44
technology that we’ve developed and now
02:47
we’re part of their cohort and their
02:48
portfolio so it’s been really exciting
02:50
for us in the last few weeks well you
02:52
know we’re extremely familiar with break
02:55
as a matter of fact you know that Bay
02:58
McLaughlin who’s one of the co-founders
03:00
there at brink was actually on our show
03:02
zero three five so how did you guys
03:05
actually meet yeah you’d actually see
03:09
that which which I was excited to see as
03:11
well and so I actually I was searching
03:14
for other types of hardware accelerators
03:15
to you know to look effort or status
03:19
labs and I came across brink and what
03:21
made me most excited by brink was even
03:24
getting to hear they talk about the
03:26
company and why he started it and to
03:30
really you know get a sense for his
03:32
passion for hardware companies and and
03:33
its investing like any other because
03:36
it’s very different from the way that
03:38
software works especially from a
03:40
timeline perspective and capital
03:42
intensity perspective so I really liked
03:43
his passion and his interest in the area
03:45
and and we kind of were able to to
03:49
communicate with them and connect with
03:50
them and go from there so it was a
03:52
really good match so in terms of an
03:56
investment we we talked about not only
03:58
getting an investment but basically
04:00
working with an organization with a
04:02
company that can provide us with
04:05
resources and advice and help so what do
04:08
they have been able to specifically do
04:10
for you since the time that they’ve
04:13
invested in the company yeah that’s
04:17
again a really big reason for why we
04:19
were excited by the relationship with
04:21
brink was we you know we’re early stage
04:24
or first-time founders ourselves and
04:26
well you know we started to realize as
04:28
we’re building this product was that
04:30
there’s a lot that goes into hardware
04:31
from you know not just designing and
04:34
developing but then going through
04:35
manufacturing and that was something
04:37
that when we looked at brink in the
04:38
portfolio and the resources they provide
04:41
we felt really strong that they were
04:43
help us better understand everything
04:45
from your bill of materials to how do we
04:47
actually interact engage with contract
04:50
manufacturers thinking about unit cost
04:53
pricing of our product and ultimately
04:56
being able to get our product into
04:57
market so they have a wealth of
05:00
knowledge of brand not only from the
05:01
portfolio companies that they’ve already
05:03
invested in but most of the folks there
05:06
themselves have been you know founders
05:09
of hardware related company so it’s been
05:11
really hands on with understanding our
05:14
business and getting us the right
05:16
resources so we can move forward you
05:18
know we’ve talked to other entrepreneurs
05:19
and I believe when we spoke to you
05:21
initially we had talked a little bit
05:23
about you know how you go ahead and test
05:25
your product in the market so why don’t
05:28
you tell us a little bit about some of
05:29
those usability studies that brink has
05:33
obviously been able to help you also in
05:35
addition to to doing yeah and that’s a
05:39
big thing for us is you know it means
05:41
startup and method is important to what
05:44
we’re doing
05:45
and there’s a unique challenge in doing
05:46
it in hardware so for what we have you
05:49
know tried to conduct a feasibility
05:50
studies is we wanted to look at what are
05:52
the key the key risks from a user
05:55
experience perspective and then what
05:56
were the key things that we wanted to
05:58
determine we’re beneficial to the users
06:01
as as part of the experience with our
06:03
product and so the first thing we did
06:05
was we wanted to understand wearability
06:07
in which form-factor people would be
06:10
most interested in wearing our device
06:12
and also making sure that that paired up
06:14
with where we needed somebody to wear it
06:17
in order to get the right level of
06:18
information and because there’s
06:19
something that has to collect data from
06:21
your heart lungs we wanted to be as
06:23
close to the heart moments as possible
06:25
so that requires it to be sort of on the
06:27
ribcage area and so you know when we
06:30
were testing with people we wanted to
06:31
give them a few different options so we
06:33
designed you know patches cliff straps
06:37
what we call pouches all of these
06:39
different designs and then we had key
06:42
features that we want to evaluate so
06:43
we’re people really interested in being
06:46
able to take the device on and off on a
06:47
daily basis or did they want to wear it
06:50
for you know five six seven days at a
06:51
time because that would again change
06:53
some of the the parameters of the device
06:55
so we did those types
06:56
test came up with you know good themes
06:59
from what we saw from different types of
07:01
people which ultimately helps us with
07:02
our final product designed from a
07:04
wearability perspective and then you
07:06
know next step there is to really get
07:08
somebody to engage with you know hey I’m
07:10
wearing this new monitor it’s in a lot
07:12
of ways like other activity monitors
07:14
like heartrate monitor for example but
07:16
it’s giving you a new data point and
07:17
that otherwise you know people really
07:19
haven’t interacted with unless maybe
07:21
they’ve gone to the doctor and had
07:23
somebody listen to their lungs but they
07:25
haven’t had any of that themselves so
07:27
starting to see how people engage and
07:29
interact with that information and what
07:31
they think is good what they don’t like
07:32
what they want more of you know in an
07:35
iterative process has been really
07:37
helpful and talking with the
07:39
specifically the folks at think you know
07:41
that was one of the key things for us
07:42
was how much building do we need to do
07:45
from a hardware perspective to be able
07:47
to evaluate and test some of these
07:48
components because that’s a major thing
07:50
for people and hardware is you know you
07:53
don’t want to build too much spend a lot
07:55
of time spend a lot of effort and then
07:56
realize that it’s not a product that
07:58
people are interested in so you know
08:01
it’s a challenge to figure out the right
08:02
way to test that and it helped us a lot
08:04
with it well you know I wanted to see
08:06
how much progress you had made since the
08:09
last time you were on and so I obviously
08:11
came to strata Co just to see okay how
08:15
now is Stratos working and I was
08:17
actually able to watch that 35 second
08:20
second clip that you have on there
08:23
explaining how it actually works how it
08:25
actually operates and actually how it
08:27
actually clips on to either a piece of
08:30
material or actually just basically
08:32
attaches to your body and so maybe
08:35
explain to the audience a little bit in
08:38
terms of you know take them through that
08:41
a little bit because I really think it’s
08:43
kind of neat and tell us a little bit
08:45
about the resources that helped you
08:47
actually put that data that clip
08:49
together because I think it’s I think it
08:51
was put together very nicely
08:53
yeah sure thing so you know what we
08:56
realized from a lot of these user
08:57
studies is that interesting enough for
09:00
females the ability to do to use a clip
09:04
type of version which was really popular
09:07
so being able to put it
09:09
sports bra or a bra strap it can
09:11
actually go under a chest strap as well
09:13
somebody’s using it like a heartrate
09:15
monitor as well so that’s one form
09:18
factor you can wear it and the device
09:20
itself is it’s almost the size of a
09:22
watch face and it’s shaped like a
09:24
teardrop if you can imagine that and it
09:27
actually can pop in and out of these
09:29
little over moles and so the worn over
09:31
mole is equipped like I’ve mentioned and
09:33
then the other one is just a little
09:35
little a we call it a lily pad and it’s
09:37
just a little patch where you can put an
09:39
adhesive sticker on it
09:41
medical grade adhesive and we’ve done
09:43
some testing with that as well and these
09:45
are very comfortable they they work well
09:48
with sweat they work well with body hair
09:50
different types of skin different shape
09:53
torsos and it’s been so it’s really easy
09:56
to use and it goes like I said right on
09:58
the tester back under you know a shirt
10:01
pretty inconspicuous and fairly thin and
10:04
then it just sinks right to your phone
10:05
and in the video said Mitchell mentioned
10:09
you know somebody’s running with is
10:10
somebody’s doing some yoga another guy
10:12
is doing some some weight lifting so
10:14
don’t you know it’s very easy to use
10:16
while you’re active but it’s also of
10:18
course for folks who just want to
10:20
monitor everyday activity whether that’s
10:21
sleeping you know sitting being at work
10:24
walking to work doesn’t just have to be
10:26
in an active setting so you know that
10:28
yeah we are really excited by the the
10:30
progress we’ve made and the video that
10:33
we held had produced we were working
10:35
actually with a company called spirit
10:36
animal based in outside of Philadelphia
10:39
and they’ve done a few other types of
10:41
you know pre-ordering and crowdfunding
10:43
types of videos for four companies and
10:46
you know we were really said by the
10:48
other work that they did and they’ve
10:49
been really fantastic with us to tell us
10:51
about crowdfunding because you know we
10:54
did an entire show on crowdfunding and I
10:57
know that brink is your first major
11:00
investor in the company talk to us a
11:02
little bit about what you’re now doing
11:04
for additional rounds and and how you’ve
11:08
actually been able to sort of develop
11:10
you know your investment strategy going
11:12
forward yeah that’s that’s another
11:15
exciting thing for us about being on the
11:18
brink portfolio is that you know we know
11:21
that they have a
11:22
big strength in consumer consumer
11:24
product development and getting traction
11:26
whether that’s through crowdfunding or
11:29
free ordering types of campaigns so
11:31
we’re working with them now to come up
11:32
with our own strategy of how we want to
11:34
execute
11:35
we’re remaining towards doing some sort
11:37
of pre-ordering type of campaign where
11:39
you know similar to other types of
11:41
products you can go to the website
11:42
you’ll be able to buy it you know before
11:46
it’s ready for sale and production and
11:48
when it is ready for production you know
11:50
you’ll get the product and if it doesn’t
11:52
go to production then of course you know
11:55
you you get a refund for your products
11:57
so it strategy that we’re working
12:00
through now and we’re really excited to
12:01
work with the folks at brink who have
12:03
done it
12:03
for many of the companies many other
12:04
times and so we’re hoping it should be
12:07
available in the first quarter of next
12:09
year for pre-order and if you’re
12:11
interested now you can certainly sign up
12:13
on our mailing list and we’ll send you a
12:14
notifications for when it is available
12:16
and we’ll give you some perks and you
12:19
know some some gifts and stuff tet2 to
12:22
the engage with us this year on the
12:23
stages yeah I mean I really encourage
12:25
the audience to go over to Stratos dot
12:28
IO and really check out the the wearable
12:31
and the video obviously because it
12:33
really it really has come along quite
12:36
nicely and I’m really really excited for
12:39
you and proud of what you’ve been able
12:41
to do to this point and really
12:44
continuing to look forward to seeing you
12:46
know continued success you mentioned
12:49
manufacturing you mentioned claws you
12:51
mentioned production can you take us in
12:54
a little bit with more specifics and
12:57
delve a little bit deeper because
12:59
there’s other people out there that you
13:01
know basically want to get to this point
13:03
that you have already been able to and
13:05
and and tell them a little bit about and
13:08
tell the audience a little bit about you
13:09
know who’s going to be helping you
13:11
manufacture this and the cost and how
13:14
you’ve been able to sort of come up with
13:15
that strategy yeah sure thing so for us
13:19
you know we’ve been very focused on
13:23
figuring out what our build materials
13:24
are right and for us that couldn’t
13:28
happen until we understood our design
13:30
and understood you know at least for our
13:33
first iteration of the product
13:35
components were required to build it
13:38
where we would source those components
13:40
and who we would argue with to acquire
13:42
those components and then who we would
13:44
help build those components so the
13:46
contract manufacturer that we that we
13:48
chose and for now you know in the
13:50
shorter term we’ve decided that we want
13:52
a lot of vocal type of contract
13:55
manufacturing work and that’s primarily
13:57
because you know we want to get it right
13:58
there’s a lot of technology that goes
14:00
into the Stratus device you know we have
14:04
microphones we have PCB with an
14:06
accelerometer a gyroscope nano barometer
14:09
so there’s a lot of a lot of information
14:11
and it needs to be you know high quality
14:14
and we want to be able to test it so we
14:16
decided to do a local contract
14:18
manufacturer in the short term like I
14:20
said and that you know is not always the
14:22
most cost-effective means but it helps
14:25
us feel like we can get comfort around
14:26
quality of our products first and
14:28
foremost and then we have been engaging
14:30
with contract manufacturers abroad as
14:32
well so we can hopefully optimize the
14:34
cost of our units as we build for
14:37
production through you know pre ordering
14:39
campaigns and things of that nature –
14:41
you know I talked to us a little bit
14:43
about not only the costs that that are
14:46
involved with with with the
14:47
manufacturing but some of the
14:49
partnerships with these particular
14:50
manufacturers that you’re working with
14:52
are they local
14:53
are they national international if you
14:56
could if you could tell us shed a little
14:57
bit of light on that yeah so one of the
15:02
you know one of the the port’s companies
15:05
that we work with is local so aro
15:07
electronics for example is a one of the
15:09
companies that we source a lot of our
15:11
parts from and they are you know they’re
15:14
a multinational brand they you know
15:17
especially in the Philadelphia area and
15:19
across the country you know it’s not
15:21
uncommon to be able to see arrow
15:22
electronics be highly integrated into
15:25
the consumer products and the products
15:26
space they actually have a big
15:29
partnership with IndieGoGo IndieGoGo of
15:31
it being a crowdfunding platform where
15:33
they they really want to help products
15:35
be certified as being able to be
15:37
produced that helps them of course you
15:41
know with building better quality
15:42
products building products that actually
15:44
can make it to market and certifying you
15:47
know for any gogo users and
15:49
for members that products that are on
15:51
that platform you know or aren’t just
15:53
surrendering they’re actually ready to
15:55
be manufactured and somebody’s done to
15:56
be diligence to figure that out so
15:58
that’s one of the the suppliers that we
16:01
work with and we have a local contract
16:03
manufacturer that we work with as well
16:05
who’s been been really strong and like I
16:07
said we are working with building
16:09
relationships abroad as well we just
16:12
aren’t at the point yet where we need to
16:14
focus on you know building that that
16:17
relationship too far out but we are
16:19
considering it at this moment now how do
16:21
you determine how much production that
16:24
you make initially and cost and things
16:26
of that nature mean what were you add in
16:29
terms of that yeah that’s a good
16:31
question and that’s you know a big part
16:32
of the planning that we’ve been doing
16:34
with Brinks for the last few weeks is
16:36
you know having to have those
16:38
conversations with manufacturers around
16:40
hey here’s here’s what we’re trying to
16:42
build number one do we have the
16:44
components to build it in term resources
16:46
components and number two you know what
16:48
some tooling costs to actually make the
16:50
the tool that manufacturers the shadows
16:54
device and and then from there you know
16:56
they come up with sort of a minimum
16:58
order quantity for what would be really
17:02
for them and you know for folks who are
17:04
trying to get into the hardware space
17:05
something I’ve been working over the
17:07
last few weeks and month 2 and it’s what
17:10
they’re willing to essentially make as a
17:14
minimum in order to create a tool to
17:17
produce the units so I’m friend what
17:20
type of net profit margins are we
17:22
talking about with a product like this
17:25
yeah that’s a good question and that
17:27
part of the pricing strategy for us is
17:29
you know standard for hardware is
17:32
somewhere around three to four times the
17:34
unit cost at scale and that’s roughly
17:38
what we’re working with the the price of
17:41
Stratis is about $169.99 but for most of
17:44
our pre-orders it’ll be closer to about
17:46
one 29.99 so if you’re you know we want
17:49
to get benefits in the folks who were
17:50
early and excited oh that’s all one unit
17:53
is there is a Ramin obviously there are
17:56
people out there that that might might
17:58
purchase quantity quantities and so it’s
18:02
one unit I mean are you pricing in
18:04
people that are obviously purchasing
18:08
consumers or groups that are purchasing
18:11
more than one at a time yeah so we do
18:14
have a strategy as well where you know
18:16
whether it’s through a pre-ordering
18:17
campaign or relationships that we’re
18:18
trying to build with larger enterprises
18:20
you know more of your quantities of
18:23
course we will produce the price point
18:25
so one of the things we’ve done it for
18:28
pre-order campaigns if you buy two pack
18:30
you know you get another 10% off of the
18:32
earlybird special price and the
18:34
earlybird special is about thirty to
18:36
forty percent off of retail right now so
18:39
you know it’s it’s a bit of an art in a
18:42
bit of a science of you know beyond us
18:44
as far as coming up with the right level
18:48
of discounts and tour to that as well as
18:51
you know making sure that you understand
18:53
whether or not your product is a quality
18:55
product or a cost product or are you
18:57
trying to demonstrate that hey this is
18:59
something that’s unique novel high
19:01
quality gives you some really really big
19:03
value that changes whether or not you
19:05
have a much larger margin or much
19:08
smaller margin versus you know just
19:10
trying to make a lot of really cheap
19:12
units but getting you know getting your
19:16
profit from from quantity versus your
19:19
margins now we also talked about of
19:21
course the usability studies and of
19:23
course we’ve just talked about you know
19:25
what the product actually looks like and
19:27
for people to go onto your website to
19:29
obviously be able to see that these are
19:31
working prototypes how complete actually
19:35
are they I mean how close are you to
19:37
actually get to market what you said in
19:40
terms of looking into the future yeah so
19:44
for us the the units that we have that
19:46
work right now are one version away from
19:49
the ones that you’ll see online but they
19:51
work to the fullest extent that we want
19:54
them to work as far as gathering
19:56
information you know getting to classify
19:58
reasoning and coughing and changes in
20:00
breathing pattern for you and sending
20:02
that information to the cloud into the
20:03
application so you know we’re really
20:06
excited by as far as understanding the
20:08
technology and the functionality of it
20:10
we’re getting really really close and
20:13
the next step for us is as we’re doing
20:15
our final
20:16
round of tests where we have people come
20:18
and actually use the device but more
20:20
private data sessions that’s where we’ll
20:23
get will make our final iterations on
20:25
the design and also the functionality of
20:28
the features for the application and
20:30
then that will go into what is our
20:32
design for manufacture yeah so we’re you
20:35
know in Orion yeah no I hear you another
20:38
exciting thing that I actually saw on
20:41
the website was the actual app that does
20:44
a lot of the tracking and so you know
20:47
through through my company I have
20:49
another site called apps smarter and we
20:52
want to be able to obviously feature
20:53
this particular solution on there which
20:57
which we will we’ll have a link there
20:58
but but tell everybody about about that
21:01
and the app and actually how it tracks
21:04
and you know just um you know the
21:07
practical use that the everyday consumer
21:12
person you know can use the app and let
21:15
me hear some feedback that you’ve
21:17
already received about it yeah so for
21:21
the application you know it’s we wanted
21:23
to make it as simple as possible and
21:25
that’s really part of our core mission a
21:27
Stratos is to simplify respiratory
21:29
management what’s nice about the shadows
21:32
device is that it’s a consumer facing
21:34
health wearable device we have deeper
21:37
insights into breathing that that other
21:39
trackers just simply don’t do so for us
21:42
you know you would wear it the same way
21:44
as you would wear many of your other
21:46
devices and track a lot of the same
21:49
things whether its heart rate whether
21:50
it’s activity but we’re really building
21:53
in the functionality for for breathing
21:57
so you’ll be able to get a real-time
21:59
breathing dashboard
22:01
to actually see every breath in and out
22:03
which is really cool and then if you
22:05
wanted to dive in and learn a little bit
22:07
more there’s a there’s a you know a
22:09
summary statistics tab that essentially
22:12
says here are you know here’s how
22:14
frequent knees and wheezing or coughing
22:16
or how you’re with your average
22:18
inhale-exhale ratio and what’s your
22:20
heart rate and activity for the day so
22:21
and it’s nice because it will integrate
22:23
into Apple health and then the Android
22:25
health kits as well so you know we
22:28
wanted to make it as easy
22:29
is we don’t want people to feel as
22:30
though they have to be on our app and
22:32
our app only to be able to better manage
22:34
whether it’s respiratory health or
22:36
exercise and activity you know in our
22:39
last show we talked about you know
22:41
winning prizes and using some of those
22:44
monies to basically help you and I
22:47
remember at that time we talked a little
22:48
bit about you know hen hatch we’re you
22:50
know from from from the University of
22:52
Delaware and Innovation Lab you know
22:54
over at Temple University as you know we
22:56
had Ellen Weber on on the listen up show
23:00
in the Mitchell chadroy podcast tell us
23:03
a little bit about some of these other
23:04
awards since that time that you’ve been
23:07
able to sort of you know gain some
23:09
traction and some some funds to help you
23:12
I see here on your site it says we work
23:16
creator and the BYOB be I guess that’s
23:20
from from Temple as well can you tell us
23:23
a little bit about those prizes that you
23:25
want and and what you’ve been using that
23:28
money towards yeah sure things that we
23:32
worked creator awards it was a sort of a
23:35
really new concept last year and and
23:38
what what it is is we work the company
23:42
that does co-working spaces globally
23:44
decided to create essentially a
23:46
competition where people who had you
23:50
know either good ideas or strong growth
23:52
opportunity companies could compete
23:55
against each other on a national scale
23:56
and could win you know creator award as
24:01
they called it so it was really a
24:03
national global business competition and
24:05
we were fortunate enough to have send in
24:08
our submission was a two minute video
24:09
submission talking about our product and
24:12
our company and you know why us why are
24:14
we doing what we’re doing at Stratos and
24:16
we were fortunate enough to get into the
24:18
final round in DC and then were able to
24:20
win a 36 thousand dollar grant for for
24:24
being a creator so it was a really fun
24:27
event it was down in DC I was just a few
24:29
thousand people were there you know some
24:32
some really prominent folks the CEO of
24:34
we work was there as well
24:36
I think the CEO sweet green so it was it
24:39
was a really fun event it’s really cool
24:41
and it was really great that they had
24:42
companies at all different stages so
24:44
there were folks like us who are really
24:46
in that ideation phase maybe some early
24:49
proof of concepts and there were other
24:50
folks who were ready to accelerate and
24:52
Ernie had sales we wanted to get to the
24:53
next level so it was a it was really
24:55
really cool event that they’ve actually
24:58
shifted now I think engine doing more
24:59
more of an investment in those companies
25:02
versus just a grant award but for us you
25:05
know we were fortunate that it was just
25:06
a grant and what we decided to do with
25:09
that among some of the other awards was
25:11
to really focus on two things one was
25:13
building that the product that we had
25:15
done a proof of concept for and then two
25:17
is starting to understand the consumers
25:20
and the customers more to get a sense
25:22
for what people cared about why they
25:24
would care what our value propositions
25:26
were and and you know getting us a lot
25:29
further along in the development phase
25:31
you know being in the Philadelphia area
25:33
even in the tri-state area there’s a lot
25:35
of wonderful hardware accelerators that
25:38
continue to pop up one of which that
25:40
you’re currently working with is next
25:43
fad so can you tell us a little bit
25:45
about that accelerator and what type of
25:48
resources they’ve been able to help you
25:49
with yeah so next up you know
25:53
interestingly enough for us was it was
25:55
the first time that that we came up with
25:57
the idea for Stratos we met at the next
26:00
fastest ility about almost to that two
26:02
years ago this month and it’s a really
26:05
awesome makerspace that they call it the
26:07
space where you can do everything from
26:09
3d printing to doing metalwork woodwork
26:12
they have you know just a tremendous
26:15
facility of you know not only really
26:19
talented engineers but also pretty much
26:21
any machine or equipment that you might
26:23
need for early-stage development for a
26:25
company and they decided to put together
26:27
a venture team where they would do
26:30
early-stage investments for Philadelphia
26:32
now I think they’ve expanded to more
26:34
regional companies but they you know
26:35
focusing on Hardware in the city of
26:37
Philadelphia so we were fortunate to be
26:40
part of that hardware accelerator this
26:41
summer as well and similar to brink you
26:44
know they asked us for what our key
26:46
milestones were they wanted to get us to
26:48
the next step you know getting us from
26:50
like I said proof-of-concept into you
26:53
know really getting us as far along to
26:55
design for manufacture
26:56
as possible so really hands-on we got to
26:59
spend twelve weeks at the facility we
27:01
add the office space there we had access
27:03
to all the equipment and all of the
27:05
engineers there so it was it was a
27:08
really exciting opportunity for us and
27:10
we continue to stay involved the folks
27:12
in next BAM because they’ve been such a
27:13
you know good resource for us here in
27:15
the city of Philadelphia
27:16
you know another exciting partnership
27:19
that you have is is or at least that
27:22
you’ve been working with is Ben Franklin
27:24
the fab met can you can you tell the
27:26
audience a little bit about that and
27:28
maybe some of the resources and how
27:30
they’ve been able to sort of help you to
27:32
take things to the next step
27:34
yeah absolutely so Ben Franklin Ben
27:38
frankly technology partners is uh
27:39
essentially a state innovation fund here
27:42
in Pennsylvania and they have a
27:44
Philadelphia Southeast Pennsylvania
27:46
chapter where you know they have these
27:49
grants and I apologize I feel like there
27:51
are so many acronyms but the VMP puts VF
27:55
GPS EP has a task loan and then a fab
27:59
that program so the Fed the Fed net
28:02
program is essentially if you have an
28:05
idea and or a small proof of concept
28:08
type of project that you want to conduct
28:09
at a consortium company’s facility in a
28:13
consortium company being you know things
28:15
like next fab and there are some other
28:17
resources in the city as well if you go
28:19
to them with a project proposal that
28:21
will actually give you a $5,000 grant I
28:24
believe it’s a matching grant so you
28:26
need $5,000 of your own capital as well
28:29
but they’ll turn that into now a ten
28:31
thousand dollar project and so it’s a
28:34
really great opportunity especially for
28:35
us when we won our first business
28:37
competition you know we had a little bit
28:39
of capital and we said well this is this
28:41
is the right time for us to try and use
28:42
fab net as a means of expanding and
28:45
extending our capital and building it a
28:47
bigger project so to Ben Franklin’s and
28:51
really strategic for us from that
28:52
perspective yeah well you know one of
28:54
the good things of joining the podcast
28:57
and the community is is that everybody
28:59
who does gets a transcript so there’ll
29:01
be will be links to all of that and I
29:03
think it’s very helpful it’s it’s a
29:06
major resource for other entrepreneurs
29:08
who
29:09
who let’s say we’re where you were the
29:11
last time we got together on the show
29:13
and sort of want to be able to you know
29:16
sort of you know gain some additional
29:18
dollars can you talk to us about those
29:21
dollars that brink actually invested in
29:23
you and what your plans are in terms of
29:26
the amount of money I mean I know you
29:28
mentioned IndieGoGo in terms of a
29:30
crowdsourcing platform to tell us a
29:33
little bit about you know how much money
29:35
you’ve already raised and and what your
29:38
future plans in that regard are yeah
29:41
sure so so if you check out brink online
29:45
you know they can certainly give you a
29:46
lot more detail around not only the
29:49
accelerators but how they invest in
29:50
companies too so you know it in the
29:52
event that I don’t give you enough
29:55
information you can certainly find them
29:56
there but they typically do an equity
29:59
type of Tablas investment in the company
30:03
but what that really means and oh you
30:06
know provide a drink with some with some
30:10
some PR here is don’t be afraid of the
30:14
cashless component if you think it’s the
30:15
right strategic partnership for you
30:17
because especially a brink they have
30:20
just a tremendous team of very dedicated
30:22
resources and having that network and
30:26
having this those folks who are really
30:28
diving into everything from financials
30:30
to helping us with strategic marketing
30:33
everything down to our value
30:34
propositions and our customer discovery
30:36
process it’s well worth the investment
30:40
you know cash is certainly a very
30:42
important component to any whore a
30:44
start-up in particularly hardware but
30:47
you also need to have strong strategic
30:49
partners and people who are really there
30:51
to help you get to the next level so
30:53
that’s what they’ve been able to do and
30:55
so what percentage of the company and
30:57
then how much do you give up and what
30:59
type of cash are you sort of getting in
31:01
terms of how it’s actually structured
31:03
because you know for someone out there
31:05
who’s considering it you know one of the
31:08
things that they like to know is you
31:10
know gee how is this actually put
31:12
together yeah so if you check out the
31:15
website to actually they do they talk
31:17
about the equity percentage so it’s a
31:19
about a 3% equity on a cash flow basis
31:21
and again that
31:23
you know that changes based on your
31:25
valuation or what 3% needs changes on
31:28
the valuation of your company right so
31:30
that’s the you know component that you
31:33
have to understand as you’re going
31:35
through those discussions with any
31:37
hardware up seller door of any kind is
31:39
is what that percentage equity means and
31:41
it it does change based on the company
31:43
so it’s hard to you know there’s no
31:45
exactly right answer there did they you
31:48
know again obviously they put a value on
31:50
your company so what what what type of
31:52
valuation did they come in at so they I
31:57
don’t know if I’m able to disclose and
31:59
I’m just you know I mean whatever
32:01
whatever you’re able to talk about it
32:03
and in terms of the structure that this
32:05
is more for the audience in terms of
32:07
what they can expect when dealing with
32:09
companies like Bank for example so that
32:12
you know they’re at the point where
32:14
they’re wanting to sort of go through
32:16
the same type of process that you’ve
32:18
already been able to go through with
32:20
them and so it’s it’s a way to sort of
32:23
open their mind to to the various
32:26
options and the possibilities and how
32:28
you know how they can sort of go in with
32:31
a with a better understanding sure
32:34
so what I’ll say to that to that end is
32:37
that if you take a look at hardware or
32:41
specific industry trends and valuation
32:43
on things like Angel list comm where you
32:47
can actually look at the average
32:49
valuation pre-money post-money for
32:51
certain companies I would I would
32:53
strongly recommend somebody take a look
32:55
at that as a baseline for their own
32:57
company obviously you have to look at
33:00
what stage of growth you are are you in
33:02
a really big market are you already
33:04
receiving traction do you have revenue
33:06
dollars you know and this is all of you
33:09
if you don’t already have an equity
33:11
valuation which our company does not so
33:15
you know to to come up with at least a
33:17
baseline I think that’s a really good
33:19
starting point that actually helped us
33:20
as part of our discussions the brink as
33:22
well because you know you’ll to help
33:25
prepare somebody for example is they
33:27
will probably come in with a number as
33:29
to what that 3% of equity is on a cash
33:33
flow basis and then you know you’ll have
33:35
to go in and
33:36
and determine whether or not that
33:38
effective or appropriate based on your
33:40
your your stage of growth and your
33:42
company so you certainly are open to
33:44
those negotiations and those discussions
33:46
which was again a really nice thing
33:48
about working with break but again as
33:50
far as yet what the exact numbers are it
33:52
will probably change and it depends on
33:55
on your specific scenario you know you
33:57
may recall the last time we actually got
34:00
together I had asked you you know three
34:02
of the the main keys or takeaways and so
34:05
since the last time we’ve actually met
34:08
you’ve obviously learned quite a bit can
34:11
you can you leave the audience with
34:13
three additional takeaways since the
34:16
time you’ve been on the show before that
34:18
you’ve kind of learned from yeah I would
34:22
say one takeaway is always focus on the
34:26
customer I think when you’re when you’re
34:30
whether it’s a software or a hardware
34:31
company you have to be engaged with
34:34
people who are either potential
34:37
customers or current customers of your
34:39
product and your company so you can
34:41
really get a sense for what what works
34:43
what doesn’t work and it’ll help you
34:45
drive your discussions too and drive
34:48
some of your your work streams because
34:51
especially in early-stage companies and
34:54
this is certainly something that we’ve
34:55
had challenges with ourselves is
34:58
pivoting pivoting for some of the right
35:01
reasons sometimes
35:02
pivoting for the wrong reasons you know
35:05
you’ll get a lot of feedback from people
35:06
whether it’s at pitch events or with
35:08
angle groups advisors people are going
35:12
to give you your their opinions in a
35:14
very short three to five-minute
35:16
you know exposure to your company and
35:18
you know you have to take it with a
35:20
grain of salt and you have to really
35:22
always kind of hone in on and focus on
35:23
well who is it that we want to engage
35:25
with and who are our customers and what
35:28
do they care most about because that
35:29
would really help you kind of stay on
35:31
the straight and narrow for for your
35:33
vehicles so that’s that’s great and so
35:35
focus on the top of the customer and
35:37
what they’re looking for and then then
35:39
secondly
35:40
secondly team is it’s tremendously
35:45
important and that’s something I think I
35:46
did mention a little bit about the first
35:48
time too but you know whether it is your
35:51
passion and I’m glad that you rate you
35:52
brought them back up again so how are
35:54
things with your team and what have you
35:56
learned since the the last time we spoke
35:58
about about the tape yeah that so the
36:01
team is in good standing team is still
36:03
together you know which is which is
36:05
really important for us and that’s funny
36:07
that we didn’t really think would be an
36:08
issue for us as as a founding team but
36:13
you know what we’ve also had to realize
36:14
with now that we’ve been expanding and
36:16
building our team whether it’s
36:17
consultants we’ve had a set of interns
36:19
and coops from Drexel we have you know
36:23
now full-time product designer who’s
36:25
been helping us you know and doing those
36:28
recruiting efforts it’s really important
36:30
to feel like there’s a good fit there so
36:33
you know it’s it was a good next
36:34
frontier for us was okay we felt good as
36:36
failures but how do we bring in the
36:38
right talented folks to help us get to
36:40
the next level how we know that there
36:42
have been fit and how do we know that
36:44
they have the skills to get us where we
36:45
need to go and so how have you been able
36:47
to sort of you know learn that quickly
36:49
because you know obviously you want to
36:51
get it right more than you don’t so how
36:53
have you been able to do that just just
36:55
briefly yeah I think for us what was
36:59
worth well is we we’ve come up with a
37:02
pretty good action plan for recruiting
37:04
so you know we we know who we want what
37:07
types of goals we want to fill but then
37:10
what we do is we we already have a sort
37:12
of a systematic way of approaching each
37:14
and every interview whether it’s you
37:16
know first starting with a phone call
37:17
getting a sense for folks and their
37:20
interest levels going through the resume
37:22
you know step one not wasting too much
37:24
time with having interviews with folks
37:25
who you know they just don’t feel like a
37:27
good fit within a 15-minute phone call
37:29
so that’s a good way to screen out and
37:31
then number two is what after we do have
37:33
initial you know long meetings with
37:36
folks and interviews and getting a sense
37:37
for them sometimes we get really excited
37:39
by people but what we do is we always
37:41
take some time to take a step back you
37:44
know really get an understanding of
37:46
whether or not this person is the right
37:47
fit and then we always follow up with a
37:49
couple of action others for that person
37:51
so to get a better sense for whether or
37:53
not they
37:54
are really interested in our role
37:55
specifically working with our team
37:57
because there will be moments where if
38:00
you ask somebody to do a little you know
38:02
mini case study or mini type of project
38:05
or report they they really just won’t do
38:08
it you know because they’re really not
38:10
that interested so it’s another again
38:12
kind of a good screening tool for us to
38:14
use to make sure that we’re when we are
38:16
hiring people were hiring people who we
38:18
know really are and where are you
38:19
finding most of your people you
38:21
mentioned Drexel the co-op program I
38:23
don’t know if you know and I know you
38:26
know we’ve we’ve interviewed a number of
38:28
people from the clothes school over
38:30
there but where are you finding most of
38:33
the the people that are that you’re
38:35
getting to come in to to fill those
38:37
roles so we use a combination of a few
38:42
platforms one the recruiting platforms
38:45
for the academic institutions the Drexel
38:47
coop is in good Temple we’ve worked with
38:51
10-bit as well and then angel list is a
38:53
good one for us where you know we have
38:57
the roles and we have you know some
38:59
remotes some mostly located in
39:01
Philadelphia that’s a really good tool
39:03
getting a lot of kind of quantity
39:05
applicants for each of the roles and
39:07
then begin to screen through there so I
39:09
those are kind of the the core ones for
39:11
us and then sometimes word-of-mouth just
39:13
people that we’ve been in the community
39:14
say hey you know this person I know is
39:16
really good at at a you know algorithm
39:18
engineering and they’re looking for some
39:20
work so then we will talk to those
39:21
people it’s been and the the third
39:23
takeaway that that you’ve learned since
39:26
the time that we last spoke I would say
39:29
it’s being passionate about what you’re
39:32
doing i acting last time i talked about
39:34
having fun which i think is you always
39:36
have to have fun but what you know now
39:39
having been part of Stratis for over two
39:42
years you have to have a passion for it
39:44
because it’s not easy to do any type of
39:47
startup company it’s harder to do it in
39:50
a healthcare space and building a
39:52
hardware device to do it and that’s
39:55
something that you know we we certainly
39:56
had a lot of challenges with and so if
39:58
we didn’t have a passion and interest to
40:00
actually create something that we think
40:03
can truly make an impact I’m doing some
40:05
people’s lives to make them feel like
40:07
they’re living a half
40:08
and healthy life and better managing
40:09
whether they understand respiratory
40:12
signs and symptoms you know I don’t
40:15
think we we probably could have gotten
40:16
as far as you have so I would say stick
40:18
to your passion and you know stay true
40:21
to yourself and I always like to leave
40:23
it with something that you feel that we
40:26
didn’t cover but that you’d like to be
40:28
able to leave the audience with I would
40:31
say just you know beyond everything else
40:33
you have to be passionate you have to
40:35
have the right team there’s a lot of
40:37
work involved but if you’re if you’re
40:39
not focused on yourself and your own
40:42
health and wellness then it’s really
40:44
hard to focus on building a healthy
40:46
company too so you know what whether
40:50
it’s entrepreneurship or something else
40:51
that you’re involved with always make
40:52
sure that you have a good work-life
40:54
balance and you take care of family and
40:56
friends first well tell you what we’ve
40:58
been talking to Nick Delmonico he’s the
41:00
founder of Stratis labs and we are so
41:04
excited to find out Nick of course your
41:07
your continued success and you’ll you’ll
41:09
certainly keep in touch with us again
41:11
your website is Stratis dot IO that’s
41:14
Stra do-si oh and on twitter at Stratos
41:19
labs Nick thanks so much we really thank
41:22
you and you’ll let us know your
41:24
continued success in progress with
41:26
getting the product to market
41:28
Thank You Michelin as always pleasure to
41:30
be on the show thanks man you take care
41:32
now be good closing let me ask for my
41:34
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41:36
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The post Strados Labs Teams Up With Brinc Internet of Things reposted on startupssmarter.com

I have interviewed both Bay McLaughlin, Co-Founder of Brinc an Internet of Things Hardward Accelerator located in Hong Kong. Nick DelMonico, is the Founder of Strados Labs a wearable technology that manages and tracks asthma. Nick discusses the investment made by Brinc.io in Strados Labs and his upcoming crowd funding and other investment rounds.