Zach Supalla is the founder and CEO of Particle, an IoT startup that’s making it easier to build, connect and manage internet-connected hardware on an enterprise scale. Zach launched Particle on Kickstarter in 2013 with the vision of making the Internet of Things easy and accessible. Particle has grown to have the largest developer community in the Internet of Things with over 125,000 engineers. Particle devices are used at 50% of the Fortune 500 and ship to more than 100 countries. Particle has been featured in WSJ, Forbes, Wired, Engadget, Fast Company, TechCrunch, the Discovery Channel, and many other publications. Zach has spoken as an authority on Agile Hardware and the Internet of Things at prominent events such as OSCon, GMIC, and Launch. Zach earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and an MEM (masters in engineering management) from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern. Before Particle, Zach worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, advising Fortune 500 companies on strategy, operations, and product development. He is a graduate of HAX, the world's first and most prolific hardware accelerator.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Zach Supalla
- - Being able to provide livelihood for people
- - Origins and motivations of Particle and it's early story
- - Transition from specific consumer products to hardware and software supporting products and making them easier to build
- - Diverse products and experiences being created using Particle
- - Lessons from manufacturing, hardware, and software applied to one another and the differing constraints and goals of each
- - The broad engineering disciplines and challenges at in the Internet of Things space, specifically at Particle, and bridging gaps
- - Valuable employees, motivation, remote culture, and dealing with limitations and advantages of location
- - Incentives and impact and skills and jobs
- - Zach's stories of failure - voicing anxiety and concern along with the team instead of easing them, pitching without data
- - Making voices heard and amplified
- - Zach's book recommendations
- - Zach's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Zach
Resources:
Zach's book recommendation:
Zach's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Care about the things you do, the people you interact with, the products you create
- Focus on problems, not technology
- Don't let the bad stuff get you down