Utsav Gupta Founder of ByteForge - Wearables hardware development

Utsav Gupta is the founder of ByteForge, a product firm that takes wearable and hardware ideas from napkin sketch to manufacturing. Before that he led electrical architecture at Lumia Health, building the world's smallest in-ear wearable to track blood flow to the head, after cutting his teeth on biosensing and batteries at Whoop and autonomous delivery robots at Nuro.

ByteForge- Product development for wearable and hardware startups. They're an all-in-one shop: electrical, firmware, and mechanical engineering from early R&D all the way through manufacturing. If you're a founder trying to get from "I have an idea" to "I have a device I can ship," that's exactly the gap they fill.

Utsav will be in San Francisco in late August and early September, and encourages hardware founders to reach out and talk.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/utsav22g
Email: connect@byteforgesystems.io
Web: byteforgesystems.io

If you are ready to protect your mental bandwidth, sharpen your leadership skills, and build a network that actually moves the needle, visit innovatewithcoachl.thrivecart.com/founders-and-leaders-book-club/ to claim your seat.

Additional details at www.LaKishaGreenwade.com. Let's open the right doors for each other.

Transcript

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00:02.52
Lakisha Greenwade
Welcome back to the Wearable Takeover Podcast. And hey, folks, we are here with the Founder Series. I'm not going to belabor you with the intro, but for those of you that are watching, yes, you see me representing wearables today. We are not sponsored by this company. We hope to be in the near future. But I just wanted to represent wearables because I'm the queen, the global queen of wearables. And I'm incredibly honored to bring our guest forward to you today. Utsav Gupta is the founder of BiteForge, where he helps startups turn napkin sketches and hardware ideas into real products that reshape how people live and connect. He's an electrical engineer who has spent his career

00:43.80
Lakisha Greenwade
career building products ranging from low earth orbit satellite systems to wearables health and wellness products he's pretty smart Now, let me tell you, before he started doing this, ah he also led electrical architecture at Lumia Health. He helped to build the world's smallest in-ear wearable to track blood flow to the head after cutting his teeth on biosensing and batteries at Whoop and autonomous delivery robots at Neuro. You know what, Utsab? You are that dude, as they say on the street.

01:17.43
Lakisha Greenwade
How you doing today?

01:18.37
Utsav
Thank you. Thanks for the awesome intro.

01:21.53
Lakisha Greenwade
you You are, you i know you are globetrotter, right? And so you are in many areas where we work with founders around the world. Today, where are you?

01:34.17
Utsav
Today, i'm ah I'm at my house in New Delhi, so I will be here for another couple of weeks before I set on for the next destination.

01:43.12
Lakisha Greenwade
Okay, I love it. And so we actually met in person, which I was so excited about during Tech Week. For those of you that missed us, we were in Boston as well as New York. Itzab was there supporting us. We were so excited about that.

01:55.71
Lakisha Greenwade
And looks like we'll all be headed to the West Coast for Tech Weeks out there with San Francisco and l LA in particular. And so Itzab, what are you looking forward to when you attend Tech Week events?

02:09.74
Utsav
That's a great question. So TechWeek brings out, i feel, the best in the ecosystems in every city. And for me, the most exciting part is the people, the people who are building awesome stuff, people who are connecting others, people who are there to like organize events and really build a community. And that's what drives me to be at each of the Tech Week events. Aside from the all the cool tech that's going to be there, all the fun demos and the food and like the nightlife and everything, all that's cool. But without the people, none of that will really work, honestly. And really, at Boston Tech Week and at New York, I really saw the community coming together to really celebrate

02:57.05
Utsav
and empower people who are building fascinating and helpful products, which is has been rare to see in the hardware world. But this is why i'm excited to attend more of these events.

03:10.90
Lakisha Greenwade
And I'm glad that you're attending these events as well because you are a piece of the puzzle that often founders need in order to move forward as they're developing their prototypes, as they are coming to the table to configure.

03:26.03
Lakisha Greenwade
Is this really going to be something that can work? And can you help us understand how Byteforge actually helps startups? Because you have extensive experience working with some really prominent companies. um And some startups, they may see you as something that, yes, we need him, but then also, well, can we truly work with him? And you are positioned to actually work with startups. Can you explain like that stage and what that looks like?

03:53.62
Utsav
Yeah, absolutely. So at Byteforge, we usually partner with founders and startups from see stage all the way to CVC. That's really our sweet spot. If a company is too big, we don't so feel super comfortable like plugging in because they already have their processes and their systems up and running. But what we specialize in is bringing that zero to one experience all the way from like developing ideas, turning napkin sketches into some proof of concepts, then taking them to the prototype stage, and then all the way to a real product. And where the specific areas we are experts in include the physical part of a product, that's electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, firmware.

04:38.74
Utsav
And within that, we have a whole host of engineering engineering help and resources available to help you build the best version of the product that can be

04:51.74
Lakisha Greenwade
I love it. So basically we need to set you up in one of our offices here in the US.

04:58.55
Utsav
I would love that.

04:59.53
Lakisha Greenwade
Under the wearable tech pictures umbrella, like come on with us for a design studio experience. um and Because I think a a lot of founders can benefit from that. And we've already alluded to ah some of the work that that you've done there. Now we're looking at product development for wearable and hardware startups. So again, just to reiterate, you're like that all in one type of shop again. So the electrical, the firmware, mechanical engineering, ah even from like early R&D, all the way through manufacturing. And so help us understand because like manufacturing is a big deal right now. that There's a lot of discussion around that. And I know we're going to come back to some of the earlier sketches, but I want to key in on this piece of moving an idea to the manufacturing side.

05:47.80
Lakisha Greenwade
ah What exact role do you play in to getting to manufacturing? um And then ah does that look like you assisting founders with identifying an actual manufacturer or or what what does that mean?

06:04.50
Utsav
Again, that's another really good question. So we have a network of trusted manufacturing companies in China and in other Asian countries as well as in the US and Mexico. So what we specialize in is like the tech transfer part where maybe you have a design or maybe you have built a product. and you want someone to take it off and you want that handoff to be smooth, we can assist with that as well. And of course, we do the full service from idea to the full product as again. But these manufacturers that we work with, they have been vetted by some of the best in the industry, really, so to say. And a lot of the...

06:48.70
Utsav
A lot of the times the manufacturers we introduce you to will also depend on the type of product you're trying to build or the type of the quantities that you're trying to build. Because maybe, let's say, voop for an example, if they're building like 2 million products a year, maybe they need a different kind of setup than a seed stage startup that's trying to ship out the first 5,000 units. So anywhere between that scale, we have the right fit for each category and each product.

07:22.14
Utsav
And additionally, like we have our v since we are close to Asia, we have our resources here who can fly in and check in on the manufacturers themselves if there is a problem. So we also try to tighten that window in which things can go wrong by just being on site and present and really assisting with the bring up or any other debugging that may need to happen during the engineering to manufacturing handoff.

07:54.11
Lakisha Greenwade
I love that. And so now what we're seeing in the industry are a number of folks positioning themselves as a fractional officer, if you will. And so when I'm looking at you, I'm i'm looking at you as like a fractional chief design officer or even a chief ah technology officer. Would you agree or is that a little bit far fetched when you're looking at a partnership with some of these startups?

08:19.32
Utsav
I think it is a little ambitious, but that is what we're building towards. I am, and some of my engineers are already working as like technical leads in different areas, and we are already advising our clients in multiple different fields. So that is something we are aiming to towards, but there are a few more steps along the way that I think we need to take and successfully demonstrate our prowess before we take the leap.

08:48.82
Lakisha Greenwade
See, folks, I didn't even prep him, but I see. like This is what a lot of founders, they like about me. When they come, they're like, Lakeisha, you get the vision from the start of where we're trying to go. And I love it because you actually have built your dream team. And that's one of the, I believe, one of the most difficult things to do.

09:06.90
Lakisha Greenwade
in this industry, especially because the expertise is so specialized. um And even though there's a lot of potential for wearable solutions in the marketplace, I still feel like there's an opportunity there for those to build strong teams. So first of all, tell us about your dream team and then tell us how you went about building your dream team if you can.

09:31.00
Utsav
Ooh, this is one of those things that I've been working on for a long time. And yeah, I've been slowly learning it along the way.

09:35.58
Lakisha Greenwade
Okay.

09:39.19
Utsav
But I would say, let's start with the first piece of the puzzle. When I was building Byteforge, I needed a firmware engineer to complement my electrical engineering skill set. So the first thing I did was look through the people I'd worked before and see who would I like to work again and then who had the right skills and really the right attitude towards bringing products to life. And that's how I found my firmware lead, Dipankar. So he has over 25 years of experience building products, all ranging from aerospace to wearables, to medical devices, to like other safety critical products and used in railways.

10:26.90
Utsav
I actually met him through a friend of a friend. And the moment I met him, I had a little chat with him. I knew that, OK, this guy has the right vision. He has the right attitude. He has the right energy.

10:42.01
Utsav
and really that's what i was valuing like the skill sets are there i would say but the motivation in a lot of cases is lacking but and especially if you're working with early stage startups what they are looking for is someone who can match their energy and really just like go all in now the tricky part is a lot of the people who have that motivation are building their own startups and that's what makes it so hard to build the dream team But as an example, Dipankar is an entrepreneur.

10:59.64
Lakisha Greenwade
Exactly.

11:13.39
Utsav
He was running his own company before, and ah he has founded two different startups and sold one of them very successfully. And now he's working with me because he also saw this lack in building, lack of ah engineering, I guess, strength in hardware, especially.

11:34.65
Utsav
And that's how I try to find people like, is this is this someone who has enough passion to build something of his own and be proud about it? are they Are they the right person to work in a startup environment? And are they really like willing to go all the way?

11:51.58
Utsav
And at the same time, are they willing to have fun with the stuff they're building? Because a lot of the times, if you're not having fun, then what are we even doing?

12:00.83
Lakisha Greenwade
No, that's right. You got to have some fun. And um'm I'm glad you you mentioned the difficulties of developing a team in this space. And Werbletech Ventures, this is a shameless plug.

12:14.14
Lakisha Greenwade
We understood that from the inception. And that's why if you see us with some programming that's targeted towards you know what we call the talent pipeline, It's for that reason, because we recognize there's a demand for talent that understands the culture that we can introduce to companies such as yours or other startups. So if you see that, that's why you want to support it. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, hopefully our announcement is out or related to our AI boot camp that's that's coming up. But OK, let's get to this fun piece, because I think oftentimes we skip over that. We say, oh, you have fun.

12:49.85
Lakisha Greenwade
What does that look like for you in a work environment? What does that culture look like now? Because I think some folks may look at back in the day, there was the the startup series on HBO and they wonder, like, is that culture still alive? Is that what you're referring to or has it evolved? What does that look like?

13:08.15
Utsav
ah Yeah, so fun for I think everyone is different, but how we define it here is enjoying what you're working on. And let's say I'm working on a project, would you would I still work on it if I wasn't being paid?

13:21.05
Utsav
That's what tells me you it's fun. And those are the type of people I'm looking for.

13:23.67
Lakisha Greenwade
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

13:25.95
Utsav
And that doesn't mean that everyone is pulling 12-hour days. No, that's absolutely not what we do. We build a healthy work environment and then we make sure that everyone is getting, ah but well, everyone is working on the right stuff they want to work on. So like, are you the right fit for this project?

13:44.68
Utsav
Are we the right fit for it? And then Is the client looking for, are they looking for someone who is going to run through like the entire code base in 10 days? Or are they looking for someone who builds incrementally and builds slowly? So our team is comprised of people who have different personalities, but the real important pieces, are they engaged and are they like enjoying the products that they are building? Behind that, I would say there is one other ideology that I've been selecting for, and that is relevant to the products we build. A lot of the folks um we're working with are in the health and medical industry. and

14:25.56
Utsav
I would say on the hiring side and all on the team side as well, we are looking for people who are interested in building the future of health. And that is that comes through in our hackathons.

14:36.06
Lakisha Greenwade
Yes.

14:39.48
Utsav
We internally organize like one hackathon every quarter. We used to have it like every month, but then which our schedules got in the way. So now it's once a quarter and we will, instead of an offsite,

14:51.11
Lakisha Greenwade
Yeah, hackathons are hard work. We know they're they're hard work.

14:53.50
Utsav
Yeah. Instead of offsite, we will just like rent out the like rent out a couple few rooms in a resort and then build whatever we want to decide.

15:04.07
Utsav
And this is like a very democratic process. Our collaborators and our team just put some ideas on what we think is the coolest cool thing to build that is achievable within two days with a simple proof of concept.

15:18.87
Utsav
And the second thing we crowdsource is a location. So it has within some constraints, of course. And all of us will fly over there, spend like three days bullying what we think is useful, it's cool, and we enjoy working on it.

15:26.12
Lakisha Greenwade
Yes.

15:36.85
Utsav
At the end, we do it in teams of two or three, and at the end, we will demo all of our products to each other. And I think that's where like also the softer parts of team building come into play.

15:50.72
Utsav
like Yes, we are always working with each other.

15:51.32
Lakisha Greenwade
yes

15:53.60
Utsav
We have a working relationship, but we also need to have an outside work, like a personal relationship that needs to develop. and yeah So far, we've received a lot of good reviews from everyone who's participated in this.

16:09.09
Utsav
ah But yeah, it's I would say that has become a centerpiece. Like people look forward to it now. They're like, oh, I want to build a robotic dog. We were like, okay, what is the minimum viable product we can do in three nights?

16:22.62
Utsav
Because hey sometimes a lot of these things are incredibly hard to build. Yeah.

16:27.83
Lakisha Greenwade
Yes. You know what? um A couple of things on on the robotic dog as well as on the hackathon. So ah folks that really know me know that I have had ambitions to own a robotic dog and walk around with it.

16:42.60
Lakisha Greenwade
And so if you're seeing this, you're like, oh, that's a cool idea. I had it first and just wait till i roll it out. Um, but I also need one now for my aunt because her dogs recently just died and she didn't want to get any new ones.

16:53.16
Lakisha Greenwade
And I said, well, you should get a robotic dog like me. So I need two of them, one for me and one for my aunt.

16:57.02
Utsav
Okay.

16:58.01
Lakisha Greenwade
Okay. So if anybody's out there and you hear this, I'm looking for that for you. Want to sponsor me? I need that because I am your girl, but on the hackathon piece, um, We got out of it because we, in the past when we were doing hackathons or attempting to, we had a particular audience in mind, you know, was bridging the gap with those that really knew what they were talking about and those that were novices coming to the table.

17:23.04
Lakisha Greenwade
And it's exhausting work. And our very last one, it was, i don't know if you remember when there was like the data breach and Delta Airlines went down. By the way, Delta, you can sponsor me.

17:32.23
Utsav
yeah man

17:33.55
Lakisha Greenwade
um You were great to me during my inconvenience of getting from Baltimore to the West Coast and literally um took me a few days to get to California.

17:45.59
Lakisha Greenwade
And I was rerouted and I walked in an hour late to our hackathon. And so, um and I left early, like super early, a couple days early.

17:55.72
Lakisha Greenwade
So I was traumatized after that experience. And i was like, okay, we're totally taking a break here. But we see the value in providing the opportunity for folks to develop a portfolio, for companies to identify talent, for people to determine, is this really what I want?

18:12.54
Lakisha Greenwade
Or to see if there's potential mentors they can meet in the space. So We'll have to talk about that and see if we can maybe do something um together in the near future with some sponsors and also launching.

18:18.44
Utsav
Absolutely. Yep.

18:25.15
Lakisha Greenwade
I think it'll be cool so that we can launch our wearable tech kits to the community. Maybe we could do a project with that in particular. But let's let's go back to this future of health care.

18:36.82
Lakisha Greenwade
And I think that's important because, you know, you you talk about your workplace being one that is health-minded health minded, health focused, and then we're building the future of health care. So ah we tend to be those crazy people that that come out with all these ideas and we we just live life differently. So what does that look like, ah having a healthy mindset in your company compared to what others might look at as a healthy mindset in a traditional company? Or or does it differ at all?

19:07.86
Utsav
ah So I've only worked in startups before, so I don't know what normal looks like to other people, but a lot of my engineers have worked have enough experience working in startups and traditional academia or even in bigger companies and sometimes the government as well.

19:13.83
Lakisha Greenwade
Okay.

19:24.74
Utsav
So what for us, I think what we are looking for is, ah again, a lot of people on our team are like they have kids who are maybe like two or three years old or maybe they have a teenager.

19:37.46
Utsav
So for us, it is important to really give the parents the time they need to spend with their kids and also like recognize that that's a big part of their life and ah see like where can we save their time so that they're able to do this or do that.

19:57.53
Utsav
um And then on the younger side, some of our younger engineers, we have our own lives as well. I am 27 years old. that I like going out and I want to make sure that the work I'm doing, though it's very meaningful, it's not putting a damper on my personal life as well.

20:15.54
Lakisha Greenwade
Yes.

20:15.58
Utsav
So we work around all of these things.

20:16.11
Lakisha Greenwade
Mm-hmm.

20:19.70
Utsav
And honestly, i would say the best thing that has happened to us is being like further away in the time zone, because a lot of the companies treat it as, oh man, I have meetings or i I got to do this in the evening for us. That means we can come into the office a little bit late. So if you want to drop your kid off to the school or maybe you want to work from home in the morning, that's totally fine. And then you can come in a little bit late, leave a little bit early, because we have like a solid chunk of like seven or eight hours which are meeting free.

20:51.26
Utsav
which in engineering is, it's something that people like are willing to switch jobs for.

20:51.88
Lakisha Greenwade
Nice.

20:59.04
Utsav
It's something there. It's a really big thing. Like in engineering, you usually you don't have like a seven hour meeting free block at any point in your career.

21:09.14
Utsav
And we have, meant we have managed to build that because we have moved our meetings to a certain block in the evening and then shorten the workday a little bit.

21:19.15
Utsav
So if someone wants to come in at 7 a.m. and leave at like 2 p.m., that's fine. They can pick their kid on the way home and then spend a few hours with them, hop on a meeting in the evening. That's fine by me.

21:30.66
Utsav
That's fine by the other team members. We just try to have a little bit of a overlap so that we can internally coordinate.

21:35.22
Lakisha Greenwade
Yeah, I love.

21:35.74
Utsav
And then...

21:38.10
Lakisha Greenwade
Oh, yeah you went out and we went out there.

21:38.49
Utsav
not

21:39.90
Lakisha Greenwade
um I love I love the flexibility you're incorporating into your company and into the culture. And I think that that influences the ecosystem as well.

21:50.28
Lakisha Greenwade
Right. And i want to transition a little bit because I saw this post the other day on LinkedIn and it was a man that was familiar with the wearables industry. And he said, you know what?

22:01.47
Lakisha Greenwade
I'm bearish. My outlook is bearish when it comes to wearables.

22:04.66
Utsav
Yeah.

22:04.99
Lakisha Greenwade
And I think. When he was referencing wearables, i always say he was referencing like legacy wearables, right? And I was like, well, maybe he doesn't really know all that we know. And i I'm bullish on wearables because I think about the expansiveness of the category.

22:20.34
Lakisha Greenwade
Where are you when you look at the outlook of wearables? Are you bullish or bearish and why?

22:26.55
Utsav
I would say i am leaning towards bullish, but I am also cognizant that of the fact that wearables may not be the answer to everything.

22:37.02
Utsav
They are very helpful, and every wearable is meant to do something slightly different, but that doesn't mean that everyone will be interested in everything.

22:37.37
Lakisha Greenwade
Mm-hmm.

22:46.02
Utsav
There's something out there for everyone. I i really do believe that. And I really think that wearables are bringing forth a lot of the medical and technological advances that have been limited to traditional industries and like traditional sectors. So I am actually very much looking forward to democratizing the access to maybe healthcare, care maybe some other like commercial assistance and products.

23:14.62
Utsav
So that I am very happy to see is happening. But at the same time, right? I feel like the wearables category has been co-opted by a lot of people building a lot of things that may not be a wearable or it is something you wear, but maybe it's not really providing any benefit ah to anyone.

23:31.48
Lakisha Greenwade
Mm-hmm.

23:38.68
Utsav
And that's where I get a little suspicious of like, oh, okay, I guess i guess you can wear it and I guess it has a battery in it. But would I say it's improving my day-to-day life, regardless whether it's a lifestyle wearable or a health or a medical device or a tracker, that's really the part where ah I am a bit unsure about it.

24:05.82
Lakisha Greenwade
I like that you mentioned that because one of the things that we stand on, we stand 10 toes down on, we say developing with purpose. We don't believe in gimmicky items. ah We are not here to promote or even try to invest in gimmicky items, right?

24:19.96
Lakisha Greenwade
So I think that's where some of the, a little bit more sophistication around data and clinical studies and things like that come into play.

24:29.84
Utsav
Exactly.

24:31.18
Lakisha Greenwade
from the development side. So thank you for sharing that. And I do appreciate your caution as well. And one of the things that we're seeing is the evolution of wearables.

24:41.30
Lakisha Greenwade
Again, when we look at what does what does a wearable consist of, it's not just limited to the wrist or fingers as most people are seeing the uh category emerge or expand you know with sales if you will um but we're seeing it e evolve in the way that it's worn or used in conjunction with the environment which is going to be really cool uh that we'll see down the line but how many wearables do you own it's uh because i get asked all the time do you have a wearable a key shirt what do you own so you know where are you in that category

25:03.60
Utsav
Exactly.

25:16.57
Utsav
Oh, man. I have too many, too many. So i have william frank paul I have the Whoop MG and then have the Whoop 4, and then I have the Aurorang 3, 4, and 5. Then I have the new Fitbit Air.

25:29.88
Utsav
And yeah, these are the some some that are right at the top of my head. And then I have a drawer more like filled with stuff. As an engineer and a nerd, I am always excited to try out the next new thing.

25:44.22
Utsav
ah Does that mean I spend a little too much money on the variables? Yes. But it's also, I tell myself it's research and development expense, right?

25:54.07
Lakisha Greenwade
Exactly. Exactly. That's what we're about over here. Or if you are, you know what? Hey, folks, some of those companies that he just mentioned, if you want to reach out to us at Wearable Tech Ventures and the Wearable Takeover podcast, ah you know, we work with companies to help us raise funding because we are five hundred one c three so if you want to gift us some of those things so that we can raffle off or you want to give us some so that we can just um have a contest for our enthusiasts in the ecosystem so that we can see increased usage reach out to us because utsav and i we're going to be comparing notes we are the nerds we are the nerds we want to we want to try all of this out and see what's going on okay i love this all right so

26:26.68
Utsav
Yeah, absolutely. Yes.

26:37.05
Lakisha Greenwade
we've We've covered quite a bit, and it's up I think we could do another episode where we go really deep as far as a technical ah experience. and i And I love this overview that we were able to capture for our audience today, but let's give them a taste of what could come in the near future. when we go a little bit deeper. So when you talk about um developing wearables and and hardware for your clients, which of course are these startup founders, and you were saying anywhere from C to, I believe it was Series C. I think I have that right. Um,

27:17.30
Lakisha Greenwade
Give us an example of of what you're talking about from an electrical firmware or a mechanical type ah category of work, if you can. And then that way we can kind of um touch on this again, because I do believe we need a part two.

27:36.22
Utsav
Awesome. Yeah, i think I think I'd love a part two. But yeah, happy to give you a glimpse. So let's look at some of our current projects. So with a client and on the West Coast, we are building a wearable that's aimed at women's health. and And on this wearable, we are taking over all the responsibilities on the firmware and the electrical engineering side. And an example of what that looks like is when the client first came to us, they were looking for expertise to build the hard parts of the firmware and really just like have up have someone to guide them through the development, be like the architect and own all of the complications in the product.

28:22.26
Utsav
So our engagement started there, and then it slowly snowballed into, oh, hey, you guys are also electrical engineers. Maybe we need some help here. And that they pulled me in for a particular design review, and then that built built up further and right now I'm advising them on improving the signal quality of their particular product.

28:45.30
Utsav
We are helping them develop better sensor front ends, not in the sense of the chip, but really the interface between the product and your body because that's what really drives signal quality. There is no magic sauce. There is no algorithm you can tune if your raw data itself is noisy. And that's what I tell every founder. And that's really most of our work.

29:12.80
Utsav
Like how do we capture the cleanest waveform because Once your raw data is clean, your algorithms will have just very simpler time processing it and turning it into useful metrics or biomarkers for whatever you're capturing.

29:29.75
Lakisha Greenwade
I love it. Look, you see folks, so I said we need to have another episode. We are so honored to have you in our ecosystem, Udsav, and we're excited to work with you. Can you tell our listeners and founders how they can connect with you or have a consultation?

29:45.82
Utsav
Absolutely, yeah. So if you're interested in talking to me or reaching out, please note my email is utsav, that's U-T-S-A-V, at byteforgesystems.io. You can also visit our website, www.byteforgesystems.io, or connect with me on LinkedIn. ah That's also slash in slash utsav22g.

30:10.94
Utsav
I think we'll have a link somewhere at the end, right, Lakisha?

30:13.85
Lakisha Greenwade
Yes.

30:14.66
Utsav
Okay.

30:15.35
Lakisha Greenwade
Yes. We'll have it in the show notes.

30:17.67
Utsav
Awesome.

30:19.10
Lakisha Greenwade
And we want to make sure that they know how to spell bite for it. So we're saying B as in boy, Y, T, E, F as in Frank, O, R, G, E. So in case you're listening or perhaps you're like, I need to get this now. Don't feel like even going to the show notes. That's how you can reach out to Utsab you can catch him on the West Coast. And we're hoping to bring him back to the East Coast here. We got some things up our sleeve here. But what's a motivational message or word you can give to our listeners as they prepare to go through the second half of the year and and even prepare for maybe even some launches in in the new year?

30:53.39
Utsav
Ooh, yeah. So if any of you are building a hardware product, I would say go slow. Don't go fast. Hardware is a product category where once you have a device in the market, there are no ways to fix any bugs.

31:10.90
Utsav
We've seen this a lot with our software founders and friends. there If their mentality is, oh, we'll ship it if something breaks out in the field, that is something you cannot do with hardware. It gets very expensive very quickly. So go slow, go steady.

31:27.80
Utsav
Hardware is a place where you don't want to rush. Fix the bugs, iterate internally, and then ship out the product people will love.

31:37.18
Lakisha Greenwade
I love that. So you heard the wisdom here. You know we have resources for you. We're super excited to have Udsap in our ecosystem. And folks, you need to tune in for another Founder Series episode. If you like this, make sure you share it. Make sure you tag us at Wearable Tech Ventures on LinkedIn as well as Instagram. And tell everybody, tune in to the Wearable Takeover podcast. There's more to come, but for now, we'll see you later.