The Jennifer Kamara Podcast

Austin: I grew up watching the Steve Jobs, uh, films and stuff like that. And I was obsessed with that. So like I had, um, those kind of mentors, uh, even though I didn't know them in person, like the, you know, film mentors and, um, it was just really inspiring. It was like, that's kind of the life I want to live.

I have one go at this, you know, so I might as well just keep going. Give it my all and try to do something cool. And like I knew I didn't want to, you know, just get by and just pay the bills and stuff like that. Like I really wanted to like

Jennifer: All right.

Welcome y'all. We have Austin Ekman with us. Very happy about that.

He's got a fascinating founder journey that I'm so excited to dive into. So, 1st of all, he's only 25 years old young. I should say, uh, he started coding at 12 years old. He self describes as a robotics nerd turned entrepreneur. Today, he teaches circuits, coding and basic robotics to students around the world using storytelling plus open source parts, the inventor dot I O, which he started 4 and a half years ago with only 2000 dollars in his bank account.

This was practically his life savings, and he figured he might as well give it a shot. He could always go back to working in the factory. So I'm really excited to dive in and get to know more about your founder, journey, Austin. I know that he also shared that he's been really tweaking and figuring out product market fit and just recently hit that.

And afterward, now they're doing 5 million plus in revenues. So going to be really interesting as well to learn about their journey to product market fit. So happy to have you welcome. Welcome Austin.

Austin: you. Appreciate it. It was a solid intro

Jennifer: Great. So I want to start now, I've given your intro, I want to invite you to tell us about who is Austin in your own words.

Austin: I just would say like probably a maker at heart. Um, I just always kind of have a project i'm working on or two and uh, Dive deep into that. But yeah, it's you know Loving loving that

Jennifer: Love that. A maker at heart. And tell me a little bit about growing up. What do you think contributed to that? Also where did you grow up? What were you, what was your environment like?

Austin: I grew up in a little farm town in Michigan, uh, known as Pinkney, Michigan. Um, so I was really blessed to grow up there because we had a, an amazing robotics program at our school. And I thought like everyone had access to this kind of stuff. But really, you know, they don't. So, um, we had like these FANUC robots and stuff like that, but they were essentially a four year course and they gave me like full access to play around with these robots and stuff like that.

So growing up, I had this, um, playground that I could essentially, you know, build these robotic setups and, and, uh, yeah, that gave me so much, uh, you know, looking back on it. So that's kind of what I wanted to recreate with Inventor is giving that ability for people at home to kind of access to this technology and the education.

Jennifer: And Austin, do you still live in Pinckney or where are you

Austin: So I live in Florida now. I moved to where it's

Jennifer: Oh, look at you. You went, you went to get some of the heat. Well, that's fascinating because so my brother, my older brother went to University of Michigan in Arbor, met his wife there and she has family in Pinckney. And I've been to Pinckney many times and they're actually raising their kids in an Arbor.

And so it's very close by. So I'm very familiar with the area. And, uh, that's so funny. And yes, it gets cold sometimes,

Austin: yeah. Oh yeah.

Jennifer: in the winter, sometimes. So I totally understand you go to Florida, but, uh, yeah, it's fascinating. I think he puts his, my brother's kids are in, he tries to do, they try to do robotics and like all sorts of things.

And I think that area has amazing education in that front. So very

Austin: The teachers were great too. They kind of let you just do whatever. Like if you, you know, kind of had a path for yourself, they'd let you go and um, you know, I kind of made my own courses up as well and they were very supportive of that. So I think that's one of the biggest things shaping my childhood.

Um, and then as well, just being at home, my dad was a computer nerd as well. So he always had, I always had access to that stuff and it really inspired me at a young age to start like learning it.

Jennifer: So you started at 12 years old coding and tell us where did that take you through from then to starting inventor.

Austin: Yeah, so I thought it was going to be some quick, you know, young prodigy thing, but I really just kind of was following YouTube tutorials to like build things at home and my own like Java applications and stuff like that. So it wasn't until like a few years later that I was, you know, had opportunities to kind of do my first entrepreneurial thing, which is like programming for factories.

Um, just.

Jennifer: And when was that? Like a few years

Austin: I had to be like 15 or 16 and I spent the money on my first car. So like, that's how I was able to get like, it was like a 2, 000 car, but it was great.

Jennifer: But still, at 14, 15, you got to earn your own first car. That's huge.

Austin: you know, it started like that, but you know, Inventor didn't start until I was like 19. And, you know, it was very, I always knew I wanted to be entrepreneurial growing up, but Like it was just so overwhelming.

It's like, I don't know how to make a million dollars. I don't know, like, you know, what route I'm going to take. I don't know sales or stuff like that. So, you know, it's something I knew I wanted, but, uh, you know, the journey

Jennifer: Can I ask what, how did you know you wanted entrepreneurship? What was it about it that was appealing to you?

Austin: I don't know. I think it was just, I grew up watching the Steve Jobs, uh, films and stuff like that. And I was obsessed with that. So like I had, um, those kind of mentors, uh, even though I didn't know them in person, like the, you know, film mentors and, um, it was just really inspiring. It was like, that's kind of the life I want to live.

I have one go at this, you know, so I might as well just keep going. Give it my all and try to do something cool. And like I knew I didn't want to, you know, just get by and just pay the bills and stuff like that. Like I really wanted to like retire my family and you know, have those big ambitions and um, so

Jennifer: Yeah. Did you, do you have any siblings?

Austin: I have an older brother.

Jennifer: Okay, and so I'm curious, where did you start watching Elon Musk documentaries while you were growing up in Pinckney? Did you find these yourself? Did your brother, your dad, someone

Austin: I contribute every like Yeah, so much goes to YouTube. Um, like, I learned how to build my whole business, like, sales wise from YouTube. And, um, all these great CEO interviews you can just look up on YouTube. So, it was just a wealth of knowledge, and I think I learned from a young age. Because when I started programming at 12, I learned from YouTube videos, just following it.

And then that kind of unlocked something in my brain, like, oh, I can... Watch this video and gain this knowledge. So it's like, oh, you know, I can apply it to anything I can kind of learn anything from youtube and it's free. So

Jennifer: What a great resource. Okay. So then around 1514, you started to get some first projects work with factories and supporting them with coding. And these you would apply proactively to them, right? Or,

Austin: So it was just kind of um, i'd get these gigs through my dad He would help me kind of, you know, it was family friends and stuff like that. So they'd be like, oh, Here's this problem. Let's see if austin

Jennifer: through your network.

You were already networking. And then at 19, what happened?

Austin: that's when I dropped out so that's um, you know, I was going to college

Jennifer: you dropped out of Michigan Tech.

Austin: Yeah. Yeah. So I was going for computer engineering and then I had one internship, you know, kind of working the cubicle job, programming the PLCs at the factory and stuff like that and doing the robotic stuff. But yeah, it just didn't, you know, it didn't really do it for me.

I was like, this is kind of stale, kind of boring, even though there's great opportunities, um, through all that stuff, that's just, it clicked for me. Like, Hey, I just, I need to do something else. You know, I need to figure out how to start my own business and go that route.

Jennifer: hmm. And say more. So I know that at the beginning of Inventor. io, you had 2k that you put into the business, but also when you dropped out, uh, your family basically kicked you out and you had to stay on your friend's couch. So tell us more about what was going through your head, more about this episode at the beginnings of Inventor.

Austin: I think it was a really important part. Um, cause you know, my parents were pretty upset and it makes sense. Right. I was like three years deep into college or so. And, you know, I only had a little bit of time to graduate, but, um, yeah, my mom definitely did it out of love. She's like, Hey, you know, if you're going to do this, you have to go and live with people that are also kind of like, you know, on their journey.

So it was, it was out of love. Um, and that's where I ended up. You know, my one friend I knew online and through a Facebook group lived in Florida. So I just slept on his couch and, um, we just started learning, you know, internet marketing, just nonstop, uh, you know, learning about funnels, learning about the sales stuff, learning ads.

Um, so that's when it really, you know, started to click like, Hey, this is a way to make money.

Jennifer: Yeah. It sounds also like you were following, you were voraciously improving. Your talent and skill set outside of the way that it was being taught in classrooms And was it that the classroom felt very structured in a way that wasn't serving you something else?

Austin: Yeah, I, I just,

Jennifer: When you when you say

Austin: like to me it just felt slow, it's like, oh, I have to wait six months to learn this basic programming stuff that I already kind of learned on my own on the side, so it's, it kind of felt like, why do I have to go at their pace, um, and then I also like contemplated going for like a marketing degree and I'm like, well, you know, the best way is just spend money on ads, it's the best way to kind of get my marketing degree, so, um, I went that

Jennifer: And so you got started. I understand that you were iterating testing, seeing what was going on. And this is basically your journey to product market fit. I want to talk a little bit about this. Because I think it's so important. Every founder goes through it. And I'm curious, what was that journey like for you?

I know you started with one product that is now not what you're offering. You're offering three products now. So you can tell us more about the details, the journey, what lessons you feel like you learned for the benefit of other entrepreneurs

Austin: Yeah, so I first started dropshipping. So, you know, it wasn't the most glamorous thing because you know 2, 000 budget you can't afford You know hundred grand of inventory and a fulfillment center at first So started that route and I just got lucky around that time that ads were so cheap that you could kind of run an ad For like a decent offer and you'd probably break even or make a little bit of money So back then it was just a lot easier So I just found one, one offer, you know, launched it after I studied funnels.

I studied the marketing game a lot and you know, it started breaking even to the point where we could do, I think we did over a hundred grand in sales our first month. Um, so there was a lot of prep and we definitely got pretty lucky. Um, but that kind of gave me proof of concept. Now 1 percent margins, so we weren't making bank, but I was like, all right, so if I can build my email list, um, for free, that's, that's a huge win. Uh, so that was kind of the first iteration of it. We had a very basic kit, but you know, we tried to pair education with it. Um, and it seemed people were just buying for the parts and they wouldn't go through the education and kind of stick with our programs. So that's where it took years to figure out, but you know, we just kept iterating until, um, we kind of found something that people actually use our education and not just the parts.

Which also allowed us to increase the value of it, sell it for higher, because there was a lot more value there. Um, and then inherently run more ads and scale more.

Jennifer: Was there a breakthrough point that or story that you can

Austin: Sure. So from the beginning we were kind of always building a Facebook group and I think this is really important for every business is kind of build your community whether it's on Facebook or your own site or wherever you want your community. Um, and yeah, just talk to your users. That's what we did for the longest amount of time.

We just sat and talked to our users, like, got on calls with them, like, you know, very boring stuff that you wouldn't see a lot of our competitors doing, but they literally just kind of gave us the ideas that we just, all we had to do was execute on it. And those ideas worked very well. And they're, you know, making millions now.

Just cause, you know, I listen to the users. Put their ideas into practice or like, Hey, this would be cool. And then we work on it, release it. And yeah, that was, that was kind of the, you know, main breaking point that allowed us to create our product into what it is today, um, allowing us to scale so much more.

Jennifer: It sounds like what you were doing was things that don't scale at the beginning talking to all the customers really understanding their needs and listening to them, which is so important so profound and Huge huge tip for entrepreneurs, especially at the early stage.

Understand what their needs are. How do you build a product that's 10x better than what they have today that they're willing to pay for and will engage with.

You keep saying we, at what point did the team grow and where is the business now?

Austin: So yeah, I brought my co founder on about a year and a half after I started and he kind of helped me launch this new version of our product that's doing really well. Um, so that was a huge, huge win. Um, but now we're up to about a dozen people between our fulfillment centers, our partners, and then we have a bunch of agencies we work with to do like the video production side of things.

So um, about a dozen people, but I, I wouldn't be able to do it without them. I mean, they're, they're pretty much running the business now. It's great.

Jennifer: I want to ask more about the structure of the business today, but first maybe give us a run through. I know you have three products. You have an intro course, a 30 day challenge, adventure kit to, do you want to tell us a little bit about what you offer?

Austin: Yeah, so that's pretty much our value ladder for now. Um, we just have like a free to spend shipping offer, which you can get people in the door, and it's like a 10 offer, but we have a whole course that goes with that. It's based around hardware programming, so you can learn how to use this little, uh, credit card sized computer, and be able to kind of create your own at home projects, or, um, there's pretty much infinite use cases for these boards, which is kind of what we try to stress through our storytelling.

So then, the next thing is the 30 day challenge that, you know, gives you more parts, gives you the circuits, uh, stuff to work with, LEDs, the switches, um, so over 30 days, we challenge you to, essentially, there's a storyline that goes around it where you crash your spaceship and now you have to repair the ship in order to get back home, um, so they're doing stuff like fixing the lights in the cabin, they're, you know, doing the switches, they have a security system, um, but yeah, you learn programming and circuits the way through it, so... And then yeah, Adventure Kit 2 is kind of the more advanced one, which is like you're defending your home against the AI apocalypse. So we're going to that as well.

Jennifer: that sounds fun. Who are the, who's your target customer slash and then who are the folks that tend to purchase

Austin: so we mainly built it for kids and for college students, but that's not who's buying it all. It's, uh, you know, retirees. Actually, we have a majority of our, uh, users are retirees at home that are just, you know, they want to keep their brain active. They want to build things. Uh, they might have done this in a career, um, or something similar.

So, um, that's pretty much majority of our community.

Jennifer: That's so funny how you think you're building it to teach kids coding and robotics and it turns out that retirees who love engineering are the ones using it. Uh, do you feel like you will continue to tweak the product to target them more or you want to still also get,

Austin: Yeah. So.

Jennifer: so you're going

Austin: Yeah, we're, we're going to niche out soon. So I'm working on like watchmaking kits. Um, like you can like build your own wallet kits and just all these different maker stuff that you can do at home. Uh, just building a project through your hands for a few

Jennifer: you should get one for my husband please because he likes making and tinkering so I'll make sure he talks to you and we can keep him

Austin: Oh yeah.

Jennifer: That'll be great. Um, wonderful. Okay. So I want us to see how the structure of the business today. So you mentioned about 12 ish people. Y'all have 3 product lines.

You're considering reaching down further. And what are your revenues now?

Austin: It's just over 5 million year.

Jennifer: tremendous, congratulations, and how is your team run? Like, you are, as a leader, how are you thinking about the way you run the company?

Austin: Well, it's always changing, uh, and it's especially changed up recently because we were very much an online business earlier this year, but now we're switching to kind of being an in person business. So I'm kind of relearning how to lead the company. Uh, but yeah, it's been, it's been good. We just, you know, do most of our communications over slack or, uh, in the office and, uh.

Yeah, we just have different projects going and people are just focused on their projects. Um, that's the one thing is I like, I try to, when I'm running this, I try to keep everything as simple as possible. Like if it gets too complex, I kind of shut it down and I'm like, all right, let's redesign this so it's as simple as possible.

I think that's super important for, um, scaling.

Jennifer: Keeping it simple, where are you going to be located? Is it Florida?

Austin: Yep. So we'll be by St. Petersburg.

Jennifer: And why the switch to in person? Is it that you found that being in person helps with making kids better or creativity or something else?

Austin: think it's a boost to majority of things like you just kind of work better when you're in the same room as your marketers and your, you know, if your customer support agents are right there with all the inventory, um, that's so much better. Like, everything just seems to be so much better and productivity is a lot better.

I've always grown it as an online business because that's, you know, I'm very introverted. That's, you know, what I, what I liked doing at the beginning, but now it's like, all right, there's so much more to, you know, everybody in the same room and the same office and whatnot.

Jennifer: Yeah.

And speaking about you being an introvert, I want to talk about you as a founder and a leader and growing into this role as, can I say first time founder or do your other projects count?

Austin: I mean, yeah,

Jennifer: Right. And I'm so curious, what do you feel has stretched you the most in Hmm.

Austin: yeah. Well, I never wanted to be the CEO. I never wanted to be the founder. I always kind of wanted to be the second or third person in command because that's just where I felt comfortable. But I, I knew once this opportunity kind of started happening that it was like my responsibility, um, to get up and serve and, uh, to, to lead the team.

So, yeah. Um, it's been a journey. It's been tough. It's definitely not the role I expected to be in. I was expecting to be like the vice president or whatever. Um, but yeah, it's just, there's this one saying I heard that like once the mind expands, it's super hard for it to go back to the way it was beforehand.

So like once you start seeing what's possible, and then you start seeing like how you affected somebody's life, and um, how you taught like a kid programming for the first time and his face is all lit up. He's like, this is so cool. Like, you know, it's hard to. Not, you know, want to scale this as hard as possible.

Jennifer: What do you feel these days? Right now you're transitioning to in person. You are relearning managing folks. What do you feel like these days? You are working on personally as a founder in your growth.

Austin: Um, I'm doing a lot of education versus, uh, building, which I'm, I'm very blessed to have the team that I have, that they're doing a majority of the building. Um, and I can spend a lot of time, you know, learning new processes, going to conventions and stuff like that, learning new marketing stuff, and, um, yeah.

That's pretty,

Jennifer: that sounds pretty accurate. So as a founder, it's such an interesting job because it seems every three or six months, your role evolves with the company growing and scaling and you're constantly learning and growing for what the company will be in the future. So you can support the team for what they can be in the future.

So it's very normal. I would say it's funny, I think. The main job of a founder is to learn well and to hire well, uh, because you're just, you're just constantly evolving. So it sounds like you're in that process so. or power to you,

let's transition to your personal life outside of being a founder or just like more holistic, you're more, more holistically.

I'm curious, how do you design your life today? Meaning work, personal finances, play, health, relationships, things like that. How, how do you think about what's important to

Austin: So I'd like to be more disciplined. I always try to, you know, schedule out my days, but I always fall off on the schedule. So I've tried really hard to get on schedule, but it, you know, it doesn't really work for me, but I do. You know, for sure. I work out every day. Um, that's been one huge change in the last year that really helped me scale my business even

Jennifer: Mm hmm.

Austin: I'm just kind of taking discipline over my health. I've always been a couch potato, always been the skinny kid. So, um, this last year has been great for that. So, um, I've been really into like biohacking, uh, the very Novice version of biohacking, but um, so I tried to red light therapy. I got the cold plunge on the way.

I have a sauna that, you know, sauna has been amazing for that. Um, but yeah, it's really just between, I spend a little bit of time on the hobbies. I spend a bit of time on health every day and then the rest is education or executing on building. And then I try to schedule things, but my schedule always falls off.

Jennifer: Yeah. Why do you feel like it falls off?

Austin: Um, I want to say it's because I lack discipline to keep it, but then also like, I really don't lack discipline, so it's like, it's a weird, um, I don't know, I just always feel guilty when I miss something by a few minutes, um, that's like, oh, now I should be eating at this time, and it's like, I miss it by a few minutes, so, I, I feel like I just don't want that extra guilt, I'm like, I'll eat, you know, around this time every day, and that, that kind of helps me go a little bit more.

Jennifer: Yeah, it's interesting. Depending on the personality, like what you just described can be a thing where it's like if you're not hitting 100 percent of your goals, they become more frustrating to you than serving to you. And so just working on that, uh, I think what I'll offer is we are human.

We are not robots per se. And so we're not 100 percent perfect. We work within some margin of humanity. And, uh, if, if it's, if it's useful at all, it's more about how can you think of what are the, what's the level of training that I fall to? Meaning I, as I intend to eat at this time, usually of day, I intend to work out this many times a week slash at this time.

And I do these other biohacking things that work for me, like sauna or cold plunge or whatever. I spend time with friends. Generally, and if you hit that 80 percent of the time, you're doing wonderful. And it's great to have those serve you in that way. But if you don't hit it 100 percent of the time, it feels like you're just human and normal.

Austin: I appreciate that.

Jennifer: Of course. And then I want to end with,

Austin, what does success mean to you these days? It's always evolving for folks, so it's always wonderful to hear what their current definition

Austin: Yeah, for me, it's being able to spend time with my family and friends, um, and you know, kind of be able to serve a lot of people. Um, and I mean, it doesn't have to be a lot of people, but you know, be able to serve people and then be able to spend time with my friends and family. Um, The financial side, like, as long as, you know, I'm paying the bills, I don't, I don't care.

Um, you know, it's great to keep scaling that. It just means I serve more people. But yeah, it's just the ability to serve would be success.

Jennifer: Mm. And with that beautiful note, it was so great to have you and get to know you better, Austin. Thank you so, so much for coming and I'm looking forward to staying in touch and seeing you continue to serve and, and grow.

Austin: Appreciate you.