Starting a Company on Pure Chutzpah! The story of Embedded Works founder Andy Do
An interview with Kimberly Wiefling, Scrappy Dialogues Radio Show. Learn more about Kimberly and The Scrappy Guides at her website, wiefling.com.
Andy Do has been in the wireless and networking industry throughout his professional career, and is the visionary and founder of Embedded Works. During his 3 years at Proxim, he was responsible for supporting OEM customers worldwide to integrate wireless solutions such as OpenAir, HomeRF, and 802.11b. Prior to launching Embedded Works, Mr. Do was the driving force behind Avnet's wireless strategy in North America (aka Wavelength Design Solutions). Andy holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and Music from Santa Clara University.
Andy Do and I met when he was working for me at HP. Unfortunately I had to lay him off, but he never held it against me, because I laid myself off at the same time, too! Andy and I stayed in touch, and about 5 years ago he contacted me to ask me for help on starting his first business. Andy had always had an entrepreneurial streak in him since we first met, so I wasn't surprised to hear that he was launching a business. The first one failed. The second one failed. The third one failed! This is typical for entrepreneurs, and it's a good thing he didn't quit his day job until business #4, which is a smash success and worth well over a million dollars after just 2.5 years of boot-strapping it from the ground up.
While his first 3 businesses didn't generate profitable revenue, they DID teach Andy important lessons about how to start, run and grow a business, like the importance of focusing on the following: Who exactly is your customer? What do these people need and want? What benefit are you providing these people? What's unique about Y.O.U. that makes them come to you instead of another company?
When Andy showed me the business plan for Embedded Works I knew it was a winner!
Listen to his story on this edition of "Scrappy Dialogues" to learn more about how Andy built his business with no outside inventors and pure determination! |
