Category: Systems

The “Missing Link” Framework – How to Find Billion-Dollar Ideas in the Plumbing

Lessons, Startup, Systems

I recently gave a talk to students from my alma mater, Indiana University. The room was full of Shoemaker Scholars and Cheng Wu Build Clinic students who were majoring in informatics, computer science, and intelligent systems engineering. These are smart kids, engineers and business minds blending code with capital.

As I prepared for the talk, I thought through my journey and my non-obvious pathway to get to where I got to. The key question that kept popping in my head to focus on was: “How do I find a good startup idea?” or “What even is a good startup idea?”

The standard Silicon Valley (and most college entrepreneurship courses) advice is to “scratch your own itch.” If you hate doing laundry, build a laundry app. If you hate traffic, build a navigation tool.

I told them that’s terrible advice for Hardtech.

I didn’t have dementia when I founded CareBand. I wasn’t 80 years old. If I had only looked in the mirror for problems to solve, I never would have built a company that protects seniors.

The biggest opportunities aren’t in your personal annoyances. They are in the “Missing Links” of massive value chains.

Here is the framework I shared with the students on how to find them.

1. Be an “Anti-Founder” (Observation > Experience)

The “Scratch Your Own Itch” model limits you to the problems of a 20-something computer literate male. That is a crowded market.

My “Anti-Founder” mindset says: Look for friction in experiences you haven’t had.

I watched my father, a geriatrician, struggle with the reality that his patients were wandering off and getting lost. The existing solutions were garbage because they were built by tech people, not care people.

  • The Tech Guy thought: “Let’s build a smartwatch app.” (Seniors don’t have iPhones).
  • The Telecom Guy thought: “Let’s use a GPS tracker.” (The battery dies in 12 hours).

The gap wasn’t “a better watch.” The gap was connectivity. The missing link was a way to track a person without a smartphone and without daily charging. That observation led us to long range low power wide area network technologies (LPWAN), like LoRaWAN, long before they were cool.

2. The “Value Chain Detective”

When a massive trend hits (like AI or EVs), everyone rushes to the front door. I want you to look at the plumbing.

I use a mental model called the Value Chain Detective. You ask: “If this trend succeeds, what physically breaks in the real world?”

Take Electric Vehicles (EVs). Everyone agrees they are the future. If I asked a room of students for startup ideas, they’d say:

  • “Better batteries.”
  • “A new car brand.”
  • “A charging station app.”

Those are the “Front Door” ideas. They are crowded and capital-intensive.

Now, look at the plumbing. What breaks when 50% of cars are electric?

  1. The Tires: EVs are 30% heavier and have instant torque. Standard tires wear out 2x faster and release more micro-plastics. The Opportunity: Reinforced, sensor-embedded tires or new biodegradable rubber compounds.
  2. The Grid: Everyone plugs in at 6 PM. The local transformer on your street isn’t built for that load. It blows up. The Opportunity: Hardware load-balancers for neighborhood grids.
  3. Safety: You can’t put out a lithium battery fire with water. Firefighters are currently helpless. The Opportunity: New chemical suppression delivery systems (drones/robots) for highway fires.

The money isn’t in the car. It’s in the consequences of the car.

3. Hardtech is the Only Real Moat

Software is often a race to the bottom. If you build a cool AI chatGPT wrapper tool today, a couple of grad students can clone it next weekend.

Hardtech is a fortress.

If your solution requires molding plastic, tuning antennas, sourcing silicon, and navigating FDA approvals, you have a natural defense against copycats.

But you have to lock it down. At CareBand, we didn’t just patent “a watch.” We patented the logic—the specific method of switching between short-range technologies (i.e. indoor Bluetooth) and long-range technologies (i.e. outdoor GPS) to save battery life (US Patent 10,168,430).

For the business students in the room, I explained: A patent isn’t a legal certificate. It is a monopoly right on a specific way of solving a problem. It turns your “project” into a tradeable asset.

The Challenge

I left the students with a worksheet (which you can download here) to run this exercise on today’s trends.

If you are looking for your next idea, stop looking at your own life. Look at:

  • The Aging Population: What happens when there are more people over 80 than under 18? (Hint: It’s not just “more nurses.”)
  • Data Centers: AI consumes massive amounts of water and power. What hardware fixes the heat?
  • Supply Chains: As we move manufacturing back to the US, we lack the skilled labor. What robotics fill the gap?

Hardware is hard. It takes longer, costs more, and hurts more than software. But that is exactly why it’s worth doing.

Outsmarting the Job Hunt

Lessons, Systems

Recently, friends and family have been asking me for job-hunting advice. Of course, I am happy to help, but I do find the request a little odd because they know that I haven’t held, let alone applied for, a traditional job since my consulting days post-college. Maybe they are looking for some inspiration that is different than the typical job-hunting advice, not sure, but I do know that my entrepreneurial experience has given me insights into hiring.

The Most Creative Approach

One memorable method was from a guy who wanted to work at CareBand. Instead of applying directly, he researched and wrote a strategic article (read the article here) about the company, offering recommendations as if he were the CEO. He sent this to me and other CEOs who he wrote about via LinkedIn or email.

I was thoroughly impressed and frankly caught off guard by this approach. It showed dedication, interest, and hard work. Although he wasn’t the right fit for us, he eventually landed a job he loved using this method.

The Most Strategic Approach

Getting a job is just a funnel, and as I have shared before the fundamentals of funnels are everywhere. A funnel is a step-by-step process with well-defined steps, conversions, and outcomes. With this strategy, getting a job is a numbers game. Here’s how to approach it:

  1. Target List: Identify companies that interest you, regardless of if they have active job postings.
  2. Network List: List your LinkedIn contacts working in interesting jobs.
  3. Connection Mapping: Note connections or introductions needed to reach a person at each company.
  4. Cheat Sheet: Prepare templates for LinkedIn and email connections (catch up, cold connect, introduction request). You will use these to copy, paste, and tweak when connecting with people
  5. Self-Assessment: Answer key questions about your skills, past experiences, and job preferences.
    • What did I learn at my last company?
    • Why am I looking for a new job?
    • What skills do I have?
    • What am I uniquely qualified to do? Where am I a subject matter expert (SME)?
    • What do I want to do?
    • What do I not want to do?

Lastly, create a google sheet to track your progress. Start connecting with people and asking for 30 minutes of their time to catch up and pick their brain about their careers, then at the end of the conversation see if they or someone they has a spot open for you. Track the way you met, date of meeting, and follow up on the sheet so you can see your progress. The goal is to have as many conversations as possible to learn about opportunities and get referrals.

Tips:

  • Be clear with your answers.
  • Create a free calendar link for easy meeting scheduling (i.e. calendly)
  • Be direct and set clear expectations.
  • Get comfortable with asking for help.

This is the most strategic and most effective way to get a job (in my opinion). I always say that you are going to get a job through talking to people, not applying with the masses. Sometimes (if you are really a catch), companies/ people will create a job for you and you will get to write your own job description.

The Least Effective Way

Applying through job websites is the most common but least effective method. I’d say 90% of people go through this process. It’s slow, competitive, and leaves you with little control. You’re just another applicant in the crowd.

It is hard to get a job today. Its a crowded and virtual market. Anything you can do to stand out and be unique goes a long way. Good luck.

Linkedin Learnings

Systems

When connecting with people, write a short fast fact snapshot of yourself. Your goal is to get someone’s attention genuinely and honestly while having a clear call to action. See here:

Listening to State of Edtech - 
Me -- Serial social impact entrepreneur. Going through an exit with health tech startup now.
Edtech startup -- Accidental K12 startup started in 2019. Organic growth to 2500 users. FY21 $80k. Bootstrapped, seeking strategic capital Q2 23.
I would love to connect.

7 Hiring Steps from a First Time Founder

Startup, Systems

My first employee fell into my lap. In August 2018, I had this crazy idea that there was all this “free” and “non-dilutive” money out there through foundation and government grants that we could take advantage of if we only knew how. I had too much on my plate and wasn’t going to have time to take this on, so I went looking for someone to help.

Getting to Product/Market Fit: Reverse Engineered System and Instructions

Startup, Systems

From my searching, I stumbled upon this article written by Rahul Vohra, the founder and CEO of Superhuman. He boldly states that “product/market fit drives startup success – and the lack thereof is what’s lucking behind almost every failure.” This point is well taken and very real to me. The quest to find and achieve true product/market fit is the single most worrisome milestone for founders. Until you hit this point, there is no clear way to drive growth, revenue, success of your company.