SO, YOU WANNA BE A CTO ?

ROMAIN COCHET / @COCHET

ROMAIN COCHET, CTO

WHAT DOES IT MEANS TO BE A CTO OF AN

IOT STARTUP ?

CTO OF AN IOT STARTUP

You have to build a connected object, but you don’t know exactly how yet. Then you want to

sell it, but you are not exactly sure who will buy it, why, for what price and what will be their

favorite color.

CTO OF AN IOT STARTUP

You have to build a connected object, but you don’t know exactly how yet. Then you want to

sell it, but you are not exactly sure who will buy it, why, for what price and what will be their

favorite color.

CTO OF AN IOT STARTUP

You have to build a connected object, but you don’t know exactly how yet. Then you want to

sell it, but you are not exactly sure who will buy it, why, for what price and what will be their

favorite color.

CTO OF AN IOT STARTUP

You have to build a connected object, but you don’t know exactly how yet. Then you want to

sell it, but you are not exactly sure who will buy it, why, for what price and what will be their

favorite color.

CTO OF AN IOT STARTUP

You have to build a connected object, but you don’t know exactly how yet. Then you want to

sell it, but you are not exactly sure who will buy it, why, for what price and what will be their

favorite color.

CTO OF AN IOT STARTUP

You have to build a connected object, but you don’t know exactly how yet. Then you want to

sell it, but you are not exactly sure who will buy it, why, for what price and what will be their

favorite color.

IOT STARTUP, PROBLEM

What business? CEO

What object? DESIGNER

How to make it? CTO

IOT STARTUP, PROBLEM

What business? CEO

What object? DESIGNER

How to make it? CTO

SMIIRL FOUNDERS

CEO : Gauthier Nadaud

DESIGNER : Raphael Pluvinage

CTO : Romain Cochet

STORY OF AN IOT STARTUP

1. PROTOTYPE & ITERATE

2. HELLO WORLD

3. SHIP FIRST CUSTOMERS

4. SCALE

1. PROTOTYPE & ITERATE

QUESTIONS

What object?

What is the selling price?

Is it useful?

Is there a real market for that?

HOW TO ANSWER

FAKE IT

GO AS FAST POSSIBLE

DO IT SIMPLE

QUICK & DIRTY

TEST WITH FEW PEOPLE

HOW DOES THE CTO FEEL

Code quickly, prototype, doesn’t sleep,

learn a lot of tricks to go quick.

This is exciting!

2. HELLO WORLD

QUESTIONS

Are we able to manufacture thisobject for the selling price/4?

How the world will react to our product?

Do we have a real market?

HOW TO ANSWER

Kickstarter / Pre-Order

Collect orders, funds, feedbacks.

Test the price at a higher scale.

Get rough quotations but manufacturers.

HOW DOES THE CTO FEEL

Taking big responsibilities on cost estimations.

Feel like a star.

Have the biggest todolist ever.

3. SHIP FIRST CUSTOMERS

QUESTIONS

Why I don’t still have a life ?

Why is it so hard to transforma prototype into a product ?

How to manufacture my first products ?

HOW TO ANSWER

Setup a manufacturing process.

Get into ALL details.

Courage, coffee & endurance.

HOW DOES THE CTO FEEL

Trying to make a 3 meters high castle of cards.

Exhausted.

Learning a lot of things about things.

4. SCALE

QUESTIONS

Is it the end?

How to scale manufacturing?

HOW TO ANSWER

Setup a manufacturing process.

Get into ALL details.

Courage, coffee & endurance.

HOW DOES THE CTO FEEL

You are becoming a manager.

Recruit a team.

Find manufacturing partners.

SO, WHAT’S THE JOB?

MAKE IT

STORY OF AN IOT PRODUCTBrand / Ecommerce / Dashboard.

Mobile App / User’s Website.

Back-end Servers.

OS & Firmware.

Electronic.

Atoms.

BRAND / ECOMMERCE / DASHBOARD

PURPOSE

You need a place to be visible, where the customer can buy your device.

HASHTAGS

#e-commerce

#web

#front-end

#framework

MOBILE APP / USER’S WEBSITE

PURPOSE

You have an object to manage. So you want an build a custom interface to interact with.

You want to do a mobile application ?

HASHTAGS

#ios + android

#responsive

#framework

#python / #php / #nodejs …

#databases

BACK-END SERVERS

PURPOSE

Now, your object will be interacting with your servers. Hopefully you will have 100k working in

real-time in the world. 24/24h.

HASHTAGS

#rest

#api

#websocket

#networking

#AWS

OS & FIRMWARE

PURPOSE

Now we are in the device. We need an OS working in a embedded system.

Have you ever take care of your code memory usage? Speed? Interactions with OS?

HASHTAGS

#linux

#C

#lua #python #sh

#firmware

ELECTRONIC

PURPOSE

OS is running on hardware. You are also responsible for this. Have you ever made a PCB?

Sorry, most of the time Arduino & Raspberry pi is not the solution.

HASHTAGS

#PCB

#Schematic

#EMC

#Certifications

#Wifi #Bluetooth

ATOMS

PURPOSE

Now, you have to put everything in a box. In a nice box. With a lot of constraints. It is easy to

design, hard to design for manufacturing.

Sorry, 3D printing is not the solution.

HASHTAGS

#PCB

#Schematic

#EMC

#Certifications

#Wifi #Bluetooth

BONUS

By the way, you also have to manage the assembly, shipping, quality tests, customer

service.

On a human level, you also manage developers, partners, customers.

img : enought

HASHTAGS

#PCB

#Schematic

#EMC

#Certifications

#Wifi #Bluetooth

THIS

IS

THE

BEST

JOB

EVER

(IF YOU ARE PREPARED FOR IT)

SO, YOU WANNA BE A CTO ?

ROMAIN COCHET / @COCHET