After demo day, we had to ship our first units, which required moving most of our team to China to manage manufacturing.

We manufactured our first 100 units by hand, which allowed us to quickly iterate and fix problems as they arose during production.

When I had to move my business to Mountain View, I hired high school students to manage production back home, ensuring our sales process continued without interruption.

In times of crisis, we initially reacted defensively to accusations of sweatshops, but later shifted to a proactive approach, committing to transparency and improvement in our factories.

To build trust with factories, we decided to make earbuds first, as they are smaller but still complex, allowing us to sell a lot and gain credibility. The only factory that wanted to work with us was one that had no other clients; without us, they would go bankrupt.

Working with skilled engineers taught me the limits of materials and the importance of precision in manufacturing, which influenced my product designs.

On the product side, we focus on building a streamlined process for AI that resembles a Ford factory line, which enhances efficiency.

Before going through the entire manufacturing process, we sold around 700 to 800 units of our product, which helped validate our idea.

My first job out of school was as a construction engineer, where I was tasked with quality control on the job site, checking specifications and blueprints.