Tony Fadell: The Game Has Changed! You Don’t Need Silicon Valley | E47

Tony Fadell is an amazing and successful engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the father of the iPod, co-creator of the iPhone, founder and former CEO of Nest Thermostat, and the founder of Future Shape, a global investment and advisory company.

In 2014, Tony Fadell was one of the Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. He is also a NY Times bestselling author with his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Work.

It’s a true pleasure to have Tony on our show and hear how he searched and found his excellence!

(00:24) Leaving the Silicon valley and inventing Nest Thermostat

• A trip around the world with his family
• Designing a new home on Lake Tahoe
• Realized there were no good thermostats to remotely control
• Nest Thermostat was born in Paris
• There is no need for Silicon Valley anymore, the game has changed

(05:35) Money as a motivation to start a company

• It was never about making money, it was about solving a problem
• Focus on the inventions that fix real problems
• Your success drastically changed the lives of your employees

(10:14) Steve Jobs and when is the time to quit

• Book mention: Tony Fadell, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Work
• Working for Steve – one of the most important things in his life
• Rumors about Steve Jobs are just rumors
• Steve cared about customers and products, he demanded excellence, and he wasn’t going after people for no reason
• When is the time to quit? (When you don’t grow anymore, when you work for someone you don’t respect, and when you work in a team with serious flaws)
• If you’re working for an jerk, do you quit?

(18:32) The importance of Extreme Preparation

• What is Extreme Preparation for Tony?
• VC pitch meetings
• TED talks

(21:10) The importance of mentors in search of excellence

• Everyone needs a mentor (even Steve Jobs)
• The best mentors know human nature
• Coaches are something different

(24:25) Fill in the blank to Excellence

• When I started my career I wish I had known – more about understanding the customer
• The biggest lesson I learned in my life – when to say no and say it more often
• No. 1 professional goal – to help people and mentor them
• The greatest innovation in the next 50 years – Artificial Intelligence

Resources Mentioned:
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, Tony Fadell
Nest Thermostat
Apple

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