The Undefeated Underdogs Mehul Nariyawala - From selling a $40M startup to Google to building the future of smart home robots!
👉🏼 About the Guest:
Mehul Nariyawala is the founder of Matic, where he is building fully autonomous home robots. He previously worked at Nest as a Lead PM for Nest Cams Portfolio and founded Flutter, a company that develops gesture recognition technologies, and was eventually acquired by Google for $40M. Mehul Nariyawala attended The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
👉🏼 About the Host:
Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.
👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:
Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/
This episode is brought to you by Sunset. They handle all the legal, tax, and operational burdens when shutting down — making sure founders and investors avoid penalties, reduce liabilities, and immediately move on to what's next. If you're interested in learning more, visit sunsethq.com to meet with a representative for their team. And make sure to mention the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast to get $2K off of your dissolution.
👉🏼 Description:
Listen in as Sharath and Mehul discuss the future of hardware, the immigrant founder experience, how hardware and software are similar, and more!
👉🏼 Timestamps:
- 00:00: Episode Highlight
- 00:49: Shoutout to Acquire.com and Sunset
- 04:04: Introduction to Mehul - founder of Matic, fully autonomous home robots
- 06:21: Why Mehul loves robots
- 18:00: How to find a boring, unsexy, and profitable problem
- 25:30: How Y Combinator startups have changed from 2012 to 2024
- 30:40: Mehul's funniest story from Y Combinator
- 34:11: How Mehul transitioned from Flutter to Google to Matic
- 40:51: The story of Google Glass
- 43:55: What Tony Fadell, founder of Nest, taught Mehul
- 46:10: What software and hardware have in common
- 49:45: Mehul's immigrant journey
- 54:23: The importance of Silicon Valley in building the future
- 58:14: Taking Matic Robots from 0 to 1
- 1:05:07: How to manage anxiety and panic as a founder
- 1:11:30: The future of Matic
- 1:16:15: Where hardware is heading next
- 1:20:45: Advice for hardware founders
- 1:22:32: Outro and closing thoughts
👉🏼 Resources:
- Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/
- Link to Sunset: https://www.sunsethq.com
- Paul Graham: https://www.paulgraham.com/
- Tony Faddell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fadell
- Gusto: https://gusto.com/
- Rescale: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/rescale
- Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/
- John Collison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collison
- PlanGrid: https://construction.autodesk.com/products/plangrid/
- Meta Raven: https://www.meta.com/experiences/pcvr/1173079702739172/
- Scott Belsky: https://www.scottbelsky.com/
- Notion: https://www.notion.so/
- Figma: https://www.figma.com/
- Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield
👉🏼 Where to find Mehul:
- Matic: https://maticrobots.com/
- Twitter: https://x.com/mehul?lang=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehulnariyawala/
👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
- Website: https://5harath.com/
- Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
- Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/