Nate and Chris chat with Valentina Ratner, co-founder and CEO of Allspice.io, a collaboration and automation platform that brings software development workflows to hardware engineering. Valentina started her career as a mechanical engineer at Amazon before founding Allspice to transform how electronics teams design PCBs. The three discuss the challenges hardware engineers face with outdated collaboration tools, how Allspice adapts Git workflows for electronics design, and Valentina’s experience transitioning from technical engineer to startup CEO and sales leader. This episode is full of insights on building developer tools, creating customer love, and the evolving intersection of hardware and software development practices.

For more information on Valentina and AllSpice: https://allspice.io

If you're interested in improving hardware workflows, AllSpice is hiring: https://allspice.io/careers

For more information on the podcast, check out https://tradeoffs.fm

In this episode of TRADEOFFS we connect with Yohan Jacob, Founder and President at Retail Bound, the largest retail channel management consultancy in North America. Yohan and his team help brands launch and scale their products into the top retailers across the continent.

Drawing from over thirty years of experience, Yohan shares his insights about helping brands navigate the complexities of retail partnerships, post-purchase customer support, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and common pitfalls to avoid.

For more information on Yohan and Retail Bound: https://retailbound.com

Additional Links:
Retail Bound Accelerator
Retail Bound: Learn How to Sell Your Products to Retailers, 2nd Edition

For more information on the podcast, check out https://tradeoffs.fm

In this episode of TradeOffs, we sit down with Kaleen Canevari, founder and CEO of Flexia, a Techstars backed connected fitness company building the world's first smart Pilates reformer. With a background in mechanical engineering and Pilates instruction, Kaleen shares her journey of launching a hardware startup during the pandemic, navigating manufacturing challenges as a female founder, and developing innovative metrics to quantify Pilates performance. She shares insights about complexities of hardware manufacturing, venture capital dynamics, and the delicate balance between being a technical founder and business leader.

You can learn more about Flexia at https://flexiapilates.com/

For more information on the podcast, check out https://tradeoffs.fm