Getting Your First Customers with Jonathan Georgino
Shawn and Harris welcome special guest Jonathan Georgino. Jonathan is a business owner and hardware engineer who focuses on working through distribution channels and closing multi-unit enterprise deals with his company, Binho.
Overview
This week, on the Hello Blink Show, hosts Shawn Hymel and Harris Kenny welcome special guest, Jonathan Georgino. Jonathan is a business owner and hardware engineer who focuses on working through distribution channels and closing multi-unit enterprise deals with his company, Binho. Listeners will hear from Jonathan about the steps he took to land his first deals, market to early customers, and build a quality product that delights users.
This week, on the Hello Blink Show, hosts Shawn Hymel and Harris Kenny welcome special guest, Jonathan Georgino. Jonathan is a business owner and hardware engineer who focuses on working through distribution channels and closing multi-unit enterprise deals with his company, Binho. Listeners will hear from Jonathan about the steps he took to land his first deals, market to early customers, and build a quality product that delights users.
One Powerful Quote
23:02 – Jonathan: “I really recommend building your first boards by hand because you will understand if there is any problem whatsoever; if there is anything that can be improved, it will reveal itself when you build them by hand.”
23:02 – Jonathan: “I really recommend building your first boards by hand because you will understand if there is any problem whatsoever; if there is anything that can be improved, it will reveal itself when you build them by hand.”
Key Topics
- 1:18 – Shawn asks Jonathan about his business Binho, and Jonathan highlights key points including his team of contractors and going to market strategy. He also explains their product, the Nova host adapter, and explains the many benefits that come from it.
- 6:18 – Shawn inquires with Jonathan about his thought process for wanting to develop and find a product-market fit for the host adapter. Jonathan admits it is wishful thinking but explains how he wanted to incorporate his previous projects into a user experience.
- 8:16 – Shawn follows up with how likely someone will purchase his product. Compared to his competitors, Jonathan explains that his product is sleek, convenient, and low-profile for users. He also notes how functional it can be for teams of developers.
- 12:33 – Harris acknowledges Jonathan’s presence in this space, and they delve into how his experiences inspired him to form a business. Jonathan shares his insights into how he became his first customer and truly understood his competitors. He says advice from his network and addressing these issues early on helped build his team.
- 15:40 – Shawn and Jonathan have a follow up discussion on the influence of Jonathan’s network that inspired him to market and sell the Nova host adapter. Jonathan says this group came from from varying industries that had different projects and use cases.
- 17:08 – Shawn, Harris, and Jonathan have an open conversation about the challenges with scaling a business centered around software and hardware applications. Jonathan mentions how his relationship with a reliable and flexible supply chain manufacturer has set a foundation for his company’s scalability.
- 19:02 – Jonathan shares the process of how his product was manufactured and his success in calculating order demand. He also explains the outsourcing process to China and why it was important to originally keep quality control in the U.S.
- 27:18: Shawn and Harris commend Jonathan on his focus between launching product and business development. Jonathan describes the details used in their website which handles their e-commerce, product features, and support backin.
- 30:30: Shawn, Harris, and Jonathan discuss cold marketing and public relation approaches that helped Binho find their niche audience segment. Jonathan also illustrates what marketing tactics have/have not been successful and explains why.
- 38:08: Jonathan expresses how distributors have been the leading source for sales recently and the advantageous benefits that have come from this.
- 41:56: Harris asks Jonathan about his business model strategy for go-to market and his decision to use distributors. Jonathan highlights that his experiences as a buyer convinced him these platforms could help him as a seller including their marketing and customer outreach value. He also remarks the importance of having direct customers and keeping the end-to-end product cycle relevant.
- 48:10: Shawn and Jonathan discuss the purchasing process for Binho and why Jonathan values this aspect of his operation.
- 51:10: Harris asks Jonathan about his scaleability and multi-unit enterprise purchases. Jonathan mentions that this has recently started to happen and acknowledges that this trend validates that users are solving their problems/challenges better and faster.
Guest Information
Jonathan, a passionate hardware engineer, routinely found himself creating tools to assist in the projects he’d been working on for several years. In late 2018, he began to merge several of his personal projects into a single tool and the Binho Nova Multi-Protocol USB Host adapter was born. A veteran of several Bay Area hardware startups, he enjoys wearing many hats and doing whatever it takes to bring high-quality products to market, from proof-of-concept through mass production. Above all, he wants to share his enthusiasm for developing quality hardware products with as many people as possible.
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Jonathan, a passionate hardware engineer, routinely found himself creating tools to assist in the projects he’d been working on for several years. In late 2018, he began to merge several of his personal projects into a single tool and the Binho Nova Multi-Protocol USB Host adapter was born. A veteran of several Bay Area hardware startups, he enjoys wearing many hats and doing whatever it takes to bring high-quality products to market, from proof-of-concept through mass production. Above all, he wants to share his enthusiasm for developing quality hardware products with as many people as possible.
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