Nancy and Quentin, who she joined at the beginning of their venture, are building seamless electronics for creatives and professionals on the go. As for background she has a Master’s in Economics, and she started off as a Software Tech Consultant at Deloitte in Belgium and France, then decided to follow her heart: starting their “business” project with Quentin. Rest is history (even if their company is wearing baby shoes).

Have you ever wanted to work or play from anywhere but you ran into the issue of running out of power for your devices? Maybe you did actually want to work from a beach with your laptop, while navigating a drone in the air at the same time, while playing music on a speaker...for hours long. Nancy’s hardware startup wants to tackle this problem so one can become more location-independent.

Episode Transcript





Freedom to work and play anywhere without losing power, with Nancy de Fays of Linedock, USA

What Apple, firefighters and startups have in common

Yes. That’s true. Well, I mean as you know I like to describe our job as a firefighting job so our job is trying to make sure that the house is not too much on fire because we have limited resources, limited small team so you're always kind of trying to figure out how to make things right with you know not enough time, not enough cash, not enough people. So yeah, it was definitely a very, very busy year. I am very happy to see the end of the beginning.

Yeah, the fruits, the very first fruits that are almost fresh. So yeah, we are going to be starting selling next week, Tuesday. That’s going to be very exciting. So I don't know if you are familiar with the flash sale type of thing?

How it all started: computer in a swimming pool and forgotten charger

So I actually used to work myself as a consultant. And the way the project actually started for us is that so Quentin had this kind of hackathon hardware concept on his desk and his idea was to combine a hard drive and a power bank. So his cousin happened to have thrown her old MacBook in the swimming pool so the computer was completely dead and the carcass was still usable so he was

like, “Well, I mean it's such a pity to not be able to have something that look as good as a computer and that would also combine two main essentials that we need really on a daily basis which is power and storage.

So it really actually started like this and I was actually consulting at that time so I was traveling a lot. I was working in Paris, I was living in Belgium and then one day for some reason I happened to leave my charger in Brussels. So arrive at my client in Paris, I had a super important presentation and so I turned on my computer and I didn't have my charger. And that was the end of the day so I was like, “Okay, well, thank you very much for your attention. I think I'll see you again next week.” So, of course, I sent everything through mail but that's when I decided to go back to Quentin and like, “Well, you know I think your idea of you know this like trying combination of raw power and storage could be interesting. I'm sure there would be people who would buy it and me first.” And so that's kind of how we started working on this project.

At that time also was the beginning of the USB-C. So the USB-C protocol started somewhere in 2015-2016. And the first computer that was released at that time was the MacBook 12 inch. So it was not a very powerful computer but that was one of the first that could integrate such protocol. So we thought, OK, well that could be interest- ing. Let’s see because the USB-C seems pretty promising. They really want to combine power and data in one single port. So there is kind of a trend or a movement from the industry towards something that is integrated so let's try to study this protocol, see how power delivery is working, etc. So that took us about probably about 6 months. That's when I decided to quit my job and to join Quinten full spin on this project. And then yeah, we started the development. We had our first electrical engineers. And this is how it all started.

Human-like features for the more power-hungry devices

So usually a computer requires quite a lot of power. There are actually two

different things that are available in the market today. They are really what you can call a power bank so it can be a power bank in USB-C or in regular USB and these ones can usually support anywhere between 15 up to 45 watts of power. I think the most powerful one right now is the one from Razer which is a pretty heavy one but then you can connect your computer directly into that power break without recurring your charger. So that's what I call a power bank. You also have the power bricks that are usually bigger that just have a few piles of cells like you would find in the old remote controllers I would say, and then you also need your charger. So basically, you're carrying around a big heavy brick plus your charger just to have enough juice to get to go through the day.

So what we wanted to do when we saw the first USB-C laptops being released and the first power banks that were actually not very efficient we thought, “OK, let's try to stick with the original plan of USBC which was to make things easier.” So we want to have a device that will figure out what the other device means in terms of power and we'll just provide whatever that device needs. So we decided to really hack the entire protocol I would say to allow for up to a hundred watt of charging which is the maximum output supported by the protocol and then basically there was just a handshake between our device and between the device that requires power. They’re just like talking to each other like you would be imagining two humans, “Oh, what kind of power do you need?, “Oh, I support this, this and that.”, “OK, fine. Well, then I'll just give you that amount of power and that's it.” So the user doesn't have to push any button or use any specific port left or right, it's completely seamless.

What makes Linedock stand out among other similar products on the market

Yes, as well. Right now we really wanted to…. This is our very first product and as you know our hardware is hard so we kind of wanted to stick with some very essentials, our basic features which are charging, you basically want to charge and fast, you want to connect to whatever you want and you want to store data. Then of course we have tons of other ideas and implementations so both looking at hardware features but also software integration that we're now starting to dig into which is extremely exciting. So yes, that was kind of for us to the first generation. And then of course we have quite a few exciting things along the way.

Why hardware is hard and the place of crowdfunding in the process

I think we're probably one of the worst example to follow. Because I mean we really started from scratch. I feel like today if you look at the hardware industry, I mean the biggest companies they are usually run by way more experienced people, they have way bigger teams and we were two, we're still two today. So the way I would see is that we kind of started with a proof of concept. So we managed to hack something that looked extremely ugly but that could at least demo very quickly the main features that we wanted to integrate. So that was actually after a few months. And once we had that we started to develop the PCB which is kind of the printed cir- cuit board which is what took us probably the most time. And then you also have to study all kind of materials that you want to work with. Do you want to work with the aluminum enclosure or plastic enclosure, etcetera. Then what about the battery itself right? Because the battery interestingly enough, the battery itself is I mean not much of a challenge in the entire product. The hard part is really about the hardware and the circuitry itself and the software.

So I would say we started the crowdfunding when we had a proof of concept, when we had a kind of a proof that the concept and the features we wanted to integrate were possible. Interestingly enough we launched our crowdfunding campaign that at that time there were actually quite a few chipsets that were using today that were not existing at that time. So it was kind of a challenge for us to see if the market would go into that direction because when we launched there was only the 12 inch MacBook that was available and the 13 inch first generation of MacBook Pro was just released like one week after our campaign was launched. So it was I would say a very, very big challenge that we took. And then moving forward from the moment we started the crowdfunding all the way to now, well that's where the hard work starts because I mean it's great to have an idea, you have a prototype, like things seem to work but then you need to make something that is production ready or that is scalable ready, that is reliable after six months, after one year, after five years and that's usually where you lose quite a few hairs.

Advantages of Indiegogo over Kickstarter

Well, I think that was quite of a coincidence. I happened to be in San Francisco. There was a meetup organized that I think the title was How to Raise One Million on Indiegogo and we were right about you know starting to prepare these crowdfunding things and we were like, “Oh, yeah, maybe we should go there. That seems quite interesting.” And this is where I had the chance to meet with Sandy, Sandy Diao whose gross director at Indiegogo who was extremely friendly.

How to reach high numbers in crowdfunding with a limited budget

Well, I mean actually it was quite a big surprise. We were really not expecting that. The budget or the marketing budget was pretty much close to zero when we launched. And any expert in crowdfunding or in marketing would typically advise you to look at I would say I don't know anywhere between 25 to 50 k, to have like a comfortable budget to start with. And we had nothing, we had just close our first seed round and so we had a very, very limited budget. We also had to pay for you know setting up the first company, start paying for prototypes, go through the entire study of the protocol. So anyway, we had like way other priorities in marketing at that time. So we started with like nothing and we were like, Okay, well this is us. This is what you can pay. Hey, do you want to check it out?” So yeah, it was definitely exciting to see the numbers growing after few days.

The beginning was I think very tough because we happened to launch when Apple had just released their MacBook in USB-C. And that was actually very badly received because then people were like, “Oh, so Apple is removing all the parts and you guys are bringing them back with a device that looks like a computer” which just happened to be coincidence because at that time, well, we were just launching, we indeed had a port because it was indeed a docking station. But Apple released their computer at the same time. So we were like, “Yeah, well no. Yes and no, not exactly.” So yeah, it was definitely challenging but exciting at the same time.

Hardware-specific challenges: the 90 % done, but 90% remaining

Well, I think the hard part when you build hardware is to become aware that when you have like 90 percent of the job done you still have 90 percent that needs to be delivered. And that's sometimes very frustrating because you're like, “Okay, well it works, the product works now so why can we just you know mass produce it? Now everything is running, we know which chipsets we're going to be using, which electronic components for this, this and that. So that's it. Right?” And actually, this is where production come in the game in the know that you have some molding, you have some tooling, you have some certifications, you have quality control and compliance reports to prepare and you have all kind of instructions that you need to give to the factory because I mean a factory is a factory so you are the one who us supposed to know you know how the product needs to be assembled, what are the tolerances that you accept if, I don't know, you have five units out of 100 that have zero point, zero two millimeters difference. Is it acceptable or not? Etc. So those things just happen and at once while you actually think that you know the product is ready so people can soon receive it, well, it's actually not the case. And then I would say manufacturing in itself is definitely a challenge and I really do see why so many companies waste quite a few months fighting with manufacturing. In our case components sourcing was a very big challenge because we were working with very, very innovative chipsets. As I told you when we started the campaign some chipsets were actually not even existing.

I remember going to Munich for the electronic airfare that was in November 2016 and I was at the booth of microchip. And they were actually introducing the new USB powered delivery chipsets that were to be released later that year early 2017. So if you're working with very innovative chipsets, sometimes you do have to realize that there are other companies that are in the waiting line before you can be Microsoft, can be Apple, ASUS that order way bigger quantities so sometimes the wait time can go all the way to 40-45 weeks and if you're not prepared for that at the beginning, well, you start ordering your components, you reach out to all the Texas Instruments and alike and then they give you back a quotation with a wait time and you're like, “Oh, shit. I have to wait until next year. What do I do now?”

So sourcing I would say is definitely challenge and then certifications also. For us that was very complex. Every time you're charging to anything that contains batteries that's quite of a challenge to have it certified. And it also takes a lot of time. If you happen to have a new radio emission so if you have something that has antennas that's also a nightmare to get certified. So yeah, I would say there hasn't been anything that went fine.

What is special about the crowdfunding world that makes it different from the rest of the world?

Well, I think so but you also think that you know with any new product introduction there is what people call the momentum. So it's really the moment where I don't know you are in this I think very positive spiral. People like the product, people talk about it and that usually happen very early in the stage. So that's typically when you just launch. And InDemand is I think a very good way to try to keep this momentum last a bit longer. But I would say that the most of your campaign is usually happening during your campaign so during the first few days but InDemand is definitely is definitely helpful.

If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself?

Good question. I don't know. So I guess it means you would not give a note to yourself perhaps.

If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career?

It's a book in French. It's called The Four Agreements.

What to do before diving in your tons of emails and phone calls

Yes I would start to go for a run in the morning if I'm not too tired. I think that's probably one of the best way to start your day is try to have some activity early in the morning before diving into your tons of mails and phone calls. Yes.

I try every other day for now.

Never take “no“ for an answer

I would say never take no for an answer. That's something you typically see from one culture into another and no means very different things. So I would say that's definitely something we overcome but we really had issues with dealing with dealing with China, Ukraine, Denmark, U.S., that can be challenging.

What is the best way to reach Nancy?

E-mail. Yeah, I try to reply as soon as possible but I would say e-mail or phone call might be the easiest option.