Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Hanna McPhee, Co-Founder of Nanu, located in San Francisco, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Nanu is a product design company that creates objects for the day-to-day, particularly those that reshape your relationship with time. We just launched our Arc, an alarm clock that melds an analog feel with modern functionality.
Tell us about yourself
Drew (my partner in business and life) and I are both makers at heart. We have backgrounds in engineering and design, respectively, and have always gravitated toward hardware. Nanu was born out of a long-standing love for physical product design. We care deeply about making high-quality products that are built to last decades.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Launching a consumer electronic with a team of 3. There's so much that goes into designing and launching products! Consumer electronics, in particular, are quite complicated. I am really proud of our small team for the amount of work we produce.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Pivoting often. It's important to have plans A, B, and C. It's even more important to be nimble and scrap those plans when new data is presented. Pivoting can be exhausting but is super important when you're running off limited information (as most startups are).
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Gain as much exposure as possible into your industry before starting your business. We were both early employees at another hardware startup called Fellow. They design modern coffee products for the home. Our time at Fellow really prepared us for starting our own company. Not only did it prepare us for the day-to-day operations of running a hardware business, but it also emotionally prepared us for the scrappy early years of a startup.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://nanuelectrics.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nanuelectrics
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanuelectrics/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NanuTeam
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nanuelectrics/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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