Balaji Srinivasan - Optimizing Your Inputs - [Invest Like the Best, EP. 233]

My guest today Michael Mayer, is the founder and CEO of Bottomless, a company that automatically replenishes your coffee supply where I am both an excited investor and customer. Today’s conversation is about tactical lessons Michael has learned while building the business. We talk about identifying an addressable problem, how to avoid solving for bottlenecks that don’t yet exist, and how to iterate through problems before scaling. As yet another example of a self-taught entrepreneur, it’s inspiring to hear Michael’s mindset for problem-solving. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Michael Mayer.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

[00:02:45] - [First question] - How he got into this space in the first place and found the problem Bottomless would eventually solve

[00:08:43] - What he would do better the second time if he had to find a problem and narrow his focus all over again

[00:09:49] - The most notable lessons learned about data legibility beyond the scale

[00:10:15] - Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

[00:13:01] - Overview of building the first Bottomless hardware prototype

[00:14:29] - First steps of physically assembling the first scale and learning fabrication

[00:17:40] - Roughly how long it would take to build scales in the beginning

[00:18:30] - How long the company was bootstrapped

[00:20:41] - Making the pivot to seeking out investor support

[00:29:03] - The often overlooked role of social capital as a startup founder

[00:31:00] - Importance of following niches and passions

[00:32:15] - His philosophy in successfully scaling the production side of the company

[00:34:45] - Lessons learned from bottlenecks and their utility in founder growth

[00:36:52] - The problem of supplier legibility and improving it

[00:40:14] - Understanding USPS predictability as a product input

[00:43:03] - Always problems to solve and the fractal nature of them

[00:46:13] - Challenges of hiring staff in the tech space

[00:50:15] - Lessons learned about personal bottlenecks and the need to evolve alongside your company

[00:52:21] - Monitoring your informational inputs and their role in shaping your mindset

[00:55:58] - Closing thoughts on the business boss battles founders face

[00:57:38] - Why society writ large should perceive starting a company as status-enhancing

[00:59:44] - What bottlenecks for Bottomless may present themselves in a year from now