Oliver Mitchell: How to do a Deep Customer Discovery скачать в хорошем качестве

Oliver Mitchell: How to do a Deep Customer Discovery

In this episode of The Power House, JG sits down with Oliver Mitchell—Managing Partner of Arkenstone Capital, Partner at ff Venture Capital, and author of A Startup Field Guide in the Age of Robotics and AI—to unpack the founder mistake that quietly kills great companies: Doing “customer discovery” that sounds like validation… but isn’t. Oliver tells the story of Civ Robotics (formerly Civ Drone)—a startup that built a beautiful autonomous staking drone for construction sites… only to hear the customer truth that changes everything: “We said we liked drones. We never said we’d buy drones.” That moment triggered a high-stakes pivot into a terrestrial robot purpose-built for industrial solar—where reliability, runtime, and real-world operating conditions actually match what customers pay for. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN • What “deep customer discovery” actually means (and what most founders miss) • Why “Do you like it?” is the wrong question • The true cost of pivoting in hardware (cash, time, fundraising pressure) • What showed up in the first 30–90 days after the pivot • Oliver’s decision rule: closer to the goal vs further away • The 5 rules of hardware startups (utility, reliability, payback + more) • Where robotics wins first: heavy industry vs the home CHAPTERS • 00:00 New York hustle + immigrant entrepreneur mindset • 00:11 What The Power House is about • 01:18 The fork: Civ Drone → Civ Robotics • 01:59 The original bet: autonomous drone staking for construction • 03:15 The gut-punch feedback: “Cool… but we won’t buy” • 04:30 The real risk: pivot costs + fundraising pressure • 06:17 Board-level execution: customers + capital + conviction • 07:39 The first 30–90 days: traction signal + inflection point • 09:29 Deep customer discovery: who to interview + what to ask • 12:18 The #1 founder mistake: not getting out of the building • 12:41 The 5 rules of hardware startups (utility, reliability, payback…) • 14:45 Where robotics disrupts first (trust cycles, heavy industry) • 18:22 The binary decision rule: closer vs further • 19:21 What gave conviction to pivot (customer-backed certainty) • 21:02 NYC quickfire • 23:52 Oliver’s book + where to find him • 24:29 Final advice: partners, passion, discovery • 25:13 Closing About our Guest • Oliver Mitchell on LinkedIn:   / oliverbmitchell   • Blog: https://robotrabbi.com/ • Book: https://a.co/d/04K9ABKO About ff Venture Capital • ffVC on LinkedIn:   / ff-venture-capital   • Website: https://ffvc.com ⸻ 📧 If you know someone who should be on, please send them this booking link (10-min briefing): https://calendly.com/operations-josua... ✅ Subscribe to our channel:    / @the_powerhouse_podcast   💬 Subscribe to our LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relati...