My ongoing search for the best and brightest tech entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley leads me to a lot of remarkable founders building incredible companies all around the world. But for this episode of Powderkeg: Igniting Startups, I decided I’d look closer to home and consult with a few gifted minds inside my very own office.

Robert Harris and Kevin Bailey are my colleagues at Powderkeg and its parent company, Verge, and they’re also two of the smartest and most talented people I know. They both have years of experience scaling tech companies and launching multi-million dollar products, and I’m thrilled to have them serving now as my CTO and CMO, respectively. I can personally testify they’ve both done amazing work over the past few months building a new and exciting product of our own (but that’s a story for another day).

Harris, Bailey and I go deep into all things product-related in this episode. From identifying market opportunities to building the first MVP and evolving the product to meet business needs, we touch on many of the important decisions you’ll need to consider throughout your product’s life cycle. As an added bonus, the two also share some exciting and hilarious stories of their past adventures in entrepreneurship and product creation.

Enjoy the episode, and don’t forget to thank Harris and Bailey on Twitter @ilaunchtech and @KevinJBailey for sharing some of the wisdom and advice they’ve accumulated over the course of their impressive careers. And you should definitely consider updating your reading list with a few of the outstanding business books they recommend!

In this episode with Kevin Bailey and Robert Harris, you’ll learn: 

  • All about their first experiences with product development 
  • The power of a guiding ideal, or “north star,” for your business or product
  • Why you sometimes have to fundamentally change your business to scale effectively
  • The role knowledge and intuition play in leading a business
  • Expert advice on validating a product and identifying your target market
  • Great products you can use as inspiration and guideposts in your own product development
  • Their top three business book recommendations

Please enjoy this conversation with Kevin Bailey and Robert Harris!

This episode of Powderkeg is brought to you by DeveloperTown. If you’re a business leader trying to turn a great idea into a product with traction, this is for you.

DeveloperTown works with clients ranging from entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 companies who want to build and launch an app or digital product. They’re able to take the process they use with early stage companies to help big companies move like a startup.

So if you have an idea for a web or mobile app, or need help identifying the great ideas within your company, go to developertown.com/powderkeg.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. You can also follow us on Soundcloud or Stitcher. We have an incredible lineup of interviews we’ll be releasing every Tuesday here on the Powderkeg Podcast.

Robert Harris and Kevin Bailey Quotes from This Episode of Powderkeg:

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Companies and Organizations:

MVP Launch Partners

Slingshot SEO

Salesforce

CISCO

Amazon

Universities:

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Books:

The Singularity Is Near

Please Understand Me

Coherence

Steve Jobs

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Triumph of the City

Apps, Software and Products:

Amazon Web Services

Boomerang

Universal Breathing: Pranayama

Amazon Echo

Websites:

Yahoo

Excite

YouTube

Google Trends

Google Adwords

People:

Robert Harris (@ilaunchtech)

Kevin Bailey (@KevinJBailey)

Jeremy Dearringer (@papanewpro)

Aaron Aders (@aaronaders)

Dr. Alan Watkins (@alandwatkins)

Ray Kurzweil (Official Website)

David Keirsey (Official Website)

Walter Isaacson (@WalterIsaacson)

Tony Hsieh (@tonyhs)

Did you enjoy this conversation? Thank Kevin & Robert on Twitter!

If you enjoyed this session and have 3 seconds to spare, let Kevin & Robert know via Twitter by clicking on the link below:

Click here to say hi and thank Kevin Bailey on twitter!

Click here to say hi and thank Robert Harris on twitter!

COMMENTS?

What stood out most to you about what Kevin and Robert shares in this podcast?

For me, it’s why you sometimes have to fundamentally change your business to scale effectively.

You? Leave a comment below.

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