Mehul Nariyawala - From selling a $40M startup to Google to building the future of smart home robots!

👉🏼 About the Guest:

Mehul Nariyawala is the founder of Matic, where he is building fully autonomous home robots. He previously worked at Nest as a Lead PM for Nest Cams Portfolio and founded Flutter, a company that develops gesture recognition technologies, and was eventually acquired by Google for $40M. Mehul Nariyawala attended The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

👉🏼 About the Host:

Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generated $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 22,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is building a SaaS product called GuestLab, and runs another podcast series called YC Founder Stories alongside hosting this one, as well as running Founder Gigs, a resource to discover flexible gigs while building your dream business.

👉🏼 Sponsor Corner:

Shoutout to Acquire.com for sponsoring The Undefeated Underdogs podcast! They’re the best online marketplace to buy/sell startups and I know many founders who have sold their businesses there. If you're looking to wind down your business and cash in some of your founder chips, check them out - https://try.acquire.com/sharath/

This episode is brought to you by Sunset. They handle all the legal, tax, and operational burdens when shutting down — making sure founders and investors avoid penalties, reduce liabilities, and immediately move on to what's next. If you're interested in learning more, visit sunsethq.com to meet with a representative for their team. And make sure to mention the Undefeated Underdogs Podcast to get $2K off of your dissolution.

👉🏼 Description:

Listen in as Sharath and Mehul discuss the future of hardware, the immigrant founder experience, how hardware and software are similar, and more!

👉🏼 Timestamps:

• 00:00: Episode Highlight
• 00:49: Shoutout to Acquire.com and Sunset
• 04:04: Introduction to Mehul - founder of Matic, fully autonomous home robots
• 06:21: Why Mehul loves robots
• 18:00: How to find a boring, unsexy, and profitable problem
• 25:30: How Y Combinator startups have changed from 2012 to 2024
• 30:40: Mehul's funniest story from Y Combinator
• 34:11: How Mehul transitioned from Flutter to Google to Matic
• 40:51: The story of Google Glass
• 43:55: What Tony Fadell, founder of Nest, taught Mehul
• 46:10: What software and hardware have in common
• 49:45: Mehul's immigrant journey
• 54:23: The importance of Silicon Valley in building the future
• 58:14: Taking Matic Robots from 0 to 1
• 1:05:07: How to manage anxiety and panic as a founder
• 1:11:30: The future of Matic
• 1:16:15: Where hardware is heading next
• 1:20:45: Advice for hardware founders
• 1:22:32: Outro and closing thoughts

👉🏼 Resources:

• Link to Acquire.com: https://try.acquire.com/sharath/
• Link to Sunset: https://www.sunsethq.com
• Paul Graham: https://www.paulgraham.com/
• Tony Faddell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fadell
• Gusto: https://gusto.com/
• Rescale: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/rescale
• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/
• John Collison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collison
• PlanGrid: https://construction.autodesk.com/products/plangrid/
• Meta Raven: https://www.meta.com/experiences/pcvr/1173079702739172/
• Scott Belsky: https://www.scottbelsky.com/
• Notion: https://www.notion.so/
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield

👉🏼 Where to find Mehul:

• Matic: https://maticrobots.com/
• Twitter: https://x.com/mehul?lang=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehulnariyawala/

👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harath
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harath
• Website: https://5harath.com/
• Newsletter: https://5harath.substack.com/
• Founder Gigs: https://foundergigs.com/