Oct 25, 2020
In this episode, Troy interviews
Devin Miller, the founder, CEO, and managing partner of
Miller IP Law, a law firm that focuses on helping startups
and small businesses with patents (inventions), trademarks
(brands), and copyrights (creatives). He built his first
multi-million dollar startup when he was still in law school in
2013 as part of a competition. After getting involved in startups,
he wanted to start a law firm to help startups and small businesses
by protecting their IP and helping them grow. He has an electrical
engineering degree, a Mandarin Chinese degree, a Masters in
business administration, and a law degree.
Devin’s small business ownership
journey is incredible. He came second in a business plan
competition while at university and the following year, from his
passion for running marathons, he pitched a wearable device that
monitors your hydration. In 2013, aged 28, he saw the potential in
the product, decided to buy out his business partners, and landed
over $1 Million in investment in late 2015 pre-revenue. That value
has since more than tripled with no sales yet. He, later on, merged
the business with a diabetes wearable device company and the
combined business now has an eight to nine-figure valuation
(Somewhere between $10 Million and $99 Million)
The business grew from one
full-time employee, himself, to 40 in the merged business. When
asked at which point he felt he had succeeded, Devin said, “I’ll
let you know when I get there” He says the hardest thing about
growing a small business is finding work-life balance and the one
thing he would tell himself on day one of starting out in business
is, “There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs. Strap in and enjoy
the ride” Get your notebook and get ready for tons of free small
business growth advice from Devin.
This Cast Covers:
- Starting several 7/8 figure businesses and how
patents and trademarks were crucial to their success.
- How
he came up with the idea for a wearable device that monitors a
person’s hydration during a marathon.
- Partnering up with a diabetes monitoring
company to form a single company and raise 8 figures in funding
with plans to launch their technology within a year.
- The
intricacies of learning Mandarin by knowing about 20,000
characters.
- Working a lot of hours to be more hands-on in
the operations of the startup and the law firm.
- Measuring success in business in different ways
based on one’s long term goals.
- The
potential of getting bought out by a much bigger player in the
wearables industry.
- The
importance of defining who your target market is before launching a
product.
- The
diverse funding options that they have leveraged to raise cash for
their business.
- Demystifying convertible notes and why small
business owners should consider them to raise capital.
- The
investment opportunities in the wearables business.
- The
stress he had to deal with from a lawsuit that was filed against
them.
- Having to step out of a comfort zone to get
involved in a SaaS company.
- Hating taxes and payroll, and how it took him a
while to learn proper and effective hiring.
- Loving the idea stage of a business: Coming up
with an idea and executing it.
- Why
he doesn't like the idea of getting a new minimum viable
product.
- Shifting from the foundation of making money to
growing the business.
- The
importance of learning constantly and staying informed about what’s
happening in your market.
- The
pressure that leads a small business owner into making a bad hiring
decision.
- The
genius hiring technique that Devin uses to get the best performers
into his team.
- Building a great culture by figuring out what
you want your company to focus on and how you want to approach
it.
- The
challenges that business owners face when trying to find work-life
balance.
- Learning by listening to podcasts and reading
books.
- Diversifying their board by bringing on
investors and people who can help grow the business.
- Automating your business not to get rid of jobs
but to free up time so you can focus more on core
activities.
Additional Resources:
Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC
BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/