#028 - Meet the creators of FitBit for medication, with Peter Havas of PillDrill, USA

The Hardware Entrepreneur

My interviewee is Peter Havas, co-founder and CEO of PillDrill, USA.

PillDrill wants to ease the way people take their medicine. Their first product is already very much beloved by the customers.

Peter has a long track-record of entrepreneurship. He started his first company at the age of 24, which failed unfortunately. He certainly learned from this experience as his second company, SandwichDirect.com, which was founded in 1999 was a success which resulted in the acquirer eventually becoming a 100 million USD company with Peter being its CTO.

In this interview Peter talks about his motivation why he started PillDrill, his take on whether you should be a subject-matter expert in a discipline to start a company, or if it’s better to have other traits. You’ll also learn why it’s better to sell directly to consumers first. In addition you’ll hear also about his connection to Brinc, an accelerator that was featured in episode 11 of this podcast. Peter will tell you also about the essential elements of his innovation and many more.

Enjoy!

Learn more about this episode via the highlights as seen below.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

• FitBit for taking medication and the problem it addresses – [2:30]
• What fueled Peter’s motivation to start the company? - [4:42]
• When there are enough stars aligning - [6:06]
• Earlier endeavors before PillDrill and what Peter learned from them - [7:14]
• The advantage of not having subject matter expertise in an area when you start out a business, according to Peter - [9:55]
• Why did the company chose to sell first direct to the consumer?- [11:36]
• “How a product makes you feel determines the relationship you have with it” - [12:50]
• Main investors in the company and the stages of funding - [15:07]
• The business model of the company - [18:30]
• PillDrill’s three core design principles - [20:50]
• Features of the app that help users keep being active and mobile - [24:38]
• Locations of prototyping and manufacturing of the product - [28:08]
• “Let’s only drop the balls that can bounce” – lessons Peter learned while developing the company- [31:00]
• If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [33:20]
• Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [34:16]
• Peter’s opinion on habits – [35:28]
• Some memorable cultural differences that Peter had to overcome throughout his career – [36:30]
• What is the best way to reach Peter? – [38:02]