Mats Horn. He’s the CEO and founder of the Swedish tech company, Tinitell. Together with a team of Scandinavian industrial designers, telecom experts and engineers, he developed one of the first wearable devices with cellular connectivity for voice and data. Tinitell wrist phone is an ingeniously simple wearable phone for kids with call and smart location features as well as an intuitive, one button, voice guidance interaction.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Sapiens
What CEO do you follow? – N/A
Favorite online tool? — Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Mats would tell himself to not be in a rush and take life as “unseriously” as possible

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:31 – Nathan introduces Mats to the show
02:12 – Tinitell is a simple mobile phone that kids wear
- 02:20 – It’s a smart locator for parents
- 02:35 – Kids can make and receive calls
02:57 – Tinitell is independent from its smartphone administrators
- 03:03 – It is like a robot in a simple product
- 03:13 – The smartphone app is how the parents control what’s in it
03:36 – Tinitell needs to have a SIM card and it is already provided
03:50 – Tinitell is partnered with a telco
04:48 – Tinitell was launched in Kickstarter in 2014
- 04:54 – Shipping started after a year and a half
05:16 – Tinitell has shipped 15K units
05:30 – Tinitell sold 1,102 units in Kickstarter
05:41 – Tinitell has raised $150K in Kickstarter
05:51 – “It’s tough making the world’s smallest mobile phone”
06:03 – Tinitell has put it in additional $4M for funds
- 06:18 – “Most money came from VC companies”
06:25 – Tinitell has raised thrice
- 06:36 – All are equity rounds
06:53 – Mats shares why he raised in smaller rounds
- 07:35 – In doing smaller rounds, Mats and his team wouldn’t dilute themselves
08:03 – Mats was working as a consultant before Tinitell
08:25 – Mats realized that he wanted his own company
08:29 – Mat’s idea of Tinitell
09:15 – Team size is 30
09:25 – Average number of customers
09:43 – The critical numbers of Mats
10:12 – Mats looks at the conversion rate and general market activity
10:50 – Tinitell’s competition
11:20 – What people should look at in conversion rate
11:40 – Tinitell has 4 colors
- 12:03 – The bestsellers are the darker colors
12:36 – Markup vs. cost
13:49 – Mats shares about making a physical product
15:15 – Mats shares how he finds his suppliers
- 15:32 – “I knew I had to go to China”
- 15:48 – Mats has to have a network of suppliers
- 16:29 – Mats reached out to everyone he knows who could possibly help him
18:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Know your numbers and track them consistently.
Your network can be your advantage in sourcing and creating your product.
Enjoy life—take things slow and don’t be in a rush.

Resources Mentioned:

Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

EP 608: Tinitell Raises $4M, Ships 15,000 Units of Watch That Calls (No Phone Needed) With CEO Mats Horn

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders