Marcel Botha (@marcelbotha) is Tony Stark. He’s built robots for Usain Bolt to race in training. He’s converted CO₂ emissions into designer sneakers. He’s built robots that serve as friendly airline concierges taking your bag and escorting you to your gate. Marcel also created a Validose, a device allowing doctors to safely treat Treatment-Resistant Depression using highly-controlled substances like ketamine. His product development firm 10xBeta is at the forefront of NYC hardware tech. Marcel also teaches academics the full product life cycle from conceptualization to validation, through prototyping, and onto seeking capital investment. Hailing from South Africa, Marcel is an MIT grad turned NYC hero. 

During the height of the first wave of the pandemic, Marcel and his team were faced with solving NYC’s ventilator shortage as people were dying. Marcel was faced with the ultimate challenge: How to replicate the efficacy of a super complex and expensive machine in a way that reduced cost significantly and was able to be manufactured at the speed of light to save lives?

In this special episode, we cover Marcel’s frameworks for learning complex subjects in short periods of time, rapid iteration under extreme stress and without clear structure, what team dynamics are critical under impossible odds and much more. Using Marcel’s mental models, investors can understand what are qualities to look for in hardware founders, and how to invest in hardware without having an engineering background.