On this episode of Startup Junkies, hosts Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire talked with Rishi Mittal, an entrepreneur who founded Mycelium Networks in Northwest Arkansas which deploys and operates decentralized wireless networks. After teaming up with a friend to mine Bitcoin in 2011, Rishi and his friend had to stop a few months after they started due to the amount of power they were using. Though his time with this project was short, Rishi learned a lot about how to start and run a venture, and he found a passion for blockchain, cryptocurrency, and the whole decentralized world. Throughout the show, Jeff, Caleb, Davis, and Rishi discussed Rishi’s history and interest in blockchain and how his company, Mycelium, is setting up its own IoT network all over Northwest Arkansas, applying it to the blockchain, and creating a new type of internet architecture. 

Thanks for tuning in!

Show Notes:

(1:27) Origin Story

(8:30) More about Mycelium

(12:47) Applications Running on It

(15:50) Onboarding Others

(19:52) The Game of Growing

(23:30) Paying the Bills and the Team

(26:15) The Future of Mycelium

(27:28) Advice to Younger Self and Closing Remarks

Links:

Jeff Amerine

Caleb Talley

Davis McEntire

Rishi Mittal

Mycelium Networks

Quotes:

“...All of a sudden there was this network of computers decentralized all over the globe that managed and maintained the system as opposed to having a central authority or, you know, a meeting behind closed doors to do that.” Rishi Mittal, (4:06)

“The best way to look at IoT is we're really trying to build an information super sidewalk…where we don't need that high bandwidth, those real-time streaming applications…but we do need to send reliable information over long distances. And for that, you can use something kind of like a dedicated sidewalk for smaller bandwidth items.” Rishi Mittal, (11:11)

“The mission of Mycelium networks is to accelerate the world's adoption of decentralized networks. And we started with Helium, we’re starting in Northwest Arkansas, and we're just going to take it from there.” Rishi Mittal, (12:35)

“You're literally running over a low band sidewalk. Your batteries last longer, you can get those sensors really, really tiny and really, really cheap. So you could essentially deck out whatever you want with tracking or humidity sensors, or temperature sensors, whether it's setting up a deer camp or tracking your dog or testing the heat of your soil for your rose garden…just really anything you can think of. And a lot of these solutions can be implemented for under $20.” Rishi Mittal, (13:43)

”We just want to build. You know, we just want to bring more networks to Northwest Arkansas and open up the space here.” Rishi Mittal, (23:15)