How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years

TL;DR

Carl Pei founded Nothing, a smartphone brand that reached $600M annualized revenue within two years. Unable to raise the $100M needed for a phone at seed stage, he launched earbuds first to build credibility, but the first batch had a 90% charging defect. He saved the company by deploying engineers to the factory floor.

Key insights

• Foxconn stopped working with hardware startups after five failures, leaving them with inventory risk and opportunity costs, so they refused Nothing.
• The only factory willing to work with Nothing was one with no other clients – a "underdog plus underdog" situation.
• 90% of the first 5,000 earbuds (Ear (1)) failed to charge due to insufficient spring tension in the pogo pin.