What does it take to leave a high-profile role at Tesla and start your own electric vehicle company? In this episode, David talks with Toby Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO of Lightship, about his journey from working on Tesla’s Model S to building an innovative electric RV startup.
Toby shares insights on taking big risks, scaling early teams, and navigating the challenges of a hardware business in the EV space. They dive into lessons learned at Tesla, the importance of building trust with investors, and the unique market opportunity Lightship is chasing.
Takeaways:
- The Importance of Coaching: Toby emphasized the value of having a co-founder coach to strengthen the relationship between company leaders. He and his co-founder began working with a coach from the beginning, which Toby credits with helping them maintain a strong partnership and navigate the pressures of building Lightship.
- Adapting to Growth: As Lightship expanded, managing a larger team and aligning everyone with the company’s mission became a significant challenge. Toby learned that relinquishing control and trusting team experts were vital to maintaining momentum and effectiveness.
- Venture Capital Challenges: While their early seed round was successful, each subsequent round of funding became increasingly difficult, highlighting the unique challenges hardware companies face compared to software firms, as venture capitalists often favor faster software cycles.
- Creating a Culture of Ownership: Creating opportunities for team members to take ownership of projects fosters an environment of trust. By delegating responsibilities and empowering team members, leaders convey confidence in their team’s capabilities.
- Grateful of the Bumpy Path: Despite the mistakes and challenges he faced, Toby insists that changing any aspect of his journey might not have led to the founding of Lightship. Each experience, no matter how difficult, contributed to his current success and perspective.
Quote of the Show:
- “My hidden agenda is I want to know why you wanna work here." - Toby Kraus
Links:
Ways to Tune In:
#NotAnotherCEO #BusinessSuccess #Lightship
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:46 The Importance of a Co-Founder Coach
02:28 Building a Strong Co-Founder Relationship
07:15 The Tesla Connection
14:38 Raising Capital During COVID
16:20 Challenges of Hardware Startups
24:00 Demonstrating Commercial Traction
26:50 Sales and Marketing Strategy
28:22 Hiring for Innovation
30:05 The Importance of Interviewing Candidates
30:39 Understanding the Common Failure Mode
32:02 The Value of Authentic Motivation
33:38 Emotional Runway vs. Cash Runway
34:31 Challenges in Building Lightship
37:38 Managing a Growing Team
40:40 Relinquishing Control and Trusting Your Team
44:00 Future Vision for Lightship
50:03 Balancing Work and Family Life
56:41 Reflecting on the Journey
58:21 Outro
