berkeleyByte had an honor speaking with Wherelab CEO/Co-founder
Campbell Kennedy, who has a master degree on Robotics, focus on
software physics, and graduated from USC with a double major of
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Kennedy just started
Skydeck in May 2013 and shared his experience with berkeleyByte.
Check out the Q&A below!
bB: How did you first become involved with Skydeck?
CK: My Co-founder heard they [Skydeck] are accepting applicants
and we applied like the regular process, submitting the summary of
our business. They invited us to come and do a pitch. We came to
pitch to the internal Skydeck people and judges. I guess they like us. I
had some Haas students now, helping us out on the research. The
work is mostly independent and I meet with them once a week.
There are several part time engineers who study in Berkeley and we
have three co-founders.
bB: Why did you choose Skydeck, not the others organization?
CK: A lot of reasons. I like Skydeck’s structure. They work
independently. They give you objective and structure but the
mentorship is a big one. The mentors can help us on advice and
connections to investors. The actual space is great in Skydeck; I
actually brought a lot of customers up here.
bB: What is your role? what do you do?
CK: I am a CEO of the company. My role varies; sometimes I helped
with the engineering management, sometimes I pitch with investors;
sometimes I come up with a business plan; usually I am out seeking
for customers – selling our products and fundraising.
bB: Who else is on your team? Are they all students?
CK: We have several part-time students both are haas and
engineering students. My three co-founders – one is a professor; one
is experience mobile product guy. We are growing the team and
brining more people in terms of management right now.
bB: How many people are on your team?
CK: Engineering team has three people. Business team has two
people. Sales team has also two to three people. We are still small
and getting started.
bB: Where are they from?
CK: Two engineering students are from China, studying in Berkeley,
and one grew up locally, in the Middle East. One of the co-founders is
from Dallas, Texas.
bB: What have you learn so far when you first walked into Skydeck?
CK: The biggest take away is the sales. The product speaks a lot but
people buy it from people. They don’t just buy the product; they buy
from you and your ability to succeed. They are looking at you and not
what you bring on the table in terms of the products of what you are
trying to sell.
bB: Do you have any interesting stories while working in there?
CK: I think it’s actually when we do our team photos with our
engineering groups and business groups. When two engineers came
in really tall but the business people are short. We are trying to make
it look normal. We also are trying to position everybody in a right
position so the photo won’t look weird. Some people were wearing
shorts and t-shirts or a suit, they don’t look the same and we trying
to take a team photo with a professional photographer.
bB: Do you get paid?
CK: No comment. Skydeck doesn’t give money to teams. We have
seek funding in other resource.
bB: What is the daily operation for you?
CK: Everyday is different. Sometimes I go meeting with investors, go
into the city meeting with potential partner companies or meeting
customers all over the country. When I’m in the office, I do some
development. I meet with engineers and customers that are in town,
so I bring them to Skydeck to do investment meetings because It has
a really good space up here in the office. For start-up like us, we
don’t have a routine, especially in this early stage compare to others
companies.
bB: What are you guys looking for when a student apply to
Skydeck?
CK: They say ‘you look at the team first.’ I think it’s true. What is the
team dynamics? I like to hear all of the team members to pitch and
get a sense of how passionate they are and what they are doing. The
team is the most important thing. You got a group of really motivate
and smart people together. You are going to make something
happens. Maybe is not the exact plan they want to be but we still
need to find the right customers.
bB: Do you guys look at the majors of each students?
CK: It’s a team dynamics we are looking for and you want a wellbalanced team. Skydeck is a really good place because it is not just
only technology, but also you understand the aspect of business. You
don’t want a group of people only understand technology, yet they
don’t understand the need of business or somebody is a really good
sales person that doesn’t understand the need.