Tony Fadell

"The world is full of mediocre, middle-of-the-road companies creating mediocre, middle-of-the-road crap, but I’ve spent my entire life chasing after the products and people that strive for excellence. I’ve been incredibly lucky to learn from the best—from bold, passionate people who made a dent in the world."

"Make a connection. That’s the best way to get a job anywhere. And if that seems impossible—if you follow your heroes on Twitter but can’t imagine they’ll ever pay any attention to you—I’m excited to tell you that that is complete bullshit. I doubt I’m anyone’s hero, but I’m an experienced, well-connected product designer who’s been lucky enough to make some famous technology. Most people assume I won’t pay any attention to people who randomly DM me on Twitter or send me unsolicited emails out of the blue. But sometimes I do. Not when people are just asking for a job. Or angling for funding. But I’ll notice people who come with something interesting to share. Something smart. Especially if they keep coming. If they sent me something cool last week and something cool this week and they keep bringing fascinating news or tech or ideas and they’re persistent, then I’ll start to recognize them. I’ll start to remember them, and respond. And that can turn into an introduction or a friendship or a referral or, potentially, a job at one of our portfolio companies."

"Marc’s 1989 sketch of the Pocket Crystal in his big red notebook. On the next page he wrote, “This is a very personal object. It must be beautiful. It must offer the kind of personal satisfaction that a fine piece of jewelry brings. It will have a perceived value even when it’s not being used. It should offer the comfort of a touchstone, the tactile satisfaction of a seashell, the enchantment of a crystal.”"

"General Magic was an experiment. Not just in what we were making—and we were making something wholly, ridiculously, almost unbelievably new—but also in how to structure a company. The team was so impressive, packed with genius after genius, that there was no regard for “management.” No defined process. We just kind of . . . made stuff. Whatever our leaders thought would be cool."

"David Tupman was in Scotland traveling to a wedding reception from the ceremony when an old friend said he’d just gotten a job at Apple. The chance encounter was in the summer of 2001, and it would alter the trajectory of his entire career. Both men had worked at Psion, a UK-based computing company that in the late 1990s made subnotebook PDAs, messaging devices with a full keyboard and packaged in a clever clamshell. Tupman was enamored with Apple designs and mentioned he’d love to work there. Well, good news: Apple was hiring engineers. Tupman sent over his CV, detailing his niche experience in Asia working with silicon and hardware to make handheld electronics. Within days he received a phone call from Tony Fadell."

"The Foxconn officials proposed to help in the development of the next iPod. They offered to do schematic layouts of the factory and perform much of the grunt work, like creating detailed digital models of the needed parts in CAD, or computer-aided design. Because it had such confidence in Apple’s future, Foxconn said it would take on this work for pennies on the dollar. Tony Fadell credits Terry Gou with understanding the value of working with Apple better than anyone. “Terry was all about the relationship. He knew he needed to be with somebody whom he could grow with,” Fadell says. “He just knew that if he had a really good relationship with us, he would be able to grow with it and get the capital he needed to be able to build the infrastructure ahead of everyone. And the other thing is, we trained all his engineers.”"

"“We wanted to machine aluminum,” says Tony Fadell. “High polish, very accurate, detailed metals—and that’s where Foxconn came in. Foxconn supplied all the metals for the Apple products, and Foxconn got tons and tons of money [from Apple] to go get all the equipment [needed] to make these high precision metals.” Jony was enamored with the stainless steel back of the original iPod. Earlier reviewers of the device critiqued the choice of material because of the way fingerprints marred the chrome look. But this wasn’t some oversight. It forced the user to polish the unit, and for Ive that created an unconscious, nurturing connection."