Bonus Episode: Dorrian Porter returns with the Vestaboard Note

About this episode

Dorrian Porter returns to discuss the Vestaboard Note and the challenges of building a hardware company.

There’s something magical about the Vestaboard: it’s a physical, split-flap display connected to the internet that displays missives and useful information with a charm that we love. The Vestaboard in our kitchen greets our family with the family schedule for the day, riddles, updates from our favorite sports teams, and the best/worst dad jokes. Everyone who visits our house is amazed by it. Vestaboard is the vision of Dorrian Porter, and has its origin story in a Parisian train station. A few years ago, we had Dorrian Porter on the show to tell us about Vestaboard, and since then, we’ve become even bigger fans of the product. We keep spotting them in the wild, from coffee shops in Savannah to airport storefronts in Minneapolis. Dorrian is back to tell us about the Vestaboard Note, a smaller, more affordable, and more versatile version of the original that went from basic prototype to Red Dot Award winner in about a year — a story that starts, believe it or not, with tariffs. We talk about what it’s like to build a hardware company through supply chain disruptions and trade wars, why Dorrian keeps betting on the consumer market when the easier path might be B2B, and how…

People in this episode

Guest: Dorrian Porter

Topics covered

• hardware innovation
• consumer market
• nostalgia
• split-flap display
• supply chain
• trade wars

Keywords

• Vestaboard
• Dorrian Porter
• hardware company
• split-flap display
• consumer market
• supply chain disruptions
• trade wars

Sponsors

Wix Studio

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Vestaboard, Vestaboard Note

Places: Parisian train station, Savannah, Minneapolis, Northern California, United States

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