#012 – Engineering Lead at Biometric Vibrator Startup – Anna Lee
Anna Lee studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of California Berkeley. She has worked at Lab126, a consumer device research and development branch of Amazon. She is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. In May of 2015, Anna became a co-founder at Lioness – building vibrators and software that help women learn more about their own bodies. Lioness won 2nd place at the South by Southwest 2014 Business Startup Challenge and has been featured in many magazines including Marie Clair and Bloomberg.
Anna shares with us:
- why she studied mechanical engineering.
- her passion for consumer products.
- advice on securing internships and your first job.
- insights into the startup life.
- and much more…
Reach out to Anna Lee via LinkedIn.
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Discussion timestamps:
05:04 – Intro
05:47 – Why Anna studied Engineering.
03:24 – Takeaways and lessons learned from interning at MOOG.
10:35 – How Anna landed her first internship.
12:23 – Interning at Lab126 in the Emerging Technologies team.
13:10 – Landing the internship at Lab126.
15:16 – Anna’s mindset at the end of college – focusing on product design.
16:37 – Why Anna decided to stay with Lab 126.
17:44 – Anna talks about some of the products that she worked with at Lab126 – Kindle Voyage and Dash Button.
19:46 – Seeing your final product in the hands of the consumer.
20:53 – The value of spending time in machine shops and factories.
22:19 – What is Lean Six Sigma?
25:12 – Anna talks about Lioness and next steps in the product development.
28:53 – The importance of teamwork and getting to know your teammates.
30:54 – Introducing Skydeck – a Berkeley accelerator.
33:27 – Talking about mentors.
33:27 – Necessary qualities when working at a start up.
36:28 – Talking about creativity.
37:17 – Social changes that excite Anna.
38:40 – Advice to engineering students.
Episode related content:
Teardown of the Hitachi Magic Wand by Anna Lee.
Homepage of the Berkeley Skydeck accelerator.
The Amazon Voyage e-reader breakdown via ifixit.com.
The Amazon Dash button.
Free Myer Briggs test via 16 Personalities.
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