A couple months ago I took delivery of the Autonomous SmartDesk and it was love at first sight. This desk is amazing. Not only does it come in variety of colors and designs but they start at just $299. The coolest thing about this desk is that it's motorized so with the push of a button I can drop down to 24" or move up to 51" which makes it the perfect sit/stand desk. Research shows that standing throughout the day is beneficial to your body and your productivity. After using the desk for a few days I was so impressed that I reached out to Autonomous and offered to interview the founder, thankfully he accepted my invitation. Autonomous is the creator, manufacturer and distributor for unique, ergonomic office furniture including desks, chairs, stools and robots. Autonomous was started in 2014 but didn't begin shipping product until 2015. The company is based in NYC, raised a small seed round of capital and has 50 employees distributed across 5 global offices. In this interview I spoke with Duy about why he started Autonomous, what motivated him, how did he first get started, what were the biggest challenges, were they really developing their own products, how was the company funded, where did he find his first employees, how complicated are the global logistics of shipping these products, how much money are they spending annually on product development, what is their customer acquisition strategy, how much do they spend on marketing, do they sell through retail yet, have they tried selling on Amazon, what mistakes has he made over the last few years, what is he most proud of, why does he like being an entrepreneur, what advice does he have for other founders and much more. ------ Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast. All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at jonahlupton@gmail.com Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media and SoundGuard. Jool Media helps entrepreneurs build, launch and grow their companies by providing superior technology, marketing and consulting services. SoundGuard is a soundproofing company that provides products and solutions to commercial, residential and industrial clients.