Podcast Transcript
1. The Problem That Sparked the Business
Are we talking about again?
Something you know nothing about. Okay. That’s good.
So The company.
The company. Right?
Yeah.
So Right.
Just your life. Right. Okay. I got that.
Just your yeah. Well, it turns out your life work.
Well, that’s work. Right. Okay. Right. Got it.
Yeah. Yeah.
So My income.
You know this is gonna be the pull clip for the beginning.
Alright. Alright.
What was the I mean, there was a reason why you started the business. What was the problem you saw in the market that made you go, oh, I gotta really pull the trigger and do this myself?
When I was a young engineer, nobody really understood how complex propagation conditions were for RF.
The models that they had built to to model the real world were vastly oversimplified and inadequate. And I watched as the consumer electronics industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build TVs that just didn’t work because they had underestimated the complexity of the real world.
2. Recording vs. Simulation: Capturing Reality
So there really is only one way to capture the true complexity of RF propagation and that’s with a recording. Right? So everything else is just an approximation. If you want to actually know all the crazy stuff that happens to RF signals as it flies through the air from transmitter to receiver, you really need to have a recording. And I always just felt that the traditional big box test equipment guys wanted to sell you spectrum analyzers and signal generators, which were an idealistic view of the world.
Yeah, right.
Right?
Sure.
And I was very much, and forget about idealistic, I want to see what’s actually happening, I want to make recorders, because this is reflective of true complexity, nobody else was doing it.
You know, what’s funny is that in our world, in the RF world, there’s so much use of RF simulation.
Yeah.
But even if you start going down the road of RF simulation…
Everyone who knows and has done it, it’s an approximation, it’s far from perfect…
Knowing full well, you’ve got to come back, revisit, and it’s not going to be truly unique.
We call this a black art, black magic, however the heck you want to think about it. In this RF world, it is far from perfect.
3. Building a Better Recorder: Usability in High-Stress Environments
Simulation is necessary but not sufficient. You start with simulation and then you have to go to the real world. Now if you’re operating in a defense environment, you’re not just up against physics, but against your adversary. So now your adversary is doing unpredictable things. So now you have to model what you think your adversary is going to do. When you take the existing complexity of RF propagation and then layer in the uncertainties of what your adversary is going do, the complexity is overwhelming. So recording is a great way to get a better handle on what actually happens in the battle space or in complex propagation conditions.
Where I grew up… Naval Air Development Center… identifying aircraft by radar signature… mounted and permanent… dynamics change… you have to start somewhere.
Just because a problem is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start it. Ultimately you need real world field tests.
Spectrum analyzers and signal generators… this is crazy. What are these people doing? Then I was foolish enough to think that, gee, I’ll start my own instrument business.
There were very few people making recorders, and they were very risky to use. Corrupt recordings due to bad user interface. Recorders designed by lab rats. I used to direct TV shows—high-stress. I understood what it meant to have a really good UI.
We went out and recorded across Washington DC, Baltimore, Philly—two-thirds corrupt. That’s outrageous. Such a good idea executed poorly. I saw the problem, I knew the solution. Got addicted to solving it. Here I am.
4. Vision Beyond Defense: Making Recorders Accessible for Every Engineer
So with every entrepreneur, see a problem in the market, and you get addicted to solving it… willing to take risk. That’s how startups exist.
But this doesn’t sound like I’m buying one. I’m in RF. Why do I need it? Who’s the market?
Personally, I think everybody needs a recorder on their benchtop. That’s my dream for the future. Today, our customer base is primarily DOD—electronic warfare, radar, GPS jamming. But the long-term vision is every engineer has one.
It’s criminal if they don’t.
5. Bootstrapping with Purpose: A Sustainable, Customer-Focused Model
You know what’s funny? I’ve known you for a year and a half and never heard that vision. Maybe it’s just something I think about in bed by myself.
If you have a long-term vision, a dream, a mission, it’s easier to get behind.
You see a status quo not serving a problem, so you envision a new and different future.
Entrenched interests in RF test measurement—few companies dominate. They’re not motivated to sell differently. It’s long overdue to disrupt that market.
It has to be a small business. We’re not VC-backed. No fast-growth money. Old-fashioned way. Bootstrapped is in vogue in 2025.
VC = fast growth at all costs. PE = drive revenue to borrow. Bootstrap = sustainable, long-term.
Being accelerated by VC or PE—decisions stop being customer focused. Bootstrap can appear desperate, but there’s no panacea. You still have to be sustainable and grow.
Government market = long unpredictable sales cycles. Six months to two years. Big upfront investment. Must choose bets wisely.
People think government contracting is just bidding. No. One-and-a-half-year sales cycles. If you’re just seeing the bid, you’re 1.5 years late.
If you’re not adding value, you’re in trouble.
6. Differentiation Through Experience, Education, and Exact Fit
We’re trying to bring a service to people. Why this? Why video?
Everyone must leverage their skill stack. I have engineering, communication, and TV background. Very few RF engineers have that. So we use video to communicate values and educate.
Education is a core value. We learn weekly. We share knowledge. Physics isn’t secret. It’s not winning a Tony award, but we can make it engaging.
Trusted source of knowledge.
Chinese knockoff products—only compete on price. We differentiate by relationship and customer experience.
Demo the product. Leave it for a week. Knockoffs can’t match that.
Sustainment matters, especially in DOD. We’re not just selling a recorder—we’re delivering an exact fit.
Exact Fit = between fixed and custom. Features on day one, but flexible. Call us later, get software features added.
Nobody else does that. Not scalable to a billion? Maybe not. But for now, we can.
Finite vs. infinite mindset. Amazon example. Embrace a business model that’s not based on per-unit profit. See where you land at the end of the year.
Traditional companies can’t compete with our model.
Large companies struggle because everything becomes a team decision, and vision gets diluted.
If you sell and your great team leaves post-exit… you’re left vulnerable.
Top lesson: Engineering is not enough. You need marketing, sales, accounting, IT. Entrepreneurs must learn all departments.
7. Trust, Empathy, and the Role of Storytelling in Technical Sales
You come off like you know it all. But humility is key. You’re enough, but you’re not enough.
I used to think marketing was BS. Now I love it. Engineers must learn to market.
“Just get me in front of the customer” doesn’t work. Customers often don’t know their specifications. You must help them discover what they need.
You need a sales engineer who draws from stories, failures, and wins trust.
Empathy. People skills. Not just tech specs.
Order taking is not demand creation. Help customers discover possibilities they didn’t know existed.
Even coaxial cables aren’t commoditized.
Most of our customers aren’t buyers—they’re influencers. We educate them so they can advocate upward.
Bad reps stop at the quote. Don’t carry the water. Sales = value creation throughout the process.
Help the engineer pitch to their boss. Build trust. Engineer puts job on the line for a $250K purchase.
Video = builds trust.
Being a true partner through the sales cycle.
Exact Fit = peace of mind. If we miss something, we address it.
That makes us different. Customer-focused. Empathetic. Sustainment over time. A big dream worth building.
You were supposed to know that.
On behalf of my co-hosts, Sean Wallace and Ariel Carlson, I am Chuck Coxhead. Thanks for joining us on the RF Frontiers podcast. I like big dreams. I hope you do too. Go find your big dream.
