Owning Your Niche with Integrity | Kris Kaiser & Stephen McCaul | Noise Engineering

Kris Kaiser and Stephen McCaul met at a pub in Santa Monica, California, and hit it off immediately. A shared interest in sound brought them together. Kris and Stephen's professional paths were quite different, but audio was a common thread throughout their lives. Kris's PhD dissertation studied the effects of urban noise on the breeding behaviors of frogs. Stephen developed audio software for video games. Both shared a love for spreadsheets, food, and the glorious sound and invitingly impenetrable interface of the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. A few years later, Kris was a professor and Stephen worked on increasingly complex audio problems in his day job. As an escape, they began experimenting with home-built synthesizers and wild DIY noisemakers. Stephen developed a Eurorack module over a weekend after a dare from a friend, and the synth community took notice. That was the beginning, and in 2016 they quit their jobs and took Noise Engineering full time. Now a staple boutique developer, their hardware and software products are used and adored by hobbyists, composers, artists, and producers around the world. In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:59] Intro[01:26] A hobby into a full-time endeavor[02:18] Turning hackathon ideas into tangible products[03:26] Navigating the challenges of early manufacturing[04:25] Finding solutions through industry connections[06:13] Collaborating within a niche community[07:42] Gaining traction using marketing platforms[09:50] Episode sponsors[13:04] Balancing quality & price in a competitive market[15:35] Attracting early customers through trade shows[17:06] Educational content as top-of-funnel strategy[18:05] Connecting with people via face-to-face outreach[19:29] Tapping into LA's vibrant music community[20:00] Showing prototypes & gathering real-time feedback[21:50] Attending trade shows for customer interactions[22:33] Finding success with in-depth blog content[24:54] Expanding into software for flexible compositions[26:45] Developing innovative guitar products[27:53] High-quality instruments at Noise EngineeringResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeBoutique musical instrument firm dedicated to making tools for any artist https://noiseengineering.us/Follow Stephen McCaullinkedin.com/in/stephen-mccaul-10842b1/Follow Kris Kaiser linkedin.com/in/kris-kaiser-77b345203/Book a demo today at intelligems.io/Done-for-you conversion rate optimization service storetester.com/If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!