Hongwei Liu: What It Takes to Actually Map the Indoors, Hard Work & Finding the Right Things to Work on - MBM#54

Hongwei Liu is the CEO & Co-Founder of MappedIn, a company focused on indoor mapping. I know a lot about what it takes to map the outdoor world, but little about what’s required to map indoors. That’s what this conversation is about.Episode Sponsor: SkyFiGet high resolution imagery easily, with prices up front on SkyFi.comAbout HongweiLinkedInTwitterShownotesNote: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.MappedInMaker, their free new iOS appMy conversation with James Killick3D Gaussian Splatting Github repositoryHongwei’s blogHow I got into startupsMy video on how satellite images workBook & podcast recommendation:Hardcore HistoryThe Catcher in the Rye (Amazon Affiliate)Timestamps(00:00) - Introduction(01:03) - Sponsor: SkyFi(02:13) - Hongwei Describes Himself(04:45) - "Accidentally" Starting a company(08:15) - Solving a technological vs a people problem(10:21) - Starting a business as students(13:45) - Sales is about convincing people(17:50) - Continuing to experiment(21:42) - What does it actually take to map the indoors?(26:32) - Maps vs Models(28:01) - Why do we even need good indoor maps?(34:58) - An indoor approach to Tesla's mapping(41:04) - All Privacy aside, what would it take to automate indoor mapping?(45:39) - Making a free mapping app(48:25) - Product vs Sales lead companies(01:02:12) - "Only the paranoid survive"(01:06:15) - AR/VR(01:09:35) - Hongwei's hard work ethic(01:11:05) - Unconventional path(01:16:42) - Difficulty of finding your own lane(01:21:38) - Grinding for the people that coming after(01:25:21) - Faith(01:28:45) - Visiting China(01:34:50) - Misunderstandings through language(01:40:22) - Leveraging the internet(01:43:16) - Book & Podcast Recommendations(01:45:29) - Consider supporting me on Patreon- Support the podcast on Patreon- Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work