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Carl Pei

Founder & CEO, Nothing · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutive@getpeid ↗LinkedIn ↗nothing.tech ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗

Carl Pei is a Swedish consumer tech entrepreneur who co-founded OnePlus alongside Pete Lau in 2013, leading its global marketing and establishing the brand's popular "flagship killer" smartphone category. In 2020, he founded London-based hardware venture Nothing, which designs and manufactures smartphones and audio products featuring distinct transparent hardware aesthetics.

11statements → 5claims → 1claims resolved → 3.73/5average certainty → 1.82/5average debate potential →

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 4 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

5 assertions · 2 opinions · 4 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Carl argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Pei: Nothing sold approximately 600,000 Ear (1) units in year one
“So we ended up selling about 600,000 Units for year one.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 12:26 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Carl Pei on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Carl Pei said on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Pei: Building a smartphone startup requires at least $100M in capital
“So we need at least a hundred million USD to make a phone.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 7:55 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pei: All five smartphone startups Foxconn previously partnered with failed
“Foxconn at that time had worked with like five startups that made phones, and all those five startups have failed.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 8:09 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Insight
Pei: Early hardware founders must act like Tim Cook, not Jony Ive
“I think for most people they should be 90% Tim Cook, if I'm honest, because survival is the name of the game for hardware. Only when you survive and you pick up in volumes, you pick up in When you pick up the volumes, you can get stronger engineering teams, yo…”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 14:32 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Opinion
Pei: Modern smartphones make people addicted, sad, and consume garbage content
“However, the modern smartphone is just so far away from that idea. It's making us more addicted. It's making us sad. It's making us watch garbage content on TikTok.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 16:15 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pei: 90% of Nothing's first 5,000 Ear (1) units had charging defects
“For the first batch of year ones 90% of them couldn't charge properly. And at that time, I think we had shipped like 5000 units”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 11:27 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Opinion
Pei: Nothing's cult reputation simply reflects low brand awareness
“I think it simply just means that our brand awareness is too low.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 13:24 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Insight
Pei: Products should have a defining feature sketchable after two seconds
“For every product you make imagine if a user sees it for like two seconds, and then has to sketch a defining feature of the product. So we try and build each product with something iconic that people can immediately remember and attach themselves to.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 15:37 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Insight
Pei: Hardware startups must sequence products to build manufacturing credibility
“If you want to do it, I think you should go ahead, but maybe think about like the sequencing of things. Like in our example, like we had to get the earbuds to sell really well before going into the phone. Like how can we build credibility to the next thing?”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 19:59 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pei: OnePlus was created to sell D2C using Oppo's supply chain
“There were new companies like selling products online that were really disrupting via D to C, so that was the original vision for OnePlus. Like, how can we take the OPPO supply chain advantages Huge scale, low cost, good quality, and sell products online, and …”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 3:50 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pei: Foxconn historically took inventory risk for phone startups and got stuck
“Foxconn and their competitors, they took on the inventory risk for the startups as well. So when the startups made a big projection in terms of the unit sales and they couldn't deliver, they were fine. Foxconn was stuck with inventory.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 9:25 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator
Assertion Supported
Pei: Nothing sold approximately 600,000 Ear (1) units in year one
“So we ended up selling about 600,000 Units for year one.”
Carl Pei Aug 13, 2024 ▶ 12:26 How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years · Y Combinator

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years Aug 13, 2024 13m
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