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Today on This Week in Startups, Jason was joined by Jawbone CEO and co-founder Hosain Rahman to talk about just how damn hard it is to be a product guy. Hosain has some experience in the space, having run Jawbone for over a decade and having seen his share of ups–Jambox, Era, Icon–and downs–UP. Listen in for some incredible insight into the product cycle, manufacturing overseas and the future of wetware.

0:00-2:00 Welcome everyone. Today I’m here with Hosain Rahman, CEO and co-founder of Jawbone.
2:00-3:30 If you’re a fan of TWiST, join the 200 other biggest supporters and join the TWiST List at http://backchannel.co
3:30-6:00 Huge thanks to our sponsor friends at MailChimp for their support of the show. Everyone give them some love by tweeting a thank you to @MailChimp.
6:00-8:00 Hosain, when did you start the company and why?
8:00-10:15 Why are core technology and licensing businesses hard?
10:15-12:15 Hosain explains what happened to his industry in 2001/2002.
12:15-13:00 Did the product you made for the military work?
13:00-14:30 How much did you spend on patents in the early days?
14:30-15:00 Give me the names of startups who have failed who had money in the bank? It doesn’t usually happen.
15:00-15:30 Hosain explains how the first Jawbone headset product was born.
15:30-18:00 Who was the first person to get packaging right?
18:00-19:00 Hosain sites Voss water as an example of pwerful design.
19:00-20:00 When did you release the first headset?
20:00-22:45 How important are people like Walt Mossberg and Steve Jobs when you’re a hardware product company?
22:45-23:15 Hosain explains why the launch of the iPhone was great for his Jawbone headsets.
23:15-24:15 Does it take the decade plus you’ve been at this to see real success with a product?
24:15-26:00 Thank you to our friends at Sourcebits, pioneer in design-led engineering. Everyone thank them @sourcebits.
26:00-28:00 Let’s talk about UP, a device that you wrap around your wrist. What’s the core function?
28:00-29:00 How long does the battery last on UP?
29:00-30:30 Jason explains his findings after using various sleep tracking and fitness devices.
30:30-31:15 Hosain discusses Arianna Huffington’s better sleep advocacy.
31:15-33:30 Do you feel that the work you’re doing with UP is more important than what you did with your other devices, because of the health factor?
33:30-34:30 Why doesn’t every healthcare provider give out these devices to their patients?
34:30-35:30 What if heathcare was free if your BMI was within a healthy range?
35:30-37:00 Hosain describes an interaction he had with someone at a conference that changed his way of thinking about how to reach people without accessing to advanced technology.
37:00-38:00 What’s next for the company? Are you limited by manufacturing devices? Have you thought about making a phone or laptop?
38:00-41:00 Tell me about a product that you canned–or one that never came into fruition?
41:00-41:45 Hosain why he wishes there were more investors willing to put their money into long-term R&D.
41:45-43:00 What do you think of all of the patent trolling that’s going on now?
43:00-44:30 How would you change the patent game?
44:30-46:45 What about wetware, the line between biology and technology?
46:45-48:00 You haven’t released any clothing products have you? When is that coming?
48:00-49:45 Is there going to be some big jump in battery power any time soon? How often does battery life double?
49:45-51:00 Are your products popular in China? Can you compete there?
51:00-53:45 Did you read the NYT article about the state of manufacturing in China? What do you think?
53:45-55:00 You can basically go online and learn anything for free. Why don’t more people do that?
55:00-55:30 Did Steve Jobs ever recruit you to work at Apple?
55:30-58:00 What goes through you mind when you get an amazing offer to sell and you decide not to?
58:00-59:15 How many misses can you get away with as a hardware company?
59:15-1:00:00 This has been an amazing interview, thank you for joining us Hosain.
1:00:00-1:00:30 Jason professes his love for the Jambox.
1:00:30-1:01:00 Huge round of applause for the amazing engineer Stephen Beacham of CNET. We’ll see you next time, everyone.

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Kevin Fliess of room booking site Room 77 joined TWiST to talk about where his company has gone since launching last year and what’s on the roadmap for 2012 (Airbnb integration, anyone?).

0:00-1:30 Welcome everyone, I’m here today with Room 77 VP and GM Kevin Fliess.
1:30-1:45 It’s just been a wild ride since you launched last year, hasn’t it?
1:45-3:15 So the produce you launched was “see the room before you commit to a room,” yes?
3:15-5:15 Walk us through the product, Kevin.
5:15-6:15 You’re agnostic as to where the user books from?
6:15-7:45 Where does the data about the hotels come from?
7:45-8:45 Do you think TripAdvisor is still a reliable resource?
8:45-13:30 Thank you to Walker Corporate Law for sponsoring the program! Call Scott at 310-288-6667.
13:30-15:45 Show us what it looks like when you actually see pictures of the rooms.
15:45-17:00 Is there going to be a time when I request a specific room and I’m guaranteed to get that room?
17:00-19:00 Let’s take a look at the view out of a room. How did you generate this?
19:00-21:30 What’s been the reaction from hotels to your service? What do they like and dislike?
21:30-22:30 What do the naysayers think? What about the people whose rooms are revealed to be lemons?
22:30-24:00 Kevin tells a story about when a DC hotel was concerned about the sight lines to the White House were too visible on Room 77’s site.
24:00-26:45 Has the view from the room and the detail level you provide lived up to your expectations as a competitive differintiator?
26:45-28:15 What’s the commission if you book a plane ticket versus a hotel?
28:15-30:30 Why doesn’t a successful airline merge with a hotel chain and cross sell?
30:30-35:00 Let’s talk about the Hotel Tonight phenomenon. What a disruptive experience, yes?
35:00-36:30 So what’s next for Room 77?
36:30-39:00 When are you going to add Airbnb to your system?
39:00-41:30 Do you think we’re resetting expectations for travelers? Will older people still be comfortable with using a service like Airbnb.
41:30-45:00 Is there still an internal debate on whether or not you want to be in the review business?
45:00-47:45 Are there any publications you trust for reviews of hotels?
47:45-48:00 Kevin, thank you so much for joining us today. Email kevin.fliess@room77.com if you’re a killer developer looking for a job.
48:00-49:00 Thank you to our sponsors for their support. We’ll see you next time!

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On the TWiST News Panel, Adeo Ressi, Ryan Block and Erik Lanigan joined Jason to unpack the topics of Twitter censorship, Google’s new search and the disastrous state of the DVD and streaming industry.

0:00-2:30 Welcome everyone, I’m here today with Adeo Ressi, Ryan Block and Erik Lanigan for a News Roundtable Panel.
2:30-3:30 How many years ago did you start the Founder Institute, Adeo?
3:30-4:45 Ryan, how is GDGT going?
4:45-5:15 Welcome back, Erik Lanigan.
5:15-7:45 Thank you to MailChimp for sponsoring the show! Everyone tweet your thanks to them @mailchimp!
7:45-8:45 Let’s start with some Netflix news. Reid Hastings says they’re doing well after the Quixster fiasco, but that they’re not focusing on physical DVDs as much as streaming.
8:45-9:45 Who has watched a Netflix streaming movie in the last 60 days?
9:45-11:30 If Netflix had a base price for the basic titles and you could pay more for the first-run titles, would you?
11:30-13:15 Erik: Is Amazon streaming going to be a credible threat to Netflix?
13:15-15:45 Do you think Amazon will be able to make better products than the Kindle Fire or–since they sell is for virtually no profit–does it matter?
15:45-19:30 Jason: Amazon needs to go all-in and double the number of titles.
19:30-22:00 Next story: Boxee just announced a hardware ad-on that allows you to watch live TV. Is this worth the price? How many people use this?
22:00-26:00 Adeo: Do you think Boxee functions will be merged into a TV set?
26:00-28:45 In Silicon Valley, do a lot of people not use cable and just download what they want from bittorrent?
28:45-32:00 If someone bought the BluRay of a DVD and they downloaded the bittorent, is that ok morally?
32:00-35:00 Thank you to Sourcebits for sponsoring the show. Remember to head to sourcebits.com to check out their amazing mobile apps.
35:00-36:15 Jason: Everyone wants the same thing: a jukebox in the sky that allows you to get and pay for whatever you want.
36:15-42:00 Ryan: What would you pay for a service that gave you every movie ever created?
42:00-44:30 Twitter says they now have the ability to censor tweets, but indicated that they won’t do it unless they absolutely have to. People are upset but is there any reason to be?
44:30-47:45 Adeo: This is faux censorship and I bet Twitter will barely have to do it.
47:45-49:30 Isn’t taking away people’s access to a free press easier than taking away their internet access?
49:30-53:15 Who here hates Google’s personalized search? (Ryan wants to see Google Classic.)
53:15-55:00 Is Google just trying to make people’s time on their site longer by integrating everything?
55:00-57:00 Has Google jumped the shark?
57:00-59:00 Adeo: Google Docs is a great product with a crappy UI and crappy integration.
59:00-1:02:15 Erik: What about Google not including Twitter and Facebook results in search?
1:02:15-1:07:00 Adeo: If you go to a site and it was thousands of Facebook and Twitter likes, it still probably has only a few Google+ mentions.
1:07:00-1:09:00 Michele Obama had Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger in her box at the State of the Union to bring light to the issue of allowing work visas to high-performing people and entrepreneurs.
1:09:00-1:10:00 Obama needs to get crowdfunding done, it’s year four of his presidency!
1:10:00-1:13:30 The FBI is looking for a development team to map Facebook and Twitter data. Is this “new” memo just a red herring?
1:13:30-1:18:00 Adeo: I know for a fact that good companies, like Evernote, are serious about keeping things private.
1:18:00-1:18:15 Erik, thank you so much for joining us again today to read the news. Thank you to MailChimp and Sourcebits for your amazing support.
1:18:15-1:20:00 To all inspiring entrepreneurs, go to Fi.co and learn about the Founder Institute.
1:20:00-1:22:00 Ryan, you’re doing a killer job over at gdgt.com. I wish you continued success.
1:22:00-1:25:30 Huge thanks for CNET and CBS Interactive. Special thanks to Stephen Beacham. Thanks for watching everyone, we’ll see you next time.

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