When Tenrehte was first getting off the ground,

we entered our prototype PICOwatt

into a competition associated with CES,

Consumer Electronics Show,

the world's biggest industry trade show.

And we built the prototype in my dad's basement.

We had no idea if it was actually going to work

on stage at a live demo for CES judges.

And the product, when we flew it to Arizona,

it wasn't working right off the bat.

We were fixing software

and changing it at the last minute.

And I got a sinus infection on the plane,

and I had to get up on stage

and do the demo anyway.

And I was holding on to my phone

to demo that the PICOwatt

would turn lights on and off on stage,

and I had no idea if it was going to work or not,

but I was hoping that it was.

And when I pressed on,

the light turned on,

and the product worked,

and it was just this serendipitous moment

between me and my partner Carlos

when the product worked live when it had to

in front of a huge stage,

you know, with a huge audience

and tons of judges.

And I think it was at that moment

I really knew we weren't just playing around

with a start-up company,

that we could actually do this.

We could build products.

We could get it out there

and that people would appreciate what we were doing.

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