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To kick off this year’s “12 startups in 12 months” challenge that I’m building in public as an indie hacker, I started working on my first startup, but my startup failed. Some important lessons were learned. What is the percentage of startups that fail? The failure rate of startups is more than 80%. It is extremely difficult to land a winning idea on the first attempt. Someone has to be really lucky. In this article, I will summarize my story and point out five reasons why my first startup of the year failed. The First Startup — Mixio (No Code Landing Page Builder) To find the idea for my first startup of the year, initially, I wanted to build a generic no-code tool that could be used to build any web application. But the scope of this project would be too much for one month, and also it’s always better to focus on a narrower target audience when starting a project. In the end, I decided that indie hackers were my target audience and chose to build a tool that validates startup ideas faster. Eventually, my product became a tool that entrepreneurs or startup founders can use to validate as many ideas as quickly as possible. I wanted to make the experience less time-consuming and to the point where it would be easy for someone new to start building landing pages. I used David’s six criteria for selecting my startup ideas for this challenge. And it did tick all the checkboxes. ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Has product-market-fit been proven by something similar? Is it B2B? Can the MVP be developed within ≤ 3 Months (max)? Can it be managed without employees? Can it work without making active sales? Can I identify myself with the product? My “Market Research” I pitched my startup idea to some fellow community members of and also created to see which of my ideas are the most popular. Wannabe Entrepreneur Virtual Co-working Space a poll on indiehakers.com IndieHackers.com Poll Result In the indiehackers.com poll, it was the second favorite idea. If it had been logical, I should have started with the most favorite idea for my startup. Since I’ve decided on my target audience already, I chose the second-best idea anyway. Landing Page of my Landing Page Builder I quickly created a landing page for Mixio using the bare minimum of information necessary. I needed user feedback, so I created the page as quickly as possible. The initial landing page of Mixio.net The signup link was just a Google form. The users had to fill out the information about their product in order to generate the landing page. It was a manual process. I only managed to get one user to sign up for my Google form. This is the landing page of my first user that is created by Mixio — . nuxo.org Launched Improved MVP The current version of the landing page is not converting, which means that the MVP needs to be more convincing in order to get people to convert. I started building a minimal working version of my landing page builder so that the users would be able to see the generated landing page right away. I launched my MVP with the bare minimum features needed for my users to get started. You can start using right away, without having to sign up. my landing page builder Building your landing page is a breeze This is an easy-to-use tool that does not require any coding or design skills to build a landing page. The other notable landing pages generated by Mixio are and . CollabClub.co LabSocial.com Traction Photo by Slidebean on Unsplash I have not seen the classic hockey stick growth in my data, unfortunately. I’m using an analytics tool called to track my user behavior. It’s not looking good — the engagement and conversion rate is really low. Even though I didn’t do much marketing, the conversion rate tells, and the number never lies. Heap As of today, only a small number of people have signed up for the service. And around 36 landing pages are being created by both registered and non-registered users. Status — “Startup Failed” Even though I think this startup is a failure, I won’t give up on it. My goal isn’t to give up after one month of a project — I want to see what happens in the long run. Also, I may have a better idea to pivot to something else in the future. You never know. And my goal for taking this challenge was to try out many ideas that could become a profitable SaaS startup. At least, I will be able to quickly build landing pages for my next 11 startups in this challenge. 😉 Lessons Learned So why did my startup fail? I will outline some reasons why my first startup of the year-long 12-startup challenge failed. The lessons are based on the feedback I have received from my target audience so far. These may not be the only factors at play. Photo by Sarah Kilian on Unsplash 1. I didn’t choose the most popular idea This one is obvious. It would’ve been better to go with the most popular idea from the market research poll that I did on indiehackers.com. I see a lot of potential in the idea that the audience chose. 2. I asked the wrong questions I wasn’t able to read my customers’ minds because I didn’t ask the right questions. The key to finding out the truth about your potential customers is to ask the right questions. To find the truth it’s important to ask questions that will get you accurate information. 3. The market is saturated There are many landing page creators available on the market, which makes it difficult for new businesses to compete in this market. I don’t think I could compete with the big players who are already offering free services, and new tools are coming out every day. 4. Entrepreneurs are emotional about their landing pages Some entrepreneurs or indie hackers find building landing pages to be an emotional process. They want to design it themselves and make it perfect. 5. Technical entrepreneurs are comfortable with HTML templates If the founder is a developer or designer, they may be more comfortable hosting their own landing pages with HTML5 templates. I learned this lesson the hard way. 😞 What’s Next to My Journey as an Indie Hacker? I don’t consider this a failure at a personal level, as most startups are supposed to fail! And I may still have plans for Mixio in the future, as the no-code movement is growing rapidly. I just want to try as many ideas as possible before one really sticks. The first startup I attended taught me a few important lessons and helped me improve myself so that I could execute any startup idea better. That’s the whole point of this 12-month long fun experiment. My next idea is obviously the most voted one — a Twitter growth tool. It’s called . Feel free to sign up if you are curious about this tool. 🤗 LabSocial Follow My Journey of Building in Public Photo by Ricky Kharawala on Unsplash If you want to see how my story unfolds and want to support me or just want to come along for the ride with me, please and . It means a lot to me. subscribe to my newsletter follow me on Twitter If you are a maker yourself or want to dive into the journey of , please feel free to . building in public shout out to me on Twitter Also published . here

Why My First Startup Failed: 5 Lessons Learned

Growing up and entering adulthood post-college, I always knew that I wanted to be in a position to help the Black community succeed and break barriers. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I did this while working at my old 9-5 where I led teams and was in a position to hire. I made it a habit to seek out Black candidates and made it a point to mentor and prepare my Black colleagues and employees into higher positions of power. Even outside of hiring, I intentionally sought out Black-owned businesses and Black creatives for special projects and needs that my company had. Upon leaving my 9-5, I knew that there was an opportunity for me to do to help advance the Black community. In response to that, I launched , and we're a media platform created to help Black entrepreneurs and professionals succeed through smart, actionable content and resources. more Mogul Millennial Since launching, we've been able to reach hundreds of thousands of young, ambitious Black professionals and business owners across the U.S., and have connected with Black leaders at top organizations and startups such as Harlem Capital, Snap Inc., Calendly, and Squire to teach our community valuable and tangible lessons to help them professionally grow. Currently, Black people are making tremendous strides in corporate, and are among the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs. However, unfortunately, there is still an alarming wealth and funding gap, and a lack of resources that's given and created specifically for Black entrepreneurs. For this reason and more is why Mogul Millennial exists, and why Mozilla Builders to provide resources for the Black entrepreneurial community. we're working with was created to join forces with people who want to build technology that fixes the internet and helps the world. At Mogul Millennial, we love working with companies and allies who want to help us build the blueprint for Black success, and provide the resources that Black founders need to build profitable businesses and create generational wealth. Mozilla Builders With the support of Mozilla Builders, Mogul Millennial is launching a new educational series for early-stage Black founders, . Launch Like a Mogul Launch Like a Mogul is a free, 6-week that's teaching early-stage Black founders how to launch a winning growth and monetization plan for their current business (or business idea if they're still in the idea phase). series In , the founders will have access to learn everything from how to build an MVP, how to acquire customers, develop a monetization strategy, how to create a launch plan, will get tips on raising venture capital and alternative funding, and so much more! Launch Like a Mogul For Launch Like a Mogul, we've connected with some of the most promising Black startup leaders and investors to help teach our founders. In the 6-week series, the founders will learn from: Keenan Beasley - the CEO of Supply Factory Brands, Venture Noire, and Sunday II Sunday Jasmine Jones, the founder & CEO of Cherry Blossom Intimates, a breast health facility, and intimates boutique Sydney Thomas, a Senior Associate at Precursor Ventures Jose 'Caya' Cayasso, the co-founder and CEO at Slidebean, a venture-backed, multi-million dollar company founded in 2014 Obi Omile Jr., the co-founder & CEO of theCut, a tech platform modernizing the barbershop experience And more! Click here to check out the full list and to sign up for Launch Like a Mogul if you're an aspiring or early-stage Black founder. For sponsorship or media requests regarding Mogul Millennial or Launch Like a Mogul, please send an email to brittani@themogulmillennial.com. Also published at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/helping-black-founders-succeed-mogul-millennial-brittani-hunter-mba/?published=t

How We're Helping Black Founders Succeed with Launch Like a Mogul

Too often people expect their first launch to be a huge success. If their expectations aren’t met, they’re quick to throw in the towel and move on. While others won’t bother launching until their product is perfect. And a third group decides to give up even before getting their product out there. The problem is people expect too much from their first launch. They expect customers to whip out their credit card and purchase their product right away. If you’re a startup or this is your first time launching a product or service, people will be reluctant to purchase based on you not having a track record. Couple that with . It depends on price point and how much time it will take to install or use your product. buy time Buy time as I define it in this post is how long it takes before a customer is ready to buy your product. Establishing Credibility For Your Product There are a number of ways to establish credibility for your product or service. Here are a few of the most popular: having people who have tested out your product or used it for some time provide a brief quote. The quote should accurately describe their experience using the product and how it benefited them. Customer testimonial: provide in-depth analysis of a customer’s experience using your product. You want to make sure the experience is replicable. So if they experienced something out of the ordinary, others may question their experience. You also want to show why someone chose to use your product versus everything else in the market, and why they would recommend it to others. Customer case study: Here’s an example of a case study from a student who participated in my in 2016. You’ll notice how specific it is in terms of the customer’s persona: being a software engineer who is mid-career. The challenges the customer had on their own, resistance they had to our product, how they got over that resistance, how they benefited from the product, and why they’d recommend it to others. Confident Communicator Course you can leverage someone else’s credibility and audience. The key here is to make sure their audience is one that will want your product. Otherwise, it can call into question their credibility and come off as pushy. The best influencers are ones whose use of your product seems natural. Influencer: everyone wants to make the cover of front page news, or be featured on a post in TechCrunch. However, this can be a very broad strokes approach, which may build awareness for your product but not lead to any sales. So like influencers, you want to find press whose audience would want your product. Press: often one of the above isn’t enough. It can take up to 7 touch points to get someone to actually purchase your product. Here’s a recent example from someone who purchased my book: Multiple touch points: I’ve learned about the book from your guest post on Slidebean’s blog: https://slidebean.com/blog/design/presenters-most-common-mistakes I stumbled upon it while searching whether Slidebean has a presenter mode with separate screen (searched: “slidebean presenter screen”). Which it does not have. But, hey, I found your book, so overall I got a really good result from that search query ;) What ultimately sold me on book’s webpage was praise from Dan Martell. I participate in one of Dan’s entrepreneur-focused programs. If he recommends something it must have a real value, no questions asked :) -Mat B. Notice how it was first a search, followed by a blog post, and finally an influencer Dan Martell’s praise for the product. Why not offer a limited time discount to persuade people to purchase your product? That may work, but it’s important that you understand what is going on in the heads of customers. Let’s take a simple example: you’re launching your first book. You price it at $25, but during launch week you’ll offer a 20% discount. There are some customers on the fence. But do you really think that saving $5 is really going to convince them to buy the book now versus later? If they happen to be bargain shoppers who are always looking for a discount, then the $5 savings could tip them to purchase it immediately instead of waiting another week. Who doesn’t like a bargain? Those who value their time. If someone just doesn’t have the time to read your book right now, a $5 savings isn’t necessarily going to persuade them to purchase your book, because they know they will buy it and it will just sit on their shelf. Finding Those Who Need Your Product Right Away What you really want to be doing is attracting customers who are going to purchase and use your product immediately. Why? Because you need referrals! Word of mouth is the most powerful. In my book, a customer who just pays me for a product and then doesn’t use it is worthless. Sure I’ve made some money, but I don’t continue to make money off of them. The only way I’ll continue to make money off of them is if they continue to buy for me or they tell others to buy from me. marketing To attract this group, you need to understand what is their acute need. Have they tried other products? What do they love or hate about them? Why would they choose your product over others? For example, when I was launching my second self-published book a lot of people told me they didn’t have time to speak in public. Present! A Techie’s Guide To Public Speaking Why? Some told me they had other priorities like staying heads down or family obligations. Others worried that their boss’ or colleagues’ would find them to be too self-promotional or unfocused in their work. And of course, there was the group that was just afraid to speak up for various reasons: not feeling like an expert, being shy or introverted, or fearing an audience’s reaction. It seemed like no one needed my product right away… Photo by Jonathan Simcoe https://unsplash.com/@jdsimcoe Building Up Demand Through Education Knowing that people were afraid of public speaking, didn’t have time, and had a series of other objections, I could have just thrown in the towel. But I didn’t. Instead, I chose an alternative, to educate people on the importance of public speaking for their careers. Prior to launching my book, I spent nearly a year educating people. I did talks, I created posts, and I spread the word no matter People became curious, curiosity led to interest, and eventually, the message was clear: you need to invest the time to speak if you’re going to advance in your career. Prior to launching, , and it became clear that people were eager to purchase my product. I ran a pre-order campaign on Publishizer Why People Don’t Educate Customers About Their Product For two reasons: You have to invest the time to listen to people’s objections. Then you have to listen to what their goals or dreams are. Since they don’t know there is a disconnect from their objections to their goals and dreams, you have to figure out how your product can bridge the gap. 1. It takes time. Ads are seen as a quick way to attract people to a product, but are they really convincing people to buy? Think about the last product you saw an ad for, then immediately went out and purchased it and used it, and you’ll have your answer ;) 2. They’re looking for a quick solution. Re-Launch Your Product If your first launch wasn’t a success that’s OK. There is no shame is re-launching a product or doing an iterative launch. I’m not proud of them, but each launch taught me something valuable about how to appeal to customers. Those lessons have kept me moving forward and launching new products like books, courses and software apps. I’ve had some epic failed product launches. Whether you’re about to launch or you’ve already launched, think about the following questions: 1. Why aren’t people interested in this product (competition, time, need)? 2. What are they looking to achieve (goals and dreams)? 3. Where is the disconnect between their current behavior and their goals and dreams? 4. How could my product resolve that disconnect? 5. How can I present the disconnect in a way they’ll understand, and it will build up demand for my product? Did you recently launch a product or you’re getting ready to launch one? Let me know in the comments below what worked for you or what you’re thinking of doing. Enjoyed this post and want more? Help others enjoy it too by hitting the ♡ below! Sign up to receive additional lessons on how to ship your idea here.

How To Bring A Product To Market After Its Initial Launch Failed

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This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Terence Blésin, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (2) Wil Kao, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (3) Anat Siddharth, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (4) Alaina Attanasio, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (5) Hao Tian, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (6) Sunil A. Bhave, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (7) Tobias J. Kippenberg, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL). Table of Links Introduction Results A. Physics and design B. Device characterization C. Bidirectional microwave-optical transduction D. Pulsed transduction Discussion Acknowledgments Appendix A: Theory Appendix B: Fabrication process flow Appendix C: Optical characterization Appendix D: Characterization of acoustic resonances Appendix E: Characterization of bidirectional transduction Appendix F: Optimization of optical extraction efficiency Appendix D: Characterization of acoustic resonances The microwave reflection measurements (also known as S11) shown here were measured at room temperature using custom probes (GGB industries nickel-alloy 40A-GS-135-PC-N Picoprobe) and a vector network analyzer (Rhode&Schwarz ZNB-20). The spectrum shown in Fig. 2d is corrected using a calibration substrate (GGB industries CS-8) to remove the phase delay and attenuation introduced by coaxial cables and probes. However, this calibration procedure was only used to get the S-parameter, and was not applied during the total conversion efficiency measurements shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. In a previous version of the transducers and in Ref. [11] where the Band-Aid process (Appendix B) is not employed, the piezoelectric actuator extends beyond the suspended cladding and covers the electrical feedline, causing two detrimental effects for transduction. First, the resulting stray capacitance leads to excess microwave insertion loss. Given the small size of the suspended area (∼ 1000 µm2 ) compared to that of the feedline (≳ 10 000 µm2 ), this effect is readily seen in Supplementary Fig. 3, where the spectrum without the Band-Aid process exhibits reduced background reflection. Second, the part of the actuator on top of the unreleased cladding leads to resonant excitation of HBAR modes extending over the entire Si substrate. These modes have a smaller free spectral range (FSR) of around 19 MHz and a lower microwave extraction efficiency. The theory presented in Appendix A does not correspond to the case of such a multimode system as it assumes being in the sideband-resolved regime, implying the high density of substrate modes is inappropriate for low-noise frequency conversion. The feedline Band-Aid, discussed in Appendix B and shown in Supplementary Fig. 3, enables the removal of the piezoelectric layer above the substrate, leaving only HBAR modes well confined in the oxide cladding. We fit the measured complex reflection to obtain the mechanical quality factor Qm = 284 and microwave extraction efficiency κex,m/κm = 0.11 for the transduction mode [15]. In addition, we simulate microwave reflection of the designed stack geometry using finite-element method (FEM). Fitting the simulated spectrum leads to Qm = 205 and κex,m/κm = 0.61. The discrepancy is attributed to difference in clamping losses and piezoelectric coefficients between the fabricated and simulated devices. We extract the effective mass of the transduction HBAR mode from FEM simulations as

Bidirectional Microwave-optical Transduction Based on Integration: Appendix D: Characterization

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Terence Blésin, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (2) Wil Kao, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (3) Anat Siddharth, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (4) Alaina Attanasio, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (5) Hao Tian, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (6) Sunil A. Bhave, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (7) Tobias J. Kippenberg, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL). Table of Links Introduction Results A. Physics and design B. Device characterization C. Bidirectional microwave-optical transduction D. Pulsed transduction Discussion Acknowledgments Appendix A: Theory Appendix B: Fabrication process flow Appendix C: Optical characterization Appendix D: Characterization of acoustic resonances Appendix E: Characterization of bidirectional transduction Appendix F: Optimization of optical extraction efficiency C. Bidirectional microwave-optical transduction We measure the off-chip efficiency η tot of the microwave-to-optical (up-conversion) and optical-tomicrowave (down-conversion) processes as a function of off-chip CW input optical pump power Pin. Compared to the on-chip efficiency η oc, this efficiency also accounts for the loss channels of the microwave and optical ports. First, we study the transducer in the triply resonant configuration. For up-conversion, the optical sideband generated from the microwave input, detuned by ωin = ωm from the pump frequency, is measured via a self-calibrated heterodyne detection method. The off-chip optical output containing both the pump (ωL) and the sideband (ωs) is combined with a local oscillator (LO; ωLO) and detected. By placing the LO at a frequency ωLO = (ωL + ωs) /2 + δ such that the photodetector response is constant over a frequency span of δ, we determine the sideband power relative to the pump. Picking off a fraction of the optical output then enables the determination of its absolute power and, by extension, that of the sideband with a power meter. The measured optical sideband power is compared to that of the microwave input to yield η tot. In the case of down-conversion, the optical input is generated by modulating the phase of the pump with an electrooptic modulator (EOM) driven by a microwave source of frequency ωEOM = ωm. Only one of the resulting sidebands is admitted into the photonic molecule and transduced, as the other is far off-resonance. The converted microwave power is directly probed with an electrical spectrum analyzer (ESA). Summarized in Figs. 3a and c, bidirectional transduction processes corresponding to both the effective beam-splitter (ωL = ω−; anti-Stokes) and two-mode-squeezing (ωL = ω+; Stokes) interactions are investigated. We reach a maximal η tot of −48 dB at 21 dBm pump for each configuration. Knowing the port losses, we estimate an on-chip efficiency η oc = −41 dB (Appendix E). Accounting for the extraction efficiency η ext, we further obtain an internal conversion efficiency η int = 2 × 10−3 from Eq. 2. Furthermore, we deviate from triple resonance to map out the transduction bandwidth. First, for a pump still resonant with one of the optical supermodes, the input microwave frequency ωin and input optical detuning (controlled by EOM drive frequency ωEOM) are varied for up- and down-conversion, respectively. Shown in Fig. 3b and d, transduction leveraging the main transduction mode exhibits a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 25 MHz. The multimode nature of the transducer is further manifest in Fig. 3e, where the pump is in the beam-splitter configuration but slightly detuned from aˆ−. An additional transduction peak in η tot with a FWHM of 10 MHz is observed around ωin = 2π × 3.165 GHz, which corresponds to another HBAR one FSR away from the main transduction mode ωm = 2π × 3.480 GHz. The engineering degrees of freedom such as cladding and actuator thickness (HBAR FSR), and optical dispersion (supermode splitting as a function of optical wavelength) in the present system offer possibilities for frequencymultiplexed transduction.

Bidirectional Microwave-optical Transduction Based on Integration: C. Bidirectional

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Terence Blésin, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (2) Wil Kao, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (3) Anat Siddharth, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL); (4) Alaina Attanasio, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (5) Hao Tian, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (6) Sunil A. Bhave, OxideMEMS lab, Purdue University; (7) Tobias J. Kippenberg, Institute of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) & Center of Quantum Science and Engineering (EPFL). Table of Links Introduction Results A. Physics and design B. Device characterization C. Bidirectional microwave-optical transduction D. Pulsed transduction Discussion Acknowledgments Appendix A: Theory Appendix B: Fabrication process flow Appendix C: Optical characterization Appendix D: Characterization of acoustic resonances Appendix E: Characterization of bidirectional transduction Appendix F: Optimization of optical extraction efficiency B. Device characterization We perform metrological characterization to affirm the integrity of the stack. Shown in Fig. 2a, the region of suspended cladding is first identified through optical micrography; the released substrate below leads to a contrast in the image. To further access the layer structure, we use focused ion beam milling to create an opening on the device surface at the suspension site. This opening provides sufficient clearance to directly image the cladding acoustic resonator, pictured in Fig. 2b, confirming the removal of silicon. We then characterize the transducer as an optoelectronic network with one microwave port, two optical ports, and one auxiliary electrical DC port. Each optical port comprises an edge-coupled lensed fiber and on-chip bus waveguide terminated by 1D nanotapers designed for TE-polarized light, yielding a fiber-to-fiber coupling efficiency of −8 dB. For adjusting the frequency splitting between optical supermodes, a bias voltage is applied to the DC port to drive either the piezoelectric actuator [44] or an integrated thermo-optic heater placed in the vicinity of the micro-rings (Appendix C 2). The former affords no additional heat load and is hence cryogenic-compatible, whereas the latter provides an easy alternative for fast room-temperature characterization. The avoided mode crossing characteristic of a photonic molecule is exemplified in Fig. 2c. We access the HBARs through the microwave port. Calibrated high-frequency probes are used to contact the top and bottom electrode pads of the piezoelectric actuator, effectively linking the acoustic resonator with a transmission line. The reflection spectrum (Fig. 2d) reveals predominantly one single series of HBARs with a free spectral range (FSR) of 320 MHz, which corresponds to the acoustic length of the cladding. The transduction acoustic mode at 3.48 GHz exhibits a typical total linewidth of 13 MHz with a microwave extraction efficiency of κex,m/κm ≈ 11%. The microwave response is distinct from that of an identical stack composition with unreleased substrate. There, a periodic envelope corresponding to the cladding modes that are more strongly coupled to the microwave is superimposed over the full-stack HBAR response (Appendix D and Ref. [40]). The absence of these full-stack modes provide another piece of evidence of successful cladding suspension. Finally, we study the device acousto-optic response in the triply resonant configuration, where the transducer effectively operates as a resonant single-sideband modulator. The optical output containing both the pump at the symmetric-mode frequency and generated sideband at the antisymmetric-mode frequency are mixed by a photodetector. Such a beat-note spectrum shown in Fig. 2e displays response peaks aligned with the HBAR frequencies in Fig. 2d, demonstrating three-wave mixing.

Bidirectional Microwave-optical Transduction Based on Integration: B. Device Characterization

The old-school phone whistling is back! Well, almost, but this audio below isn’t that far off. https://securityinnovation.hubs.vidyard.com/watch/5b3Yk8ga9noiqKJ2rTNnSS?embedable=true On July 13th, we discovered an interesting vulnerability. A particular webpage was tracking digital radio chatter and it would display a running log of what its station was hearing. This is a handy tool if you’re into this sort of thing; after all, it’s great to know if your calls are being heard or if there are ongoing conversations that you might want to join. This tool captured whatever it was hearing and inserted it into the webpage. Send a message and a few seconds later it would show up there. If the message included HTML, well that would end up on the webpage too. Classic HTML Injection. To deliver an attack like this, you don’t really need the internet at all -you just need a long piece of wire. In our Attacks Over the Air series, in February 2023, we discussed the wireless issues presented by a basketball scoreboard with a controller that operates at 913 MHz. In this post, we’ll move way, way down in frequency, down into the shortwave radio band. This attack works at 7.078 and 14.078 MHz. So how does this work? published There are many interesting digital signals down here, and JS8 is one of them. JS8 is a popular keyboard-to-keyboard chatting tool for amateur radio. It absolutely excels at enabling direct conversations over long distances and through very poor link conditions. JS8 is itself based on FT8, an extremely popular tool for making simple contacts between stations that can hear each other. Night and day, FT8 and JS8 are continually in use. barely Several weird things happen to signals down in the shortwave band. It’s such a low frequency that at 100 miles above us, the E and F layers of Earth’s ionosphere begin to reflect the radio signal back down to the ground again. The signals bounce between the Earth and the ground several times, like skipping a stone off water. It allows us to hear commercial AM stations on the other side of the planet at night. During the day, this bounce works at higher frequencies too, enabling communication over vast distances. My backyard transmitter and the website’s station are 674 miles apart. One bounce covers that distance easily. JS8 messages are constructed in ASCII text, all uppercase characters. Most messages are sent to wide groups, such as Skywarn, JS8Chess, or, to reference everyone, simply ALLCALL. Following this, the message can be just about anything. First we build out HTML payload in the editor. We must legally provide our amateur radio callsign for identification (a step that will be ignored by a real attacker) and in the end our final message looks like this: So how do you attack a website with a shortwave signal? We are now ready to transmit. The JS8 software converts this text to binary, adds forward error correction, and modulates the result using Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying, (GFSK). The final product audibly sounds like strange whistling noises. If we open the sound using Audacity, and open a spectrogram, it looks like this: KJ7YLS: @TEST  <DIV STYLE="WIDTH: 500PX;HEIGHT:100PX;COLOR:RED;">HTML INJECTION!</DIV> Taking a closer look, you can see the GFSK modulation slowly transitioning from one frequency to another. It also holds at each frequency for a specific length of time. There are eight different frequencies in use here and thus each symbol has eight distinct states. As a result, each symbol can carry three bits at a time. This is illustrated with some labels: We can then send the whistling noise into the microphone of a radio transmitter. Like most amateur and military signals, the audio is delivered using upper-sideband modulation, which is a section of an AM broadcast type of signal. JS8 messages are standardized at several frequencies, and our target listens at 7.078 MHz and 14.078 MHz. We tune the radio to either frequency and send the audio using 20 watts of power into a 16-AWG wire about 30 feet in the air. The signal radiates out into the air, bounces off the ionosphere, and their antenna receives it. Their JS8 software reverses the process and pulls out the ASCII message. It’s at this point that we see the problem. The website (link withheld in this article out of respect to its author) logs JS8 traffic. Under the hood, it’s powered by , a useful Python tool that talks directly to the API of the JS8 software. In the repository, the script grabs the JS8 messages and places them on the website. At time of writing, it contains the following lines of code at line 859: JS8Net monitor.py # Text
j['text']=j['stuff']['params']['TEXT']
key=str(j['stuff']['time'])
j['id']=':'.join([fmcall,tocall,key,str(j['freq'])])
traffic[key]=json.dumps(j) is the ASCII JS8 message pulled from , which pulls from the API of the JS8 software. After this step, the text in is placed onto the page using Javascript. These steps are fine. The issue occurs in the change in context because there is an assumption that the JS8 traffic, already fully processed by the JS8 software, is ready to go and will not affect the context of the webpage. This is the behavior that we can then exploit. j['stuff']['params']['TEXT'] collector.py traffic[key] From start to finish, our attack looks like this: https://securityinnovation.hubs.vidyard.com/watch/dEaxwfcKAopxUVnVeMQtbf?embedable=true A few minutes later, our message is logged on the website... The end result is mostly cosmetic. This is a public page, so there’s no session cookies to steal or controls to spoof. Stored XSS is a real possibility too, but after a frustrating morning sending many, many time-consuming payloads (each JS8 message takes several minutes to send) we couldn’t get working Javascript that would execute on the page. I suspect that the JS8net software accidentally blocked many of the key characters and words and our workarounds didn’t seem to fire. Nevertheless, Burp Suite came in handy here. The ionosphere was cooperative that particular day and bouncing signals pretty well. I knew from other tools that stations in other countries were hearing JS8 traffic from the U.S.. So my next payload was This URL points to a DNS and HTTP listener run by Burp Suite’s Collaborator tool, which we often use during penetration tests for finding out-of-band information leaks. This was no different. Within a few minutes, DNS and HTTP traffic was recorded by the Collaborator Server from users visiting the page in Chile. I also viewed the page to inspect the injection and was logged as well. KJ7YLS: @ALLCALL <img src="http://727k2w1hfoamqewpm7rpiocu0l6cu2ir.oastify.com" alt="@HB DN13"> This was about as far as I wanted to ethically go with the injection. I reported the issue to the website’s owner, Jeff, with suggestions on remediation. He got back to me the next day, saying: While I waited for the patch to go live, I reflected on a few lines from the JS8Net README: I work in security myself (I do R&D for a network security company in the Bay Area), but I'll have to admit that submitting JS via radio to hack a web site was totally off my radar. It's important to note that this part of the software is still very much in the development stage, and may have critical vulnerabilities that make exposing the exposed services to the open Internet a Very Bad Idea. While it certainly will work, it's intended for protected, internal LAN use at this time. Honestly this is an excellent warning in general, especially for projects that are in progress and have not been thoroughly tested. Vulnerabilities at this point are an “unknown unknown” but the author was primarily thinking about the exposed listeners and APIs in his software. However, we exploited a slightly different type of problem. The README warns that the service should be run inside a LAN and this would indeed protect others from HTML injections and defilement of the webpage. However, a payload with Collaborator payloads would leak the public IP address of anyone viewing the page within their private LAN as well, so that’s a little harder to address. In short, this is a radio signal attacking a webpage on the Internet. An attacker doesn’t need to fool around with VPNs, Tor, or botnets to try to hide their identity on the Internet. JS8 is so effective at extracting messages -24dB below the noise floor (the whistling literally cannot be audibly heard at this level) that very little power is needed to reach distant stations. One watt of transmission power, on good ionospheric conditions, can go coast-to-coast across the U.S.. An attacker could be anywhere in the world. A burst message is all that is needed, so direction-finding would also be difficult. I think that’s about as close to untraceable as you can get with something like this. Timeline: July 13: discovered the issue, reported to Jeff, applied to MITRE for a CVE July 14: Jeff responds. July 22: Jeff applies a patch to JS8Net on Github. July 25: The patch goes live on the website. Aug 18: the blog post is published.

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