Ten years ago, streaming stick maker Roku released its first smart TVs in partnership with Hisense and TCL, two Chinese TV manufacturers that few had heard of in the U.S. at that time. In the years since, Roku has become the domestic smart TV market leader. Its hardware partners have become household names, and sold millions of units to U.S. consumers.
Getting to that point was anything but easy, as I learned during a recent conversation with Roku’s VP of retail strategy Chris Larson and Roku TV VP of business development Tom McFarland. The two actually started this journey together on different sides of the table—McFarland was hired by Roku to get its smart TV program off the ground, and Larson was working for TCL to help the company expand into the States until he eventually joined Roku two years ago.
In our conversation, they recalled countless trips to China, haggling over TV remote designs, and coping with the stress that is today’s TV business.
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