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Pebble crowdfunded as an alternative to venture capital. Their huge success on the platform was an inspiration to so many other hardware startups that it sparke

Pebble crowdfunded as an alternative to venture capital. Their huge success on the platform was an inspiration to so many other hardware startups that it sparked an entire generation of products (in my opinion). Kudos to that. I still wear my original Pebble. It's reliable with very long battery life, and is one of the very few wearables that works well while wearing gloves.

jpm_sd 10y ago
I'm intrigued, can you list any successful members of this generation of products inspired by Pebble? I think in some ways this should be a wake up call for Kickstarter, Pebble was their biggest success story until now.
- double0jimb0 10y ago
  There are thousands, maybe 10s of thousands. My product company is one of them, www.therooststand.com. In my sphere, I know 10+ KS creators running healthy businesses, most bootstrapped, that started with Kickstarter. TC article on my story and Eric's influence: https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/05/roost-laptop-stand/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/05/roost-laptop-stand/ I also know a few creators that didn't find profitable distribution models and/or demand post Kickstarter. I also know a few creators that failed to execute production and folded before delivering rewards. ^^^^^ These sound like fates of business of all types started from many different sources of capital. I do know the path Eric and Pebble carved was inspiration to all the above. And many feel indebted. It's very sad news on Pebble, tho 'shock' is not the right word for it, as many of us physical product KS creators know too well the risks of development, tooling up, cash flow, and managing delivery expectations. It is a high stakes game.
- fudged71 10y ago
  We had a crowdfunding success that was largely inspired by the marketing strategy of the Pebble campaign. I'm sure thousands of others were too. How about the Coolest Cooler? You don't think they were inspired by Pebble? Or the Ubuntu phone?
maneesh 10y ago
Well -- they also raised ~$15MM right after they finished their crowdfunding campaign.
- fudged71 10y ago
  Yes, but... During YCombinator they weren't fundable, so they tried crowdfunding. The article mentions that they crowdfunded a SECOND time because they were unable to raise another round of funding.
padobson 10y ago
I think the problem with crowdfunding (and early adopters in general) is that product hype can be a product unto itself. That's part of the value that Kickstarter provides, but it disappears when a product hits the wider market, and all that's left is the actual value of the product. Wearables will gain more traction when wearing them actually enhances their value (fitness trackers that measure your pulse, VR headsets glasses that change what you see). Smart watches, unfortunately, were just redundant. The entire idea of a smart device is that it has everything you need on one device. Carrying two smart devices makes no sense, and the phone got here first.
- themihai 10y ago
  >> Carrying two smart devices makes no sense, and the phone got here first. I've always believed the watch will replace the phone. It's easier to carry than a phone. I would replace my iphone with a smartwatch in a heartbeat but unfortunately the current models are too limited: no 4g/lte, poor battery, no carplay, not easy to read data(i.e emails), too bulky etc. The main issue is that the watch is just not good enough for now but eventually it will get a big chunk of the marketshare.
  - flukus 10y ago
    The biggest limitation is the screen size. Watches could arguably be made to do everything we want, but we'd still need to plugin an external screen. I'd like to see someone give an futurama style armband a go.
    - phs318u 10y ago
      This would probably work better with a thinner, smaller smartphone. https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Sports-Armband-iPhone-MyBand/dp/B00KC64JUY https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Sports-Armband-iPhone-MyBand/...
    - toyg 10y ago
      With an armband you lose a hand for interaction. But I agree that screen size will forever be the watches' undoing. Where they will excel is any segment that has an item you have to mindlessly carry on your person all day: security badges, wallets, door keys, insurance trackers, health-device controls. Everything else will stay on phones or similarly-sized devices.
yabatopia 10y ago
>Pebble crowdfunded as an alternative to venture capital. The last time it was out of necessity, because there were no investors interested. And the way they did crowdfunding was basically selling their product at a steep discount, basically leaving a lot of money on the table. I don't know if that was a good strategy. It's understandable you want to offer attractive perks with your Kickstarter, but at that time the Pebble brand among tech enthousiasts was big enough to limit the discount and stress the early adoper angle. You have several thousands of customers eagerly waiting for your next generation product, in that case there's no need to give steep discounts in the perks. I guess the Pebble management was too focused to make the last Kickstarter another well-publicized runaway success, so that they could use that success to convince investors once again. But in the process they discounted their product, their brand and ultimately their chances of survival.
- fudged71 10y ago
  Not sure I agree with you, you're saying there's no value dropping the prices. What the crowdfunding platform was able to do for them was to gamify the process, and reward early adopters. It's part of the reason why they have a great community behind them. They treat their early adopters well.

jpm_sd 10y ago

I'm intrigued, can you list any successful members of this generation of products inspired by Pebble? I think in some ways this should be a wake up call for Kickstarter, Pebble was their biggest success story until now.

double0jimb0 10y ago
There are thousands, maybe 10s of thousands. My product company is one of them, www.therooststand.com. In my sphere, I know 10+ KS creators running healthy businesses, most bootstrapped, that started with Kickstarter. TC article on my story and Eric's influence: https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/05/roost-laptop-stand/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/05/roost-laptop-stand/ I also know a few creators that didn't find profitable distribution models and/or demand post Kickstarter. I also know a few creators that failed to execute production and folded before delivering rewards. ^^^^^ These sound like fates of business of all types started from many different sources of capital. I do know the path Eric and Pebble carved was inspiration to all the above. And many feel indebted. It's very sad news on Pebble, tho 'shock' is not the right word for it, as many of us physical product KS creators know too well the risks of development, tooling up, cash flow, and managing delivery expectations. It is a high stakes game.
fudged71 10y ago
We had a crowdfunding success that was largely inspired by the marketing strategy of the Pebble campaign. I'm sure thousands of others were too. How about the Coolest Cooler? You don't think they were inspired by Pebble? Or the Ubuntu phone?

maneesh 10y ago

Well -- they also raised ~$15MM right after they finished their crowdfunding campaign.

fudged71 10y ago
Yes, but... During YCombinator they weren't fundable, so they tried crowdfunding. The article mentions that they crowdfunded a SECOND time because they were unable to raise another round of funding.

padobson 10y ago

I think the problem with crowdfunding (and early adopters in general) is that product hype can be a product unto itself. That's part of the value that Kickstarter provides, but it disappears when a product hits the wider market, and all that's left is the actual value of the product. Wearables will gain more traction when wearing them actually enhances their value (fitness trackers that measure your pulse, VR headsets glasses that change what you see). Smart watches, unfortunately, were just redundant. The entire idea of a smart device is that it has everything you need on one device. Carrying two smart devices makes no sense, and the phone got here first.

themihai 10y ago
>> Carrying two smart devices makes no sense, and the phone got here first. I've always believed the watch will replace the phone. It's easier to carry than a phone. I would replace my iphone with a smartwatch in a heartbeat but unfortunately the current models are too limited: no 4g/lte, poor battery, no carplay, not easy to read data(i.e emails), too bulky etc. The main issue is that the watch is just not good enough for now but eventually it will get a big chunk of the marketshare.
- flukus 10y ago
  The biggest limitation is the screen size. Watches could arguably be made to do everything we want, but we'd still need to plugin an external screen. I'd like to see someone give an futurama style armband a go.
  - phs318u 10y ago
    This would probably work better with a thinner, smaller smartphone. https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Sports-Armband-iPhone-MyBand/dp/B00KC64JUY https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Sports-Armband-iPhone-MyBand/...
  - toyg 10y ago
    With an armband you lose a hand for interaction. But I agree that screen size will forever be the watches' undoing. Where they will excel is any segment that has an item you have to mindlessly carry on your person all day: security badges, wallets, door keys, insurance trackers, health-device controls. Everything else will stay on phones or similarly-sized devices.

yabatopia 10y ago

>Pebble crowdfunded as an alternative to venture capital. The last time it was out of necessity, because there were no investors interested. And the way they did crowdfunding was basically selling their product at a steep discount, basically leaving a lot of money on the table. I don't know if that was a good strategy. It's understandable you want to offer attractive perks with your Kickstarter, but at that time the Pebble brand among tech enthousiasts was big enough to limit the discount and stress the early adoper angle. You have several thousands of customers eagerly waiting for your next generation product, in that case there's no need to give steep discounts in the perks. I guess the Pebble management was too focused to make the last Kickstarter another well-publicized runaway success, so that they could use that success to convince investors once again. But in the process they discounted their product, their brand and ultimately their chances of survival.

fudged71 10y ago
Not sure I agree with you, you're saying there's no value dropping the prices. What the crowdfunding platform was able to do for them was to gamify the process, and reward early adopters. It's part of the reason why they have a great community behind them. They treat their early adopters well.