3 ms·

Rejected by Kickstarter; Lumawake opts to Selfstart

17 points by paulgerhardt 14y ago

thaumaturgy 14y ago
Nice work, guys. That's a really beautiful piece of engineering you've put together. I'm a little curious how the automatic shutoff works -- will it come back on again if you roll over or stir in your sleep?
- scott_roehrick 14y ago
  Thanks! I'm assuming you're talking about the home automation piece. We've integrated with SmartThings and Belkin's WeMo. Once you've drifted to sleep it can everything turn off and will remain off. It can also turn things back on based on your wake event which occurs during your preset "wake window". It's all fully customizable through Lumawake's free app.
noonespecial 14y ago
They might not be there yet, but I'd bet that Kickstarter can see "Camp Paypal" from where they are. I'm not sure there's much of anything they can do that would be worse for their business than to start applying secretive, arbitrary rules that even smart people can't figure out how to abide by and then following that up with a clear demonstration that said smart people aren't even worth a phone call.
- mcphilip 14y ago
  My theory is that Kickstarter expects there to be a high profile (e.g. $million+ light bulb pre order[1]) failure to deliver in the near future and is being especially hard on any new hardware campaigns. Some legitimate campaigns will be denied as a result of this, but Kickstarter is trying to preempt criticism. [1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light-bulb-reinvented http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light...
- scott_roehrick 14y ago
  Hardware and Product Design account for just 4.2% of KS projects and 21% revenue. With 75% not hitting projected ship dates it's easy to see they applied the 80/20 rule and cracked down. KS simply wasn't made for pre-orders and they don't have a system in place to track projects after funding / enforce refunds. It's just not the business they want to be in. We can understand that. We just wish they would have handled this differently but, at this point, it's water under the bridge. We believe in our product and are up for the challenge!
rolandal 14y ago
It's understandable why Kickstarter has enabled and are enforcing their new project guidelines & rules. It's a shame however when good products that are fully functional and prototyped are tossed into the photo-realistic renderings or simulations bucket. I think the Lumawake team is doing the right thing by using the http://selfstarter.us http://selfstarter.us open source framework.
- scott_roehrick 14y ago
  Thanks for the support man. I think there's going to be a big shift towards this model since popular crowdfunding sites are shying away from hardware and never really fit with software. Lockitron and app.net have definitely paved the way but we're excited to be at the forefront. It will be interesting to see how the JOBS act fits in to all of this too...
zoidb 14y ago
any theories on why they were rejected? it does seem a bit arbitrary like they didn't bother to read any of their justification.
- scott_roehrick 14y ago
  I don't think they believed or prototypes worked as advertised but I can't be entirely sure...
nzeribe 14y ago
This is definitely the right move for you. It's a higher-level fighting move for you to turn a blow to your advantage.
benzofuran 14y ago
Oh another iPhone dock! Kickstarter hasn't had enough of those lately, is it possible they're having an attack of conscience / trying to keep from being too pigeonholed, and thus the rejection?
scoowhoop 14y ago
I never really found the idea of a iPhone dock to be all that necessary/interesting, but I can definitely see the value here. Very cool guys, good luck.
- therobot24 14y ago
  I'm curious, as i'm failing to see any real value with this dock. It's an alarm clock...not much different than every other dock available...oh wait, it can change color.
justindocanto 14y ago
I made this identical post yesterday. I see you added an #hn at the end so it wouldn't credit me or the original post. That was very considerate of you. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4774253 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4774253
- paulgerhardt 14y ago
  Oh, I can see how this would look. That wasn't my intention, sorry! I added the #hn in what I thought was a pre-emptive gesture in case Lumawake would have liked to submit the post as themselves with their own headline (as opposed to my own editorialized one). I did not see or test that it had already been posted.
shaaaaawn 14y ago
Preorders start today! http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/iphone-connected-home-smart-dock-lumawake-regroups-after-kickstarter-rejection-begins-pre-orders-today/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/iphone-connected-home-smart...

17 points by paulgerhardt 14y ago

Nice work, guys. That's a really beautiful piece of engineering you've put together. I'm a little curious how the automatic shutoff works -- will it come back on again if you roll over or stir in your sleep?

scott_roehrick 14y ago
Thanks! I'm assuming you're talking about the home automation piece. We've integrated with SmartThings and Belkin's WeMo. Once you've drifted to sleep it can everything turn off and will remain off. It can also turn things back on based on your wake event which occurs during your preset "wake window". It's all fully customizable through Lumawake's free app.

noonespecial 14y ago

They might not be there yet, but I'd bet that Kickstarter can see "Camp Paypal" from where they are. I'm not sure there's much of anything they can do that would be worse for their business than to start applying secretive, arbitrary rules that even smart people can't figure out how to abide by and then following that up with a clear demonstration that said smart people aren't even worth a phone call.

mcphilip 14y ago
My theory is that Kickstarter expects there to be a high profile (e.g. $million+ light bulb pre order[1]) failure to deliver in the near future and is being especially hard on any new hardware campaigns. Some legitimate campaigns will be denied as a result of this, but Kickstarter is trying to preempt criticism. [1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light-bulb-reinvented http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light...
scott_roehrick 14y ago
Hardware and Product Design account for just 4.2% of KS projects and 21% revenue. With 75% not hitting projected ship dates it's easy to see they applied the 80/20 rule and cracked down. KS simply wasn't made for pre-orders and they don't have a system in place to track projects after funding / enforce refunds. It's just not the business they want to be in. We can understand that. We just wish they would have handled this differently but, at this point, it's water under the bridge. We believe in our product and are up for the challenge!

rolandal 14y ago

It's understandable why Kickstarter has enabled and are enforcing their new project guidelines & rules. It's a shame however when good products that are fully functional and prototyped are tossed into the photo-realistic renderings or simulations bucket. I think the Lumawake team is doing the right thing by using the http://selfstarter.us http://selfstarter.us open source framework.

scott_roehrick 14y ago
Thanks for the support man. I think there's going to be a big shift towards this model since popular crowdfunding sites are shying away from hardware and never really fit with software. Lockitron and app.net have definitely paved the way but we're excited to be at the forefront. It will be interesting to see how the JOBS act fits in to all of this too...

zoidb 14y ago

any theories on why they were rejected? it does seem a bit arbitrary like they didn't bother to read any of their justification.

scott_roehrick 14y ago
I don't think they believed or prototypes worked as advertised but I can't be entirely sure...

nzeribe 14y ago

This is definitely the right move for you. It's a higher-level fighting move for you to turn a blow to your advantage.

benzofuran 14y ago

Oh another iPhone dock! Kickstarter hasn't had enough of those lately, is it possible they're having an attack of conscience / trying to keep from being too pigeonholed, and thus the rejection?

scoowhoop 14y ago

I never really found the idea of a iPhone dock to be all that necessary/interesting, but I can definitely see the value here. Very cool guys, good luck.

therobot24 14y ago
I'm curious, as i'm failing to see any real value with this dock. It's an alarm clock...not much different than every other dock available...oh wait, it can change color.

justindocanto 14y ago

I made this identical post yesterday. I see you added an #hn at the end so it wouldn't credit me or the original post. That was very considerate of you. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4774253 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4774253

paulgerhardt 14y ago
Oh, I can see how this would look. That wasn't my intention, sorry! I added the #hn in what I thought was a pre-emptive gesture in case Lumawake would have liked to submit the post as themselves with their own headline (as opposed to my own editorialized one). I did not see or test that it had already been posted.

shaaaaawn 14y ago

Preorders start today! http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/iphone-connected-home-smart-dock-lumawake-regroups-after-kickstarter-rejection-begins-pre-orders-today/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/iphone-connected-home-smart...