Last week, I noticed that CNET has recently gone through its story archives to compile a roundup of crowdsourced IoT products it had written about, for a where-are-they-now update story.
I had been planning to do a similar story for a while, and so here it is, with thanks to CNET. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, correct?
I’ve long been fascinated by Kickstarter and by the wild successes—sometimes followed by huge disappointments—that it has enabled. For the past six months or so, I’ve been telling startups that pitch me on their crowdfunded IoT products to come back to me once they’ve reached their fundraising goals, because a few of the crowdfunding campaigns I’ve covered in the past have failed to do so. I’ve even toyed with the idea of not covering crowdfunded products until their backers start receiving the goods, but that seems like an extreme approach.
Herewith, quick updates on some of the crowdfunded IoT products we’ve covered at IOT Journal.
Jolted
One of the first stories we ran, back in the fall of 2014, was about a Bluetooth-connected concussion tracker called Jolt, which was seeking to raise $60,000. The goal was reached and the hardware was manufactured and ready to ship to backers by the fall of 2015—a small delay from the original delivery estimate. (While scaling manufacturing is often the issue crowdfunded projects face, in this case the slow start was caused by a delay in receiving approval for the Jolt smartphone app.)
Today, Jolt is selling the concussion trackers direct to consumers via its website.
Drop-Kicked?
In this story from June 19, 2015, I wrote about a California startup called Drop that had launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund production of a solar-powered, Wi-Fi-connected temperature, acidity and chlorine sensor designed to help homeowners better maintain their swimming pools.
According to the Kickstarter campaign page, Drop only raised around half of the $100,000 it was seeking, which closed that funding option (Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing approach, so if the goal is not met, the startup gets nothing).
I called Drop’s founder, Alvaro Alliende, whom I had interviewed for my story, but his phone number is no longer working. Drop has not been active on Twitter since July 20, 2015. The website is still up, however, and it is still accepting $149.90 pre-orders for the product. That seems rather suspect to me, given the startup’s dead phone number and inactivity on social media.
Chasing Molecules
On July 9, 2015, we ran this news story about something that, at first blush, sounded to me like science fiction: a pocket-sized molecular analyzer that could tell you whether a pill is counterfeit or how much fat is hiding in your morning muffin. It’s not science fiction; rather, it’s a crafty use of a technology called near-infrared spectrometry. But some of the nearly 13,000 individuals who backed Consumer Physics‘ phenomenally successful SCiO pocket analyzer fundraising campaign (it raised $2.7 million, or 1,381 percent of its goal) now want their money back, according to several posts from backers that I read in the comment section of the campaign page.
I checked in with Consumer Physics’ CEO Dror Sharon. He did not reveal how many refunds have been isssued (Kickstarter does not require that project creators comply with refund requests, but Consumer Physics is doing so). He did, however, characterize the number of refunds requested as “minute and totally inconsequential.” But if you read through the comments, it’s pretty clear that some of the backers who requested a refund are rather exasperated with the company.
Sharon says Consumer Physics has shipped the SCiO device to around 1,500 of the 12,958 backers so far. The company says it plans to begin shipping more devices (an updated version) to more backers next week, and that all backers should have them by the end of September.
Waiting for a Signal
On August 7, 2015, we wrote that Punch Through Design, a hardware- and software-development firm, had raised $53,000, well surpassing its $30,000 Kickstarter goal, to fund the production of its LightBlue Bean+, an Arduino-compatible board that can be programmed wirelessly using a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device on the OS X, Windows, iOS or Android platform. The Bean+ includes an onboard accelerometer, a temperature sensor and an RGB LED.
When it launched the campaign, Punch Through Design estimated that it would deliver the LightBlue Bean+ in December 2015. On December 8, the company posted an update to its Kickstarter page, saying it was still awaiting FCC testing results and needed to inspect its pilot production samples, so it pushed delivery back to March 2016. On March 4, the product was still undergoing FCC testing. On March 16: still testing.
As of April 15, in the most recent update, the company again apologized for the delays, which were caused by an issue with the device’s RF amplifier and the long FCC testing process. The product is now expected to ship in June.
A Different Approach?
Last week, I spoke with Shipeng Li, the CTO of IngDan, a Chinese firm that supports IoT startups by connecting them with Chinese manufactures, offering design and technology support, helping them connect with investors, assisting them in testing and marketing products… the list goes on. In exchange, IngDan sets up some type of financial arrangement with the startups. Sometimes, it takes a share of the company’s profits, while in other cases, IngDan receives a stake in the company.
IngDan opened its first U.S. office, in Silicon Valley, last year and Li told me that it’s still ramping up that operation, so it does not have any big success stories to point to. However, the firm did sponsor an IoT startup pitch contest, in collaboration with Hackster.io, and today I spoke with the founder of the third-place winner, a U.K.-based startup called Onomo, that is developing a Bluetooth-connected, handlebar-mounted navigation device for cyclists known as Haize.
As it turns out, Onomo started out with a Kickstarter campaign, and attracted 911 backers who pitched in £63,055 ($90,805). The product’s estimated delivery date is this summer. But Onomo’s founder, Javier Soto, says that being able to work with IngDan—its third-place prize gives Onomo $2,000 worth of advisory services from IngDan—will enable him and his partners to identify a Chinese manufacturer that can help Onomo scale up production of the Haize device, not just to meet its Kickstarter orders but to grow beyond that. In fact, even before they get to that point, he says, IngDan is helping Onomo tackle some last-minute design challenges, including improving the device’s weather resistance.
“This kind of help can be extremely valuable,” Soto told me. “We’re mainly designers and engineers, and getting into this kind of [product] to market takes a lot of advice from people who have [manufacturing] expertise.”
So the upshot here, as far as I can see, is that crowdfunding can be a great tool for ramping up interest in an IoT product, but it’s not the only one. If you are pondering a crowdfunding approach, remember that even if the campaign is successful, you may still go through many hiccups, and you may have to deal with unhappy customers right out of the gate. There are other or additional support systems and services, such as those offered by IngDan, that are available to startups. If I were trying to launch an IoT product, I’d use all the resources I could find.
Mary Catherine O’Connor is the editor of IoT Journal and a former staff reporter for RFID Journal. She also writes about technology, as it relates to business and the environment, for a range of consumer magazines and newspapers.