WEBVTT - Pebble Hits a Boulder 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.560 In two thousand twelve, a small startup on the verge 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.640 of collapse called Pebble endeavored to fund their smart watch 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:18.000 company via a Kickstarter campaign and insanely successful Kickstarter campaign. 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.840 And not only was their first Kickstarter campaign ridiculously successful, 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.720 but their next two were as well. In fact, three 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.360 of the five most successful kickstarters to date have been 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.960 for Pebble watches. And yet this smart watch company, with 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.840 so much public backing, went from crowdfunding success to complete 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.080 stop in just a few short years. So let's travel 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.880 slightly back in time and learn how a meteoric rise 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.000 turned into a rock slide of misfortune for Pebble Watches. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:01:00.840 On the Brink. Hi, I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm aerial casting. 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.080 You guys are listening to the Brink today. We're talking 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:07.440 about Pebble watches, a subject that I might have a 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.480 slight bias tour. I was about to say you were 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.800 an owner of a Pebble watch. Im I still am. 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.200 I still am. I'm not wearing it today, but I 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.240 do have it. Now, You're an owner of a very 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.120 unsupported piece of technology. I mean, it still tells time, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:24.720 but yeah, I'm not going to be getting any new 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.200 apps for it, so I was not a Kickstarter campaign 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:34.320 funder for the Pebble Watch. However, I did pre order 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.600 the watch before it officially was available, uh in store shelves. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.440 I'll talk about that a little bit, But technically I 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.240 saw it at CS. I went to C E S. 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:50.000 There was a a m meeting in a big conference room, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.720 not on the regular show floor where the pebble Watch 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.920 folks were there showing off pebble watches. This was post 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.720 kick started campaign, pre store or availability, and I got 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.920 a chance to see it, and it was impressive enough 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.280 for me to go ahead and put a pre order 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.919 in and they sent me a Kickstarter edition. That's nice. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.160 You know, I kind of always wanted a pebble watch myself, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:15.320 but I'm glad I don't have one, because currently I 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.040 have a tablet sitting on my desk that I can't 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.880 use because I switched phone providers, and I feel bad 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.640 even owning that piece of technology that is no longer 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:28.000 really useful. But pebble watches are still somewhat useful. And 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.040 we're going to take you back to the very beginning 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:34.400 of pebble watches, which is even before there was a pebble. Yes, 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:37.560 and technically pebble Watch was started out of a brink 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.600 moment of a previous company. Yes, so way back in 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:46.560 two thousand eight, which is ancient times for modern technology companies. 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.880 Right ten years ago the Stone Age, there was a 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:56.520 guy named Eric Mischakovsky, and Midchakovsky he uh, he was 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.760 twenty two at the time, and if you read the 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.400 series of Wired articles we read, you would learn that 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.720 he has six ft six because I'm pretty sure that 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:09.840 that was sent. And so he had come from Canada. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.160 He had attended the University of Waterloo. And the story 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.120 is that he was in the Netherlands and he had 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:20.040 taken a semester to study industrial design over there. And 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.840 while he was over there, he was riding his bike everywhere, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.360 and he was still wanted to stay in touch with 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.760 his friends back in Canada. A and that man he 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.080 was using his his cell phone. But the problem is, 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.160 you're riding your bicycle everywhere, you can't easily check your 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.800 cell phone. It's hard to dig into your pocket and 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.200 pull your cell phone out without potentially ramming your bike 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.760 into a pedestrian or going out in the traffic. And 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.720 so he thought wouldn't it be nice if there were 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.600 some sort of device that I could quickly check to 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:53.240 see what incoming call I'm getting or incoming message. Maybe 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:54.880 I could read the whole message, or I could at 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.080 least see who's calling me, and I could determine, Oh, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.040 maybe I should pull over to the side take this 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.600 phone call, or no, I can let this go to voicemail. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.360 That actually led him to go back to his room 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:09.440 that night, and he started tinkering around with basic electronic 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.880 components to see if he could build something that could 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.040 do what he was thinking. Now, this was not meant 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.440 to be like a finished product, This was just a 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.960 proof of concept, but that led him down the path 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.200 towards this idea of yeah, this is possible. I'm going 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.640 to make a device that compare with a phone and 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:28.920 give you notifications and you don't have to take your 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:30.760 phone out to look at you just glance at your 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.640 wrist and hey, what the heck, I'm gonna let it 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.440 tell time to which you know, makes total sense because 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.520 you're already used to looking at your wrist for a time, 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.920 and and also coming up with a small device to 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:43.960 take care of your phone needs is not a bad line. 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.120 Of logic, because computers over history have been getting smaller 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:49.480 and smaller until recently when they're kind of getting big 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.120 in right. And I think this is sort of what 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.719 spurred his imagination, was this idea of if you look 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.400 at the history of computers, then you see them going 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:00.680 from the size of a floor of a building to 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:02.520 the size of a room, to the size of a 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.560 desk or a filing cabinet, to the size of a 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:10.080 desktop computer to a laptop too, smartphones and tablets, and 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:14.720 the trend is going from specific purpose where it's really 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.280 good at doing very specific things but it can't do 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:22.159 anything else, to general purpose and smaller and eventually mobile. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.320 And he thought, well, with this trend, which has been 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.480 going on since computers started, let's look at what's the 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.320 next logical step, and that's wearable computers. And so that's 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:33.839 what I was thinking, was that let's see if we 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:35.960 can I think the world is ready for it. As 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.920 it turns out, that was an assumption that I think 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.120 has yet to bear out. We can talk more about 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.600 why that hasn't quite panned out yet towards the end 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.840 of this episode, But that was the premise, Yes, it 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:51.039 was now unfortunately for him. The start of this whole 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.000 story comes about at a time where he was just 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.320 slightly ahead of his time because he made a company 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.640 called Alerta, and he decided to make a product called Impulse, 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.359 which was a watch that did all the things that 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:07.239 we previously talked about, specifically with the BlackBerry operating system, 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.360 which you know, was a good phone for a while 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.240 well and and again, to be fair like, he started 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.680 really working on this in two thousand eight. In two 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.719 thousand and eight, the iPhone was not even a year 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.159 old yet. The iPhone had come out in the summer 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:23.680 of two thousand seven. I mean, Blackberries were still in 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.599 popular use, and even if you wanted to develop for 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.400 the iPhone, you couldn't because they had not introduced the 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.360 app store yet. That didn't get introduced till the summer 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.520 of two thousand eight. Android was not ready for public 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.919 release until the fall of two thousand eight. So he 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.000 developed a prototype of the Impulse that worked only with 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.840 BlackBerry and uh, but it did all the things he 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.120 wanted it to do. It if you've got a BlackBerry message, 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.719 which BlackBerry has their own encrypted version of messaging, you 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.200 could actually display it on the watch and it was 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.240 a cool companion piece of tech chnology. It wasn't actually 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:05.200 from Research in Motion, which is the company that made BlackBerry. Yeah. 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:06.960 I know a lot of people who own Blackberries, and 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:08.800 I know a lot of who did own Blackberries, and 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.000 a lot of people who do have smart watches. Despite 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.280 the iffiness of its popularity and in a big company meeting, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.840 blackberries were largely you know, business phones. You know, it's 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:19.680 a lot more polite to glance at your watch than 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.280 it is to pick up your phone and look at it. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.280 Not that that has stopped any people still do, but yeah, 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.880 these days, Uh, if you were with any tech podcasters, 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.000 I think people in general this is true, but definitely 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:36.000 true for tech podcasters because I've been there. If you 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.120 ever diner, yeah, I am one, and then I hang 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.440 out with them. Sometimes when a group of tech podcasters 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.440 go to dinner, the first thing that happens is, however 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.640 many tech podcasters you have, you have at least that 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.240 many phones hit the table, probably more phones than there 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.200 are people for each pockets. Yeah, sometimes people carry more 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:01.120 than one. Uh Well. In two thousand eleven, the company 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:06.640 Alerta was invited to participate in a group is called 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:11.360 the y Combinator and this is what they call an accelerator. 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.840 An accelerator is a company that is designed to help 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:21.760 startups get a foundation. So they pair people with mentors 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.720 to teach about forming business plans and uh, what sort 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.440 of of pitfalls to look out for. And they also 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:35.280 attempt to match up companies with potential investors. And that's 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.320 what was going on with y Combinator. And by the 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.680 time the Impulse was ready to be shown off there, 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.480 it had already been available for purchase and they had 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:47.240 expanded beyond BlackBerry. Now they were also compatible with the 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.520 Android upbreaking system, but not iOS, not yet. But the 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.280 thing is, even though everybody at this Y Combinator incubator 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.640 got a hundred and fifty k, yeah, everyone, everybody got it, 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.520 Alertor had a really hard time getting investors. They only 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.520 got about three hundred. They only doubled that initial investment. 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.000 Like some of those companies or some of those startups 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.160 were able to get significantly more investment, but Alerta was 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.840 limited to three thousand, which sounds like a lot of money. 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.600 But the problem is Alerta was also is a hardware company. Yeah, 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:18.679 so you're having to buy all these different components as 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:23.200 opposed to just exactly. Yeah, so you have to figure 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:25.640 out supply chain, you have to figure out where where 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.520 are we going to manufacture these things. Now, in the 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.200 early days they went pretty low rent with that. They did. 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:35.320 They only sold fifteen hundred units of Impulses. They didn't 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.800 have to worry about bulk production, half of which they 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.880 made in their garage and the other half they made 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.640 it a small local factory that they hired out. Yeah, 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.239 at that scale, it doesn't make sense to look overseas, 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:49.680 which is what Pebble would do later on. They would 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.640 start looking at manufacturing facilities in China. But you don't 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.560 do that if you've got if you're only making a 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.280 thousand or so units, you don't that that would be overkill. Yeah. 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:01.880 So they have used all of this money that they've 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.520 made at the incubator to make these units, and nobody 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.560 wanted to buy him. Yeah, so we are at a 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:13.320 point where the company, the idea that that Eric had 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.880 just wasn't taking off. Investors didn't seem interested, customers didn't 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.360 seem interested. He had not found a way to tap 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:27.160 into anyone's desire for technology. It was like, could he 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.559 have been totally off base with his earlier assessment that 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:34.000 this wearable computing model was the way to go. And 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:39.640 I think for a lot of first time business owners, 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.000 they would look at this and say, I'm on the 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.440 wrong track. I'm going to go do something else. I'm 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.160 going to take some time, I'm going to come up 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.560 with a different idea, especially when you come from a 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.120 background where Eric Maschakovsky he had been through two different 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.800 accelerators at this point, because there was one at the 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.400 University of waterlooka Velocity had already done that one, and 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.240 then why Combinator he did another one. So he had 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.800 at least had the benefit of being able to work 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:11.320 with people who had experience in launching startups. So he 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.640 could have just stepped away, but he didn't. He he 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:15.839 was like, well, I still think this is a good idea. 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.080 I still think people wanted I just definite hit that 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.320 sweet spot yet. Yeah. And by this time it's getting 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.280 close to two thousand twelve, the landscape had changed quite 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:29.200 a bit. Both Apple and Google were really starting to 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:33.720 take over the market share of smartphones. There was a 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.840 rising interest in developing for those platforms, developing apps for 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:42.880 those platforms, and Mitchakovsky said, I think I'm ready to 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:44.880 take another stab at this, but I think it's going 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:51.280 to require rethinking my approach. And we'll talk about what 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.280 he did next in just a moment, but first let's 0:11:54.280 --> 0:12:06.120 take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, So 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:10.240 we talked about how Mitchikovsky wanted to rethink his ideas 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.920 instead of give up. So the first thing he did 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:17.560 was he rebranded, renamed his watch to Pebble, and eventually 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.320 the company would also be called this Yes. And then 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.760 he decided to make it work with multiple oss Yes, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.560 multiple operating systems. Now you've got all these people who 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.240 are interested in making apps for Apple and Google, they're 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.120 going to be interested in making apps for his watch 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.079 as well. So this opened it up to a whole 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.240 new market of people. And then he also made the 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.760 watch waterproof, and he decided to make some other changes 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:44.199 to the technology. So the original Impulse watch had an 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.800 O LED screen US organic LED if you prefer, and 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.320 it was a full color screen and you had to 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.560 plug a charging cable into the watch. That's what would 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.319 make it not water resistant, right, because you have an 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.079 opening there. So for the Pebble, he decides, well, let's 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.680 let's make it monochromatic screen, will use e paper as 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.360 the display, which had a lot of benefits to it. Yeah. 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.080 It removes it removes a lot of the power requirements 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.440 because it's not back lit, and it also takes off 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:15.880 a lot of glare so you can see it in 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.079 brighter light. Yeah, it's like paper. You need that external 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.240 light to be able to see what's on there. So 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:26.800 this decision to go with a brand new approach, a 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.760 brand new name, a new design model. All of that's great, 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.680 except where are you going to get the money to 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.760 fund the research and development, the prototyping, the manufacturing. I mean, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.320 you don't have revenue coming in from the impulse, Yeah, 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.880 and you don't have investors who want to buy hardware. 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.320 So where do you turn if you if you can't 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:53.439 get any angel investors. Well, Midchakovsky decides to turn to 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.760 a relatively new form of fundraising. It it had been 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.120 around for a few years, but he was one of 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.880 the early birds on this platform. I would say yes, 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.880 he launched a Kickstarter campaign in two thousand twelve. It 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.520 would be the first of three, and it would be, 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:14.400 as we said in the opening, incredibly successful spoiler alerts. 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.480 In this case, they had set their goal at one 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:23.120 hundred thousand dollars, and they gave themselves thirty seven days 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.480 or so to hit that goal. How long did it 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.760 take them to hit one hundred thousand dollars? Two hours? 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.720 And then they hit a million in twenty eight hours? Shikes? 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.480 And they hit ten million, two hundred sixty six thousand, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.720 eight hundred and forty five dollars overall. Yeah, which is 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:46.160 watch orders approximately. Yeah, although when you look at the 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.400 full number, because you know, if you start going at 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:51.720 the higher ends, there were other other elements that you 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.280 could get. I think they ultimately said it was around 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.880 sixty nine thousand watches total that they ended up selling 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:03.240 pre selling through Kickstarter, and only that they could have 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.400 made more. Yes, Yes, they end in their campaign a 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.680 whole week early because they didn't want to get greedy. Honestly, 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.200 if I were really putting critical thinking to it, I 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.120 would say that this was a combination of a couple 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.200 of different things that Midjakovsky was taking into account when 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:21.320 he said, let's end it early. We've made ten million 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.520 dollars and we have this number of commitments. I think 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.000 there are two things that he's probably thinking. One is 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.920 I want to make sure that the number doesn't get 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.520 so far ahead of us that will be in trouble 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.640 trying to meet our commitment. And the second is that 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.760 if you're making hardware, in order to create an incentive, 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.320 you typically offer that hardware at a discount, sometimes a 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.920 substantial discount. They planned on selling the Pebble at d 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.840 fifty dollars, but the early bird on a Kickstarter Pebble 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.360 was you also want to make sure that you haven't 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.040 grossly underestimated how much it's going to cost you to 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.120 make those things. Yeah. Well, and also one thing that 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.760 is common in kickstarters there are stretch goals. So if 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:05.800 we reach this goal, we're going to add this feature. 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.760 And if they add too many features to the smart watch, 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:13.200 it either may not be producible or it gets too expensive, 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.120 gets too expensive or doesn't work right, and then you 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.000 end up sabotaging yourself. And then you either come out 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.240 with something that's less than what you promised, which upsets everybody, 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.080 or you don't come out with anything at all, which 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:28.880 really everybody. Fortunately, Pebble is not one of the though 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.720 in fact, this first Kickstarter campaign that they did is 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:36.880 still the fifth most funded kickstarter in history. The Kickstarter campaign. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.120 That was part of what got them over the brink, 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.840 and it was that and their commitment toward developers. I 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:49.480 think that helped establish a good reputation for Pebble. Turns 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.120 out that would not be enough to keep things going, 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.440 but we aren't there yet. So two thousand thirteen, the 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.520 watch comes out. The end of two thousand thirteen, you 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.920 see them sell three thousand units, which is pretty good 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.080 for a brand new company with brand new hardware, a 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.280 brand new concept to many people. Yeah, and one that's 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.600 already reliant upon you owning a smartphone because it connects 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.639 via Bluetooth. It cannot on its own connect to the 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:24.240 Internet so that you get updates and notifications. It has 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.760 to connect to a smartphone. So you've already said, my 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.800 demographic is a smaller pie because it has to be 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.560 people who own smartphones. Yes. Despite this early success, in 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.320 two thousand fourteen, Apple announced that it was making a 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.199 smart watch as a competitor to Pebble. Now, Mischakovsky was 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.800 not really upset about this. Yeah, he felt like this 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.159 is a space where lots of folks could play, and 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.680 he was pretty sure that whatever Apple would produce would 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.880 not be a direct competitor with Pebble because secret here 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.359 is coming close coming us. I mean, here's your secret. 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.280 Apple is not known for making cheap discounts stuff, nor 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.000 are they known for really integrating with other people. Yeah, 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:13.440 so watch. Everyone was pretty sure one it was only 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.280 going to be interoperable with iOS and to it was 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.919 not going to be like a add on. Apple watches 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.679 are expensive, yeah, for comparison, Pebble watches were about a 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.720 hundred and fifty to two hundred fifty dollars cheaper than 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.680 an Apple watch like base level. Now, they did have 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.400 some technical benefits, and we won't go too much into this, 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.080 but you know their batteries lasted longer a week instead 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.200 of a couple of days, and it had the open 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.000 a p i um, but it didn't have a touch 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.680 screen like the Apple Watch. It didn't have like exotic 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.399 sensors like heart rate monitors or things like that at 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.120 that time, and it didn't have official designer names attached 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.640 to it, like when you got sir Johnny, I've there 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.520 as your designer for your your watch, and then you 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.560 have all these other names for like the the wrist 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:05.399 bands that are making thousands, thousands of dollars for a 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.800 wrist band for your watch, and man must be nice 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:13.639 and by watches. Yeah, listen, I got my Pebble and 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.080 must watch all right, so I hear you. But yeah, 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.600 this was also a time where Android was starting to 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.600 push smart watches as well. Actually, to be fair, the 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.760 Google created a platform called Android War, but rather than 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:32.120 Google getting into the hardware game directly, they created that 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:36.159 for other manufacturers to use. Yes, you had Motorola and 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:39.760 Samsung make their versions of a smart watch, and they 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.119 were smarter technically than Pebble, but they weren't getting as 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:48.040 good of reviews. Right, It's hard to demonstrate the utility 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.480 of a smart watch to the point where you feel 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.000 like you have to have it. Like smartphones, you get 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.399 they do so much, they do it really well. Smart 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.080 watches you have smaller amount of real estate for you 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.560 to be able to use green There are barriers there. 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.360 I don't think anyone has hit upon the perfect smart 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:10.959 watch implementation yet, but I think activity trackers are better 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.879 about this than smart watches are. But it's for again, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.560 a smaller piece of the pie. Yeah. Mitschikowski would come 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.600 to realize this later on, but we'll get to that 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:24.720 later in the episode. In two thousand fourteen, two thousand fifteen, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.159 right around the time that Apple announced their watch, Pebble 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.560 was coming out with another watch, the Pebble Time. Yes, 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.800 more advanced version of the Pebble. It's going to have 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.440 a lot more higher end features than the Pebble did. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:39.919 The Pebble you can think of a sort of like 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:43.240 a bare bones smart watch. And actually that was one 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:45.119 of the things that appealed to me, like the swatch 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.520 of smart watches. Yeah, and I was totally fine with that. 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.000 Pebble Time was a step up from that, And like 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.520 the original Pebble, they decide that they would hold another kickstarter, Yes, 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:00.200 and this kickstarter raised double the amount of money all 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.199 told that the first one did twenty million dollars. So 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.680 this one had a color display, although it used an 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:09.000 e paper display for this too, so it had sort 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.760 of almost like a faded approach, like some people describe 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.520 it as looking like a faded comic book. Yeah, it wasn't. 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:18.399 It wasn't as graphically appealing as an Apple watch. And 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.600 it had sixty four colors, so not nearly as many 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.400 colors as what you would find in like a retina display. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.639 Apple watch. It also had a microphone in it too, 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.600 so you can make voice notes things like note to 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.000 self charge watch. This, like I said, had sort of 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.240 a step up from the original Pebble. And by this 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:44.320 time they also had a pretty strong developer community, more 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.080 than twenty thousand developers out there and six thousand apps yep, 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.119 which shocked me because I was never really looking at 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:54.879 the apps part. Now I can't, but I never was 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:56.919 really looking at the apps part for Pebble except for 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.399 different watch faces. Well, you know, and you would have 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:04.840 up to fifty watch faces if you wanted. Um. But 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:06.879 the thing I liked about the Pebble time is that 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:09.320 you you had your apps, and then you had like 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:12.480 your eight top apps. They would just kind of display 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:14.280 in a timeline, so you didn't have to like going 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.240 click through, which is great because you didn't have a 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:18.639 touch screen. In fact, they had decided that they wanted 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:23.320 to tie app notifications to timelines. So let's say you 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:26.600 downloaded an app that would give you sports scores, then 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.679 you would need to dial back into the timeline to 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:31.359 the end of the game and that would give you 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:33.560 the sports score. That kind of thing, just to make 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.080 it easier to navigate your watch. Yeah, I think that's 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:37.480 kind of I mean it makes sense. I mean the 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:41.000 whole concept of a watches about. You know, it's a chronometer, right, 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:45.000 it's measuring time. And by the end often Pebble looked 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:46.879