Raised: $20,338,986 (4,067 percent of goal)
Funded: March 27, 2015
If you’ve ever craved a specific extension, or addition to an existing product, you’re halfway to inventing it. The Pebble watch company began as a simple device that would allow users to view their text messages on their wrist. Creator Eric Migicovsky knew that wearable technology was on the rise, and while his idea was pretty simple in theory and execution, it was novel enough to take off in the market. He initially took his idea through Y-Combinator, a business incubation program famous for its success-rate with start-up companies. Unlike pretty much every business that starts in an incubator, Pebble actually made money during the Y-Combinator program. Considering its prestigious beginning and unlikely profit margin, one would think that investors around the world would be clamouring to fund the exciting project.
Not quite. Though Migicovsky did raise $375,000 from angel investors, he was unable to raise additional funds to finance the production and marketing of the Pebble. When asked about his inability to raise further funds, Migicovsky told the Los Angeles Times, “I wasn’t extremely surprised… hardware is much harder to raise money for. We were hoping we could convince some people to our vision, but it didn’t work out.”
Rather than pack in and give up, Migicovsky turned to Kickstarter to raise the additional cash for his idea. Backers spending $115 would receive a Pebble when they became available ($99 for the first 200 ordered), which meant they were pre-ordering the $150 Pebble at a highly discounted price. Within two hours of going live, the project had met the $100,000 goal. A month after its launch, Migicovsky and his team announced that they were capping the number of pre-orders in an effort to deal with demand. A good problem to have.
Since the initial launch, the Pebble team has re-launched with the Pebble Steel in 2014, and the Pebble Time in 2016. Pebble Time broke the company’s previously-held record as the “most funded campaign in the platform’s history” before selling their technology to FitBit. Migicovsky has been busy since the sale of his company. He recently went back over to Y-Combinator to act as a “visiting partner.” “While I’m interested in helping during the three month YC program, I also want to talk to YC hardware startups at other stages,” Migicovsky said in an interview. “What could the YC network do to support these companies?” So far, the anecdotes and conversations he’s been having come down to getting a product in users’ hands as fast as possible. “Try to get those users to pay something. If they do, the feedback they give you will be of much higher quality,” he said. Noted. Back to work.
Categorised in: Success Stories