Latest UBE status (sent via email update): Guess I'm not real sure what to think of this! :huh:
Project Update #25: Monthly Update for Backers - November 2013
A Note From the CEO
Ube has received a lot of attention over the last year, and each one of our Kickstarter backers are contributors to Ube's success thus far. We realize that the rewards are a just a small token compared to the impact our Kickstarter campaign has had (and will continue to have) on the company. You supported us to help realize innovation and to support the entrepreneurial spirit. Investors expect a return greater than their investment. Our backers just want to see Ube succeed. I understand (and appreciate) the risk you took, pledging money to a startup. Because this is not our first startup, we knew going into this that we would face challenges and setbacks. And while we certainly have seen these, we’ve also seen tremendous forward momentum. It is no secret that many Kickstarter campaigns experience delays and unfortunately we are now among those. Quite frankly, I am embarrased. Our goal was to demonstrate how to do it right. I do hope that you would agree our communication from the beginning has been open, honest and sincere.
We are not just building rewards. We are building a company based on our determination to disrupt the industry and change the way you connect with your home. We are completely committed to delivering a great user experience. It would be pointless to deliver kickstarter rewards and then cease to exist, as we all lose in that scenario.
The life of a startup is a rollercoaster, and ours is no exception. I think back to the days just prior to our campaign ending and we had not yet reached our goal. Kickstarter hid our campaign due to a terms of service issue and we thought it was over. Glen and I both sat down to discuss canceling the campaign, and I can tell you that was low day. You became our co-founders that day, by rallying the troops, messaging Kickstarter, and lifting our spirits. And it was “You” that had a successful Kickstarter campaign. We think about and consider our Kickstarter backers every single day.
Continue with us. You are a part of history. Utz.
Design and Manufacturing Update:
We owe you a specific date for delivery. We owe you a date that you can count on.
We are in the process of building the most complex light dimmer on the market today. This involves designing several systems all in one very small space. These systems are relatively straight-forward to design individually. However when combined, they become a significant technical challenge. The gesture recognition touch pad screen is a very noise sensitive device enclosed in a box with two processor subsystems, two radios, antennas, and a high voltage control circuit. All of this must reside in the space of a single gang box, while maintaining solid connectivity to the internet and other switches. In addition, it must be beautiful.
When we finished Kickstarter, we hired an ODM manufacturing partner to develop our dimmer based on our requirements and design. Unfortunately they provided misleading schedules and unrealistic expectations relying on a plan to push us to a product they had already developed before.
We are holding true to our vision, so we were forced to take action and separate from the ODM Manufacturing partner. We have now brought the engineering development in-house and we're hiring a tier-1 team to develop Ube’s products. We are now up to nine full time employees. Changing direction to do it ourselves will take a little longer, but we will be able to deliver better products faster once we go through this first cycle
We recently hired a product development executive with a long and proven track record of delivering projects on time and on budget. This has given us a process to generate a specific date and track ourselves weekly toward this date.
This process will take us until the end of this month to complete. In our next monthly update we will give you a firm delivery date. Then each month thereafter we will detail our progress toward that date.
As always, we have an open door policy. We are happy to arrange phone calls, answer your emails or even meet with you on a Friday at our offices. Email us at
[email protected] and we’ll communicate with you as much as you need.
Despite the lack of a firm date, we continue to make good engineering progress.
Financial Update
We’ll continue to tell you that all of the Kickstarter funds and all of our pre-order funds are sequestered and will be used only to purchase production components for manufacturing the dimmers. None of this money has been used for salaries or other expenses.
In addition to that money, we have also raised significant funds from a variety of angel investors (some of our Kickstarter backers are included in that number). This number continues to go up. Separately, we have also signed agreements with two outside firms to provide services that we’ll need to grow the company. These agreements get us necessary services without costing us any cash.
We are being very frugal with our funds. Salaries are very low and we’re spending almost no money on anything other than developing the product. We have sufficient funds to finish this project and continue to grow the company.
Certified Installer program
We know that many of you are avid DIYers and are comfortable replacing your old light switches with the Ube dimmer. We have detailed plans on the type of instruction that we will provide to make this as simple as possible. And we have detailed plans on the necessary support to answer questions you have as you undergo the installation.
Nevertheless, some of you will still prefer to have a professional install these products for you.
We are considering a
Ube Certified Installer program. Some of you may be familiar with a similar program from Nest. If we move forward with this, the plan would be to certify and train certain installation companies to install the Ube dimmer. You won’t be required to use a certified installer (any electrician should be able to easily install these), but rather, if you don’t already have a trusted installer, we’ll be able to recommend one and suggest approximate costs to install your dimmers.
We’ll be sending you a survey to find out if you’d use a service like this and asking for you to help us create a service that is most useful to you.
Techstars Demo Day
Ube recently finished the 12-week Techstars accelerator program. This experience helped us hire the right engineers to do our internal development and it also allowed us to raise the additional capital which we are using to accelerate our delivery.
At the end of the program, each of the 10 companies presented our company to press and investors. Ube’s CEO, Utz Baldwin, presented Ube. You can see his 5 minute presentation here:
http://youtu.be/fJ_UbpkKXio
