The Canadian entrepreneur Eric Migicovsky took a year out from his degree course at Waterloo University, Ontario to study at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Like most students there, he cycled every day and noticed a problem. You cannot answer your cell phone or read a message while cycling – unless you take both hands off the handlebar. He said, ‘It occurred to me, hey, what if I could just do it on my wrist?’
He built a prototype of a ‘smart’ watch, which was linked through wireless to his mobile phone. It could display summary information about emails, messages and alerts – and tell the time. Migicovsky returned to Waterloo where he and some friends worked on early versions of the watch in their garage. He then went to California to present his business idea at Y Combinator, an incubator that invests a small amount of money into many start-ups. The founder of Y Combinator, Paul Graham, was impressed with Migicovsky and compared him to Steve Jobs.
The Canadian named his company Pebble Technology. He had a great idea, but needed more capital, so he turned to crowdfunding. The company launched a campaign on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter on 11 April 2012, with a target of $100,000. They made the deal attractive by offering investors a discounted future Pebble watch at $99 – a saving of $150 on the retail price. There was a frenzy of interest. Within two hours of the launch, the $100,000 goal had been met. Within six days, Pebble had raised over $4 million, making it the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter. On 18 May 2012, funding closed with $10 million pledged by 68,000 people.
The company is based in Palo Alto and sells a range of watches. Competitors, including Apple, soon arrived in the smart watch market.
Migicovsky released a software developers’ kit to enable people to build applications for the Pebble watch. It became a platform for games, exercise monitoring and information feeds, such as stock prices, traffic and weather. By 2014, the Pebble store had over 1,000 applications.
How will you raise the finance you need for your innovative start-up? With crowdfunding, of course. Thousands of small businesses gain the investments they need from crowdfunding sites. Many companies offer incentives, such as discounted products or services. This means that not only do you get thousands of investors, you also get thousands of customers and evangelists for your new product.
Create a platform. If your product becomes something that others can use to provide their services, then you spread your influence and reach in the market. Provide the means whereby others can easily collaborate with you.
Spot a problem in your everyday life. Migicovsky knew that people referred to their smart phones several times an hour and often over 100 times a day. But there are times when it is inconvenient to use both hands. Many were aware of this, but he took action to fix it. If you, and many others, share a difficulty, then there is an opportunity for an innovation. Most will do nothing. Be the one who solves the problem.