Founder of Pebble, Eric Migicovskydoing so is different from living again from Gravel smart watch brand and also AI. The team is small, the inventory is not created before the sale, and there is no outside funding.
Most importantly, he said, the new company, Core deviceit is “not the beginning.”
“We have structured this whole business around being sustainable, profitable, and hopefully, a long-running company, but not a startup,” Migicovsky told TechCrunch on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.
“Startups are good for the world,” he said. “You have to have money to be able to build new ideas and create something. But this is not a new idea,” said Migicovsky, referring to the reboot of the smartwatch. “It’s an old idea. We’re just bringing it back.”
Pebble’s founder says he’s learned a lot from his previous attempts to build a hardware maker, including what not to do.
Pebble, the original company that Migicovsky started, sold to Fitbit in 2016 for around $40 million; Fitbit was later bought by Google for $2.1 billion.
Before going out, Migicovsky’s team was scrambling. Christmas 2015 has put Pebble into a tailspin, as the company has bought too much inventory.
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“Hardware is different from software. You have to predict ahead of time how much you will sell, because you have to build the hardware,” Migicovsky explained, reminiscing on the time when it went wrong.
Pebble’s team then estimated that it would make $102 million in sales that year, but “only” $82 million. While those numbers are impressive for a smartwatch brand (especially one that isn’t Apple, Google, or Samsung), the company still has unsold inventory that needs to be sold at a discount.
Retail partners are also upset that discount sales mean reduced margins. Meanwhile, Pebble does not have enough money to finish developing new products. In order to meet the demand, the company has to carry out rapid layoffs and reorganization. And finally, have to find out.
Migicovsky admits, “I don’t know why I built Pebble. “In the beginning, it was very clear. We have a Kickstarter. We posted on the web: here is exactly what Pebble is, here are the features, here you should be interested in. Then we kind of meandered a bit. We are trying to do health tracking. We try to do things that don’t feel like us,” he said.
This time, Migicovsky aims to take a different path. The new Pebble smartwatch isn’t meant for everyone, he said. He’s meant for people like himself: a self-described “little nerd” who loves hacking, building, and making things. Nor is it for fitness junkies or those who want a smartphone on their wrist.
“I want a friend for my phone, instead of replacing my phone. I want it to be more like a Swatch than a Rolex. I want it to be more fun, relaxed, playful, and plastic.” Plus, he added, with the Pebble reboot, he’s now okay with a watch that doesn’t try to do everything.
“I’m okay with a limited vision and a limited scope of what we’re trying to accomplish,” Migicovsky said.
In a new company, Core Devices, the team has announced Pebble Time 2 smart watchround face Gravel Round 2and a $75 AI smart ring, called Index 01.
In particular, the company today will not be a large team of 180 employees as before, or who work with distributors. However, there are only five of them, and they sell directly to consumers on their website.
However, the base remains Pebble OS, the smart watch operating system, which is thankfully open sourced by Google.
Migicovsky recalls meeting Google employee Mattieu Jeanson at a child’s birthday party, where he got contact information for someone to call about open-sourcing the smartwatch’s operating system. He sent an email asking Google to make the OS open source, and a year later, it followed through.
“I really thank Google, because what other big company in the world would do that?” said Migicovsky. “I think they’re doing it as a tribute to the Pebble community.”
Without Pebble OS, the rebooted Pebble smartwatch would have been impossible, as it took a team of 30 to 40 people working for years to build the original. Rebuilding from scratch is not an option.
So far, the new corporate structure has been used. The company has sold 25,000 pre-orders for the smartwatch, and around 5,000 for the AI ring, which is newer.
Pebble pre-orders are currently shipping in about six months, but Migicovsky said the team will tighten that up to a few weeks. Additionally, the Pebble App Store has 15,000 watch faces and apps. In a few weeks, the team will also relaunch the SDK for developers.
Migicovsky said the team is at a “comfortable point,” where expenses are paid, and they can finance new projects.
That’s right – the team isn’t done yet. While Migicovsky will not describe what kind of core hardware device the device can be sent next, but he said they will be the sort of thing people want to have.
“There are many products that are already on the market. Nothing is made like the one that already exists…,” Migicovsky pointed out. “(The next product will be) fun, casual, simple hardware, and that’s what’s going to make my life better, one block at a time. And they’re going to work together.