Smartwatch maker Pebble seems to be in some trouble. According to sources close to the company, the company is having trouble maintaining its growth and has turned to a Silicon Valley bank for a $5 million loan and $5 million line of credit. Valley VCs have been turning down the company’s requests for new capital.
You can see why VCs would not want to take on Apple.
That is disappointing, actually. I think there is a need for the style of watch Pebble is doing. It’s different enough from both the Apple Watch and Android Wear to give an alternative/competition. The use of e-paper screens and the lower cost of entry for so many people is a big draw.
If they cannot keep up with demand or can’t get costs down in order to turn profit, then they probably need to consider partnering or a buyout with some company that understands manufacturing and moving product. If they could just up their style factor a notch and possibly partner with someone like Amazon, then maybe they could keep going.
They just raised $20 million on Kickstarter (40 times what they said they needed!) and now they’re asking for more money? Something’s not right here.
Why would Amazon want to partner with them, though?
Maybe I should have said “buy out” and it’s because Amazon wants their fingers in everything (generally) and they don’t have a wearable yet (that I know of).
Here is the thing, you cannot be the best smartwatch companion for the iPhone, and you are not the best smartwatch companion for Android. Stick a fork in Pebble!
I was just going to say. They aren’t making money yet?
There is a discussion in here somewhere about the artificial atmosphere of “success” that Silicon Valley has crafted for itself.
Despite the Chutzpah of those headlines that wasn’t a huge number of sales.
Sales have nothing to do with it. They went to Kickstarter to raise their funds instead of a VC and got way more than they expected. If they need more money now it’s either mismanagement of funds or just plain greed. Either way, it’s not right.
I can’t say it’s surprising. Pebble has struck me as a company run by a founder who makes some confounding decisions.
When approached by Microsoft for a partnership on Pebble to provide smart watch support for the Windows Phone platform he refused, despite all the benefits this would reap him. Placement in both retail and online Microsoft stores, an already finished, Microsoft developed Pebble app, and a possible acquisition in the future.
Based on that alone, I don’t know how good of a decision maker he is in totality.
He’s so intellectually rigid that he may end up running Pebble right out of business.
Just so it’s not a Pebble, it would possibly succeed? Seems that’s what’s being said here.
Amazon would turn it into a mess of bullet point features that don’t work, or work well, like the Fire Phone, and they’d probably bring back Gary Busey to scream about how it listens to him but doesn’t play Chicago. Or some other equally obscure reference to reality. 🙂
Yeah, when VCs are not willing to put in even a bit of pocket change, like $5 million, you know they’ve had the kiss of death.
More along those lines: I really really, hope that Pebble doesn’t die. We need a third party to push different ideas about what a smart watch should be. The week long battery life is a huge feature!
The current crop of smart watches from other companies only last a couple of days at best!
I agree. Pebble’s got a lot going for it if you don’t need all the bells and whistles. Price and battery life to name two.
Ugh. Gary Busey. Yeah, maybe this is a bad idea after all. 🙂