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Pebble (watch): Internet Fortunes Come and Go

amirm

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It seemed that Pebble could do no wrong after breaking all records in their kickstarter for their smartwatch. Now it is on a path to disapper:
http://qz.com/857412/pebble-went-fr...to-being-bought-by-fitbit-fit-for-40-million/

Confidence is an essential ingredient for entrepreneurs.

It’s what makes them quit college or their jobs, tells them they can take on corporate behemoths, and helps them endure countless rejections. But from the outside, confidence can look an awful lot like arrogance, and it may not be until accounts are settled that we know the difference.

When Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 to fund his smartwatch company, he initially sought $100,000. He raised that within hours, and eventually topped out at over $10 million. He had orders for 85,000 watches. The success of that effort and subsequent Kickstarter campaigns—along with the waves of fawning media attention it inspired—no doubt helped fuel Migicovsky’s belief in his company and its prospects, to the point where he could turn down a reported $740 million offer from 86-year-old Japanese watchmaker Citizen in 2015.

Migicovsky later dismissed the potential threat posed by the Apple Watch, at least publicly. “They are very focused on being the Rolex or the (Tag Heuer) of smartwatches,” he said. “On the other hand I think we are trying to be the Swatch of smartwatches.” After the inevitable decline in Pebble’s sales once Apple’s own very polished wearable launched in 2014, he reportedly turned down a second buyout offer, this time for $70 million from chipmaker Intel.

Today, Migicovsky is selling Pebble’s software and intellectual property to competitor Fitbit for less than $40 million, in a deal that’s mainly about hiring the company’s engineers, according to Bloomberg. The sale price is less than Pebble’s debt, which Fitbit isn’t acquiring. Pebble will reportedly sell its inventory separately.

Pebble’s fast rise and hard fall reads like a textbook case of Silicon Valley hubris, and the cost of over confidence. But few decisions are as fraught for entrepreneurs as knowing when to sell a company. In the end, it’s where a founder’s confidence can be most dangerous—or most rewarding.
 
Oh, if karma only allowed a "do over".

I could'a been a contender...
 
...he initially sought $100,000. He raised that within hours, and eventually topped out at over $10 million. He had orders for 85,000 watches

The thought of having to create a company out of thin air capable of producing 85,000 watches would fill me with dread. Omit one test, forget one potential problem that only strikes at -10 degrees C when the watch is being charged, or whatever, and it propagates 85,000 times. Even worse, the thought of actual safety problems that might occur with Lithium ion batteries, and I would probably never sleep again. I think this bloke walked into a nightmare of his own making!
 
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