reSee.it - Tweets Saved By @ericmigi

Posted - April 11, 2022 at 4:29 PM

Saved - September 13, 2023 at 5:11 PM

reSee.it AI Summary

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of Pebble's Kickstarter launch. It was a transformative moment in my life. Despite its eventual failure, I cherish the experience of being part of the team that invented the smartwatch. We started building smartwatches in 2008 and launched on Kickstarter as a last-ditch effort. Surprisingly, we raised $10m from 68,000 backers worldwide. Pebble was a wild ride, and I'm grateful for the support. #PebbleAnniversary

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the @Pebble Kickstarter launch. I had enough foresight at the time to take a photo of the exact moment when everything in my life changed:

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

Pebble was an intense and wild 9 year ride. While it didn’t work out perfectly, I can’t say I would change too much about the experience. I loved being part of the team that invented the smartwatch. I loved seeing Pebbles on wrists all around the world!

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

But in the end, Pebble failed. A few years ago I wrote but never published a blog post about why I think we failed. I decided to finally publish it now for your reading pleasure - https://medium.com/@ericmigi/why-pebble-failed-d7be937c6232

Why Pebble failed Why Pebble failed. medium.com

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

Most people don’t know this but we actually started building smartwatches 5 years earlier in 2008. By 2012, we weren’t doing that well and only had $30k left in the bank account. Launching on Kickstarter was our last shot. If it didn’t work, we’d have probably shut it down.

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

But it did work! We raised $10m from 68,000 backers around the world. It was mindblowingly cool. Thank you all for supporting us.

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

Pebble was initially designed and built by a small team: Steve, @NotThatWitty, Rahul, @bradtgmurray, Martijn, Sarah, Nick, @itszulaklol, Ryan and a rotating cast of interns https://t.co/5BKjVLmafv

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

I'll try to dig up more photos of beardless Eric from 10 years ago 😂 like the time Andrew, Steve and I flew to Shenzhen while the KS was still ongoing to try to find a factory https://t.co/dHE0xFnNsm

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

Or the time we bought a single billboard on the 101 https://t.co/7mQjKPs39U

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

If you have any hilarious photos or stories about the early days of Pebble, you should share them!

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

Our office (my living room) must have smelled so bad. @JoannaStern I can't believe you survived your first visit with us! 😂 https://t.co/ajScLuL4lE

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

also shout out to all the @getinPulse fans who gave us the feedback and motivation to build Pebble https://t.co/RgyzBVyXvn

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

First bigboard off the assembly line in July. I bounced between Taipei and Shenzhen (well actually Dongguan 😂) so many times I can't even remember. Endless meetings in windowless conference rooms in the middle of factories https://t.co/iVFhgFn7Zi

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

We never flew business (gotta safe those KS bucks) but I did get to fly hello kitty air once! Joy was getting an emergency row seat (I'm 6'6"). https://t.co/XY9MwISS6x

@ericmigi - Eric Migicovsky

One of the funnier factory/SZ moments - we built OG Pebble at Foxlink in Dongguan. We'd work late on fridays then at 8pm I'd sit in traffic for hours to hang out with friends in HK. I got to a bar at midnight one night and naturally who else is there but an eng from FOX haha https://t.co/Z9XynQWQe7