
Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky has joined Y Combinator as a partner - borisjabes
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/19/pebble-founder-eric-migicovsky-has-joined-y-combinator-as-a-partner/
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poisonborz
It baffles me how a niche product that everyone loved could fail like this.
Smartwatch competition seems like a barren field compared to smartphones, and
Pebble had things no other rivals could do - double the battery life, true
always on display and a great open platform. The functionality was there, an
the hardware was good enough. It would be really interesting to see what
actually failed - much smaller companies with niche products like Flirc.tv are
chugging along well.

I can only hope that someone picks the torch up and makes a Pebble successor -
the userbase is still there, without any matching product to choose.

~~~
notyourday
What baffles me is that someone who basically flopped is made a partner in a
YC.

[Edit:] Oh, I see. In the SV land driving a company into the ground is a win!

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FreakyT
I would think someone who has founded a company that failed would have learned
quite a few worthwhile lessons to teach to up-and-coming startups, no?

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notyourday
When you are shopping for a legal adviser do you go with the one who lost his
biggest case?

The premise is the same: he lost so he can teach quite a few lessons that he
learned while losing.

How about this? Would you hire a football player that made it to the national
team but performed horrible (and was fired by the manager) on that stage as a
coach for your team - the one with the aspiration for Champions league?

How about a doctor? Would you go to the one whose patients died vs. the one
whose have not?

Why is it different for VC partners?

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marrs
I'm not disagreeing with your point, but your analogy isn't good. The best
heart surgeons actually _are_ the ones with the highest failure rates because
they are the only ones prepared to take on the riskiest operations. I would
imagine this is also true of the best lawyers.

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notyourday
I think it is. His failure rate is 100% of the single attempt he made.

Someone investing into US treasury would have made more money than they made
giving him money. That's the only objective way that we currently have to
establish a success or a failure of a company executive and his or her
knowledge and smarts.

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fredley
I still wear my pebbles daily (one at a time!). I'll be loath to replace them
when the time finally comes, nothing else comes close to the perfect balance
of including what I want in a watch and excluding what I _don 't_ want. So
many other watches out there, including the Apple watch and every Android
watch are packed full of crap I actively don't want cluttering up my wrist.

It takes guts to make a device with push-buttons in a touch-screen world, but
in every way they're a better interface for a 1" screen, that is totally
obscured by most digits.

It also takes guts to use a dull e-ink screen, but it's perfect - always on,
battery lasts for a week (still!), and combined with the beautiful animations
of the OS it looks fantastic.

I wish there were more device companies out there with the guts to use mature,
if slightly dated tech to build amazing products, rather than try and make
everything voice activated just because they can, even if it makes for a worse
experience over all.

~~~
Dayshine
Shame it'll die in 4 months :(

Fitbit are finally shutting down the servers, and who knows what effect
that'll have.

~~~
lazycouchpotato
Xiaomi's Mi Band/Amazfit bands are probably the only good options left.

I had a Mi Band 1 for 2.5 years before it died, and I'm currently running a Mi
Band 2. It has a 20 day battery life and has good third party app support.

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detaro
Do you have a link with a list/information about third-party apps supporting
them? Can't find a good overview.

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lyk
You can use gadgetbridge, it's available on fdroid! I use it all the time, no
pebble app for me.

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m-p-3
I still miss some thing from Gadgetbridge, like the inability to use some apps
that requires Internet access (ie: HTTP Push) that I used to control my
BlinkStick light status indicator at work.

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simonbarker87
> I didn’t have that longer-term vision in mind necessarily when times got
> hard. I wasn’t thinking about the company’s world-changing mission, and
> that’s something I talk about with startups.

To me this was the number one reason Pebble failed, I don’t think anyone in
the management ever thought of it as more than a series of individual
products. They didn’t need a “world changing mission”, they needed a business
model with some kind of long term strategy to get off the crowd funding
platform. If you are asking your customers to pre find your manufacturing runs
after 6 years then something has gone wrong.

Shame because it seemed like a great product and everyone I know who had/has
one really liked them.

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purrcat259
It really was. I still have my Pebble classic on my wrist, and patiently wait
for a similarly priced and spec'd (B&W eInk screen, HR sensor, simple look)
watch to the Pebble 2 so I can retire it. I was genuinely bummed when they
announced they aren't going ahead with Pebble 2 shipments because of their
closure.

~~~
wlesieutre
Someone linked me this last time Pebble came up:
[https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750](https://us.amazfit.com/shop/bip?variant=336750)

Heart rate data is stuck in their ecosystem and it doesn't have any open ended
app capabilities, but for $60 on GearBest it's definitely interesting

~~~
madez
> Heart rate data is stuck in their ecosystem

Unless you live in a country where every user can demand the release of the
data about them. In Germany (and AFAIK all of the EU) for example, that is the
case.

Besides that, I consider unfriendly design like that a big reason not to buy a
product. Why buy a product you know you need to send legal letters to the
developer just for properly using it?

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erohead
I'm extremely proud to be joining YC. PG, Jessica, Harj, PB and Trevor were
the first venture investors to believe in me and the idea back in 2010. Over
the following 7 years YC helped in innumerable ways. While neither I nor
anyone else was aiming for the particular conclusion to the Pebble story, YC
and the whole network gave support at every twist and turn.

Very excited to be helping startups full time!

~~~
m-p-3
I'm sad the Pebble story had tonend like this, but I'm proud to have
participated to both Kickstarter (own the OG Pebble, Pebble Steel, Pebble Time
Steel) and I'm still wearing the PTS today!

The Timeline concept is unparalleled in the smartwatch ecosystem and the
interface really put the "time" concept on the spotlight which I feel that
current smartwatch makers forget to often about (to the benefit of fitness
stuff, which is "trendy" amongst customers). I'll be sad when the thing will
die. :(

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jtruk
I adore my original Pebble and Pebble Time Steel. I'm curious to see whether
Rebble [1] can pull together a new ecosystem.

I was under the impression Eric and the original Pebble team had deliberately
ensured enough openings for that to happen, when the Fitbit acquisition news
broke. Thanks to them if so.

[1] [http://rebble.io/](http://rebble.io/)

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jonbarker
How much do founders typically get when their startups sell for less than what
investors put in? Not a troll question, genuinely interested. Any data on how
this averages?

~~~
Hydraulix989
A 1x liquidation preference is a pretty standard term for VCs.

~~~
Kiro
What does that mean?

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jonbarker
What it means to me is that if they put in 100k and it sells for 85k you don't
get your percent ownership of 85k, they get all of it.

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dhruvkar
A lot of people on this thread have praise for Pebble watches. I never owned
one or any of its current competitors. Always got a a gimmicky feeling from
those types of devices (i.e. no real added value over a regular watch and
smartphone). Genuinely curious:

What value was added by a Pebble watch?

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wvenable
Never have your ringer on, ever. My phone hasn't made a sound in 4 years.

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dhruvkar
Did it buzz and/or light up? Isn't that just as distracting?

Would a phone on silent/vibrate only mode offer the same convenience?

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wvenable
I'm not distracting anyone else; only I know I'm getting a call/notification.
It works even when the phone isn't physically attached to me. And I quickly
check/answer the call/notification without having to fish out my phone.

It's definitely more convenient to have a smartwatch.

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tudorw
Can someone ask Eric when my 2010 inPulse will get an update?

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darrenf
Hellishly expensive in comparison, but I found the Garmin Fenix 5 to be the
perfect replacement for my dear departed Pebbles. It helps that I wanted a
fitness watch too, but even just as a smartwatch it ticks every box that the
Pebble did for me, and looks _way_ nicer on the wrist.

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ghostbrainalpha
Hellishly expensive in comparison to a product that wasn't sustainable. It's
probably priced right where Pebble should have been.

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fsiefken
I'm the proud owner of two Pebble Time's, battery on one is unfortunately not
so good but I can get 6 days with the other one, and both are swim proof.
Great for festivals etc.

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distantsounds
Ah, that's what happens when you kickstart $15M (only asking for $1M) and then
don't deliver. Thanks. :(

~~~
xkcd-sucks
\- start up

\- cash in

\- sell out

\- bro down

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s73v3r_
Cool. I'm still looking for a decent replacement for my Pebble Time. I haven't
found one yet.

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modi15
VC funds is where founders go to retire. Im not sure why this is a big/good
deal - afaik, its a waste of talent.

The only people who can sustain investor jobs are the MBA hacks driven
primarily by money and fomo. I have yet to meet a single founder who was happy
with the lack of control that such a job requires.

