Author Topic: The uBeam FAQ  (Read 641785 times)

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Offline Cerebus

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1000 on: October 30, 2017, 08:43:36 pm »
Oh it'll be us. By 'us' I mean that group that Meredith will describe as something like 'Engineering patriarchs who refuse to see beyond their own dogma and insist that things are impossible without trying to do them'.
Right.  Because by the very force of our collective will, WE can actually affect the laws of natural physics so that they don't work for Meredith.  I had no idea "we" were that powerful!

Of course 'we' are. Just ask your great uncle Aleister Crowley about the power of the will.  :)

Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline StillTrying

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1001 on: October 30, 2017, 09:37:58 pm »
The Mechanical Engineer and Engineering Dogsbody have disappeared from the recruiting website, maybe they hired someone?

The Magician. He's still working on the illusion that charging mobiles by ultra sonics is practicable.

Quote
Oh, and somehow they've given prospective employees my number to call...

Maybe another trick.
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 

Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1002 on: October 30, 2017, 09:58:13 pm »
The Mechanical Engineer and Engineering Dogsbody have disappeared from the recruiting website, maybe they hired someone?

The Magician. He's still working on the illusion that charging mobiles by ultra sonics is practicable.
easy, they could just film some phones charging on a table but secretly have normal induction chargers underneath. The hipsters that back this will be like deer in headlights and have no idea.
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline djos

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1003 on: October 31, 2017, 01:14:25 am »
The Mechanical Engineer and Engineering Dogsbody have disappeared from the recruiting website, maybe they hired someone?

The Magician. He's still working on the illusion that charging mobiles by ultra sonics is practicable.

Quote
Oh, and somehow they've given prospective employees my number to call...

Maybe another trick.

Maybe they should team up with Airing!  :-DD

Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1004 on: October 31, 2017, 01:33:05 am »
Maybe they should team up with Airing!  :-DD
Maybe that is how they intend to power the Airing? 
There certainly appears to be zero space in the little enclosure for any significant amount of battery power.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1005 on: October 31, 2017, 02:22:27 am »
That would be apposite, given that the current system seems to be mostly powered by hot air.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1006 on: October 31, 2017, 07:42:14 am »
Have Lumia Capital been an investor before?
This page I think is new, only 3 days old:
http://lumiacapital.com/companies/ubeam/
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1007 on: October 31, 2017, 10:00:40 am »
Looks like between 9 June and 30 September:

OUT:
Mark Cuban
Tony Hsieh
Marissa Mayer
Dan Gilbert

IN:
Lumia Capital




« Last Edit: October 31, 2017, 10:02:36 am by Howardlong »
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1008 on: October 31, 2017, 11:20:03 am »
Looks like between 9 June and 30 September:

OUT:
Mark Cuban
Tony Hsieh
Marissa Mayer
Dan Gilbert

IN:
Lumia Capital

Suckers!  :-DD
 

Offline StillTrying

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1009 on: October 31, 2017, 12:49:37 pm »
Have Lumia Capital been an investor before?

There seems to be a few mentions of them around mid 2015, surely they haven't invested twice.  :o :horse:

Lumia Capital
June 2015 – August 2015 (3 months)
Expansion-stage VC partnering with leading tech companies in under-invested emerging markets and forward-thinking US companies targeting these markets to accelerate growth.
Representative investments include: uBeam,

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniefei
« Last Edit: October 31, 2017, 12:54:00 pm by StillTrying »
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1010 on: October 31, 2017, 01:36:00 pm »
There seems to be a few mentions of them around mid 2015, surely they haven't invested twice.  :o :horse:

Maybe. The Wayback archive shows no mention of them before, and their website page for uBeam shows as being updated a few days ago. i.e. shows up in Google search for last week.
 

Offline PaulReynolds

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1011 on: October 31, 2017, 05:22:23 pm »
I think this is just a cleanup of the webpage by someone at uBeam - claiming to be a "Mark Cuban/Marissa Meyer backed startup" gets a little long in the tooth after 5 years and 2 intervening rounds of funding that those people skipped. From what I can see there along with comparison to SEC documents, I expect this is now just those who invested in the Series A (2014) and subsequent convertible note round (2015). This site lists Lumia as having invested in 2014 in the Series A

https://thenordicnumbers.thenordicweb.com/companies/ubeam

What does seem to have popped up is InFocus Capital Partners. This document is from January 2017 but the investment may have been in April 2016. Looks to be some opthamologists from Chicago who have an investment group that creates individual LLCs as investment vehicles for either crowdfunding or small angel groups. I think (but am not sure) to meet SEC rules this has to be part of the convertible note from 2015 but that's a messy area and I'm certain there won't be enough public info to be able to tell.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1695863/000169586317000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

Avoiding, again, institutional money and taking instead what some may call "dumb money", i.e. those without the resources to do detailed due diligence and who buy on the 'sizzle'.

So, no, I still don't think there's public evidence they have received new institutional funding.


« Last Edit: October 31, 2017, 06:27:39 pm by PaulReynolds »
 
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Offline StillTrying

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1012 on: November 02, 2017, 12:25:52 pm »
"Looks to be some opthamologists from Chicago"

If they can't find this thread, they should have gone to Specsavers.
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1013 on: November 02, 2017, 02:13:07 pm »
"Looks to be some opthamologists from Chicago"
If they can't find this thread, they should have gone to Specsavers.

Surely you wouldn't just leave your money blindly to the VC's?
You'd at least Google what your money is going into, surely?
My video cannot be missed in either search.
 

Offline iainwhite

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1014 on: November 02, 2017, 02:51:52 pm »
Surely you wouldn't just leave your money blindly to the VC's?

I think that is exactly what happens.
VC investing is all about getting the one big 100-fold return among many other mediocre returns or total losses.
To get the one big hit, you throw money at all kinds of dubious propositions.

By the way, the Specsavers reference above relates to a UK TV commercial campaign:


 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1015 on: November 02, 2017, 04:04:04 pm »
"Looks to be some opthamologists from Chicago"
If they can't find this thread, they should have gone to Specsavers.

Surely you wouldn't just leave your money blindly to the VC's?
You'd at least Google what your money is going into, surely?
My video cannot be missed in either search.

I used to work in the City of London financial district (geographically, not in finance myself) and the density of betting shops there compared to the average high street at the time was a clear indication that high finance was just sophisticated gambling. You'd see brokers (in their trading jackets) wander out from one of the exchanges where they had been placing million pound bets trades and into the bookies where they'd place £1000 cash bets.

No matter what justifications (e.g. studying form) the average gambling addict puts forward we know that it's not a rational activity. Everything I've seen over the years suggests that holds true for high finance gambling trading as well.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 
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Offline StillTrying

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1016 on: November 07, 2017, 01:34:00 am »
What the hell can they be doing, they don't make anything. :horse:
.  That took much longer than I thought it would.
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1017 on: November 07, 2017, 07:52:59 am »
"Looks to be some opthamologists from Chicago"
If they can't find this thread, they should have gone to Specsavers.

Surely you wouldn't just leave your money blindly to the VC's?
You'd at least Google what your money is going into, surely?
My video cannot be missed in either search.

I used to work in the City of London financial district (geographically, not in finance myself) and the density of betting shops there compared to the average high street at the time was a clear indication that high finance was just sophisticated gambling. You'd see brokers (in their trading jackets) wander out from one of the exchanges where they had been placing million pound bets trades and into the bookies where they'd place £1000 cash bets.

No matter what justifications (e.g. studying form) the average gambling addict puts forward we know that it's not a rational activity. Everything I've seen over the years suggests that holds true for high finance gambling trading as well.

Blimey, you're showing your age, I haven't seen trading jackets in the City for maybe fifteen years! I am not convinced there's a higher percentage of bookies in the square mile than any other place with a similar day time population, it's not something that's particularly stood out for me, but you may be right. Most of those who like a flutter (as opposed to an "investment" *cough*) tend to go in for spread betting - which is interesting because despite the name, bizarrely spread betting regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) whereas a bookie is regulated by the Gambling Commission.

I don't have any first hand knowledge of how VCs function other than that I shared an office with one 20 years ago and did odd bits of IT maintenance for them. They invested in Pringles is about all I remember, of course they wouldn't be boasting about their failures. They always kept themselves to themselves despite being part of the same company I was doing work for, they were quite aloof. Even then, VCs didn't have a particularly good name. I wonder if they ever have among the general public?

What does have a grain of truth here is an underbelly of coke snorting Gordon Gekko wannabes. You have to know where to look, but it's not difficult to spot. Typically they spend their lives networking after work into the early hours, making sure that when they can rely on someone to give them a job when they get managed out. Usually they jump before that happens. The trait is that they barely last about 18 months before moving on, but there are other slightly more subtle traits such as being risk takers, and lacking empathy, i.e. not particularly nice examples of human beings. What I've never figured out is how they manage to survive so long doing this: in my line of work reputation is quite key, and it's difficult to hide. It's not at all unusual for a CV/resume to come across my desk and I know who they are.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1018 on: November 07, 2017, 01:00:48 pm »

Blimey, you're showing your age, I haven't seen trading jackets in the City for maybe fifteen years!

It is true, I am grey-bearded. The ISP I used to run operations for had an office in Cannon Street from about 1996-2000, then we moved to a office in the Docklands. Now bring me some nude virgins, I have something to calibrate...

I am not convinced there's a higher percentage of bookies in the square mile than any other place with a similar day time population, it's not something that's particularly stood out for me, but you may be right.

You've got to remember that this is before the huge rise in numbers of high-street betting shops that's plagued the UK over the past few years.

I don't have any first hand knowledge of how VCs function other than that I shared an office with one 20 years ago and did odd bits of IT maintenance for them.

Ah, so you'll know first hand that they drink human blood for breakfast?  :)

I worked for a small AI software house back at the end of the eighties which had some VCs on the board. I soon got to understand why some call them vulture capitalists. I prefer to do business with people where a handshake is all the contract you need and you where don't need to wear a Kevlar back protector. If I was ever to do business that involved VCs again I would have poison-pill shares, real poison pills hidden near the coffee machine and a stake, holy water and a crucifix in my desk drawer. I'm sure there must be at least one honourable VC out there, but I haven't met them yet.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline lockes_empty_cabinet

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1019 on: November 09, 2017, 11:48:25 pm »
Based on a public Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/meredith.perry/posts/10210183826215652), looks like they may be having issues with HAZMAT and lab areas in an office building. Who woulda thunk it?
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1020 on: November 10, 2017, 02:36:54 am »
Based on a public Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/meredith.perry/posts/10210183826215652), looks like they may be having issues with HAZMAT and lab areas in an office building. Who woulda thunk it?

Sounds like they still have some cash left to burn.
They can't have gotten new money otherwise Meredith would be crowing about it.
 

Offline PaulReynolds

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1021 on: November 10, 2017, 03:49:07 am »
You guys beat me to it. I just wrote a post on this.

http://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2017/11/ubeam-office-space-woes.html


 

Offline PaulReynolds

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1022 on: November 10, 2017, 03:58:15 am »
Rapid aging of whisky using ultrasonics is a new thing apparently. Maybe the knowledge Ubeam has gained can be put to use in whisky production.

I've always thought that nothing learned is ever truely wasted. Maybe there will be other applications that were awaiting better ultrasonic transducers. I'm assuming that the engineers who were working on this realised it was never going to transmit power and they quietly, wisely, learned something.

If only one of those engineers would blog about it and give some insight into just that...
 

Offline drussell

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1023 on: November 10, 2017, 04:11:43 am »
They did seem to have some interesting insight into the beam-forming stuff, but other than that...

HA!  Hahahahah!!  Suckers....

:palm:
 

Offline Howardlong

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Re: The uBeam FAQ
« Reply #1024 on: November 10, 2017, 01:05:48 pm »
Sounds like she hasn't used all that non-expert, non-Asperger, non-linear thinking skillset she has. After a few hours of simple research she could come up with a Steve Jobs quote, and all would be resolved.
 


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