How much would you pay for a non-pharma sleep aid device...?
Oh wow!
They must have observed that the uBeam engineers keep falling asleep in the lab, and have reached the razor-sharp conclusion that ultrasound is sleep-inducing.
What do the 30+ incredibly highly skilled and experienced engineers working at uDream actually do all day.
According to this review from a former employee, it's "Like being paid to sit and witness the ramblings of the mentally ill. "
And they get paid to do it!
If I lived near their building I'd apply for a job there, no problem. Millions of $$$ in VC capital usually means fancy toys, lots of perks and bosses who don't pay much attention to what you're actually doing.
The hubris in that tweet... it implies there there either currently is some form of "device" that can almost instantly put someone to sleep - which would be a pretty powerful non-lethal weapon - or that she fully expects to be able to create one. And with "zero side-effects".. please, everything has side effects, it's just a question of what the intended purpose is and even then, sleeping tablets have the side effect of "drowsiness".
I'm all for "blue sky thinking", brainstorming and trying to tackle so-called hard problems, but simply picking something almost at random and giving the impression all problems can be solved just with hard work and money (or worse, technology) is at best naive. She fits right in with the Silicon Valley crowd. The question is... did Silicon Valley make the Perry? Or does the Perry add to the Silicon Valley?
The hubris in that tweet... it implies there there either currently is some form of "device" that can almost instantly put someone to sleep - which would be a pretty powerful non-lethal weapon - or that she fully expects to be able to create one. And with "zero side-effects".. please, everything has side effects, it's just a question of what the intended purpose is and even then, sleeping tablets have the side effect of "drowsiness".
My bet would be to put you asleep for plane flights. Huge market for that with nervous flyers.
Imagine if you did a slick Kickstarter video promising that, the millions would roll in.
I'm all for "blue sky thinking", brainstorming and trying to tackle so-called hard problems, but simply picking something almost at random and giving the impression all problems can be solved just with hard work and money (or worse, technology) is at best naive. She fits right in with the Silicon Valley crowd. The question is... did Silicon Valley make the Perry? Or does the Perry add to the Silicon Valley?
Even in the world of silicon valley, she's still in a category of her own:
They raised $15m-$25m in the beginning of 2018, so 18 months now.
25 people on Linkedin seem to actually get paid by the company (live nearby, are not known to have been fired from the CEO position, not investors).
Assume an average cost (e.g. salary, rent, travel, everything) of $200-250K/year/employee (it's usually higher but they don't seem to be doing much, so probably on the low cost side), and get a yearly burn rate of $5-6m/year.
They used to have a bit more manpower, and used to seem to do more, so they probably burned $10m until now.
Which gives them 1 year's worth of money in the bank.
In the race between uBeam and Energous to be the first to run out of cash.... currently, I think, Energous has the lead, but it's a close call.
Go Energous go!.
Assume an average cost (e.g. salary, rent, travel, everything) of $200-250K/year/employee (it's usually higher but they don't seem to be doing much, so probably on the low cost side), and get a yearly burn rate of $5-6m/year.
A boss of mine, many years ago, offered me the rule of thumb that you should take someone's salary and triple it to get the complete cost of employing someone including desk, heat, lighting, office rent, taxes, benefits, back office costs etc. etc. Over the years I've found the rule holds pretty well for any office based occupation be it clerk, developer, salesman, engineer, whatever. Doesn't work for factory jobs, builders, groundskeepers or anybody who "actually works for a living".
Assume an average cost (e.g. salary, rent, travel, everything) of $200-250K/year/employee (it's usually higher but they don't seem to be doing much, so probably on the low cost side), and get a yearly burn rate of $5-6m/year.
A boss of mine, many years ago, offered me the rule of thumb that you should take someone's salary and triple it to get the complete cost of employing someone including desk, heat, lighting, office rent, taxes, benefits, back office costs etc. etc. Over the years I've found the rule holds pretty well for any office based occupation be it clerk, developer, salesman, engineer, whatever. Doesn't work for factory jobs, builders, groundskeepers or anybody who "actually works for a living".
The correct multiplier depends a lot on where you are, but for any one area there is usually a multiplier that works pretty well for most jobs in that area.
It does seem they've laid off around half the staff. Some thoughts on this, and another uBeam anecdote, here:
https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2019/06/ubeam-lay-off-around-half-of-employees.html
Yeah well, you dont need engineers for 3D renders, or to pull numbers out of your ass to grab gullible people's venture capital.
Doesn't work for factory jobs, builders, groundskeepers or anybody who "actually works for a living".
For factory workers, your initial investment can be extremely high. For a modern factory, you could be spending a million EUR on equipment, and create 2-3 jobs. Recently Mercedes built a factory for 1B EUR, and created 2500 jobs in east Europe, where salary is much less (about 800-1000EUR/mo).
Their updated site is definitely more uDream than uBeam.
From their web page:
uBeam can safely transmit watts-level power within a couple of feet, and milliwatt-level of power at tens of feet away.
Are these figures realistic?
We know what happens next.
Is this what is supposed to happen next?
https://twitter.com/meredithperry/status/656678186940411904Maybe not...
I am really looking forward to ubeam powered forklifts!
From their web page:
uBeam can safely transmit watts-level power within a couple of feet, and milliwatt-level of power at tens of feet away.
Are these figures realistic?
Short answer: No
Longer answer: Hell no
Much longer version: Parse the language, they 'transmit' that power within a given distance - nothing about receive or conversion to power at battery. So if I have a huge bank of speakers that I crank to 11, or a jet engine, then yes you are 'transmitting' watts of acoustic power. At 145dB, that's 300W per m^2, and the largest array I saw them show IIRC was around 30 by 30 cm (most were around 15x15). That means 30W out acoustic max at 0m at 145dB, if you stick to the international limit of more like 115dB that's 30 mW transmit so when you include 'safely' as they do, then that's the killer to that statement. You lose a bunch over distance etc, and conversion back to battery is a low %. Also the further out you go, the wider the power 'spot' size - at 30 feet the spot at 40kHz will be >10cm easily. Then there's the fact your beam will be perturbed by air currents.
So in theory yes you can, depends on size of transmitter, efficiency, allowed amplitude etc, but in practice to do so safely - nope.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelinemccauley/
Jacqueline McCauley in no longer with uBeam.
Still on the website though....., I guess the website guy also left.
This is really, really interesting. At first we were told she became acting CEO in Sept 18 when Perry left, then her LinkedIn said July 2018 was when she took the role, now it's May 18 she took over. So Perry actually left in May 18, and they didn't want to admit it. The COO also left in May 18, after only 9 months in the company. He was someone who easily had the skillset/experience to assume the role of CEO. Might suspicious minds ask if these simultaneous departures are in some way linked?
This is really, really interesting. At first we were told she became acting CEO in Sept 18 when Perry left, then her LinkedIn said July 2018 was when she took the role, now it's May 18 she took over. So Perry actually left in May 18, and they didn't want to admit it. The COO also left in May 18, after only 9 months in the company. He was someone who easily had the skillset/experience to assume the role of CEO. Might suspicious minds ask if these simultaneous departures are in some way linked?
I think you might be over-interpreting this. Perry's LinkedIn profile still states that she was CEO until
September 2018. What's in a LinkedIn CV, anyway? People can doctor them as they like, or make just plain stupid errors...
From the video, look at the size of this brick!
Is this a transmitter or a receiver?
They also claim to have "turnkey" solutions.
"new promo video!"I think of it more like the last throw of the dice - into the air, before being thrown out of the casino.
I always hear turnkey as turkey, it seems a better fit.
Even in the promo video you can see that the
focused beams are all over the place.