"There is a lot of current interest in proximity sensing for collision avoidance, whether its cars or automated domestic appliances."
Steerable US beams aren't going to work very well in the moving air around a moving car, or even a draughty coffee shop.
"who knows where they currently stand?"
Up panic creek.
While that appears most likely, its amazing to see the history of some successful companies and the many near death experiences they went through before getting into their groove. Remember that most companies reaching IPO do something very different from what they started out to do.
But we do have detailed plans for four generations of product releases through 2019 and we have a very talented COO, Jeff Devine, who is leading our efforts. He was VP of Global Supply Chain for Cisco and held similar roles at Nokia and Palm. He is a calming force, an experienced hand, a straight shooter and a great long-term planner. I have huge confidence in Jeff.
We also have a very talented VP of Engineering, Sean Taffler, who is a Phd from Oxford, and has been with the company since shortly after I funded it. We have a VP of Acoustics, Paul Chandler who is a Phd from UC Irvine and formerly with Philips Ultrasound.
I’m not at all afraid to put my name behind Meredith, Jeff, Sean, Paul Chandler and all the other great engineers hard at work. I feel confident they will exceed expectations.
We have a lot to prove. The team knows that. It’s hard work. We haven’t yet shipped product or shown the public our prototypes. The product isn’t yet where we want it to be — like most startup products, it is a work in progress.
If for any reason we fall short of expectations we have set in the market, I will be the first person in line to admit it and then to immediately fund Meredith's next company. Her strengths so vastly outweigh any weaknesses and her vision, tenacity and resiliency far exceed any perceived limitations.
Perry steps down as uBeam CEO
https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2018/09/meredith-perry-no-longer-ubeam-ceo.html
“Under Meredith’s leadership, uBeam has successfully developed a commercially valuable product that we believe can be the leader in its field,” said Mark Suster, a Board Director at uBeam. “We’re very proud of what Meredith created and we look forward to working closely alongside Meredith as an active member of the board.”
05 / POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE
...
The uBeam wireless charging system, for instance, turns power into ultrasound waves and then converts these back when they reach a device. Such developments could accelerate the adoption of electric cars or enable people in remote areas to make more use of new tech.
...
FFS, this whole article is a waste of time (of course, it had to include key tech buzzwords such as "disrupt", "virtual reality", and "artificial intelligence").Quote05 / POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE
...
The uBeam wireless charging system, for instance, turns power into ultrasound waves and then converts these back when they reach a device. Such developments could accelerate the adoption of electric cars or enable people in remote areas to make more use of new tech.
...
Someone posted a review of their experience of working at uBeam on Glassdoor. It's... interesting.
"Not sure if uBeam even qualifies as a company."
https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2018/11/ubeam-glassdoor-review-not-sure-if.html
Someone posted a review of their experience of working at uBeam on Glassdoor. It's... interesting.
"Not sure if uBeam even qualifies as a company."
https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2018/11/ubeam-glassdoor-review-not-sure-if.html
An interesting article was attached to that: It looks like the Theranos people might be going to jail:
“The Theranos story is an important lesson for Silicon Valley,” said Jina Choi, Director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Innovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.”
...
I hope that this might be the start of at least some people realizing that if they heavily exaggerate, or try to fake it 'til they make it, regarding investors and customers, that it's not "being an entrepreneur", it's fraud.
Who's next? Meredith Perry?
Theranos deceived the FDA and the SEC, government agencies who build their reputation on beeing harsh towards deception.
uBeam deceived venture capitalists..., VCs have a reputation to keep, preventing them from sending CEOs to jail.
VC essentially tell their investors
We can figure out the companies that have a high chance of succeeding (so they can't admit some 25 yo....)
Any CEO is dying to get our money (so they can't send a CEO to jail).
That is why the same VCs invested ~$25m, after they knew nothing works, and almost immediately (half a year start to finish) moved to replace the CEO.
From a VC point of view.
All the old investments in the company are worthless.
But the VC reputation is still intact.
Lets invest additional $25m (of somebody else's money) and sell the company for $27m (probably doable), and get our $25m back (due to liquidation preference) + save our reputation (this would be marked as an exit).
To sell the company for $27m, they needed to replace the inexperienced CEO with an experienced one. Note this happened only ~6months after the investment (e.g. immediately).
I believe they also figured out it would never charge a phone, but, they hope the company could be sold for some ~$10-30 million while there is still some $15-18 million in the bank so they can get their money back + keep their reputation.
If they sell it when ~$18m are in the bank, they need to find a sucker who will buy the IP and lab equipment for $10m, this is certainly doable (although it's a waste of $10m).
Someone posted a review of their experience of working at uBeam on Glassdoor. It's... interesting.
"Not sure if uBeam even qualifies as a company."
https://liesandstartuppr.blogspot.com/2018/11/ubeam-glassdoor-review-not-sure-if.html
The fact that uBeam says they have low cost transducers..... does not necessarily mean they do.
Making something really low cost is extremely difficult, and takes special expertise I did not see among the uBeam team members....
The fact that uBeam says they have low cost transducers..... does not necessarily mean they do.
Making something really low cost is extremely difficult, and takes special expertise I did not see among the uBeam team members....
The fact that uBeam says they have low cost transducers..... does not necessarily mean they do.
Making something really low cost is extremely difficult, and takes special expertise I did not see among the uBeam team members....They have a novel new technique apparently that can make manufacturing much cheaper for given sensistivity