 Let me set this up. So Pebble, we talked about them on the show. Pebble, the watch, the watch, the smart watch, the kickstarter watch. They obviously blew past their funding goals. Jammed past it. Actually to be clear, they wanted to sell a thousand of these watches. They sold 80, 85,000. They've hit over 10 million dollars. 10 million US dollars. So they're sold out. They're all done. They sold, I think they still have eight days to go and they just cut it off. They're done. They can't make any more money. 85,000 units sold. They promised. Before anything is actually, what are you, why are we talking to? They're online too. Okay. Huh? Eric. Eric. Eric from Pebble. Eric Pebble. Eric Pebble. Eric Pebble. Let's just get up on the line. This is cool. Kind of an exclusive conversation. Eric, you're on the line. Can you hear us? Hi. What's up? How are you? Now, how many bottles of champagne have you had today? I want to get a gauge of how much you've been drinking since discovering that you. My level today, I've been eating right next to my desk is an empty bag of dried mangoes. That's what I've been shutting down. Those are delicious. Does that, those get you high or? Yeah. No, no. Just the right amount. Okay. Hey, so let me ask you, why did you cut this off? It seems like you could have just kept going forever. You already passed 85,000 by a sizable number. So one of the big concerns for us was being able to source enough components in the short term to complete the build on schedule. And so we really, in the interest of like delivering the absolute best product to our Kickstarter backers, we decided to cut off the rewards at the moment. I'm assuming you can still like donate a dollar or two here now. You just don't need the watch. Are you still getting donations today? Like decent amount? Yeah, I think, um, yeah, there were a couple of hundred people that have sort of done a dollar, um, keep on track. But I mean, we, we are committed to selling more pebbles in the future. So for example, as soon as Kickstarter closes, uh, we're going to put up a little page that lets people sort of get in line to, uh, to buy one of the first pebbles when they are available after Kickstarter. So what, so what's the, okay, so you've got $10 million. Now you don't, do you have them? You don't actually have the money yet. This thing has to close. Nope, nope. And when we've, uh, the, the, the project closes on the 18th and that's when people's credit cards will be processed against that. And so explaining to me, I'm going to be received the transaction. So, so explaining to me how this works. So you have literally, I, I'm not trying to be rude. I just want to understand what happens. You now have $10 million in, in credit card transactions that will be what will happen on this date. Kickstarter will charge from zero to 10 million in your bank account somewhere will suddenly have $10 million in it. Uh, it's actually an Amazon payments account since Kickstarter has partnered with Amazon to process all their credit card, but like, but you will have access to $10 million when this thing closes. Uh, yes, our company will. Hi. How much of this is just your party budget? You're to finally close out your prime, all your prime items that you've been trying to do like your wishlist. I actually, I think I should check to see if it's now going to be like, I can just spend a lot of money on Amazon or whether I actually get, you get the money. Yeah. So I have some, I have some questions for you about the watch. Uh, I'm really curious. I'm a smartwatch fanboy. Uh, I have been, and this is, I think the reason this has caught on is cause it has a lot of the pieces that people have wanted in a device. Um, so the first one is just, can you talk to us about how it actually works with iOS? Because that seems to have, that seems to be the thing that has made this one really interesting, right? Is, yep. So I think there's, there's a, there's some things I can't really talk about too much until we've gone through the final stages of the process. But you know, in, in briefly, you know, we've, um, we've, you know, we're following the MFI guidelines made for iPhone guidelines. And, uh, I think one of the things that we've done differently is, um, we've used a couple different Bluetooth profiles. So in order to get, um, phone call notification on the watch, uh, we're actually using the HFP profile of Bluetooth. That's the headset profile. We've done extensive testing to show that, um, you can connect to an iPhone with Pebble as well as a, you know, another headset. So you can get color ID information using Pebble. Oh, that's interesting. Wait, let me just paint this picture. So you have an iPhone, you've got a Bluetooth headset in your ear and you've got a smart watch and they're both connected and you answer it with your watch and then begin talking. Is that, is that correct? Eric, is that right? So you, you, you get a call, you're notified on the watch, you can answer it on the watch and it, and it bounces it to the head. You can't, you can't answer it. Like there's no speaker or microphone. No, no, no, no, no. I know that, but you take action on the call and then it bounces the call to the headset essentially. Right now we have the color ID showing up on the watch. Oh, so you can't take action on it. It's possible that we may have that in, we can't guarantee it right now. Okay. Are you, have you worked with Apple on this at all? I mean, have you, has there been any, um, you probably can't talk about it even if you did, but I just wonder if there's been any conversation with anybody there in terms of how you might. So for example, that what I just described is a plain Bluetooth spec thing. Right. We're also using another thing that we've done that other people haven't done is used AVRCP, the audio visual remote control profile to be able to control music on either iPhone or Android. So these are, so these are, um, the profiles you're using, they're not some sort of custom spec. These are, these are like standard. Anybody could tap into this. It's just that nobody seems to have done it or done it, done it correctly, done it well. And then there's a provision where you can, your app gets to run in the background because it's connected to the watch. Right. Correct. So that's really interesting. How did you, how did you kind of negotiate that? Is that going to kill battery life? That's not a negotiate. That's another, um, that's something that came around with iOS five. So up until iOS five, you know, with iOS four, there was some provisions for doing backgrounding. If you ran, uh, streaming music like Spotify or if you did location aware apps like Foursquare or something like that, but there was no exception or background exemption for hardware up until iOS five. These are, but they run these as discrete processes, right? I mean, they're kind of, you're not actually backgrounding the entire app. You're, you're backgrounding this. There's some crazy stuff that's going on in the OS. Right. And so, and so this is, so you'll be tapping into that to keep a constant connection. Yeah. Yeah. And what is there, is there a battery life concern? Is there, I mean, what, what, what kind of, um, what does that put on the phone side? No, not in particular. I mean, we, we haven't released, you know, precise, uh, numbers, but we, we don't, we haven't seen that. Is it the equivalent to say when I'm in my car, um, and you know, my phone is connected obviously via Bluetooth. I mean, similar connection, like in terms of battery life concerns, uh, probably a little bit less because with a car kit, especially when you're making calls, that's a constant Bluetooth connection. Right. Ours is very intermittent and you're not actually utilizing the watch for the call. So, right. And then, so then the other big piece of news you just had was, uh, you upgraded the phone or the phone by the way, I keep calling it a phone. So it's Ross's fault. You should make a phone next. Just, just collapse them all. Um, no. So you just upgraded to Bluetooth 4.0, uh, which was actually the very first, when I first saw the watch, I was like, but why isn't a Bluetooth 4.0? And then, so you've kind of made my day there. What are you expecting? I think it was a matter of like, you know, so when we started off the Kickstarter project, we were estimating that we were going to be able to manufacture a thousand watches if we raised a hundred thousand dollars. And so some of the, I mean, we, we, we obviously had a plan, a plan in the path for larger amounts of manufacturing. That's what we're pursuing right now. But at the end of the day, you know, we were just, you know, really hardcore focused on making watches. So we sort of, we wanted to bite off what we could chew and that's why we targeted 2.1 plus EDR to start with. Right. Cause that was available. And I have a, I have a question. Um, is it, was the response bigger than you expected? I mean, it seems like it was way bigger than you expected. I'd like to know, was it and why, how are you kind of dealing with it? Like, what do you think the cause of it was? Like, what is it that you did or what is it about your product that you think is, I mean, what have you heard from people? They were like, I've got to buy into this. Like, can you, can you communicate that? Can you tell me that? Yeah. I mean, we're still in the process of figuring it out because that's going to be a pretty valuable insight to figure out. Um, from what I've heard, I mean, just, just talking about, you know, parents and my relatives, like this is the first product that I've created that really sort of lit up my hands on. I, that's really cool. That means that we're sort of reaching beyond our comfort zone, which is the tech and the geek and the gadget guys. And you know, crossing over into our mainstream iPhone users, Android users. And so, so what, what I've heard from, from, you know, basically my relatives are some of the people that I've been talking to the most, you know, they like the idea of customizing their watch, being able to download a different watch face and write it on your watch. And I think that's pretty cool. I mean, how, and how complex can you get with this? I mean, this is an E Ink display, right? It's E paper. Is it E Ink? E paper. Sorry. Is it E Ink or is it E paper? Is it a, cause E Ink is a trade. It's a brand. E Ink is a brand. E Ink is a brand name. So it's E paper. And what are you doing in terms of levels of gray? I mean, how, how detailed can you get? What's the re you know, I guess there's no, it's just, it's just black and white at the moment. Oh, it is. Okay. And so, and so, uh, third party faces. Is that a thing that you might do? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So you might get like Bell and Ross or somebody to do a custom, I'm serious. We're starting with just anyone who wants to make one can start writing a watch face. I was thinking you could do like Swatch could be a partner. They could be funky. Yeah. Actually, have you talked to any, any watch companies? Yeah. You would think it's fossil like, dammit, we've been trying to do this for 20 years. You would think that, yeah, we have, we have legit, you know, like already established watch companies reached out and said, I don't want, I'm saying legit a lot on this show. Yeah. Um, it's cool. Like just super 94. Um, have watch companies reached out to you guys? Have you gotten people sniffing around now going, Hey, we want this technology? Uh, not yet, but I'm sure once they do, you know, we'd be happy to chat. Yeah. Would you consider licensing this technology for other, for other devices, other watches? Uh, we haven't really nailed down, you know, that kind of future stuff. We're really at the moment just focused on getting these out there for our kids. What is, what exactly is next for you? So you, have you, is the design finished? Are you just waiting to buy the parts? I just said, do you buy the, do you buy the parts? No, but go ahead and sorry, sorry, go ahead. We're placing large component orders, getting everything lined up for starting production later this summer. So actually I've kind of two questions. One's like kind of minor and one's bigger. And I think the big ones are really interesting. So you started out saying, we want to make a thousand watches. We want to prove the model. We want to show people that we can do this. So there's a way to make a better watch. And then you ended up with $10 million in 85,000 orders. What changed over the course? I mean, how did you react to first the first explosion and then how did you react to kind of, okay, now we have to do this for real. I mean, when you're, when you're talking about a thousand devices, that's a, that's a boutique right order. That's a proof of concept. That's a right. I mean, that's a very small run. When you get up to what you're at now, you must've had to scale up. I mean the infrastructure to produce 85,000 versus a thousand has got to be somewhat different. We actually, when we started, when we started working on Pebble, Pebble was our, you know, our second watch. We worked on impulse, the blackberry smartwatch for a while. We actually, so we designed right after iOS five hit last summer, we started designing Pebble working this new display that we had sourced. We'd lined up a manufacturer. We'd lined up a whole team for making sort of a large scale product, but we just didn't have the capital to be able to support that. You know, we had attempted to raise venture capital from the VCs and just, we weren't able to get any, any sort of traction in the capital, venture capital market. So we had this great plan and we had this great product. We just had no cash to be able to pull it off. So we scaled back our dreams. We said, okay, you know, maybe we had this, this great sort of watch that we wanted to design. What's a subset of that? What's, what could we launch on, you know, a finite amount of money? And that's what we came up with, with our, you know, with Pebble. So you, so you scaled back, there's a different, you just started as a different watch is what you're saying. It didn't, no, no, sorry. The, the watch, the watch is the same watch, but we scaled our manufacturing plans back. Oh, okay. Okay. So it's, it's, you weren't like, we want to do this crazy watch, but we can do half the fees. So do you feel kind of vindicated that all these VCs turned you down and now you've like gone to the people. To be honest, I'm just really happy that I get to make Pebble. I would, would have hated, I mean, I, I wouldn't have given up. We would have figured out how to get it, you know, out there somehow, but it probably would have ended up with just me making more watches in our garage. So, so the 18th is when you close, right? When this, when the Kickstarter project closes. What is the very first thing that happens after that? I'm just curious to know, like literally, literally you get them, you have the money, right? You've obviously got the plans for the watch. I assume, you know, you've got your, your suppliers in place. So what is the very first thing you do? You have the money, like how do you start the, what's the first dominant actually happened about four weeks ago. So the day after we opened Kickstarter and you know, the first end gadget article hit it, it sort of exploded and we made, we flipped the switch that day. End gadget you say. Oh, that's fine. Interesting. I'm sure you've heard of them. I've heard of them. They sound familiar. And so, and so then, and so then the next thing is you get the money and are you like writing a check to a supplier? Is that, is that the next thing? Do you have to fly? Do you have to go? We're doing a lot of different checks, but no. So, so for example, we, we phoned up our contract manufacturer, you know, the day after Kickstarter started and we were like, well, we're going to order a lot more watches than we thought. So that's been in the works for four weeks. The thing for sure that's going to happen at the end of May is I'm going to sign several very large checks for long lead time components. Interesting. Hello, Eric. Hi. Oh, sorry. And, and, and these are all sold. That's the nice thing. It's not like you're like, Hey, we're going to make 85,000 watches and we don't know what we're going to do with them. I mean, these are so, so explain to me how that works. Is this, the watches are manufactured overseas, right? Yes. Okay. And then are they just being shipped directly to the customers? We're not a hundred percent sure how the logistics will work out, but we'll probably figure out what's the best way to get them out to all over the world. And following the 85,000 that you've, that you've now sold, right? They're all spoken for, correct? Correct. So beyond that, do you have, are you planning on ramping to getting... Are you going to go to stores? Are you going to distribute these? Are you going to talk to distributors? Are you going to try to put them in Apple stores or Best Buy or, you know, what's the plan beyond the Kickstarter people? We're building it for production. So like the production setup that we'll have to make the Kickstarter batch will be the same factory, the same setup that we could use to make more watches if we choose. What's the ramp between filling out the Kickstarter orders and then selling it to the public? Because I think a lot of people are curious. The major thing is the holidays. And we're only, I mean, like we're shipping, you know, in September and we're just, you know, the, the Kickstarter backers are the premier people. So they get the watch before anyone else. And if we're able to make more watches before Christmas, you know, that's cool. But I'm not as worried about that as much as just making sure that our Kickstarter backers are as happy as possible. And it's too late now. I can't get one. You're done. Can we get one for Ruth? Oh, you didn't back it? Well, I did. You did, right? I was going to back it today and then I just saw the... You're going to hate my guts. You're going to hate me, Eric. But I'm a big fan of analog watches. I actually don't really like digital watches at all. Well, there's an analog face. No, I know that. I, I, what I want is a watch. This is my dream watch. Maybe you'll make it for me. I want to watch it. You remember, do you remember the Motorola Aura phone that had the circular display? On the front. Yeah. So what I want is a, is a watch that looks like a regular, like a classic watch, but the display is a circular digital display. And it looks like a regular watch until you swipe to the side and then you get all kinds of other features or whatever. That's my kind of dream. That's the watch that I think I'm going to be really fall in love with. Though perhaps when I see the Pebble watch in person and... You're going to freak out and you're going to be really unhappy. You got one, right? Yeah. What color are you going to get? Black. You got black? Black. Did you get one? No, I found this, I found the story out by going to the Kickstarter page and realizing I can't donate. I feel, by the way, it's rare that you get to talk to the creator of the back. Yeah, this is exciting. But hold on, but what I was going to say is... We were going to have Eric on the show. It's rare that you get to... You should come on the show....talk to him and tell him that you didn't buy the product and hear firsthand the disappointment and I think a little anger actually. Yeah. More like an opportunity. If you didn't get it, there's probably a few other people out there that didn't get it as well. That's right. Well, no, I mean... Maybe there'll be some people for the next batch. Oh, I think there'll be people for the next batch. Probably. I think there'll be people for the next batch. I have two questions. One from the listeners, which I think is hilarious. I'll ask that second. My next question, which is a little question, is are you at all... Are you all worried about Apple kind of rejiggering the iPod Nano? Now that they've seen your success, kind of rejiggering the Nano because they're already doing the watch stuff with it to make it connect with the iPhone, does that concern you at all or are you making your own... That's a possibility. Not super frightened. I think... He still has 85,000 orders. Yeah, you've got $10 million. You're good, right? Yeah. I might be able to afford one with that. Okay. And the second question, and this is from the listeners, are you kind of mad that Samsung just released a product called the S Pebble? Because they did. Oh, that's true. It's just one of the colors. No, it's a little MP3 player called the S Pebble. It's a square. It's a tiny little MP3 player that is an accessory for the phone. No, I do not see that. It syncs... Was that like yesterday? Yeah, no. It was when they announced the Galaxy S3. And it syncs to the phone. I thought that was just a color. No. They said that one of the S3 colors was Pebble. No, it's an accessory for it. And it's like a little square that you use to play... It's an MP3 player. It controls the music on the phone? No, no. It's an MP3 player that syncs to the phone. I don't understand the point of it. Yeah, nobody understands it. Nobody understands it, but it is in your space now. You better watch out. I will Google this right now. You may have heard of the small company Samsung. They're challenging you on the name Pebble. Well, their name is Spebble. Oh, it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's Spebble. No, don't say it looks cool. Yeah. You don't want to give anybody any... You don't want to give them any credit. Samsung's lawyers listen to the Vergecast. No, they do. They're listening right now. They do. I'm sure you have champagne to drink over there and watches to manufacture. So we're going to let you go. Watches to make. Watches to make. But we would love to have you come on the show. We do this on The Verge. We almost had you guys come on the last one and it didn't work out. You don't have to tell me now, but hopefully we can make that happen because we'd love to talk to you and maybe see a prototype. Yeah, it would be cool to show you the UI as it progresses over the summer. That would be great. It would be awesome. You guys would be the developer kit and everything. That'd be great. Hey, if you want to come on, we have a show next week, May 17th. Just start bimping it now. I mean, you're welcome. You just want to fly in? I want to check it out. Anyhow, but Eric, thank you so much and we will definitely be talking to you soon. I think we're all really excited about this. I think what's cool about this is we cover products all the time and it's like they're all from big, big companies. We just had Tony Fadell on the last show and we were talking about how hard it is to create this hardware startup and you guys have not only done, you're not only a hardware startup, but you're doing it in a way that is totally unorthodox and completely new and I think really exciting because it's like your idea has been validated by a public, by the buying public before you've ever put rubber to road. So by the way, don't screw it up because otherwise, no pressure, but just 85,000 people at $10 billion riding on it. So, and now with that, Eric, good luck. We're really excited about it and we can't wait to watch what you guys are doing and anytime you want to talk, we're happy to do it. Looking forward to it. All right. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Take care. Bye.