Wakemate
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
WakeMate (Perfect Third Inc.) was a Y Combinator-backed hardware startup founded in 2009. Its product was a $60 motion-sensing wristband that tracked the wearer's sleep through actigraphy, synced with a smartphone app over Bluetooth, and woke the user during the lightest stage of sleep within a customizable window - promising to end groggy mornings.
02 / Wakemate FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
WakeMate was a textbook case of hardware being harder than software: a year of shipping delays, faulty units and angry customers was followed by a safety disaster when a USB charger brick burst into flames, forcing a recall. App sync problems kept reviews negative even after shipping began. The founding team then split - one co-founder tried to relaunch the technology as a new product via crowdfunding - and with capital exhausted and trust burned, the company shut down.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
WakeMate (Perfect Third Inc.) is founded and joins Y Combinator's Summer 2009 batch with a $60 sleep-tracking wristband.
- Delays and fire
After a year of delays, faulty units and upset customers, shipping finally begins in December - only for a USB charger brick to burst into flames, forcing a recall of all chargers.
- Software fixes
WakeMate releases a 2.0 iOS app update fixing the Bluetooth sync failures that had negated the product's core promise.
- Shutdown
On June 27, 2012, CEO Arun Gupta announces the company has exhausted its capital and will make no more WakeMates, planning to keep the service running while open-sourcing the technology; the founding partners split amid the collapse.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
On June 27, 2012, CEO Arun Gupta announced in a blog post that the company had exhausted its capital and would no longer manufacture WakeMates.
- 02
The stated plan was to keep the service running while working on open-sourcing the technology so users could continue to enjoy the product.
- 03
Co-founder Greg Nemeth separately attempted to relaunch the technology as a new crowdfunded product, but the original company ceased to exist.