Observations from an engineer on the world of venture capital and startups
After a long period of being too busy to post, I'll be starting more regular posts, but I'll be moving to Substack. Blogger just wasn't cutting it anymore. First post is on our experience at Acoustiic dealing with the SVB collapse and some thoughts on the whole situation. Paul’s Substack | Paul Reynolds | Substack
I recently learned that Lee Gomes, the journalist who published the most detailed and accurate report on issues around uBeam , had died. I came to know Lee after I left uBeam and talked with him often, though in the last couple of years clearly less than I should have. Lee was a great tech journalist, determined to get to the truths of what he was looking into, always being sure to get good…
A recent post by a former uBeam engineer made an interesting comment: The biggest annoyance at uBeam was if the demo units were running when you took a call. The other side was always like "what the HELL is going on over there?" "Oh yeah sorry I'll go in the other room." The ultrasound down-mixes in the MEMS mic. — Alexander the OK (@alexwhittemore) September 25, 2021 " The biggest annoyance at…
For all of you that wish you could own one of the cool dead startup gadgets that gets written about here, then Dead Startup Toys will do it for you - well, kinda. Toy replicas of failed companies including Juicero and Theranos , though selling out fast as the Coolest Cooler and Jibo are already gone. There's a small "bio" of each product as you click through. Nothing from uBeam or Energous there…
I'm fortunate enough to be fully vaccinated, so a couple weeks ago I took my first plane flight in over a year. For most of the prior 15 years or so I've flown around 50 to 100,000 miles a year, so a moderate flyer (given 100,000 miles flown is around 200 hours in the air, or over a solid week, it's still pretty significant). I went and visited friends in the NE of the US, and damn do I miss…
Now that uBeam is dead , I can reveal a secret that I have kept close to my chest for years. You see, for some time after I left the company I had a spy in uBeam, someone who quietly passed information to me about who they were interviewing, companies they visited and were discussing deals with. Management eventually realized this information was being leaked, and despite some significant efforts…
Just shy of its 10th birthday and with between $40 and $48 million of investment (estimated), it appears uBeam (recently Sonic Energy ) has shuffled off its mortal coil. While some may claim it's simply pining for the fjords or merely stunned, I've heard that a few weeks ago the last remaining employees were told they were terminated effective immediately and the doors were closed. Whether the…
My last post was December 2019, putting this at nearly 18 months since I last wrote anything here. It's not for lack of interest, but simply I was massively overloaded with work, commitments, and personal issues that meant something had to go, and so it was the blogging. Things are somewhat more stable now, so I'm intending on getting back to this on a semi-regular basis. Interestingly my first…
This is a reblog of an interview I did last year for IEEE-USA, the original can be found here . What if I told you there is a funding opportunity in the US that is restricted to small companies, focuses on technology, and takes no equity (non-dilutive), debt stake (grant or contract, not a loan), or claim on Intellectual Property (IP) for what may be a seven figure investment? The SBIR – Small…
Something I learned in the early days of writing this blog is "how to talk to journalists", and so I thought I'd do a post on it partly to remind me in future when I forget. First thing - you do not have to talk to them. If you are uncomfortable, then don't. For the most part, they need you more than you need them. If you don't speak to them, you are exactly where you were prior and you carry on…
Merry Christmas everyone. It's been an insane last few months for me personally and professionally, and I've just not been able to post anything. I'm aiming to change that starting next month ( edit May 1 2021, that didn't work out so well, more like 18 months ), but for now here's a short post on uBeam (now Sonic Energy, not at all trying to clean up their terrible Google search history...) A…
Last we left uBeam they'd laid off half their staff and co-founder Perry had left entirely . In the last few days, uBeam has rebranded themselves as "Sonic Energy" (though apparently has some difficulty in spelling their name correctly, continuing the stellar performance we've come to expect from their marketing department). I'm guessing uBeam is something of a problem in Google searches on the…
uBeam cofounder and ex-CEO, Meredith Perry, recently updated her LinkedIn profile to show that not only was she was no longer in either of those roles as of September 2018 (or was it May 2018?), she is now no longer a board member at uBeam as of this month. For someone who controls a pretty hefty amount of stock in the company, it's hard to be removed from the board. So resigned? Pushed? Founded…
Since I've been writing about wireless charging, I thought I should do some quick tests especially after being challenged by Qi advocates that I'm being harsh on the technology. A couple of years back I tested with a phone and was getting around 2 to 3 W rate, and wasn't impressed, but it has apparently improved since then (or my data point was skewed). I took my Pixel 3 which has wireless Qi…
Earlier today (Thu 27th) the FCC published that Ossia, the RF at-distance wireless power company , had been granted Part 18 approval for their charging system. This has many similarities to the Energous system that got similar approval around 18 months ago, but also a number of differences . The first similarity is that it seems a lot of cost and effort to deliver very little power across an…
You may remember that EEVBlog did a great video on uBeam a couple of years ago, which if you've not seen you should go watch now (also below). With the new information out on uBeam, Dave has done it again, and it's a nice straightforward description of the latest website and presentation. I encourage you to watch it if you want more accessible coverage than I write here. The discussion of the…
I posted a uBeam promotional video earlier today , and a comment had a link to a presentation given by the current uBeam CEO at the OurCrowd summit a few months ago (OurCrowd were one of the larger funders for uBeam). Most of it is unremarkable, with the usual marketing claims, but three slides have some interesting info - this is a post that gets reasonably technical, just warning, so a summary…
An Oor Wullie Statue in Candleriggs, Glasgow I was fortunate enough to get a week off and went back home to Scotland to visit family. Just as I was leaving, a summer long event started called "Oor Wullie's Big Bucket Trail" . Oor Wullie (Translated: Our William) is a comic strip character from newspapers (specifically DC Thompson papers from my home town, Dundee), started in 1936 and still going…
I recently wrote about the large layoffs at uBeam , and the new website, however I had missed their new promotional video that was posted on the 5th June. Similar to the website, it shows charging of phones by peoples heads (insufficient power delivery to be practical, tracking for such application never demonstrated, and IMO not safe), forklift trucks (just not even close to the power…
Over the last week I've heard from a number of people as to some significant events at uBeam - last Monday the 10th June around half the employees had been laid off. No notice, no severance, no vesting, no farewell party, and the last day of employment at uBeam for them had been Friday the 7th June. The first emotion I heard from any of them was shock, that this was unexpected both in its…
I have to apologize for the low rate of postings - basically I'm slammed with work, personal ventures, and home/family. I'd like to be writing more, and talking about what I'm doing, but that's just not going to happen for a while. Hopefully more at the end of the year, but for now I'll use the long weekend to try and get at least a couple of articles done. AirPower and Qi My last article on…
Things aren't looking so good for wireless charging in 2019. There have been a few announcements in the last few weeks that have not been positive for the industry as a whole. Let's start with the big one: Apple and AirPower After over a year of delay since the announcement, Apple finally cancelled AirPower , their multi-device charging pad, based on Qi. This pad was supposed to be able to charge…
Earlier today Dialog Semiconductor announced on their conference call that they do not expect significant sales for Energous in 2019. Dialog is a large semiconductor manufacturer who produce, market, and sell Energous electronics to third parties, and previously invested up to $25 million in Energous. In the words of Dialog, the relationship is where: We provide the product manufacturing and…
A summary of what's in this article: Energous are doing their Q4 2018 earnings call from MWC 2 weeks later in February than usual They are likely to be running out of money by April without a further raise A $75m raise will not see them to profitability even under the marketing fantasies promoted Rumours of presence in the Galaxy S10 were false (shock) but boosted the stock price temporarily…
The amazing story of a founder who with no experience but grit, determination, financial security, and a healthy sense of hustle, raised $60 million to solve the biggest problem she could find. Once you've watched it, read the reaction the author got to the performance in this LinkedIn post. Exactly 7 days before the October TEDx event in Oakland, the event organizer put out a call to Bay Area…