Tue Mar 13 '18 Announcement
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 03:20:40 PM
Hi Indiegogo Family,
We are back with our February monthly update!
What did we accomplish last month?
Quake Accelerator Program
As you read in our December monthly update, we got accepted into the Quake accelerator program in NYC. Tom and Lang relocated to NYC for the program. We had many mentor sessions with the VC partners and advisors. We learned many things including how to run our Amazon store after delivering the retailed-ready product to you all, how to manage our cash flow and how to build a strong brand. Additionally, we worked closely with other founders who are also in the consumer electronics industry. The peer-learning experience this offers is very powerful.
We reinforced the importance of getting our first 1,000 units products out as soon as possible. We prioritize the speed to market more than the cost so we aim to get 1,000 units ready by April 26th.
Hiring Interns
Through Quake's connections with New York University, we were able to get over 100 candidates to apply for our internship positions including AI, iOS R&D features, website development, and marketing. We reviewed all resumes and interviewed over 40 of the selected candidates for each position. After serious considerations, we hired 8 unpaid interns to help us.
They are going to help us speed up the AI model development and build some iOS R&D features including a unique informu sound and vibration pattern for notifications.
Tester Interviews and Feedback Collection
If you remember back to last Thanksgiving, we already started shipping our Beta units to testers. We did three separated shipments with minor improvements along the way. After having multiple in-depth phone interviews, spending hours reviewing old email feedback, and translating all feedback into the spreadsheet format, we can now move forward from this phase.
We spent a few days compiling the feedback across all mediums into useful insights based on how many times it repeated and how much value it actually brings to the end user. All useful insights have been translated into improvements needed for the mechanical, the firmware, and the software.
Some additional findings were...
Discovering a better way to ensure a Mu tag can easily be removed from the app
- This sounds easy on the surface but there are complications because we actually have to tell the Mu tag hardware itself that it is no longer registered to a user. If the Mu tag is not in range when the user removes the Mu tag from the app then we can’t communicate with the hardware to make the change.
Unique informu notification sound and vibration very important
- We must distinguish our notifications as much as possible so that they are intuitively learned by the user when their belonging becomes unsafe. the user doesn’t know if it’s any other notification or an important notification about their belonging which Mu tag is protecting.
Hardware
Mu tag PCB V8 Design and fabrication
We redesigned the Mu tag PCB this month to accommodate the design issues that we learned during the beta and how to improve the RF performance. This is great news because we were able to test the final PCBs and they are working great.
We have significantly improved our Radio Performance issue which was causing irregular distance indications and also false notifications. We worked closely with the chip manufacturer and an RF expert to design and test the PCBs.
RF Testing Result and Mu tag PCB lockdown
After the design phase, we were able to test the board for 2D radiation pattern tests, range and frequency tests and it came out with a positive result. We can see a significant improvement over the radiation pattern, the overall roundness of the pattern tells us the Radio performance within all angles over an axis. The rounder the result, the better the performance. Rev 8 has significant improvements over the previous version even after the size and space constraints we have. This is a huge plus for us in order to make sure the production can begin soon.
RF Testing on Mu Tag in the Lab
Antenna Radiation Pattern as expected by the Datasheet - ideal conditions
Antenna Patterns Compared to the EUT#1 - Rev7 Design - (Sent out for Beta) vs the improved EUT#3 - Rev 8 Design
Mu Charger - New PCB design with incorporated changes
We made smaller changes to the Mu Charger PCBs as well, which included the main points from the beta feedback.
The PCB size has been reduced to accommodate the sizing issue and clash with neighboring MagSafe charger port. We have installed a dual status LED to the Mu Charger so it makes the feedback easier; it will now glow Red while charging and show Green when the charge is completed.
We have the Mu Charger in Fabrication now and will test the new design changes before locking the PCB down before the end of March.
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(Note: We out of the space here. Please continue reading the part two.)
Mon Feb 5 '18 Announcement
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Feb 05, 2018 at 06:36:26 PM
Hello Indiegogo Family,
We are back with our January monthly update!
What did we accomplish last month?
Experienced Industry Leader Onboarded
As you all know, our entire team is very inexperienced with bringing a physical product to the market. We intentionally look for experienced people to join the team and we finally found one that’s super passionate about the product! Please welcome Raman as our new CTO. It's an unpaid position, therefore we can save cash to use for a better product.
He has seasoned leadership and 30 years of industry experience to drive business from concept to launch, P&L management, and a laser-sharp focus on customers. He worked for Motorola, Philips, and SanDisk.
He will lead our hardware development, negotiate with contracted manufacturers, and manage vendor relationships. He will fill the major gap from beta units to mass production.
CES
Wow, was this a really good experience! Not only for the Lang, Raza, and Tom, but an extremely valuable event for informu. A big thanks to the backers that came to visit and support us!
We were able to build many valuable connections in so many different areas. This included finding our new CTO, Raman, and others that are very interested in buying the product. It was also a great chance to speak with more customers and really learn how we can increase the value of our product to them.
BBC Click
That’s right, we got interviewed by BBC Click to be featured in their CES episode. Check it out here at https://youtu.be/yHdPpjoy70U?t=14m33s.
Hardware
Shipping Fixed Mu Charger Design
We shipped all our Beta testers the new and improved version of Mu tag. We thank them for the quick feedback we got. It was insightful and helps us develop a product that provides the best user experience.
Improvement of Radio Performance
We are working on testing the reliability of our antenna. We are working with a test lab to improve antenna performance. We plan to complete this by 2nd week of February. This would help us identify the area which is causing the false notification in certain configurations so we can make the required Hardware and Software changes to have higher accuracy.
Improvement on Mu Tag and Mu Charger Hardware based on user feedback
We improved the Mu tag design to be more stable. The battery connectors were coming loose and the button feedback had issues as reported by the users. We have made those changes and will be testing them early this month.
Sourcing Mechanical Designer
As we mentioned in a previous update, the mechanical designer we were working with decided to make a change in her career and could no longer continue working on this. We began sourcing a replacement and started lining up interviews. We plan on selecting and bringing the new mechanical designer into the workflow early this month.
We already are in a good stage with the mechanical parts, the new Mechanical engineer will help in making the modifications to finalize the molds which would be used for mass production.
Software
Using Feedback to Improve App Features for Production Release
This month was focused on gathering as much feedback from the testers as possible to make sure we are building the app features correctly and that they work as expected. From this feedback, we started planning the way that everything needs to work in the production app and started developing the new user experience.
Not only did we validate the features that we advertised in our campaign, but we learned exactly how people will be using them and how to provide the best experience to the user. One thing that we have decided to change is the status indication for each Mu tag. Before we were providing ‘Safe’, ‘Close’, ‘Far’, and ‘Lost’. To make things more simple and meaningful we’ll now provide either ‘Secure’ or ‘Unsafe’ for the status and give the option to the user to mark the item as lost. Of course, we’ll still have the most recently known location for each item and a map.
Creating final UI/UX app design
Now that we know exactly what screens belong in the production app and how the features should work, we started final designs. Here’s a rough draft of a couple screen designs.
Onboarding More Testers
Unfortunately, there were some testers that got left out of the first batch due to a supply shortage and a flawed Mu charger design. We were able to ship out Mu tags and Mu chargers to them and onboard them for testing. Thank you all very much for being patient and providing new feedback so quickly!
What are we going to do this month?
Tester interviews and feedback collection
We have already started interviewing our testers over the phone to get more in-depth feedback on their experience testing and ideas that they may have to improve the product. We’ll continue these calls throughout this month with as many testers as possible to ensure that we are on the right track to deliver a product that everyone loves.
Hardware improvements
- Finalize mechanical designer to improve hardware for more testing and release
- Mu Tag - Keyfit design: To be able to place the Mu tag into the Mu Charger with a mechanical key fit, for better connectivity.
- Led Status Indicator for Mu Charger - Currently, the LED on the Mu Charger is confusing for the users. We have improved it to show different stages of Charging more clearly.
- Mechanical Size improvements for Mu Charger and Mu Tag
Continue development of production app
We’ll have all of the screen designs completed and should be able to start testing the first parts of production code. This month we’ll also use the data we collected through testing to improve the AI and smart notifications. Our first goal will be to eliminate the false notifications by designing an algorithm to predict the context in which a notification should and should not occur on a more advanced level.
When can you expect the delivery?
We still expect the product to arrive at your door between April and August as mentioned in the previous update. We are holding ourselves to the timeline, which was reached after much deliberation and identifying the risks involved. We cannot wait for you guys to use the Mu tags! Thanks for your support with the journey so far. We have been blessed to have a very active and helpful backer community.
Thu Jan 4 '18 Announcement
about 8 years ago
– Thu, Jan 04, 2018 at 12:39:26 AM
Hello Indiegogo Family,
We hope you had a great Christmas holiday and happy New Year! May you all achieve great things in 2018. We are back with our December monthly update!
What did we accomplish last month?
Assembled Beta Units
Shipped out Beta units to the first 50 backers. We want to thank everyone who was active and helpful during last month in the midst of the holiday season and provide us valuable feedback. We encountered the early mistakes - which was is the purpose of the beta. The major issue was the Mu charger pins were fragile but we went ahead and fixed it this month.
Fixed and improved Mu Chargers
Fixed the Mu charger issue: As we mentioned above, we had many backers reporting that the Mu charger stopped working. This happened due to faulty connectors shipped by the manufacturer and a small error in the tolerance of the mechanical design. We immediately pushed our contracted manufacturer to resolve this issue and ship the improved Mu chargers to whoever reported this issue. Currently, we plan to resend the remaining testers the new and more robust Mu chargers.
Collected 100,000 + training examples: Through our iOS MVP app, we have collected over 100,000+ training examples for AI. The current data provide insightful information to improve the product. Thank you guys for submitting feedback on the app!
Received a VC Investment: We received the first VC investment from NYC. It ensures that we have enough cash to deliver all pre-orders at the quality that we expect. This is a great news for all of us. It gives you guys double assurance even in case of unexpected problems.
What we learned from the beta batch delivery?
By delivering the beta batch, we encountered many issues in various aspects including supply chain management (the specific connectors on Mu tag and Mu charger were out of stock), mechanical design, iOS MVP bugs, Mu tag firmware etc. This helps us to know where to improve and gain more experience in delivering products.
Here is a list of known improvements we will make to final release Mu tag and Mu charger based on the newest feedback.
Mu tag:
Magnets - We are finding better and stronger magnets for a firm hold of the Mu tag.
Button Press - We are working on improving the button feedback.
Shifting connector to the edge - This will help increase placement precision of Mu tag.
RF Antenna Loop Redesign (based on tests) - We are working with a local RF lab to perform Radio performance testing and improvement for the final batch.
Mu charger:
Magnets - We are finding better and stronger magnets for a firm hold of the Mu tag.
LED Positioning/LED Status - Improving the LED luminosity and visibility.
Keyfit - Mechanical fit for Mu tag for improved and precise fit.
Software. We have run into a few obstacles with software during testing. While we have collected a lot of good data, there are also some data missing that we still need. The main reason is related to a problem that causes notifications to be delivered when they shouldn’t be. We call these false notifications. Currently, we are investigating the root cause but are expecting a possible hardware improvement to the antenna and help by the AI.
To collect the additional needed data we are making improvements to that app that will make it easier to respond to notifications, resolving false notifications, and manually producing scenarios among the team that produce the data.
Latest Mu Tag and Charger in action!
What are we going to do this month?
First, we will ship the fixed Mu charger and Mu tags to more testers. Currently, our teammates are assembling them by hand in the lab and home office after their regular day job. We want to test out all of them one by one before shipping out.
Assembly and testing units in our home office/lab
Until the end of January, we will continue conducting our beta testing feedback and interview. This includes emails, phone calls, and in-person meetings.
Meanwhile, we will make the known improvements on Mu tag, Mu charger, the app, and firmware. We will also create the Mu hub preliminary design.
By the end of the beta testing feedback period, we will compile a spreadsheet of all major feedback (on-going), extract all commonalities between testers feedback, prioritize the most common feedback vs value added, and create an action plan for the improvement pipeline (on-going). We will keep you guys updated on this.
Just playing around with the Mu tags before shipment.
When can you expect the delivery?
We had two days of team brainstorming and discussions on our product delivery timeline (last Friday and Saturday) after reviewing the newest information. We want to be ambitious while being realistic considering the majority of team members are part-time and inexperienced. Here is the product roadmap we intend to stick to! Please hold us accountable for this plan.
Deliver Beta 2 Batch - new Mu Charger + Mu Tag Jan 2nd – Jan 8th
Beta feedback collection and analysis stage Jan 9th – Jan 22nd
Improvement for Pre-Release batch Jan 22nd – Feb 22nd (+1 month)
CM and Pre-Release Delivery Stage Feb 22nd – Mar 22nd(+1 month)
Feedback Stage for 500-1000 Units Mar 22nd – Apr 22nd(+1 month)
Improvement for Final Production Apr 22nd – May 22nd(+1 month)
Mass Production Phase (7,000 - 10,000 Units) May 22nd – Jun 22nd (+1 month)
Fulfillment of all rewards Jun 22nd – Jul/ Aug
We intend to make the Pre-Release batch as close to the final product as possible in all aspects. We will apply all learning from this beta batch delivery into our Pre-Release batch delivery. The (+1 month) is a buffer time if a major Mu tag hardware revision is required (which we do not anticipate) before the Pre-Release batch stage. We want to take into consideration the unexpected improvements needed during this phase.
In short, please expect the product to arrive at your door between April and August.
Top Objective in 2018
Our only objective in 2018 is to deliver the product to you! There is nothing more important than that. The product has to be good enough to put on the Best Buy shelf. We will not compromise the product quality.
Our secondary objective in 2018 after shipping the product is to have enough cash flow to pay full-time employees $4,000 per month by the end of the year. Our full-time employees are way underpaid, $2,000 per month, which is barely enough to live in Boulder. Our part-timers are not even being paid. The raise will only happen after the product is delivered to you. It ties to our product performance and personal goal.
CES Free Ticket. We are going to exhibit our product at CES! Our booth number is #51868. Feel free to stop by if you want to meet us in person. You can book a one to one meeting with us here: https://informu.splashthat.com/. If you plan to go, but don't have a ticket. We still have three free tickets to give out. Feel free to reach out to us privately.
Fri Dec 1 '17 Announcement
over 8 years ago
– Fri, Dec 01, 2017 at 04:14:01 PM
Hello Indiegogo Family,
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We are back with our November monthly update! We apologize for the late update. We have been extremely busy supporting the beta testers.
What we accomplished last month?
RF performance issue solved: As we mentioned in the September and October update, our Mu tag had major RF performance issues. One out of three visions of PCB designs has the best RF performance which is what we expected. We learned to have multiple plans because hardware devices don't always work as expected.
Customer feedback interviews: Lang Mei personally interviewed over 50 backers over one to one phone calls. We asked our backers key questions including why they bought Mu tags, how they are going to use Mu tags, what do they like and what they don't like. We learned so much and received so much feedback from you guys! It gave us a better sense of what is important and what is not important to our product offering. Thank you for your time! We will incorporate all those top priorities into our product development.
iOS app beta version built: Our only software developer, Tom Dickerson finally built the first iOS app with working core functions after months of hard work. He is the one person who built all aspects of the app that includes back-end, user interface design, etc. We don't have a big software team like other app startups! We stay very lean and act quickly!
Beta batch delivery!
We finally can ship working products to our backers! We are super proud to make that happen! It has been a moment we have been working toward for months! It's a team effort, but we want to particularly thank our engineers, Rishabh, Raza, Shalin, and Tom! They made this a reality.
We know the beta units which we shipped are not what we are proud of! We also know that we can do much better! It's not even close to the end products our backers will receive. It's just a beta which helps us gather more feedback on both hardware and software and test our team's ability to execute!
We shipped our beta units to 32 selected testers on Nov 22nd, 2017. As we explained in the previous updates, we selected testers based on if you are willing to provide feedback. We highly prioritized those backers who interviewed with us over those backers just filled out a survey. We really appreciate the testers' speedy feedback and being patient.
As you can tell from the pictures below, the Mu tags plastics are 3D printed and spray painted by hand. The plastic surface finishing doesn't look like a finished product. That's right. This was intentional to save costs on the beta batch run. It's also bigger than we want to build because of 3D printed materials. The final product will look much better. Currently, we want to learn by delivering the beta batch at the lowest cost possible.
Here is the Mu tag demo:
https://youtu.be/VUXCnXHPMD4
https://youtu.be/7MaaECgmtBg
Mu charger issue: After delivering the units to our testers, we found that many Mu chargers stopped working for various reasons. We are actively communicating with our contracted manufacturer to solve this problem. We will deliver new chargers to the testers as soon as possible.
When can you expect the delivery?
It highly depends on what kinds of challenges and feedback we received from this beta batch run. We are not sure how much more work we need to put in to bring the final product to you at this point. We aren't 100% certain how long it will take at this point. As always, we pledge to be transparent every step of the way. We really appreciate your kind understanding and support at this stage.
Refund: We can't share your personal financial information in the public comments section. Please talk to us privately through messages, email or Slack. Thanks.
Thu Oct 26 '17 Announcement
over 8 years ago
– Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 11:12:24 AM
Hello Indiegog Family,
Soon, you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to produce your rewards.
You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!
After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.
If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https:// https://mu-tag-world-s-smallest-loss-prevention-device-travel.backerkit.com.
Best,
informu Team
