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Misfit Adds Shine To Wearable Health

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Having cycled through a few fitness tracking devices myself, I was naturally curious to see what Misfit Wearables has been up to for the past year. Today we get our first look – and it’s called “Shine.” Carved from a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum it’s really designed to look more like an accessory – or piece of jewelry – than another activity tracker. The more traditional  approach lately has been to leverage the design platform of a wristwatch – and then add various apps, control and functionality – typically via Bluetooth or cable connection. Devices like the Pebble, or MetaWatch – or even Motorola’s MOTOACTV have all followed this trajectory – with varying degrees of (fairly limited) success. For one thing, these "watches" aren't that cheap – often ranging from $200 to $300 – or more (depending on accessories). MOTOACTV for example has a heart monitor feature that requires a separate (and proprietary) armband. Moving the device between those functions (wristwatch and heart monitor) isn't that intuitive or easy – or quick.

Misfit Wearables chose a distinctly different path – by design.

"The first objective was to make a wearable device – not a tracking device that people wear. We built the Shine with that design intent and made it incredibly easy for anyone to use for a wide range of activity tracking." Sonny Vu – Co-Founder and CEO/Misfit Wearables

In order to achieve that objective, the device relies on a user-replaceable battery (good for 6 months), is roughly the size of 2 or 3 stacked quarters, is waterproof (not just water-resistant) and uses a proprietary technique of data transfer (to any iOS 5 device) that doesn't require cables, charging stations, WiFi – or even a Bluetooth connection. Watching Sonny demo the data transfer to an iPhone that was in “Airplane Mode” was bone simple, fast and impressive.

Activity goals are programmed via the data transfer – and then displayed via a series of lighted dots on the device to indicate the completion level. For this first release, activity that can be tracked (and then transferred back to any iOS 5 device) includes walking, running, swimming and biking. As a platform for just that seamless data capture and transfer – the possibilities are intriguing and exciting.

Following in the latest tradition of launching a new consumer technology device like the Pebble – and MetaWatch – Misfit is also using a crowdsourced consumer pre-order model for sales. Products like the Hidden Speaker, Pebble and MetaWatch have all ridden Kickstarter to early success – and Misfit is banking on a similar trajectory on Indiegogo. Base pricing is $99 with a March (2013) ship date for online orders (retail availability soon after). That’s also some of the consumer risk. Pebble originally started as a Kickstarter project to raise $100,000. With 68,929 “backers,” the final tally was more than 100 times that – $10,266,845. Even with that early and sizable financial support,  actual shipping has been delayed and consumers are left to wonder if their Pebble purchase back in April will ship in time for this Christmas.

This is also where any crowdsourcing comparisons end and where Misfit’s trajectory as a company is vastly different. To start, Sonny has successfully delivered mobile healthcare products before – at scale. In a business as challenging as mobile healthcare, that's a compelling - and fundable advantage. As the Co-Founder of AgaMatrix, a predecessor company, Sonny helped to develop a glucose meter that was one of the world’s first hardware medical devices to work with an iPhone. As with most healthcare tech innovation, it was anything but an overnight success.  Working with his Co-Founder, college roommate Sridhar Iyengar, they bootstrapped the venture for years without VC funding. Today, 11 years later, AgaMatrix has over 10 products with FDA clearance, over 1 million people using their glucose meter and a strategic partnership with sanofi-aventis (the world’s 4th largest pharmaceutical company and largest maker of basal insulin). When it came time for a new venture, Sonny added John Sculley as the 3rd Co-Founder and secured $8.4 million in funding from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, O’Reilly’s AlphaTech Ventures, and incTank. The official title for John Sculley and Vinod Khosla on Misfit's website? Helpers.

All of which comes back to the name – Misfit Wearables. Out of admiration and deep respect – Sonny chose the name for his latest venture after hearing the news that Steve Jobs had died. Given his trajectory so far – Sonny is clearly a member of that tribe of “crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently.” With the consumer design sensibility of the Misfit Shine – it’s not hard to see this tribe of “misfits” – including one John Sculley – driving this venture straight through any gates over at One Infinite Loop.