Highway1 Demo Day
brady forrest:if you ask big companies, they will tell you that making hardware is hard
we believe in small companies, and that if you can imagine it , it can bemade
these companies challenge us to find new ways to bring products to market in the fastest time
FingerTips Lab:it was about 2 years ago, almost ot this week that Liam asked me out to breakfast, to help hardware companiee
we're on our 3rd class, we've had 35 companies and 10 female founders - and Ringly started shipping bluetooth rings today
Drop went from demo day to the Apple store in 10 months - we want to get that down to 6 months
Cara Delzer:we're in stealth mode, so don't share this online [oh well]
brady forrest:Moxxly is a consumer technology company designing for women - we're reimagining the breast pump experience
A breast pump is supposed to free a mom up, and instead it ties her down.
Moxxly has interviewed over 100 women and they said "pumping makes me feel like a cow"
our first product is a discreet pump that sits inside the bra with a collecting device under the blouse
the pump sends information via bluetooth to the mother's phone on flow rate and time
current pumps are built and sold as medical devices - Moxxly is a lifestyle device for the breastfeeding stage of life
we're in a design and engineering sprint, and we are raising a seed round right now - moxxly.com
Mashgin:I've been to those milk and cookies sessions - those moms want this pump
our next team is going after computer vision
brady forrest:Can a computer understand what is on your lunch plate? No -because image recognition is hard. What if it could?
computers cannot find everything in a scene, and may not be accurate
current tech is a mixture of 2d camera tech and AI Now we can add 3D reconstruction
by doing 3d reconstruction we can measure multiple simultaneous objects in any orientation
we are going to apply this to the checkout line for cafeterias and small retail venues
as well as recognising the objects we can capture weight and volume and calcualte calories
we have a recognition accuracy of 98%
Compass with 50,000 locations are interested in working with us
there are billions spent annually on checkouts, for a process that customers hate. mashgin.com
Nathan Levine:this next team is trying to make the aquariam automated, and measure success in fish lives saved
brady forrest:Aquariums are absolutely incredible - it's putting the best bits of the ocean in your living room
it's common to get a fish and for it to die within the week
fishbit monitors your tank and water quality in real time
tank monitoring tools have been made by and for aquarium junkies, not normal people
we're designing for the other 87% of the aquarium market, not the experts
we have a suite of sensors that go in your tank in 15 minute sand connects to wifi to tell you what you need
by sensing the tank we can correct some things immediately, or send you the info or product you need directly
taking complicated water sensor data and simplifying it also applies to pools and hot-tubs
Switchmate:we look forward to having some of you help fishbit scale [groans]
brady forrest:home automation has <2% adoption. Why? we asked people at home depot etc
the installation of these solutions is messy and complicated and people are put off
switchmate snaps on over the switch, meaning install is instant, and you can then control from your phone.
our other competitor is smart lightbulbs, but you probably have fewer switches than bulbs so we're cheaper
we have sent trial units out to paying users across the USA, to get out of the silicon valley bubble
one user originally wanted to control his porch lights, but found it was more useful for bedroom lights moved it
what if you could snap something over the vents in your house, and control them remotely
navdy:I'd like to welcome Doug CEO of @navdyinc - a recent alum
Per Ljung:since demoday we've grown the team to 17 and raised a seed round, and we now have $4.7M in preorders
keep in touch with the Highway 1 alumni - it's a great group for advice
Chris Chuter:@lookseelabs makes jewellery wearables that display art images and notifciations
we've been standardised into using these little aalck boxes - phones. but we're not standard
we have flexible always on display jewellery (a bangle with a screen on)
you can match all your outfits and moods with a different image
bracelet has a black+white screen that you can update - with 1 year of battery life on a 10 minute charge (e-Ink?)
our target market is women who buy fine jewelery - they love our solid silver bracelets
brady forrest:Peeple is a device that sits on the inside of your door and looks through the peephole adn sends it to your phone
you will never miss a delivery again as we detect knocks on the door
we can screen who is on the door
we have simple install and a passive sensor - much lees intrusive than a dropcam
according to building code 94-153 - peepholes are required - it's the law, even in Texas
Peeple can unwarp the fisheye lens to give you a clear view of who is at the door
your door is no longer a blind spot
CoolChipTechnologies:Cool Chip has reinvented the heat sink
brady forrest:everything in computing has increased at exponential rates over the last decades, except the fan cooler
fans are loud, inefficient and a bottleneck on CPU speed
the technology is rooted in Darpa tech from Sandia labs, now on our team
we made cooling smaller, cooler and 100x quieter
throughout this talk our kinetic cooling engine has been running. but you can't hear it
if I turn on the competitive fan that extracts the same amount of heat [sudden loud fan noise]
we're showcasing out first product samples at CES and are interested in gamers to help quiet the xbox
Eric Elias:I think @coolchiptech should be called WhisperChip, but I'm not a branding expert
our next team @golagoon is going after water - it's hard to track personal usage
Danielle Philippi:water is a precious resource in the country, and it's getting more scarce because of the drought
another story we hear is about leaks destroying posessions and houses - millions a year
@golagoon answers the questions about what the water uses
water meters are dumb. we wrap a sensor around the meter and give it to your mobile app in real time
following our customised water plan can save hundreds
there are >70m single detached homes in the US with >1m already in connected homes
there are 41M rentals in the US with 2m impacted with drought
we're also working with water authorities to track their customers usage for them
brady forrest:@cargolabs is a connected car platform to make it easy to bring apps to market for older cars
only 3% of cars are connected now, but people want to connect the car they have not buy a new one
there is a ODBII port standard, but only 1 per car so you have to choose, we give a platform instead
I can see where my confounder is driving my car, and trip history as well as service status
cargo connects to your car but also to your dashcam and other sensors, like a baby seat
we work with car-sharing apps, but also with Dash - garages will give them for free for maintenance opportunities
Sara Chipps:our goal is to get companies to a fundable prototype - one that can be manufactured
brady forrest:@jewliebots is going to get girls coding - teenage girls love tech but they aren't building it
STEm jobs are growing at 77% but girls are missing out
I'm from the generation of people who became software developers because they didn't have any friends
I was a 12 year old homeschooled child who dascovered coding through BBS
we've talked to over 50 girls in the bay area -they want beauty, simplicity and friendship
@jewliebots are programmable jewellery - a mesh network of jewellery that sues lights and vibrations
we have worked with a high school class in berkeley and they have done our product design
using basic logic, we can say "if I'm with julie behave this way" "if I'm at home with mum behave this way"
we think this is an amazing mission, but also a big market - teenage girls spend $450/month
jewliebots being together fashion community and customisation
we want to have jewliebots ready for holiday season next year
in 2010 I started Girl Develop It - we've taught over 6000 women to code alreadt
ROLI:a couple of weeks ago we announced that we are teaming up with 500 startups and ZPG to make a show on startups
brady forrest:I'm roland lamb of ROLI - we have made a new musical instrument called the seaboard
it remimagines the piano keyboard as a series of waves you can play, but slide between the notes
using this elastic material you can play like a piano but also bend the note
it's not just about simulating instruments, but synthesising new instruments
film composers are loving this caapcity to create an expressive orchestral sound
we're based in London - we make Seaboards in railway arches in Dalston
Seaboards are from $2000 to $9000, so not cheaper but very popular with film composers and many recording artists
we're building an interface technology toolchain - keyboards are a 400 year old tehcnology
we have acquired Juce - a C++ framework in use by many music companies to integrate with our sensors
Our next class is Feb to May - we're accepting applications for awesome hardware startups for it