Highway1 Demo Day

liam casey:

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

brady forrest:

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

FingerTips Lab:

we're in stealth mode, so don't share this online [oh well]

Cara Delzer:

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

brady forrest:

I've been to those milk and cookies sessions - those moms want this pump

our next team is going after computer vision

Mashgin:

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

brady forrest:

this next team is trying to make the aquariam automated, and measure success in fish lives saved

Nathan Levine:

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

brady forrest:

we look forward to having some of you help fishbit scale [groans]

Switchmate:

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

brady forrest:

I'd like to welcome Doug CEO of @navdyinc - a recent alum

navdy:

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

Per Ljung:

@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

Chris Chuter:

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

brady forrest:

Cool Chip has reinvented the heat sink

CoolChipTechnologies:

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

brady forrest:

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

Eric Elias:

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

Danielle Philippi:

@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

brady forrest:

our goal is to get companies to a fundable prototype - one that can be manufactured

Sara Chipps:

@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

brady forrest:

a couple of weeks ago we announced that we are teaming up with 500 startups and ZPG to make a show on startups

ROLI:

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

brady forrest:

Our next class is Feb to May - we're accepting applications for awesome hardware startups for it

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