The uBeam FAQ

[EEVblog]

Check this out:
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2016/02/15/so-what-is-the-right-level-of-burn-rate-for-a-startup-these-days/

Mark Suster who funded uBeam to the tune of $10M, odds are he's talking about uBeam here:

If on the other hand we have committed $10 million and if you don’t have 3 other investors around the table and if you’re burning $800k / month (implying you need $10 million more to fund one-year’s operations or nearly $15 million to fund 18 months) – we’re simply “over our skis” in order to help you because we wouldn’t put $25 million in one company at our size fund. So even if we LOVE your business you are stretching our ability to fund you in tough times.

He invested $7.5M, the "biggest cheque he's ever written", and $800k/month churn rate sounds about right for a company the size of uBeam.
Obviously using uBeam as a case example here even though he's not saying it. And he says "It’s a very personal topic "

And rumour has it they aren't showing real hardware demo's to anyone, even under NDA. Glad I didn't take Perry up on her offer of a tour, that would have been a waste of a 24,000km trip

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Like the names for the little lessons to learn
"Tragedy of the Commons", "Pottery-Barn Rule", "free rider problem" and "in over our skis"
but I didn't see in Mr Suster's list any mention of "make sure the technology isn't bullshit". I now implore him to put that item in.

I think my grandfather had a better system for picking winners at the dog racing than this guy has at picking viable companies.

[l0rd_hex]

And rumour has it they aren't showing real hardware demo's to anyone, even under NDA. Glad I didn't take Perry up on her offer of a tour, that would have been a waste of a 24,000km trip

Shoulda sent Dave #2 aka David

BTW: Rumor around my apartment is she just makes you watch while she eats an entire ham (after signing an NDA).

[timb]

And rumour has it they aren't showing real hardware demo's to anyone, even under NDA. Glad I didn't take Perry up on her offer of a tour, that would have been a waste of a 24,000km trip

Shoulda sent Dave #2 aka David

BTW: Rumor around my apartment is she just makes you watch while she eats an entire ham (after signing an NDA).

Hey, don't knock it. Some guys will pay a kingly sum to fap it to a plus sized beauty eating an entire ham. An entire ham.

[l0rd_hex]

Yes, "hamming" is taking America by storm!

I didn't actually mean anything against her directly, I was going for the absurdity of signing an NDA, having your top technical people arrive at their headquarters and being led into a room where there is something covered by a sheet on a table. Perry arrives and gives a 15 minute speech about how awesome she is and then the moment of truth... the sheet is whipped away and it's.... a ham? The doors lock and everyone looks around nervously as Perry takes the ham with both hands and takes a large bite. She continues to talk about their technical advances but no one can anything over the sound of ham! "I ache with embarrassment" says one of the Japanese backers. "I wonder if that's honey ham" says one of your finest EEs. After nearly an hour of hamming someone speaks up "Uh, is that all? We were expecting to see a prototype...". Perry throws the ham bone at the group and they turn to run. "Make a prototype outta that!" she yells while smacking on the last of the ham.

<end scene>

 

[LabSpokane]

Check this out:
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2016/02/15/so-what-is-the-right-level-of-burn-rate-for-a-startup-these-days/

Mark Suster who funded uBeam to the tune of $10M, odds are he's talking about uBeam here:

If on the other hand we have committed $10 million and if you don’t have 3 other investors around the table and if you’re burning $800k / month (implying you need $10 million more to fund one-year’s operations or nearly $15 million to fund 18 months) – we’re simply “over our skis” in order to help you because we wouldn’t put $25 million in one company at our size fund. So even if we LOVE your business you are stretching our ability to fund you in tough times.

He invested $7.5M, the "biggest cheque he's ever written", and $800k/month churn rate sounds about right for a company the size of uBeam.
Obviously using uBeam as a case example here even though he's not saying it. And he says "It’s a very personal topic "

And rumour has it they aren't showing real hardware demo's to anyone, even under NDA. Glad I didn't take Perry up on her offer of a tour, that would have been a waste of a 24,000km trip

$800k/mo seems pretty outrageous to me. That would be at least 50 well paid engineers plus bennies and overhead. Obvious there are some hardware costs in there, but that really smells fishy to me. I'm not saying this is going on a uBeam, but it's not unheard of for the "other people's money" being spent to boomerang back into the execs' pockets in the form of owning the property being leased, making loans to the company at high interest rates, etc.  That just seems like a metric shit ton of cash flowing with nothing to show for it.

[timb]

Check this out:
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2016/02/15/so-what-is-the-right-level-of-burn-rate-for-a-startup-these-days/

Mark Suster who funded uBeam to the tune of $10M, odds are he's talking about uBeam here:

If on the other hand we have committed $10 million and if you don’t have 3 other investors around the table and if you’re burning $800k / month (implying you need $10 million more to fund one-year’s operations or nearly $15 million to fund 18 months) – we’re simply “over our skis” in order to help you because we wouldn’t put $25 million in one company at our size fund. So even if we LOVE your business you are stretching our ability to fund you in tough times.

He invested $7.5M, the "biggest cheque he's ever written", and $800k/month churn rate sounds about right for a company the size of uBeam.
Obviously using uBeam as a case example here even though he's not saying it. And he says "It’s a very personal topic "

And rumour has it they aren't showing real hardware demo's to anyone, even under NDA. Glad I didn't take Perry up on her offer of a tour, that would have been a waste of a 24,000km trip

$800k/mo seems pretty outrageous to me. That would be at least 50 well paid engineers plus bennies and overhead. Obvious there are some hardware costs in there, but that really smells fishy to me. I'm not saying this is going on a uBeam, but it's not unheard of for the "other people's money" being spent to boomerang back into the execs' pockets in the form of owning the property being leased, making loans to the company at high interest rates, etc.  That just seems like a metric shit ton of cash flowing with nothing to show for it.

I know where the money is going!

A former executive from Smithfield Foods told me that Meredith Perry is attempting a hostile takeover of the company. She plans on renovating the smoke house so she can live there. Apparently she wants a conveyer belt installed so all the hams produced go directly into her mouth.

_{(I used to live in Smithfield, VA (Ham Capitol of the World) and on days when the wind was jussst right, you could smell smoked ham. On days the wind was wrong, you'd smell the pig trucks, which was about as bad as you'd imagine.)}

[EEVblog]

$800k/mo seems pretty outrageous to me. That would be at least 50 well paid engineers plus bennies and overhead. Obvious there are some hardware costs in there, but that really smells fishy to me.

According to LinkedIn they have 24 employees:
https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=3038762&trk=extra_biz_employees_deg_connected
So maybe double that as everyone is not on Linkedin, or bother to update.

Also, it seems they have a production clean room and all the latest toys. Just their production setup alone would cost a lot, they are making their own transducers apparently.

I have no doubt the facilities and tech would be very impressive if you visited, which is almost certainly the reason Perry invited me (apart from fire fighting and pre-empting my announcement I was thinking about doing a video on it).

[EEVblog]

I think they settled a year or two ago.
I think Dweck may have dodged a bullet there!

I heard she got a sizeable chunk of the company.

[LabSpokane]

$800k/mo seems pretty outrageous to me. That would be at least 50 well paid engineers plus bennies and overhead. Obvious there are some hardware costs in there, but that really smells fishy to me.

According to LinkedIn they have 24 employees:
https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/p?f_CC=3038762&trk=extra_biz_employees_deg_connected
So maybe double that as everyone is not on Linkedin, or bother to update.

Also, it seems they have a production clean room and all the latest toys. Just their production setup alone would cost a lot, they are making their own transducers apparently.

I have no doubt the facilities and tech would be very impressive if you visited, which is almost certainly the reason Perry invited me (apart from fire fighting and pre-empting my announcement I was thinking about doing a video on it).

I'm certainly cynical about these types of companies, but every picture I've seen is of a lab with gear that's either on par or inferior to what I have in my personal lab.  If I had a high end facility and was dying for cash, I'd showcase the facility.

As for building one's own tranducers, thats just a total headscratcher. Maybe there's an IP issue that drove the decision, but ultrasonics is a technology that's at least seven decades old and well into maturity. So, inventing their own production techniques really strikes me as odd. Typically that's what one has to do after everyone that knows what they're doing tells you to FO. 

If I visited, maybe I would find the production equipment (if it exists, I have my serious doubts) interesting, but I'm not sure about being impressed. I'm more impressed by companies that manage their cash flow toward a self-sustaining future. ;-)

[l0rd_hex]

As for building one's own tranducers, thats just a total headscratcher. Maybe there's an IP issue that drove the decision, but ultrasonics is a technology that's at least seven decades old and well into maturity. So, inventing their own production techniques really strikes me as odd. Typically that's what one has to do after everyone that knows what they're doing tells you to FO.

Maybe the IP is from the steering side? (i.e.) how to locate the other transducer and blast it with nature's finest^tm ultra sonic?

[l0rd_hex]

_{(I used to live in Smithfield, VA (Ham Capitol of the World) and on days when the wind was jussst right, you could smell smoked ham. On days the wind was wrong, you'd smell the pig trucks, which was about as bad as you'd imagine.)}

The real danger here is SALTY HAMS



Although there is the ham of truth!:




_{Fun Fact: Canadian comedy has been dominated by ham-based jokes for the last 35 years}

[EEVblog]

Meredith tweeted this the other day and them promptly deleted, presumably after someone tapped her on the shoulder and said that's probably not a good idea.
A photo of their first ASIC.
What does that mean? Well it obviously means that they were not close to production if this is their first ever ASIC. It's not even packaged yet, just hot off the wafer line.
And it shows were the money has been going too, ASIC's aren't cheap.
Also, what ASIC is it? The transmitter? The receiver?
It also shows how much further they have to do before actual production.

And of course, more classic Meredith - "Keeping silicon relevant in the valley" as if no one else is doing it 

[EEVblog]

I haven't watched it, don't know what's in it, but here are the two amigo's:

[EEVblog]

Interesting way he words things at 12:30:
"If this works, and you would say when this works" and that's the guy who funded it 
https://youtu.be/dwpJsWb-jWM?t=12m30s

And then Perry says "You aren't going to lose your money because we have alternate plans, you know that"
So obviously they expect to fail and have planed for that.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Meredith tweeted this the other day and them promptly deleted, presumably after someone tapped her on the shoulder and said that's probably not a good idea.
A photo of their first ASIC.
What does that mean? Well it obviously means that they were not close to production if this is their first ever ASIC. It's not even packaged yet, just hot off the wafer line.
And it shows were the money has been going too, ASIC's aren't cheap.
Also, what ASIC is it? The transmitter? The receiver?
It also shows how much further they have to do before actual production.

And of course, more classic Meredith - "Keeping silicon relevant in the valley" as if no one else is doing it 

And WTF are they doing making ASICs before demonstrating anything ? Just pissing more VC money away?
And that die looks huge, way too big for it to be cost-viable in a receiver.
Or it could just be BS
 

[mikeselectricstuff]

"you'll be able to lift your phone in the air & charge" 
"almost delusional mentality" - well that's about right, minus the "almost"

[EEVblog]

And WTF are they doing making ASICs before demonstrating anything ? Just pissing more VC money away?

Yep, because that's what "vision" people do when they innovate, they go big or go home.
None of this rubbish about really proving the technology first, that amateurs who don't have the balls to be real "innovators". All it takes is an "innovator" with true vision and unwavering belief, and the input of money and it will work 

Of course, if they did actually have something that worked, you can bet your bottom dollar Perry would be on every stage whipping out her phone with the receiver attached and show it charging, preferably with a power meter. Even if it was brick size she'd still be shoving it in everyone's face with a big grin saying "See, I told you it works!"
But of course they have never shown a thing. AFAIK the last demo was Perry's original veroboard proto, and that was never shown actually outputting any useful power.

And that die looks huge, way too big for it to be cost-viable in a receiver.
Or it could just be BS

Presuming it is the actual die, then yes, it's huge, so best guess is the beamforming transmitter. Their researchers must have had a field day with that one. No wonder they can get people to work for them, spend all you want developing a cutting edge ASIC, all you gotta do is pretend you believe it's going to be a practical product.

[EEVblog]

"almost delusional mentality" - well that's about right, minus the "almost"

I chuckled at that bit 

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Watching the interview it seems to me that this is the start of the end game. How are they going to get out with money, and reputations not too damaged?

They are the ones sowing the doubt here about uBeam. Probably preparing the backers for their eventual failure.
Then glossing things over by implying failure is actually ok in this business.

[coppice]

If that's a picture of a wafer those are some strange looking die. If you just look at one square it looks more like a lead frame than a chip.

[SeanB]

If that's a picture of a wafer those are some strange looking die. If you just look at one square it looks more like a lead frame than a chip.

More like a memory array, with the central high density memory array surrounded by decode logic and support logic.

If it is a power device it must be running at insane power levels if the bonding has to be 100 plus wires to the chip.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just had a quick browse through some of the patents.
The feeling I get is they are trying to cover as many possibilities as possible for anything relating to ultrasonic power transfer.
My guess is that that when they realise that it's a complete fail for consumer phone charging  they will try to sell/license the patent portfolio and any manufacturing IP for niche applications.

Of course it could be that they're just trying to throw as many patent applications out there as possible to give some credibility that they've actually achieved something useful. 

 

[dadler]

But...but.. She demonstrated real devices right there from her mission impossible briefcase. You just put this on the ceiling and put that on your phone...

[LabSpokane]

Apparently, when every other aspect of one's plan is in the shitter, building an ASIC is what one does to demonstrate "progress."  It looks impressive - even if it's total horseshit.