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Senstone Inc.

Senstone

USA, California
Market: Gadgets
Stage of the project: Prototype or product is ready

Date of last change: 22.05.2018
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Idea

We are an audio company on a mission to change the way people take notes and record their life experiences on the go. And that is through simple yet elegant voice user interface solution. It combines designed hardware and software platform with our own natural language processing tools.

The team worked on the device for two years, the company was founded in September 2016, with the ambition to become a global consumer voice tech company to getting as close as possible to eliminating keyboards and typing and by using the most natural input method available.

Current Status

Currently, Senstone is at the production stage, we ongoing manufacturing, setting up fulfillment process, and scaling strategy in order to deliver the first batches to our backers by Fall this year.

Market

Through the course of our successful crowdfunding campaign (we over completed our goal by almost 700%, with around 3k backers and $350K raised, we have identified 4 major markets (by profession and sorted by priority):
- authors and bloggers and other content creators who will use Senstone in the -
normal course of their business
business people and managers for productivity purposes
- travelers
- doctors
The rate of expansion and market growth will depend on the ability to be adding new languages.

Problem or Opportunity

In the rush of daily activity, ideas often disappear and are forgotten. Common ways to capture thoughts (pen and paper, note-taking apps) do not allow to conveniently take notes when on the go. Smartphone is not a solution because it's bulky and gets in the way. Notes are hard to find because they lack any context. AI has not been used as of now to help organize, analyze and predict our productivity cycles.

We will cover the need for a device designed specifically for note-taking. Created for using on the spot, in situations not always convenient for writing things down. It is a plainly easier and time-saving way to capture observations, thoughts, and necessary information by using the most natural solution - voice. The value is also in deep voice and language pattern analysis for customer to receive a tailored suggestions and recommendations on the best times to act based on self-learning system.

Solution (product or service)

Our first product is a sensitive voice recording wearable that the lets creative people capture their thoughts and life experiences on the go in just a finger snap.

You clip Senstone to your cloth, tap to start recording, tap to stop and your voice memos are automatically synced into the Cloud. We use AI to convert voice to text notes, to-do lists, reminders, and organize them by keywords, location, time, and even emotional shade.Notes are web accessible, searchable, editable, and integrated with 3rd party apps.

Competitors

Direct competitors are Myle.tap, Onyx, Mikme, Titan Note (suspended from Indiegogo).

The closest is Myle.tap, a crowdfunded start-up which has similar functionality to ours, but it raised 3 times less, it loses in design appeal and they take a different approach to integrating whole experience for note-taking. They have production issues for the last 2 years, and haven’t delivered the product yet.

Our biggest competitor is pen and paper as most of our target customers use this method to take notes, but lose all benefits of digital notes and can not take notes on the go. Evernote is another popular way to take notes, but again it's not efficient on the go. Typing on the phone is long and irritating for spontaneous ideas, especially when having creative trail of thought or running around busy. We've found our customers are ready to pay extra for the ease of use.

Apple's Siri or Google's Assistant in combination with smart watches, or Amazon's Echo offer similar experience to ours, but it is not tailored for note-taking, therefore loses in note-taking and note post-processing experience.

Our biggest competitive advantage lies in the laser focus on personal voice notes on the go. We made the technology not only accessible, but convenient and pleasurable to use. Pure and minimalist design will match any style or look, and there are several finishes to it.

Advantages or differentiators

Overall our USP is in integrated approach to note-taking on the go through unique hardware, software and audio-based AI.

We also have the advantage of having a head start of about 18 months: we already have 3,500 customers and received 2,5k pre-orders from B2B. We have working devices tested by potential users, and we already issued the order for production and are on a track to deliver.

Finance

The average price of the device will vary around $100. We will also introduce a couple of subscription models for premium features and we will offer additional accessories for $15-$30 per piece.

Business model

Our business model is two fold:

1) Direct sales of devices.
2) Several subscription models for premium features, including AI: subject extraction, intonational recognition, personalized platform etc, primarily for professional needs (journalists, doctors, teachers and professors). (Starting late 2018).

As additional revenue stream we will offer additional accessories( clip, bracelet, pendant) for $15-$30 per piece.


Currently, we sell our product through Indiegogo platform (igg.me/at/senstone). We decided to still take pre-orders on lower than the market prices by a growing community demand. Soon we will launch sales on our own website.

In addition to direct sales, our go-to marketing strategy includes working with e-commerce platforms (Amazon, Fab, BestBuy) and online retailers (Rakunew,Think Geek) to distribute our product through their platforms.

Also, we are in preparing B2B and partnerships with popular productivity platforms (Slack, Evernote) and well-know fashion and wellness brands (Michael Kors, Swarovski, Fitbit).

Money will be spent on

Use of funds: to cover manufacturing needs, optimizing the pilot product and further product development, marketing needs for product launch

Offer for investor

To be discussed.

Risks

As we're using third party engine for speech-to-text conversion, we need to pay for each transaction. This puts the limit on number of transactions you can take per month for free. Currently we assume a normal limit would be free 300 transactions per month, which wouldn't be noticeable for you on average use, and would still make sense to us economically. But it might end up being to few transactions for you, or still tight for us economically over time. We manage this risk by giving you free 3 months of (almost) unlimited transactions, then measure the average use and try to set limit just above this number. So it can be more or less than 300 per month. For people who use Senstone more frequently we will offer premium app subscription with larger number of transactions. And you will still be able to make recordings even after the limit is reached. It's just that we won't be able to transcribe it automatically.

Incubation/Acceleration programs accomplishment

- We participated in IoT Hub Kyiv in 2016. It helped us to present the product to the broad audience in Spring '16 and receive first feedback on functionality and design.
- We have also participated the HAX Growth program aimed at accelerating the company.

Won the competition and other awards

- UVCA Challenge: CES Edition 2018 (The opportunity to present Senstone at Ces 2018).
- IT Arena Startup Competition: Best startup of the year in B2C.
- STEP-GPS competition by CRDF(The opportunity to present Senstone at Techcrunch Disrupt 2017)
- Roadtrip to China by Innostars (The opportunity to visit largest manufacturing cities and connect with investors from China)

Invention/Patent

Two patents are now in progress: utility patent and design ( We applied for design patent in March 2017 and for provisional utility patent in January 2017; we will be making an application for non-provisional patent during next several months). We have developed our own Bluetooth LE technology, protocol, firmware and the system for voice activation, and there are 4 core IP of the system:
- Product design;
- Firmware and communication protocol between Senstone and smartphone;
- AI system for converting natural language into categorized notes;
- Algorithms that analyze voice and audio and provides personalized recommendations.

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Idea
Current Status
Market
Problem or Opportunity
Solution (product or service)
Competitors
Advantages or differentiators
Finance
Invested in previous rounds, $
Business model
Money will be spent on
Offer for investor
Team or Management
Mentors & Advisors
Lead investor
Risks
Incubation/Acceleration programs accomplishment
Won the competition and other awards
Invention/Patent
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Product Video
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