Between shipping our new Kickstarter production units and traveling around the region for startup events, September shaped up to be a busy month for us. Here are some major highlights from the past month:
Manufacturing and Shipping
In late August we received CE and FCC certification and finished manufacturing. We began shipping our remaining Kickstarter units in batches, ramping up our system slowly to support an influx of ~800 new Kickstarter units, which has entailed greater reinforcement on both the user support end and our server-side development.
CNET Review and NPS
We received a strong review from CNET and a solid NPS score from our users. CNET’s reviewer, Aloysius Low, gave us 4 stars out of 5 after trying Ambi Climate for 3 weeks. He had many encouraging remarks including:
- “After spending about three weeks testing this, I’m pretty much sold on the idea. Given that most air conditioners in Asia are traditional, non-connected appliances, this device is an excellent add-on.”
- “To my surprise, the Ambi Climate does as it claims – the amount of power used when Ambi Climate was active [for seven hours] easily matched that of my regular use, which is turning it off after three hours.”
- “The app is simple and easy to use.”
- “If you live in Asia and want to cut down on your power consumption from turning on your air conditioner to chase away the tropical heat, Ambi Climate is an excellent choice to help you with that.”
We also ran our first Net Promoter survey, a management tool that helps companies to gauge customer loyalty. The average score for B2B is 29 and B2C 32. For an early stage startup, we were fairly pleased with a score of 45 among our users. In comparison to other products, such as the iPhone which scored 67 or Blackberry, which scored 28, our NPS seems to be a healthy reflection of our initial traction and user satisfaction. It’s also a good prompt to continue looking for ways to improve our user experience and product offerings.
Startup Asia Tokyo
In mid-September we headed to Tokyo for this year’s Startup Asia Tokyo conference. Japan has always been a very interesting market for us because of their national energy saving efforts, unique AC usage habits and general awareness of smart technology.We managed to meet a major Japanese electronics distributor and Japanese mobile carrier for very initial discussions. We also participated in Startup Tokyo’s Startup Investor Speed Dating, which provided a unique opportunity to gain a wide range of insights on our product development and target goals.After Startup Asia Tokyo, Julian headed to Kyoto for Bdash Camp, Japan’s largest invitation-only conference for local and overseas startups. It was another wonderful chance to learn from other successful startups and network with CXO-level investors, business developers and corporate development executives.
Hong Kong Events
Back in Hong Kong, we participated in a panel on IoT startups in Hong Kong as part of the first ever Made in HK Week, a series of events and talks hosted by General Assembly, featuring Hong Kong born-and-bred brands, companies and startups.
Julian was also invited to speak at September’s Web Wednesday gathering, a networking group with monthly events throughout Asia and Europe. Julian candidly shared our experiences building a hardware startup from the ground up, and touched on facets such as our “Asia-first” approach to solving problems specific to consumers in Asia.Now that October is here, we’re gearing up for a few more events before the year end including:
- 35th Hong Kong Electronics Fair Autumn Edition (12-16 October, HKCEC): Julian will be speaking on a panel about IoT and its business applications. If you’re in attending, visit us at Booth CH-M02 in the Smart Tech Zone.
- Global Sources - Mobile Electronics (18-21 October): We will also be at the Global Sources Trade Show as an exhibitor. Stop by Booth 9H07 in Startup Launchpad arena.
- Web Summit: In early November, Mathis, our head of AI, and Julian head to Dublin for one of the biggest tech conferences in Europe.
As we ship out units, we are already receiving positive feedback about Ambi Climate from our new users. We look forward to sharing these insights and October’s recap with you soon. Stay tuned!
