Talk given at the BLN IOT 14 conference in Cambridge on April 15th 2014.

1. Objects in mirror are
closer than they appear.
Lessons from 10 years of #iot
@iotwatch / @GNLteam
designswarm.com / goodnightlamp.com

2. CEO of Tinker London
2007-2010
Good Night Lamp
2012-
designswarm
2011-

4. Don’t waste time with
definitions
Human-Computer Interaction
Ubiquitous computing /
ubicomp
blogjects
Internet of things
Smart (insert noun)
Internet of Everything
Industrial Internet
Wearables
Connected products
Lesson 1

5. Litmus test?

6. The forbidden apple of
crowd-funding
A convenient way for investors to ignore you
early on (you may not need them anyway)
A quick way to do market research.
Not a replacement for real PR.
You become part of a market, people want
to make money from you as an entrepreneur.
Lesson 2

7. You are educating
investors.
Early days for investors who have been
investing in web for over 15 years.
Most tech investors focusing on industrial /
B2B
Consumer-focused investments are led by
US (Foundry Group/Tech Stars)
Lesson 3

8. Aqui-hires are a trend
Nest & OR make for poor examples of
success in #iot
Larger problems such as distribution &
retailing of smart products will need to be
solved by companies who stick at it.
2 years developing a product isn’t long
enough.
Lesson 4

9. Surround yourself with
experts
Supply chain & retail are known skillsets but
are different communities
Electronics engineering isn’t easy to find & is
expensive but will help design something
scalable
A 20 something or a graduate can’t help you
with either.
Lesson 5

10. Pace yourself
Incubators & accelerators are often too short
& shouldn’t put you off your course.
It takes 3 years to really be known in all
markets but also be boring to some.
Decide if you’re a one product company or a
products company. (Lava Lamp vs Apple)
Lesson 6

11. Try not to move to Silicon
Valley
Silicon Valley doesn’t have as much
engineering & marketing as the UK but it
has some money.
Open a sales office there.
Go to CES / SXSW / XOYO / FooCamp
Lesson 7

12. You’re not alone.
#iotlondon has 2.7K members
meetup.com/iotlondon
Retailers interested in new ideas (JLab)
Angel funding will catch up
meetup.com/iotangels
Lesson 8

14. Good luck.
Lessons from 10 years of #iot
@iotwatch / @GNLteam
designswarm.com / goodnightlamp.com