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SmartKlock - Reinventing the Clock!

Here is an insightful and candid conversation - an eChai with Jason, Founder, SmartKlock.

What is SmartKlock?

SmartKlock is a notification platform that helps cut out the noise and focus in on what’s important. Our customizable cloud based IOT platform allows for granular control over notifications, so users are only interrupted by information that truly matters to them. The platform includes a hardware device (the SmartKlock One), an app and a cloud component. Once setup, the SmartKlock One pulls notifications from your phone, filters them and displays them in a manner optimized for communicating the maximum information at a glance.

We were inspired by the original notification device, the clock. In a mechanical clock, each feature, the date window, lunar or solar calendar are called “complications”. The date “complication” is most commonly seen in watches today. As they evolved, clocks became more advanced and from the sundial to modern time, they’ve developed new complications but no longer track what’s important to users. Today even the fanciest clocks haven’t evolved much since the 90s- Well, we’re going to change that. In conceptualizing SmartKlock, we wanted to focus in on what 21st century complications would look like if we reimagined the clock today.

Tell us more about your team ?

Apart from the core team listed above, SmartKlock has been supported by 29 interns from BITs Pilani and SRIEIT College in Goa. We also continue to be advised by a rotating cast of brilliant electronic engineers, hackers, process guru’s and even logistics and crowdfunding experts. 

With SmartKlock interns (BITs Pilani,)

Recently Jason was one of the speakers at TEDxPanji where he spoke on the topic of Smartphone addiction and SmartKlock as a solution. You can watch his TEDx Talk here:


How did you come up with the idea ?​​

We were overwhelmed by the amount of information flowing out of our smartphones all day and the anxiety the beeping and buzzing it caused. The average person spends over 4 hours a day staring at their smartphone, more than half of which is spent checking notifications in 30 second increments. New research has shown that for every 30 seconds of distraction, one loses up to 30 minutes of productivity, a staggering and sobering statistic.

Living digital in the 21st century can sometimes feel like you’re standing in the middle of a crowded party with people around you talking very loudly. The world is a crowded place and the internet has made it so everybody has a voice, the problem is you can’t hear anything when everybody is speaking all at once.

In fact, research has shown that smartphone notifications can cause symptoms in users akin to ADHD. As somebody with ADHD myself this wasn’t surprising. Tuning out useless information in real time during conversations was a solution I’d learned early on but was at a loss as to how that could transfer to notifications.

SmartKlock Inc, a Delaware C corporation, was founded in August 2014, when my co-founder Aprup Shet, and I along with a small dedicated team, began work on a revolutionary new communications device. Our goal was to liberate the world from notification anxiety and give people back a sense of control over their digital life. to their information faster. We christened the device, the SmartKlock One. 

What problem are you solving ?

SmartKlock is designed to help people triage and filter the mass of information coming at them. While smart speakers are a very hot space right now, these devices are terrible at notifications. In fact, Fastcompany dedicated an entire article (On Amazon Echo And Google Home, Notifications Could Be Brilliant–Or Brutal) to explaining just how bad these class of devices are at handling notifications. You can imagine private messages being read out, or worse, even more notifications to deal with in addition to the average 150 a day most consumers already receive. This is where SmartKlock adds value. SmartKlock includes all the functionality built in to so called smartspeakers, but also includes a full-blown notification management system with IFTT integration as well. 


How does it work ?

Our device cross communicates with your smartphone and coordinates what notifications are displayed there and which notifications can be offloaded to the SmartKlock for later viewing based on a set of pre-determined filters. This gives us an edge on devices like smartphones (which are unable to track multiple pieces of data simultaneously) or Smartspeakers which do this terribly, SmartKlock relishes the challenge of triaging the massive amount of notifications that consumers are being bombarded with. 


What is your target market ?

Our initial push will be in the US, particularly California, Texas and New York because based on demographic records, these states represent an outsized percentage of Kickstarter users. Our users are likely to be aged 18-44, mostly male and college educated. Subsequent to Kickstarter, we will shift to a more expansive global strategy that will likely begin with Amazon Launchpad and see us focused on other markets including India, where we intend to do all the R&D for these and future devices. 

What is your competitive advantage ?

The SmartKlock One is a first in class device. No existing product offers this kind of functionality. Smartspeakers are taking off, but they struggle with notifications, don’t coordinate notifications with smartphones, and add to distraction and loss of productivity. Finally, they’re minimally customizable. In contrast, SmartKlock filters notifications appearing on your phone, promotes a productive and peaceful existence and is infinitely customizable both in style and substance. 


How much time did it take you from conceptualization of 'your venture' to actually launching it in the market ?

SmartKlock is expected to launch on Kickstarter soon. We are in the final prototype stage and are in the process of raising funds to finish development and for the launch. While SmartKlock in its current iteration didn’t come together till late 2014, we had been working on the problem since late 2012. Our initial prototype was designed to work on a Freescale IMX233 processor, have an e-ink display and feature two rows of predetermined icons. We had concerns however, about whether the device added enough value and we scrapped the design altogether when we learned that procurement of custom e-ink displays for our device at a competitive price would be impossible to do at scale.

Undaunted, we reimagined the product. Deciding to upgrade everything, we went with a bigger color screen, a faster more capable processor, sturdier OS and a removable faceplate. We flew to Hong Kong with the new design and met with component manufacturers to ensure we could build the device at scale. This was the genesis of SmartKlock One.

The result was a much better device. Today notifications are an even bigger problem than when we first started, and Smartspeakers are exploding in popularity. The market is hot and SmartKlock One is exactly the product for its time and place. 

SmartKlock meets with component manufacturers in Hong Kong.


How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies ?

Initially, our focus is Kickstarter - using a laser focus to drive potential customers to the Kickstarter page so we can start showing sales. Since ours is a social media heavy device and a phone accessory it lends itself very well to the Kickstarter market since 1/3 of the top 10 Kickstarter projects connect to the phone in some way and those that have a social media component have also done extremely well.

While SmartKlock One will be shipped worldwide, our primary market initially is the United States because of the realities of Kickstarter. At its core, ours is a productivity tool so our primary customer the average person overwhelmed with too much information and too little time to process it or even the hurried young professional who wants to hone his productivity. Because our device is highly customizable, via removable faceplates, people whose job it is to track certain metrics like stocks or exchange rates will find our device particularly useful, as will the average social media obsessed teenager or news junkie. Businesses would also find utility in having the SmartKlock display a live view of their social media channels to guests.

We will also be releasing individual faceplates for all major social media channels enabling fans of any particular social network to monitor multiple metrics simultaneously while simultaneously getting granular control over their notifications from that network giving them a far greater flexibility then they have today with their cellphones. Heavy users of social media networks for recreation or work would also be potential SmartKlock One users. 


What is the revenue model ?

For SmartKlock, hardware is just one component of a broader strategy that involves sales of digital goods and may include digital advertising on certain clock channels. SmartKlock includes a device component (the SmartKlock One), an app/cloud component and an online channel store.

This will allow us to scale where we sell digital goods and features for the clock (i.e. premium notification channels, themes, clock faces, alarm tones etc.) In fact, ultimately, I believe the sales of these digital goods and perhaps targeted digital advertising individual channels will far exceed the revenue from device sales alone. We are at the confluence of hardware and software, and that’s a very exciting space.


What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision ?

Imagine being able to take a little peace of mind back for yourself. Imagine being able to filter out the mass of useless information, the unending Twitter trolls and weed out the cyberbullies. Imagine always getting notified of the information that matters, and never missing out because you’ve tuned out from your phone.

We see ourselves as being in the notification space and part of that involves creating the most advanced clock of the 21st century. Clocks have always had a place in the home- we are merely reimagining the concept for the 21st century. Our debut device the SmartKlock One will launch before the end of the year on Kickstarter.

Our product isn’t just a device however, it’s the platform itself. We will constantly be releasing new faceplates to monitor new information, and software updates via the cloud that will enable the device to constantly evolve and get better at filtering information over time. We will also release other devices in the future that pull from the same settings but display the information in a different form factor. In the future, the cloud component platform will beam down to a wide universe of connected IOT devices, from wearables like smartwatches to appliances like televisions and refrigerators all powered by SmartKlock technology, bringing filtered uncluttered notifications to the masses. SmartKlock is built to be the last word on notification management, but we will never rest, continue to evolve and represent the symbolism in our logo- the unfinished clock. 

What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community ?

Our immediate next step is to close out our second angel round. Right now, we are raising funds to complete development on the device and to finance the Kickstarter campaign itself. Now, is a particularly good time for an investor to get involved because we expect our valuation to triple between now and the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign. This means of course that there will be a significant inflection point in the valuation subsequent to the campaign at which point we will likely go in for a Series A round. We would love for anybody in this community to connect us with people in the startup finance/Angel/VC industry that they think could potentially be a good fit for us. 



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eChai is an offline-online social network of entrepreneurs who believe in Co.Rise :-) l tweets from @jatin10

@Jason - When are you expected to start the Kickstarter campaign for SmartKlock?

Jason Fernandes

@eChaiVentures - The exact date would vary based on how quickly we are to raise funds but we expect to be on Kickstarter within 90 days after we finish the current fundraising round.

Karishma Shah
Technopreneur | Foodie | Traveler | Reader | Writer | Painter | Advisor | Inquisitive Learner

Good concept!
At what price do you plan to sell each unit to the end consumer? And would it support different languages now or in future?

Jason Fernandes

Hi Karishma,
thank you!
Regarding your questions, on Kickstarter, we're hoping to get each unit to about 110$-150$ (on a sliding scale). We expect, however, that digital sales on the store(filters/themes/alarm tones), custom faceplates and ad-revenue will far exceed revenue from the device itself.
Notifications will be displayed in the language they arrive in. The UI itself, in contrast, will incorporate other language options in the future.

Dhruv Gupta
A researcher turned entrepreneur, a computer scientist by certificate and a design thinker by training who did his first startup at 18. He has built 3 (three) tech startups till now and has been part of the journey for many startups as consultant, mentor and investor.

@jason-fernandes - This seems like a good concept and feels like need of the time. Your interview reminded me of a discussion with a very senior professor of design, that about 15 years ago we tagged clocks/watches as single functional device and made them almost obsolete, but now we are trying to make these clocks and watches multi-functional devices and make them an essential to have once again.

So if we see the trend clocks/watches have transformed from a scientific instrument to a timepiece for public to an ornament/accessory and now into a information sensory as well as display device. What do you think is next..?? How clocks/watches will be used by humans by end of next decades..??