Vancouver-born Eric Migicovsky has found success on a global scale. The CEO and Founder of Pebble gained fame and fortune when he launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 that was the first project to achieve the $10 million in funding milestone.
The Pebble smartwatch was later released in early 2013 and the company eventually raised over $26 million from various investors, including Charles River Ventures.
At the time, Pebble was one of the original smartwatches on the market. Now, with many leading manufacturers pining for space on your wrist, Pebble is facing heavy competition. However, Pebble has a loyal following and decided to go back to its roots.
A new Kickstarter project was unveiled today by Pebble that introduced the Pebble Time. This is a new smartwatch that features a colour e-paper display and its new Timeline UI. Within 17-minutes after going live, Pebble achieved it’s $500,000 goal. Then Thirty-plus minutes later skyrocketed to over $1,000,000. Kickster declared this project was the fastest to reach the $1 million milestone.
Pebble Time is expected to be available in May. At the time of writing, Pebble Time is currently just over $4,250,000.
Migicovsky was part one of the first companies in the VeloCity’s program at the University of Waterloo with Allerta. At a recent fireside chat at the MaRS Discovery District Centre, Migicovsky stated to future startups, “Never give up.”