Going from a B2B semiconductor manufacturer to a global Internet of Things (IoT) brand in four years sounds improbable, but for the founders of Blink, a home security camera company based outside Boston, building a global product was only a matter of time.
“We always wanted to go direct to consumer,” explains Don Shulsinger, Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing. “We knew our technology would allow battery-operated cameras, which hadn’t really been done before. So we took the technology that we had and decided to build Blink.”
Meanwhile, the company felt increasingly frustrated working with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
“They’re slow to move. It can take literally years before a great technology idea shows up with a third party’s brand,” Don says.
In July 2014, to test out its DIY home security camera concept, the company ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. “In six weeks, we sold over $1 million worth of products to around 7,000 customers,” Don says.
Realizing they were onto something, company founders garnered additional investors, put together their supply chain, and opened sales channels through Amazon.com and their own website, before officially launching their flagship product at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.