January
11, 2019

9 min read

CES may be the world’s largest showcase for technology’s giants, but it’s also one of the primary hubs for the scene’s innovative upstarts. One of its convention areas, known as “Eureka Park,” often hosts more than 1,200 startups from more than 40 countries. And although flashy booths from the likes of Google, Intel, Huawei and more typically generate buzz, it’s the startups that tend to have riveting stories — and even some of the most talked-about products. Here are five of the most inspiring startups we found at the show.

Timekettle

Image credit: Timekettle

Leal Tzen has always been a fan of science-fiction novels. That’s why The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s “Babel fish” — a creature that can reside in your ear and translate any language spoken to you in real time — inspired him to co-found his translation tech company. Launched in November 2018, Timekettle’s headline product is the WT2 Plus, a set of AI-powered translation earpieces that’s already brought in about $3 million in sales despite little to no advertising.

Another of Tzen’s inspirations? His parents, who speak only one language. He sent them on vacation to the Alps in 2016 and downloaded many translation apps for them, but Tzen’s parents didn’t use them — even when his mother got altitude sickness. “It was too awkward,” he remembers hearing. Finally, Tzen understood that it wasn’t just about translation — it was about communication, comfortable interaction and building closer relationships. “We believe translation is not enough,” he said.

Currently, most translator options on the market require more work on the consumer’s part than the WT2 Plus does. Competitive translation products usually dictate that one person speak at a time, that someone needs to download an app or that one person speaks into a smartphone while the other uses an earpiece. But using Tzen’s solution, people can communicate via simply splitting the earpieces and sharing one with another; then, they can both start communicating immediately. The earpieces also make use of dual-noise reduction tech by way of neural networks, and they can translate more than 36 languages. 

MATE

Image credit: MATE

Build something you yourself would buy, and others will likely do the same. That’s one of the reasons Christian Adel Michael and Julie Kronstrom Carton founded MATE in 2016 after spending about two years searching for a cool, affordable electric bicycle. The brother-and-sister team hail from Copenhagen, a city that apparently has more bikes than people. When the two couldn’t find a hip, clean-cut e-bike, they knew there was a “hole in the market,” Michael said. They decided to fill it, starting work on the project in 2016 and simultaneously launching their first crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

Since that first campaign, MATE has sold 8,000 bikes to customers in more than 50 countries. That’s key because if the siblings had gone the traditional route of distribution chains, they would’ve needed to adhere to store inventory guidelines, potentially manufacturing many more products than people would order. By selling directly to their customers, they manufactured the exact amount of bikes that were ordered (and likely saved 10 to 40 percent on manufacturing costs, said Indiegogo CEO David Mandelbrot). The company also reached a prominent crowdfunding platform milestone: After raising $20 million over two campaigns, MATE has raised more money than any other company in Indiegogo history.

Common crowdfunding advice is to work on “creating hype” for your product for up to six months or a year, but Michael and Carton didn’t do that, instead opting to put some money towards targeted ads on Facebook and elsewhere online. The e-bikes are available now, and until Jan. 31, 2018, discounted pricing starts at $699 plus shipping costs. After that date, prices in the U.S. will likely rise to between $1,400 and $2,000, Carton said.

Eargo

Image credit: Eargo

It’s difficult to disrupt the hearing aid industry — it’s institutional, and it’s regulated by the FDA. But among individuals ages 20 to 69 with hearing loss who could benefit from hearing aids, only about 16 percent has ever used them. That suggests the time is ripe for something new. And Eargo — cool, invisible hearing aids sold directly to consumers instead of through a clinician — offers just that. Prices range from about $1,950 to $2,750, which the company says is much lower than the $8,000 to $10,000 industry standard for “invisible” hearing aids, and they come with a sleek portable charging case.

Founders Florent Michel, a medical doctor, Raphael Michel and Daniel Shen wanted to decrease hearing aid cost and stigma, and they did it by way of the former’s invention of Flexi Fibers — medical-grade silicone and a key part of Eargo hearing aids. In Dr. Florent Michel’s work as an ENT surgeon, he encountered many patients with hearing loss and saw the stigma associated with hearing aids firsthand. His son Raphael met Shen at Stanford — the former was in the design program, while the latter was studying medicine — and in 2010, they launched the company out of Raphael’s Palo Alto garage.

Hearing aid regulations were stringent, but Eargo found a grey area: The FDA doesn’t regulate the sale of hearing aids. That’s regulated state by state, and if you’re certified to sell (or “dispense”) hearing aids in one state, you’d have to pass an examination to sell them in another. Eargo put its product up for sale online, directly to consumers. Industry veteran Christian Gormsen thought it was crazy (What kind of consumer is going to spend thousands of dollars on hearing aids online, especially when many are in their 60s and older?) Now, Gormsen is Eargo’s CEO.

Pillo Health

Image credit: Pillo Health

In 2005, Emanuele Musini’s father passed away from a heart condition. He hadn’t been taking his medications as directed or following all of his doctor’s orders, Musini said, and the tragedy hit his family hard. A nagging thought kept at Musini over the following years: What if there had been a “someone” there to help keep an eye on his father and his health plan? What would have happened then?

Musini resolved to design one: a “someone” inside the home to serve as a sort of health aide, especially when it comes to taking medications as scheduled. Home caregivers are cost-prohibitive for many families, and he wanted to make aging in place — in the comfort of one’s own home — more accessible. That’s why he created Pillo, a healthcare assistant for the home, after co-founding his company Pillo Health. The device is available now and costs $499, plus a $39 monthly subscription. Scheduled reminders cause Pillo to “wake up,” scan the room for an individual and alert them it’s time to take a certain medication. The user can then opt for Pillo to dispense it. If they don’t take their medication for a set period of time, Pillo will alert the user’s care team (whether medical professionals or family) so they can start a conversation.

Another feature of Pillo: A user can ask it questions about health, from general (“How many calories are in an apple?”) to specific (“Show me my wellness plan”). They can scroll through their medication types and times, as well as their “carefriends” (or caregivers).

Intelino

Image credit: Intelino

Consumer robotics company Intelino is the very definition of a startup: founder Dr. Armen Kroyan officially launched it the first day of CES 2019. Its first product? A $99 “smart train set” billed as the first of its kind, complete with engine, wagons, track pieces, decals, charging cable and — perhaps most unique — “action snaps,” or small, colored plastic tiles that can snap onto any piece of track. The tiles’ colors are correlated with different smart features — green denotes speed, for example, so placing three green action snaps in a row would command the train to move fast, two would yield a medium speed and one would mean slow. One red action snap tells the train to stop for two seconds, while three in a row would make it stop for 10. Blue is associated with direction, while yellow is for dropping off a wagon. And there’s an optional bluetooth-enabled companion app that can act as a train dashboard, manual override mode, way to create custom action commands for the snaps and more.

Kroyan dreamed up the new take on “connected play” from firsthand experience as a parent to two young boys. His older son, now age 7, has been playing with train sets since he was 2, but the way he played with them shifted over the years: At first, he needed a lot of help building the tracks, but as he grew, he built more and more elaborate track designs. Kroyan wanted to create a way for kids, including his own, to use technology actively instead of passively consuming content by way of screens. Inspired by his son, he decided to take the intuitiveness of the classic toy train experience and augment it with an interactive, tactile layer of technology. Trains were a perfect platform for the sort of sequential thinking used in STEM, he thought — before a child builds a track, they often need to preconceive what it’ll look like on the whole.

The train set, available to consumers in March 2019, is retrocompatible with wooden tracks so that it can serve as an addition to any child’s set, and Kroyan hopes it will grow up alongside kids that may first use it as an ordinary train set, then move on to use action snaps to build elaborate sets. As a rule, those steps don’t require any sort of screen interaction, Kroyan said, but if parents want to allow usage of the accompanying app later on, it can add a new layer to what a child can do with their train set.

January
11, 2019

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The tech industry has proven time and time again that there’s nowhere to go but up, and proof of this lies with the fact that some of the deserving heroes behind this growth are actually heroines.

Women may not populate the industry as much as their male counterparts, but just stop a moment and take a look at all the awards and conferences out there now dedicated to women in tech and business: We’re talking the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the Women in Silicon Valley annual conference.

Related: Why Gender Diversity In Tech Matters

If these symbols of prestige tell us anything, it’s that the world is pushing for more women to take the lead.

Women are stepping up to the challenge. Until the time comes when the industry offers all women equal opportunity and representation, the following six up-and-coming women are role models and evidence of female leaders making tech waves from multiple corners of the globe.

Image credit: JP Yim | Getty Images

Sophia Amoruso

A few years ago, you might have heard about Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso and her unlikely story of having built a multi-million-dollar online vintage clothing store. Her rags-to-riches story — and New York Times bestselling autobiography — arguably catapulted  the “#Girlboss” lifestyle to mainstream fame.  But then disaster hit; and after Nasty Gal’s very public bankruptcy filing in 2016, Amoruso stepped down as CEO and sold the company.

That didn’t stop her entrepreneurial journey, however. After Nasty Gal, Amoruso founded Girlboss Media, an L.A.-based media company churning out online content and hosting annual conferences for career-oriented women and women entrepreneurs. This year, 2019, she’s waded into the tech industry by developing a women-exclusive social networking platform (also named GirlBoss) meant to fill the gaps that even professional social site LinkedIn is missing.

Image credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images

Edith Harbaugh

With more than 10 years of experience in product, engineering and marketing for both consumer and enterprise startups, Edith Harbaugh has topped off her impressive track record iwith her newest brainchild, LaunchDarkly: a company and product that’s making waves for any business that tackles product development.

Harbaugh first noticed the product development problems she works on in previous jobs; instead of waiting for solutions to come, she created them herself. Today, LaunchDarkly is a feature-management platform designed to help software developers control the entire lifecycle of product development and launch. The platform has been such a hit in recent years that Harbaugh  has landed huge clients — the likes of GoPro and Microsoft — while receiving millions of dollars in funding.

Image credit: Karma

Elsa Bernadotte

Sustainability and zero waste take the front seat in founder Elsa Bernadotte’s app.  In 2015, Karma became the first Swedish-born app that connects grocery stores, cafes and restaurants to eager customers who want to buy unsold food at discounted prices.

Related: 4 Keys to Bringing More Women Into the Tech Industry

Bernadotte envisions a more eco-conscious world, so she’s leading the way with Karma one food provider at a time. The company’s efforts of fighting global food waste have landed Bernadotte a spot on the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 list, while her company has been tbagged one of Wired UK’s top 100 hottest startups in Europe.

Sadaf Monajemi

The field of medicine is one of the hardest industries in which to innovate due to its complexity, but that’s exactly what founder and director Sadaf Monajemi has done. In 2017, she launched See-Mode Technologies, a med-tech startup that’s helping doctors and medical professionals predict strokes in at-risk patients without conducting multiple and costly tests.

Monajemi completed her Ph.D. at the National University of Singapore, majoring in machine learning and AI for medical applications.

Image credit: AngelCentral

Shao-Ning Huang

Shao-Ning Huang is currently the chief angel and co-founder of AngelCentral, a Singapore-based community that manages and facilitates angel investments across Southeast Asia. Today, she links over 500 angel investors to countless Asian startups that have the potential to create positive change around the world.

When she’s not bridging startups to investors, Huang is a consultant to tech startups and a supporter of causes that champion women-founded and women-led businesses.

Kathleen Yu

The youngest founder on this list, Kathleen Yu was only 23 when she had the idea to use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to revolutionize talent recruitment. After years spent in incubators, Yu developed a concept that eventually garnered grants and awards at international startup competitions, giving rise to what became Rumarocket.

Related: 4 Ways to Attract and Retain Top Female Talent in Tech

Now 26, Yu has taken a path to entrepreneurship in the tech industry — complete with rejection and failures — tht’s led her to an $8-million business that’s solving the hiring needs of multinational clients in different industries around the world.

January
10, 2019

8 min read

This story originally appeared on PCMag

CES is a dizzying experience that takes over the entire Las Vegas Strip, but within the bedlam is a mind-bending glimpse into the future of transportation. This year we saw a slew of self-driving cars, new in-car mixed reality experiences, and even a new concept car with modular robotic legs that’s as close as we’ve seen to a real-life Transformer.

There’s a flashy tech product at CES for every kind of transportation scenario, from the most futuristic science-fiction concept cars to next-gen electric vehicles and even motorcycles, not to mention last-mile solutions like electric skateboards and scooters. Many of the snazziest concept cars were focused on high-tech amenities and interiors designed to keep humans comfortable and relaxed as their autonomous car cruises.

We also came across some other eye-popping smart vehicles, like a flying drone helicopter taxi and a smart yacht. We threw those in just for fun.

Nissan IMx Kuro

Nissan’s IMx Kuro concept vehicle is a fully autonomous electric crossover with zero emissions. We likely won’t see it in production until at least 2020, but the Kuro’s simplified exterior and spacious interior wowed on the CES show floor; not to mention the car’s panoramic OLED display on its dashboard. A separate, wood grain-patterned display wrapping around the interior door trims bring an extra sense of zen to the in-car experience.

Mitsubishi Emirai 4

Mitsubishi showed off the latest version of its Emirai 4 smart mobility concept car, which it has brought to CES with flashy new upgrades for each of the past few years. It’s got a heads-up augmented reality display with 3D mapping, as well as a half mirror with a diagonal LCD panel to give the driver 3D images of the environment. There’s an autonomous mode too, and plenty of other interior bells and whistles, like haptic feedback control, smart home and mobile payment integration, and biometric authentication.

Mercedes-Benz CLA

The highest profile vehicle reveal for a car you can actually buy was the debut of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA. The second-gen coupe comes with a bevy of digital features and in-car improvements, as well as Mercedes’ first semi-autonomous driving system with a hands-free mode, and the auto maker’s new MBUX voice control system. It also syncs with the newly announced Mercedes-branded Garmin Vívoactive 3 smartwatch. The 2020 CLA will go on sale later this year; official pricing has not yet been announced.

Mercedes-Benz Vision Urbanetic

Mercedes also had a futuristic concept vehicle of its own, the Vision Urbanetic autonomous driving platform with switchable bodies. The vehicle’s Tron-like exterior houses a fairly simple urban transportation concept: it can be fitted with a passenger module with room for 20 people (8 sitting, 4 standing) as a sort of ride-sharing taxi, or a cargo module for transporting freight goods or package delivery. The base of the vehicle is the part that’s doing the autonomous driving; it also houses the electric batteries, motors, and the Urbanetic’s propulsion system. It’s an adjustable minibus (for either people or cargo) in a trippy body on a self-driving base.

Harley-Davidson LiveWire

The maker of American muscle hogs has released its first-ever electric motorcycle. The Harley-Davidson LiveWire, built in partnership with Panasonic Automotive, has built-in GPS and LTE connectivity with up to 4G LTE speeds, as well as a 4.3-inch liquid crystal touch-screen display built into the dashboard with integrated navigation and music. The LiveWire bike itself has a muscular build and a lightweight body, and goes from zero to 60mph in under 3.5 seconds. It has a high-voltage battery with an estimated range of 110 miles per charge.

BMW Vision iNext

One of our favorite concept cars of CES, the BMW Vision iNext is a sci-fi living room on wheels. The autonomous, electric luxury vehicle has hidden touch interfaces in wooden and cloth surfaces, an intelligent voice assistant, and screen projection anywhere in the chic interior. With an intelligent voice assistant built in, a roomy, carpeted back seat, and a smart wood coffee table that responds to touch gestures, it’s a palatial Jetsons-like experience for a future when humans are lounging in their cars instead of driving.

Waymo One

Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car service was showing off an autonomous minivan on the show floor, outfitted with Lidar arrays and a camera installation on the roof. The offshoot’s new Waymo One is the autonomous division’s first commercial self-driving service offered to hundreds of early riders who have been helping to test the technology.

Audi Aicon

First unveiled in 2017, this electric autonomous vehicle was one of the sleekest we saw on the show floor. The concept car, which Audi hopes to turn into a production vehicle by 2021, has four motors and a range of 435 to 497 miles per charge. Audi said it can charge up to 80 percent in less than 30 minutes wirelessly. The interior showcases a fully self-driving future — there are no pedals or steering wheel visible, just luxurious indoor seating and a transparent roof.

2020 Lincoln Aviator

Lincoln was at CES with the 2020 Lincoln Aviator, a 450-horsepower plug-in hybrid crossover. There’s a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine, and a host of tech improvements and smart user interface upgrades. Drivers can unlock the vehicle with their smartphones rather than a key fob, and the owners can tap into features like traffic jam assist, park assist, adaptive suspension, and drive modes like Conserve and Excite to add some automatic controls to the manual experience. It’s also got a 28-speaker Revel Ultima 3D audio system.

Nvidia Drive Autopilot

Nvidia showed off a souped-up autonomous vehicle with its new Drive Autopilot system at CES. The graphic card manufacturer’s Xavier automotive-grade hardware can be integrated throughout the vehicle — including a heavy duty computer in the trunk — to enable Level 2 autonomy, meaning it has driver-assistance systems to control acceleration, braking, and steering to help out human drivers.

Byton M-Byte

Tesla competitor Byton showcased two different autonomous, electric models this year. The M-Byte prototype, which debuted at CES last year, is the less expensive of the two, a $45,000 electric crossover that goes into production this year. It has a 48-inch touch screen stretching across the entire dashboard, a small touch display in the wheel, and an array of cameras all housed in a luxury SUV body.

Byton K-Byte

The Byton K-Byte premium sedan is coming in 2021 with Level 4 autonomous driving, meaning it can drive without human oversight. The K-Byte features similar interior touch screens plus a digital grille on the exterior. Unlike other self-driving cars, the Byton’s side “LiGuard” sensors are retractable when it’s not in autonomous mode. Both cars will have Amazon Alexa integrated into the Byton OS.

Hyundai Elevate

The Hyundai Elevate is the closest we’ve gotten to a real-life Transformer. The concept car can walk or climb over obstacles with extendable robotic legs on a modular, multi-use chassis that shrinks down into driving mode. The car can swap out different attachments, and is capable of climbing a 5-foot vertical wall or over a 5-foot gap while keeping its passengers level. By blending electric car and robotics technology, the Hyundai Elevate feels like a step toward sci-fi.

Bell Nexus Air Taxi

One of the most unconventional, eye-catching concept vehicles at CES this year was the Bell Nexus Air Taxi, a massive flying hybrid of a drone crossed with a helicopter. Bell describes this behemoth as a rideshare in the air, and is testing it in Dallas, Dubai, and Los Angeles. The electric hybrid has a range of 150 miles, but don’t expect to see it flying around anytime soon. Bell hopes to release it in 2025. Sitting in the high-tech cockpit flanked by high-res touch screens and control sticks, the Bell Nexus feels like it’s dropped straight out of a futuristic fleet on its way to drop off a squadron of Darkseid soldiers.

Furrion Adonis Yacht

We had to include the yacht. The 78-foot Furrion Adonis towered over the CES show floor, showing off a high-tech luxury cruiser that Furrion calls a “smart yacht.” The Adonis has an onboard, voice-activated AI called Angel, who can control electronics, entertainment, kitchen appliances, the yacht’s facial-recognition camera system, and more. The virtual concierge can be summoned by saying “Hi, Angel” to order food from the kitchen, control music, get news and weather updates, or shop. The Adonis is also packed with smart interactive mirror displays throughout the yacht and cabins and Furrion Sense TVs with built-in soundbars. It’s even got a drone and drone port on the top deck. If PCMag gave out a Bougiest Tech at CES Award, the Furrion Adonis would be the runaway winner.

January
9, 2019

3 min read

This story originally appeared on Engadget

BotBoxer is the creation of SkyTech Sport, a company that makes gym equipment, most famous for the simulators used to train the US olympic ski team. Five years ago, the Los Angeles-based company turned its attention to creating a robotic boxing trainer, which it showed off in Las Vegas. I was excited to try the machine out for myself, despite being a total novice in the world of boxing.

Essentially, BotBoxer is a punchbag on a stick, itself loaded up with a number of sensors that can detect pressure and movement. The stick is then connected to a base and held in place with a series of cables that can angle it around to dodge blows during sparring. Surrounding the dais is a series of pillars in the faux-boxing ring style, the closest two loaded up with infrared sensors, as are the base.

In tandem, the sensors can analyze your feet and body position to determine your stance, and predict where you’re about to hit. Knowing this, the bag can bob and weave around to avoid your punches to make the ideal sparring partner when your trainer is unavailable. Priced at $19,900, it’s intended for use by gyms and the sort of rich people who can probably afford an army of flunkies to fight them anyway.

I was guided through an early tutorial and some regular drills by Bo, one of BotBoxer’s trainers and someone who knows their way around a boxing ring. Bo gave me a crash course in how not to suck at boxing, and any injury I sustained was through no fault of her excellent teaching. That included how to use my body to power my strikes and how not to smash my hand to pieces when punching.

Every time you strike the bag (and every time you miss), you’ll be given voice guidance to help you improve. Sometimes that’s as simple as telling you to step back, or adjust your stance, through to being told you need more power in your strike. Hit badly, or at a potentially injurious angle, and you’ll get a sound effect that’ll let you know you’ve done something wrong.

The BotBoxer is very customizable, and you can tweak features like motion, consistency, distance and reaction. You can even set it so that, if you hit it successfully several times on the bounce, it’ll get less reactive and woozier, like a punch-drunk boxer.

Get past the tutorial and you’ll be thrown head-first into training drills, asking you to jab and punch in rhythm to perfect your technique. From there, you can go into a sparring mode where you can go a number of rounds to see if you can knock it out. The sparring mode is enormous fun, and I could imagine myself spending plenty of time playing with this thing as I learned.

Certainly, this isn’t the sort of device I’d suggest a beginner just rock up and try, since you need a good grounding in the art of boxing. Even after my own grounding in the very basics of the sport, I still managed to pull a muscle in my right arm and hurt my hand pretty decently. Mostly because I, stupidly, thought I had it and went for a big haymaker, only wound up giving BotBoxer more of an open-handed slap. As you do.