CES wrap-up: Everykey
Everykey’s second Las Vegas experience was a completely different one than their first trip last year.
“It was a whole different ballgame coming to CES with a product instead of a concept,” said Chris Wentz, the CEO of Everykey.
The team expected to be talking primarily to consumers but instead spent a lot of time talking with buyers and manufacturers as well as the media. The International Consumer Electronics Show is an epic event and the team is learning about the different aspects of bringing a product into this environment.
The team came in ready to compete in pitch competitions, which was also a learning experience.
“I think it went really well. We got a lot of recognition from them and it upped our game a little bit,” said Wentz.
It also put their product in the limelight for potential partners as well as consumers. Everykey is a wrist-worn device that allows the user to automatically unlock digital devices like phones and computers or store passwords to log in to devices once the user is in range. This is a capability that many companies, large and small, are interested in gaining.
Another aspect of the show, which was new to the team, was the opportunity to find out more about the wearables industry at large. The team spent time checking out the show floor and had meetings with some of their competitors to see what the next few years have in store for the technology in general.
All of these experiences may have resulted in a secondary opportunity for the company. Their hardware product is still their main priority, but there also may be the potential for the company to license their software out for other organizations to use when building their own devices.
The team comes back to Cleveland with a plan to keep moving forward. After the successful Kickstarter campaign at the end of last year, the company is looking to develop their manufacturing plan and start filling pre-orders as quickly as possible.
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Katie Wieser is a fourth-year student working on her B.A. in Economics and is proud to serve as The Observer’s Executive Editor this year. She has previously...