FenSens is giving consumers a way to incorporate the latest technology in their cars with ease. With the help of Arrow and Indiegogo, FenSens has now made their amazing technology a reality. Watch the video or read below to learn how FenSens came to market.
You know as anything these days, people can’t live without their phones so you have to check it every now and then; kind of like an ADHD tick. I checked my phone and I saw this, totally interrupting the conversation, I checked my phone and I saw this email that said that we had won flash funding.
I’m like; no way! I opened it up and I said “Wow, wow!”; it just blew me away. My friend asked if I was ok and I said “Yeah, I just got an amazing email, I don’t even know how to explain it right now. We just raised $75,000 from Arrow; we won their flash funding program.” I didn’t even know what to say; I was speechless.
I’m Andy Karuza and I’m the CEO of FenSens.
The original idea for FenSens came from one of my business partners, Henry, who came to me one day and mentioned that it would be a great idea to make parking sensor technology wireless. I thought this was a great idea knowing that the last product that I bought off the shelves from an O’Reilly’s required a bunch of wiring that was a pain to say the least, to install it. So I saw a great opportunity here to take that initial concept and work to make it something a little bit more mass marketable and affordable for the average American.
Indiegogo was a great opportunity to see if there was market demand. So we put together a prototype, got our proof of concept, and put it out there in the market. As capitalism works, you see if the market responds and you see if people believe in the same things as you do and if there is going to be a fit for it. If there is, which we found there was, we decided to move forward with the product and begin manufacturing.
So FenSens works as a completely wireless smart license plate frame. It’s powered by Bluetooth technology as the wireless component that communicates between the device and the user’s smart phone for Android and IOS. It comes with a rechargeable, detachable lithium ion battery; you can pop it out and charge it like a cell phone as it comes with a microUSB built into it. We use an accelerometer and an algorithm based on time, distance, speed, and direction to determine when the car is backing up and automatically launch the app on the driver’s phone.
So Indiegogo mentioned to us that Arrow had a program in place to help entrepreneurs that have near completed or completed products that they could help bring to market. Potentially helping source components, helping with design needs, and we thought that would be a good value because we didn’t really have a lot of strong connections here in the U.S. market as far as manufacturing. So where you guys came in very helpful was helping get us in contact with American manufacturers and partners that could potentially help bring our company to fruition here in America.
Success in startups really relies around surrounding yourself with the right people and taking the right advice. We don't know everything; you never will, you’re never going to know everything when you go to market especially if it’s your first time crowdfunding. Listen to the experts and look at what other successful people have done in their campaigns to raise their funds.
Learn more about FenSens and the Arrow Certified program with Indiegogo.