Tile, The Lost-Item Tracker With Millions In Crowdfunding, Was Worth The Wait

The first thing youll notice about Tile, the crowdfunded lost-item finder that attaches to bags, keys, bikes and more, is that its big. I mean, I know the company provided the devicesspecs beforehand, but its still a surprise to see this large white square bigger than a Wheat Thin and slightly smaller than a matchbook sitting there in the black foam padding.

The second thing youll notice, during setup, is that its musical.

Yes, Tile actually plays a little song for you when youre connecting it with your phone, and later, when it confirms it was successfully activated.

Whats Tile? For those who need a reminder, Tile was abreakout, viral success story, demonstrating crowdfundings potential. The company raised $2.6 million via its Selfstarter campaign far more than the $20,000 it was looking to initially raise, to top off the earlier $200,000 from Silicon Valley acceleratorTandem Capital.

But the buzz around Tile has been both a blessing and a curse. Instead of being able to scale slowly, the company had more orders than it was prepared to handle.

It really changed the dynamics of manufacturing this in a really good way. However,one of the bad things it did was add delays,Tile CEO Nick Evans says.We had to go and find a different manufacturer our current manufacturer couldnt produce enough.

And, he adds, we needed to make sure if we were shipping that many units, that theyrereally, reallygoing to work.

Nearly a year after Tile achievedits multi-million-dollar crowdfunding raise,shipments finally begangetting off the ground, and today the company is still working toget the device into the hands of those whove paid.

That means some Tile customers wont just be asking themselves if Tile was worth the money (one Tile is $19.95 on preorder), theyll be asking themselves ifit was worth the wait.

The rest is here:
Tile, The Lost-Item Tracker With Millions In Crowdfunding, Was Worth The Wait