Nothing Phones and Their "Impossible Mission"

this episode is sponsored by ground news hi welcome to another episode of Cold Fusion people who who are starting companies today or starting tech companies today they're kind of taking the same methodology as you would do 40 years ago before the consumer internet became a thing can't we build a new type of company together with the community out there I think that's that Prospect is really really exciting this is ky pay co-founder of the smartphone company OnePlus and CEO of the nothing company for this episode I'm trying something new for the first time we're bringing on a CEO and interviewing them for their perspective so if probably all noticed that over the past few years smartphones aren't as exciting as they used to be sure there are flip phones and foldables and they're very exciting but aside from that not a lot has changed for the past couple of years a name you might not expect nothing has been making some buzz in the smartphone industry the approach of this London based startup was something that we haven't seen before yes the phone designs were a little different but it's not really about the phone it's about something less tangible Community imagine a phone brand that encourages feedback from its users and occasionally takes suggestions from their online community I couldn't imagine Apple doing that so instead of appearing top down the nothing brand fills more Grassroots in Direction in this episode we'll explore the story of nothing and its founder Kyle pay and it's an interesting look at how marketing personality branding and Hardware design can cut through the noise of an internet in hyperdrive I also had the pleasure of having Carl as a guest of my podcast so you can check that out too so let's get into [Music] it you are watching to Fusion TV a note before we begin this episode wasn't sponsored by the nothing company it's just a topic I'm interested in the main theme is this in a long such saturated Market is it possible to break through and create a product that people are truly interested in how do you go about doing such a thing this is an episode especially for those who have been here since the origin of cold fusion back when I was heavily invested in showcasing the happenings in the smartphone [Music] industry the nothing brand only became known to the public in February of 2020 Carl sent out a cryptic tweet with just the word nothing and at left his followers intrigued was he starting a new Venture maybe he's just bored others thought that he was going through a rough patch after departing OnePlus the renowned Chinese phone manufacturer after all he was the co-founder of OnePlus and had been at the company for 7 years however it was eventually revealed that he was indeed starting a new company and its name was nothing in terms of funding from the outset Carl secured a respectable $7 million from some notable investors this included Tony Fidel the inventor of the iPod Kevin Lynn the co-founder of twitch Steve Huffman the CEO of Reddit and the popular YouTuber Casey nead while the start was solid the investment landscape took a big shift when Google Ventures poured $15 million into the company they saw the potential in nothing it's also worth noting that nothing's Community investors chipped in millions of dollars solidifying the company's path now let's fast forward to 2023 and nothing has already launched a range of products they've introduced two earbuds the ear1 and ear 2 as well as two phones the phone one and phone 2 in just over a year since their debut nothing announced that they' sold over 1 million units worldwide although not as big as the major players it still is a testament to their early success especially in India over there the phone one was released in 2022 and it sold over 100,000 units in Just 2 months in sep September this year nothing achieved another milestone in India by securing a very high customer satisfaction rate looking at this chart they're in second place and only apple is ahead of them they've even edged out one plus nothing are an extremely Niche brand the average person only knows of Apple Samsung and Google it's going to be an uphill battle for the nothing company but they've managed to secure another $ 96 million in investment which will no doubt help at this point we need to take a deeper look at The Man Behind nothing the company's CEO K pay the chinese-born Swedish entrepreneur has been a tech Enthusiast from a young age car was captivated by Steve Jobs and the Apple products of the 2000s however he took his fascination with technology to the next level he decided to give up his academic Pursuits and Venture into the tech World interestingly his parents background in research didn't directly lead him him into the world of tech entrepreneurship instead he decided to carve out his own path he was the kind of young person who turned School essays into websites because for him this was a more fun and engaging way to express himself that was kind of weird uh as a kid I would behave quite differently I'll give you a few examples like um in middle school we would get homework like in chemistry class we would have to write a essay about a certain compound and instead of just writing the essay I would make a music video EXP planing the the element or uh I would make a website where you could interactively kind of learn about the element and it was always kind of weird for me that I didn't get any extra credit on any of that the teachers just marked the work as is only the the essay part before nothing most of us knew him as the co-founder of OnePlus but what many people don't know is that his journey began with a brief stint at Nokia in 2010 he would later move to China to be closer to the manufacturing hub up his fascination with MP4 players would Inspire him to create a fan page for misu a Chinese manufacturer of MP3 and MP4 players mizu's Hong Kong Branch soon took notice of K's work and that led to his recruitment later in that same year he would join Oppo Pi worked under the guidance of Pete Lao serving as the international market manager the partnership between these two eventually led to the co-founding of OnePlus with K assuming the role of global director astonishingly he was only just 24 years old at the time kp's stint at OnePlus lasted for 7 years and it was a resounding success during his tenure he carved out a name for himself in the tech industry but from his perspective the tech world was undergoing an uninspiring transformation at this point he decided to hit the reset button and start something new and his fans simply rallied behind him as for investers they were aware of Carl's formidable track record so they were just placing bets on his vision and of course of course the results of this would be the nothing company curiously the name nothing didn't come from a high stakes corporate brainstorming session it came from a simple chat with kyl's little sister while they were out for a walk he'd previously thrown around names like Stone and next but she wasn't having it then he mentioned nothing and that got her approval and KL liked it [Music] too for now at these early stages what nothing is banking on and setting them apart is unique design and as for now it's working admittedly the transparent wireless earbuds do stand out the phone's operating system built on Android takes a minimal approach to software the hardware with its unique customizable glyphs and LED lights on the back provides some level of functionality if nothing else the phones catch your attention in a crowd of rectangular slabs of metal and glass but these very same glyphs have also been called out and criticized but regardless of opinion it's generally a good thing to see creativity and product design coming together for a distinctive look to achieve design nothing leveraged the Swedish firm teenage engineering as a co-founding partner the design company is known for their Innovative playful devices like synthesizers speakers and cameras looking at their product website their designs do stand out too and in the end teenage engineering and nothing ended up being a great C energ with all of that being said design like fashion is everchanging and subjective what's hot today might not be next season so Carl is making sure that nothing isn't putting all of their eggs in the design basket as a matter of fact they want to build an ecosystem of products that work seamlessly together something akin to Apple's approach moreover nothing has also launched a budget friendly sub brand called cmf which stands for color material and finish it's all about making consumer Tech stylish while being affordable without sacrificing quality so this is exciting this is an exclusive an entirely new tech brand sub brand actually of a company that's been making waves in the tech space that of course is nothing through this new brand cmf they're looking to bring that design language and that aesthetic to more people through more affordable options including today earbuds power adapters and even a smartwatch which they're calling watch Pro so the earbuds are coming in at 49 USD the watch is coming in at $69 us the charger coming in at $39 bucks again very aggressively priced so you look at those price points and you might be surprised like how can they deliver like are the margins for other companies extremely high adjusting my expectation to match the price point and in in order to understand what these products are and who they're for it's meant to bring a certain design and a certain material and a certain finish to a product and to a segment which isn't used to having it at all which isn't used to those considerations at all and the nothing brand maybe through the success of their previous products is able to invest in a more accessible product through this new cmf brand and who knows maybe this entire landscape expands to include even more products in different segments so a question has to be asked here how has such a new brand managed to gain so much SU ESS so quickly if you ask anyone in the Tech Community what Kyle pay is known for most of them would say it's the pay effect in other words his unique marketing style when OnePlus first entered the market the Brand's rapid rise was fueled by bold marketing initiatives that took advantage of the power of community engagement it created a buzz that few other smartphone companies at the time could match and K pay was The Mastermind behind it all one of the most famous examples was his invite system for the OnePlus One a phone which was initially sold only through invites these invites were given to selected customers influencers and media Outlets it created a sense of exclusivity and scarcity that drove up the demand Kyle pay is now the face of his new company nothing and he's doing more unique marketing for nothing's very first phone Carl's approach to building anticipation wasn't the usual fast-paced Tech marketing he adopted a slow and sustained approach revealing one feature at a time on social media but he was doing things offline as well for instance before the in-person launch of the phone in London the streets of European capitals were sprinkled with wall posters they hung alongside gig posters implying that this was more of a cultural event than just a tech one in the same vein the iconic house music group Swedish House Mafia joined forces with nothing to create a glyph composer Carl is also probably one of the very few Tech CEOs he was directly putting out content on social media especially YouTube he's reviewed competitors phones which I find rather funny to see but has also collaborated with the likes of Casey neistat and MKBHD what is up guys Carl here today we're talking year to the thinking goes that if you put your content out there for enough people to see they'll start caring about your product analyzing this from a marketing point of view the involvement of influential personalities like casy who also happens to be an investor does set the company apart from everyone else these interactions and marketing methods do seem to resonate with nothing's core Community we're trying to kind of pick up where Innovation left off we're trying to make the industry more fun again this is our second step along the way so if you want to support a small team with big Ambitions and doing things differently I think this is the phone to get so let me push back on that at the end of the day all I care about is how good is this thing in my pocket mhm this thing feels pretty feels pretty great I mean that's that's kind of like table Stakes right so a phone needs to be really solid no matter if it comes to the camera or the charging or the battery life or how smooth the system is like we have to have that unlock first before talking about anything else like the cliff interface or that we want to bring you see it as a given like this is the hardware the phone the experience is that good it meets that standard it does I mean our team has Decades of experience in this industry so this is not new to us what's new is that we're bringing Innovation back to our [Music] industry one of the key factors behind KY P's popularity among his fans is that he knows how to harness the power of community engagement it's a strategy he followed at OnePlus and is doing it again now at nothing he built a loyal and passionate fan base by involving them in the product development process he asked for feedback suggestions and ideas from users this created a a sense of ownership and belonging among the fans who really do feel like they're part of the Brand's Journey people who who are starting companies today or starting tech companies today they're kind of taking the same methodology as you would do 40 years ago before the consumer internet became a thing I think with the internet you can connect to anybody anywhere and because of the internet and information being freely available for everybody you can have super passionate people with expert level expertise anywhere in the world they might be on a tropical island I think in modern society people lack purpose so if we're able to find these really excellent people and we're able to connect them to a purpose that they want to be a part of then can't we build a new type of company together with the community out there I think that's that Prospect is really really exciting of course there are Financial benefits too nothing has raised Millions through two Equity crowdfunding campaigns in a way it does give Ordinary People a chance to take a stake in nothing's potential success that's why we're thrilled to be opening up the ability for you to also invest in nothing our first Community investment round closed in less than a minute last time we only had $1.5 million available this time we have $10 million available to make sure that more of you will get a chance okay before we continue let's take a quick word 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criticized for overhyping the products and creating unrealistic expectations try to take a step back from the hype I don't love how nothing has handled this launch how they've slowly revealed the design 1 cmet at a time via social posts how they tried to auction off a small number of them before the launch to enhance the perception of exclusivity how they've gone to a whole bunch of influencers to partner with them for giveaways to effectively get them to endorse the product before they've even had a chance to test it they've basically used every free trick in the book to try and milk as much conversation about this product as possible but the issue with that is that the expectation also goes up whereas in actuality these guys haven't reimagined sound these aren't fundamentally different to any other wireless earbuds out there some have accused his products of being too close to Apple's designs and features it has the shape of an iPhone matter of fact this well this is an iPhone with d Brand's new something skin applied to It While others have questioned his environmental and ethical stance on crypto and nfts but having said that building a phone hardware company in this day and age is not an easy task and kyl does seem to be open to criticism and suggestions even within within our company we have um all hands meetings where all the staff attend and you can ask anonymous questions some of those questions are very uncomfortable to to read and to have to answer and a lot of my friends who are also Founders have said like we don't do those anonymous questions they're so toxic but I refuse to remove them because I think one no matter online or internal like if people complain they care right if the the worst thing is that people are are just they don't care about you at all like they're complaining because they care and they want to see things improve I think so that's something we have to remember and two you have to improve like if you don't improve people are going to complain so so it kind of pushes you to get better um but you know it it does feel quite bad sometimes you know reading all those comments or uh facing up to to those kind of questions but I think you just got to believe in that there's a it's beneficial in the long run to to to take the feedback and just get better despite the challenging controversies KP remains confident and optimistic about his vision for nothing he believes that he can create a brand that stands out from the crowd and offers something different and meaningful to Consumers he told us on the podcast that he hopes that he can Inspire other young entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams and I think it's good for the industry we need to see more things like this but for him he says that this is just the beginning now that they have strong investment backing and a growing team of skilled engineers and employees will be able to see what nothing is truly capable of in a few years perhaps tablets or laptops uh we were toying with that idea and we have some really cool designs but we haven't decided yet as we mature as a company we need to start thinking about what is it we we're bringing to the table we had the conversation about design like is design our only differentiator has it worked out well I think it has but over time it needs to be more than just design so if we were to make a laptop what is our contribution Beyond just really really cool Aesthetics which I'm sure our team can nail so that's a question we haven't been able to answer and therefore there's no computer in development so what's your take on this do you think that nothing will be able to deliver on something special do you use any of their products do you like them or do you think that this is all just hype and really it's just too late and the market is completely already saturated let me know your thoughts in the comment section below anyway that's all from me my name is toogo and you've been watching cold fusion and I'll catch you again soon for the next episode cheers guys have a good [Music] one cold fusion it's me thinking

Channel: ColdFusion

Views: 236,563

Keywords: Coldfusion, TV, Dagogo, Altraide, Technology, Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook, Tesla

Id: aRNVpB5mgo4

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 03 2023