There is something going on – every tiny hardware company I write about is getting acquired. (Just kidding folks, its been a tough day!) First Hewlett Packard acquired Voodoo PC, a Canadian maker of bespoke PCs. Now comes word that Logitech is buying Slim Devices, one of the more impressive startups I have written about in the past. (Guess who wins on his sale? Bill Tai of Charles River Ventures – he was an angel investor and a tireless evangelist. )
Slim Devices is part of a growing breed of small companies, dubbed iCompanies, that allow their community to share in their success. Their music players/streaming devices have been quite the rage amongst geek circles, and Liz wrote about them recently.
Led by a 27-year-old CEO, Sean Adams, with little-to-no senior management, the company employs only six engineers, and 20 more employees to take care of assembling the product and answering customer calls. It has open-sourced its software, with outside enthusiasts/developers dreaming up plug-ins that are quickly made into core features.
PS: Apple should spend a piece of its growing mountain of cash and buy Sonos! That would make it a third sale, and we can call it a trend. Up until then, lets hear it for the little guy!
Sean,
Congratulations! Sounds like a terrific fit.
-Gus
While I’m happy for them, it’s a little sad too.
I’ve had a SliMP3 player since the model that was just a aluminium box screwed to a bent piece of smoked lucite. One of the reasons their products are so good is they were willing to toss a version like that out there to the public and iterate fast.
Will they be able to do that under the logitech flag?
I think it’s great news for customers… I own a Squeezebox myself and most of my not-so-tech-savvy friends are quite impressed by its functionality. however, currently they’ld never find a Squeezebox in common home-electronics stores (at least here in austria). Logitech could have the power to market the next iteration of the Squeezebox to the mass-audience.
congratulations!
Hey Om, thanks for the mention! Sean (slim’s founder) has made it EASY to be an evangelist.
He’s a very authentic person — a pure play on the passion to deliver a great product and user experience to slim’s growing community. He and the product have come a long way from the high schooler with a breadboard that walked into my office a few years ago.
As I wrote a check to finance ‘production’, my head said “STOP – this entire financing is about to buy you ‘unit one’ of the single most expensive CE device you’ll ever own” — but my heart & gut overruled. Frankly, I was amazed that the company touched profitability off that seed round.
As an ongoing stakeholder (the $20M is only part of the overall transaction), I’m very excited to see what can happen now with real working capital and a real channel. Logitech is a well run company in one of the toughest segments of the tech industry and they are a winner – so is Sean.
— Bill Tai
Yes Bill, I think sometimes that first check is about instinct and your instincts on this one were spot on. I hope more people enjoy slim devices’ products with this new backer. it is amazing that the company has turned every single on their buyers into an evangelist.
love it all