emit is a smartwatch that shows a countdown to your most important tasks, events and goals. We believe you utilise time more effectively if its seen as a finite resource, in reverse – hence the name. Our mission is to create a simple and uncluttered smartwatch that enables you to focus on the things that truly matter to, by valuing your most important asset – time.
*UPDATE*: Fundraising round now closed. Find out more on our LIVE Kickstarter here, 30 HOURS to go: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thush/emit-smartwatch-change-your-perspective-on-time?ref=6qdt0v
Co-founders of emit, Thushaan and Stephen.
1. Outside of being the co-founders of emit, who are you?
Thush: From early on, I knew that I wanted to be an inventor. Anime, games, family are where my time is spent outside of emit and my course. Currently, I’m in the final year of my course so emit is second priority. Having said that, honestly, I would say that 80% of my time is spent working on emit. I strategically chose modules that I knew would have a manageable workload given that I knew the content quite well from the previous year of my course.
Stephen: As we live together, most of our time is spent on emit, besides this, I am either on a run or grabbing lunch. I grew up in India until the age of 8 when I moved to Portugal, I lived there until I was 18 years old after which I came to London to complete my degree. As a child I was thrilled by building things, and from early on I knew that I wanted to become an engineer. Having graduated, when I look back, the structure of the mechanical engineering degree did not allow much room for innovation, essentially, the focus is not on making something new but rather revisiting existing knowledge. Through the journey of emit, I am convinced that mindset and psychology are more important than technical skills.
Sketches and prototype.
2. What is the story behind emit? How did it begin and why?
T: The idea for emit began on our usual walk back home from university during which we would often have philosophical debates. We were discussing the idea of time and the psychology of scarcity in relation to time. We came up with the idea of a hypothetical death watch.
Imagine: Everyday, as soon as you wake up you a see clock that tells you how much time you have left to live – it sounded absolutely grim.
Now, imagine: Everyday, as soon as you wake up you see a clock that has a countdown for shorter goals – it sounded much more productive. Thus emit was born.
Many of us have this idea that time is infinite, we wanted to challenge that with emit.
The idea was born in January and by April 2018, we had our prototype and it was increasing our productivity, we stopped wasting as much done as we had previously done. Given that exam season was approaching, we decided to wait until after exams to test it as a proof of concept. We launched on Kickstarter in late October and now we’re on the final leg of the campaign.
3. Why is it not an app or smartwatch?
S: We haven’t found any watch that is purely focused on showing you time in reverse. Smartwatches are cluttered with a plethora of apps that distract you from what you should be using your time for. You are unlikely to open the app when you know you are already running late on something. emit shows you the time remaining for the things that really matter to you. It compels you to remember your priorities and reduces chances of you running behind on them.
It’s a subtle psychological trick which influences your brain to adhere to your own goals better.
4. You have fundraised over 320% of your target, what have you learnt in the process?
T: Many things, but to sum it up:
- Every sale matters, as many people as possible backing our idea is always in our best interests.
- It’s all about momentum – at times, sending 50 emails per day for four months is what it takes to build momentum.
- Marketing is key.
We approached a range of marketing agencies but many quotes were simply outside of our budget. We had no option but to try a variety of strategies. We tried Facebook ads, giveaways, reaching out to family and friends. Our focus was: gearing up for our Kickstarter launch.
- Funding can stagnate especially after the post-launch spike, so you have to continuously raise awareness about the brand.
- Getting in front of the right people is important.
- Patience is necessary.
- A secret to success: manage your time effectively.
5. How do you personally maximize time?
S: Given that we spend so much of our time together working on emit, we take practical steps to maximize our time by separating for at least 12 hours a day, in order to come back refreshed and revitalized. We have discovered that at times being so focused on a task can become tiring as you recycle the same ideas and don’t develop new ones – having breaks helps to tackle this and in turn increase creativity and productivity. As we’re a three-man team, we want to create a company culture of no-excuses, so we have strict times by which we must arrive and leave the office. On the other hand, we also understand that we need down time just as much. Rather than relying on motivation, being disciplined with our time helps to maximize it. We have learnt the importance of being directional in the way that we spend our time.
6. How do we develop a healthy relationship with time?
T: Decide the 5-10 most important goals in your life and then reverse engineer the journey. Start by asking yourself, “At 30 years old what do I want to have achieved?”. Then, grow towards being that person by laying out a roadmap and setting milestones along the way. From this, you will know how much time you can spend on the present moment.
We were playing Jubilee’s 36 questions to fall in love as a group of friends and one friend said he’d like to know how much time he has left with his parents. Knowing how much time we have for things, makes us appreciate it more.
Don’t take it for granted.
7. What is next for emit?
S: We aim to raise as much funds as possible and hire a team of engineers. In a year’s time, we would like to go back to Kickstarter with second campaign. Long term, we want to build emit into a watch that suggests how to improve time management. Using data analytics we will be able to suggest, for example, the best time to go to the gym or library based on the user’s habits. Ultimately, see ourselves becoming a leader in the wearable tech sector, like Fitbit is right now.
"Life is a great movie to watch, but you don't want to sleepwalk through life". - Warren Buffet
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