Humane's Broken Promise

The Snowblower Saga

Picture this; a charming couple moves into a small town in the far north, enticing the locals with promises of a revolutionary new snowblower (snow being very topical in Ottawa atm). Smooth-gliding, effortless snow excavation and evaporating the likes of which the town had never seen, who could resist? Many eagerly sign up to purchase the first model, excited to support these charismatic entrepreneurs and achieve a higher quality of life with more time to cozy up by the fire.

The much anticipated snowblowers arrive, but alas, they don’t quite live up to the hype. “No worries!!” say the entrepreneurs and their growing band of minions, “we’ll keep tuning them up, they’ll live up to the dream we promise”. The townsfolk are appeased even amidst some scathing criticism by the town Marques.

Nary a few months later, the tunings slow down, and then one day, abruptly the minions sheepishly inform all their customers that cruel outside forces have intervened. Not only will the promised tunings cease to continue, but the machines will cease functioning altogether in a mere 10 days! Pitchforks in hand, the furious customers run the swindlers out of town.

Humane’s Betrayal

This fable mirrors the unfortunate reality of Humane Inc, their AI Pin and the announcement they published today. I admit, I’m a bit raw. I was drawn in by the vision painted by their co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno. I was an early believer, and still believe a future can exist with wearable tech that allows you to stay connected to the real world and the online world simultaneously.

But this announcement, to brick customers’ devices in a matter of days without reserving some olive branch of extended service is just a huge slap in the face, and speaks to their lack of control of the company they were leading.

As an early supporter, I feel duped and foolish. But more importantly, I’m disappointed that Chaudhri and Bongiorno’s actions will further erode consumer trust in visionary tech and embolden naysayers.

Aluminum Lining

I may be exaggerating a bit, the folks that bought an AI Pin are likely pissed, but they’ll get over it. Maybe an open source future hack will help it live on. I’m hopeful there is more to this story that comes out that helps explain these actions, ideally something better than “our hands were tied by the investors”.

My idea of success as an entrepreneur is one that is mission driven, absolutely. However, this situation is an unfortunate reminder that without your customers’ faith and trust, you’re nothing. It’s the most valuable asset you have, and if you want the ability to fail your way to success, you better place their trust above all else.

However, I don’t think they’re going to feel this lesson as I doubt they’ll be run out of any town. But one of the best things about being an entrepreneur is, I’m not them, and I can choose a different priority stack.