A project emerging from U.B.C., Energy Aware Technology Inc. was founded in 2005 as means to “connect people to resource conservation.” The award-winning company’s newest product, Neurio: Home Intelligence, aims to increase energy efficiency in regular households – and turned to crowd funding source Kickstarter for help.

Using Kickstarter has proven to be a success for the company, and the new device. As of November 11th, the project has reached over $200,000 CAD worth of funding, surpassing their initial goal of $95,000. There are still a few days left in the funding period.

To maximize their chances of their success, the four-person team reached out to the community for support. “The timing of these outreach activities was meticulously planned to achieve maximum impact for our launch,” says Janice Cheam, CEO of Energy Aware.

“Neurio” will monitor your home’s electricity, appliance by appliance. The device will include the energy saving Wattson app, giving people real-time access to their power consumption.

I read Neurio’s Kickstarter campaign and was thoroughly impressed. Energy Aware is a team of skilled graduates who are putting their specializations to good use – with goals of promoting sustainable values while making humans’ lives easier (and cheaper).

By using Kickstarter, Energy Aware becomes further aware of the market interest. They are building relationships with future customers and testing out their product – what better way to launch Neurio?

I also read that Cheam is a recipient of Vancouver’s Top 40 Under Forty and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing. That’s impressive.

Sources:

http://www.energy-aware.com/index.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-digital/biz-categories-technology/crowdfunding-is-risky-how-a-bc-tech-company-beat-the-odds/article15310323/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/energyaware/neurio-home-intelligence