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The KiwiCard is the world's thinnest Bluetooth tracker available at only 1.5mm thick. It is fully waterproof for those of us who sometimes throw our wallets in the washer. Our custom battery and design gives you 3 times the life as most trackers on the market. Our integrated TapSense technology allows you to simply tap your wallet to ring your phone and silence alarms.
But the KiwiCard is not just for wallets. If you can put a card inside it, you can track it.
KiwiCard connects with the KiwiTrackers app on your mobile phone to provide you with an array of item finding features.
The KiwiCard's TapSense technology allows you to find your phone too! Simply give it a few firm taps and your phone will begin to ring. If your KiwiCard is inside a wallet, notebook, or outside pocket of a bag, just tap on the item and the KiwiCard will pick up the vibrations. You don't even need to pull your wallet out of your pocket!
Figuring out how to make the world's thinnest tracking device without compromising durability was not easy. The KiwiCard consists of many layers of material fused together to make a durable watertight enclosure. Our process is so unique and requires such precision that we cannot outsource it. Because of this and to support our local economy, KiwiCards will be created and packaged at our facility in the USA.
The KiwiCard's custom, flexible battery holds 3 times more charge than the coin cell batteries typically used by most item tracking devices. The KiwiCard is water-tight, making it completely waterproof (IPX8 for the geeks like us) which means the batteries are not replaceable. Batteries are not something you need to worry about with our service model.
Let's face it…you're forgetful. This is why we offer the KiwiCard as a service. It's peace of mind for you. When you purchase a service you get guaranteed KiwiCards so long as you keep your service active. That means free replacements if its lost or damaged, and when the battery is getting low you will receive a free replacement automatically. When it's time to renew your service you can do it with a few quick clicks in the app.
We also want all our backers to be able to participate in deciding the final look of the KiwiCard. You will have a chance to submit your own design and vote on the final KiwiCard design that will go into mass production.
Design for the KiwiCard started in July of 2016 and we are currently on our third design iteration. We are waiting on an order of 200 units of our current revision circuit boards to be delivered by the end of March. These circuit boards will be programmed and used for our phase 1 beta tests and our Kickstarter beta tests. In designing the enclosure we have tested over 40 variants of plastics from various suppliers around the world. We currently have all the necessary equipment to create small quantities of production-grade units for our beta tests. We also have most of the necessary equipment for mass production as we only need to upgrade our programming station to mass produce KiwiCards at our facility.
Mikey decided he would leave his job as a research engineer at Georgia Tech Research Institute designing software and computer solutions for the United States Air Force. After a couple of weeks, he put in a month's notice and quit his job. It was shortly after this that Charlie joined him part time. Charlie was still finishing up school and thus did not have much time, nor was he in the same city. Mikey was hard at work developing by hand the first prototype of the KiwiCard. When Gonzalo joined the team, Mikey already had a prototype. Soon after that, Charlie graduated and moved to Macon to work full-time.
Now, you may be wondering where the name 43Tech comes from. If you are a nerd, you might know that element 43 on the periodic tables is called Technetium (we make tech...get it?). If you are a super-nerd (like us), you may also know that it is the first manufactured, or man-made, element. The vision for the company is to create affordable and innovative technology solutions to everyday problems while supporting local urban development through financial investment and employment opportunities.
We would like to thank the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for helping us get things straightened out and guiding us in a general direction. We would also like to thank Robert Betzel, who has given us great advice about the business. And lastly, we would like to thank Dr. Keith Johnson for believing in us and supporting us financially.
The KiwiCard is our first product and there is always risk involved with the launch of a new product, especially the first. There is still work to do on this project, with production testing still needing to be done.
We are confident that we will be able to produce and deliver the KiwiCard as expected by our projected delivery date. Our team is dedicated to see that through.
1. We have a team with over 40 years of combined experience.
2. We have secured production and assembly facilities and equipment.
3. We have run created and tested several variations of prototypes. We will run a private beta testing round shortly after Kickstarter is over and will have a second public round with some of you. We are excited to include the Kickstarter community in this step of the process.
We understand this campaign is a customer-relationship opportunity and our mission is to leave our backers fully satisfied with both our product and service.