INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
the four-year-old company
The idea for Gear, which is a $249.00 ($179.00 as of this writing thanks to a sale) aftermarket conversion gadget to turn almost any
but who always had a penchant for tech and gadgets, originally set out to scratch his own itch and arrived upon the idea for his company as
He was actually in the market for smart blinds when he moved into his first condo in Toronto, but after all the budget got eaten up on
And they quoted me just over $1,000 a window with the motorization option
So I opted just for manual shades
background, Pham saw an opportunity in the market that was ignored by the big legacy players, and potentially relatively easy to address
more readily available thanks to the smartphone component supply chain
and having less to spare on expensive upgrades like motorized shades.The Axis solution is relatively affordable (though its regular asking
entire existing shades or blinds, so long as you have the type with which the Gear is compatible (which includes quite a lot of commonly
There are a couple of power options, including an AC adapter for a regular outlet, or a solar bar with back-up from AA batteries in case
He sees Axis as taking a similar approach in the smart blind market, which has too much to gain from maintaining its status quo to tackle
We have customers that buy one or two right away, come back and buy more, and we have customers that buy 20 right away
on its consumer product and looking at commercial opportunities as they come inbound, with plans to tackle the harder work of building a
proper commercial sales team
But it could afford Axis a lot of future opportunity, especially because their product can help building managers get compliant with
measures like the Americans with Disabilities Act to outfit properties with the requisite amount of units featuring motorized shades.To
date, Axis has been funded entirely via angel investors, along with family and friends, and through a crowdfunding project on Indiegogo,
which secured its first orders
The startup is about to close a small bridge round and then will be looking to pin down its Series A funding as it looks to expand its
