Smart TV Remote Company Raises Very Modest $750,000 on Kickstarter

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Smart TV Remote Company Raises Very Modest $750,000 on Kickstarter

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Americans have been plagued by inadequate and complicated TV remote control devices for years. Dozens of consumer electronics companies have tried to address the problem, and none has been entirely successful. A new company claims it can do the trick and has raised over three-quarters of a million dollars on Kickstarter. That may not be nearly enough in a market awash in devices from huge consumer electronics companies, all of which want to build convenience into ever higher tech products.

Sevenhugs Smart Remote is the “First Remote for Everything.” It is the latest in a long line of products, the makers of which have made the same claim. The firm describes its product as follows:

Have you ever dreamed of controlling everything in your home with a single remote? Well now you can! Smart Remote is a revolutionary product that lets you instantly control any device—TVs, media players, speakers, lights, thermostats and more. Just point at what you want to control and Smart Remote’s screen automatically adapts—like magic.

The project has raised $758,086 on Kickstarter via 5,028 investors.

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How does it work?

If you want to control a device that is located near other ones—like a media player below your TV or maybe a light next to your speaker—Smart Remote lets you easily select which one you want to control. Just use the device selection carousel that automatically appears at the top of the remote.

It already sounds very complicated.

Prominent media, which include The Verge and TechCrunch, have praised the product, which means it has gotten substantial exposure. Still, its funding is nowhere near $1 million. And this is a part of the consumer electronics world occupied by giants.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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