Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home
In January 2015, Jibo Inc. had completed a raise of $25.3 million in Series A financing after a successful 2014 crowdfunding campaign for pre-orders of Jibo, the first social robot for the home. Over 4,800 Jibo units were pre-ordered, generating $2.6 million in sales. On one snowy morning in January, CEO Steve Chambers met with co-founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Cynthia Breazeal and newly-hired VP of Consumer & Development Relations Lynda Smith to prepare for their first meeting with the board. The team planned to discuss Jibo's business development strategy, and considered how best to engage with the developer community to expand Jibo's portfolio of capabilities. How could the team best attract third-party developers to create Jibo Skills (apps) for this new platform that would not ship until 2016? Should the team develop a full set of Jibo Skills in-house? The team also hoped to establish partnerships with large content providers. How could they convince potential partners that Jibo was a worthwhile investment?
Collection: HBSP (USA)
Ref: HBS-816003-E
Format: PDF
Number of pages: 17
Publication Date: Dec 3, 2015
Language: English
Review date: May 10, 2016
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Description
In January 2015, Jibo Inc. had completed a raise of $25.3 million in Series A financing after a successful 2014 crowdfunding campaign for pre-orders of Jibo, the first social robot for the home. Over 4,800 Jibo units were pre-ordered, generating $2.6 million in sales. On one snowy morning in January, CEO Steve Chambers met with co-founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Cynthia Breazeal and newly-hired VP of Consumer & Development Relations Lynda Smith to prepare for their first meeting with the board. The team planned to discuss Jibo's business development strategy, and considered how best to engage with the developer community to expand Jibo's portfolio of capabilities. How could the team best attract third-party developers to create Jibo Skills (apps) for this new platform that would not ship until 2016? Should the team develop a full set of Jibo Skills in-house? The team also hoped to establish partnerships with large content providers. How could they convince potential partners that Jibo was a worthwhile investment?
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Year: 2015
Geographic Setting: Russia
Industry Setting: Technology; Hardware & fasteners
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