Tony Fadell
Tony Fadell
Anthony Michael "Tony" Fadellis a Lebanese-American inventor, designer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He served as the Senior Vice President of the iPod Division at Apple Inc., from March 2006 to November 2008 and is known as "one of the fathers of the iPod" for his work on the first generations of Apple's music player. In May 2010, he founded Nest Labs, which announced its first product, the Nest Learning Thermostat, in October 2011. Nest was acquired by Google in January...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionInventor
Date of Birth22 March 1969
CountryUnited States of America
Computers are great tools, but they need to be applied to the physical world.
I say homes are for families, and you have to make sure you design for the family, not just one person: kids, your wife, your grandparents need to be able to use it.
It can't be that difficult to build a great thermostat. So I decided to figure out: What would the thermostat for the iPhone generation look like? I got this bug. It really infected my brain. I kept thinking about it. This could be a cool product that matters and a cool product that has a great business.
You start with the right amount of rational and emotional experiences. You have to blend those in your product when you come out.
Most thermostats are built by plumbing companies. But you really need to understand how to build a phone to make them better.
If you don't have an emotionally engaging design for a device, no one will care about it.
I don't want the iPod to be my defining thing.
To help you focus, to help you really understand what you're doing, you have to say no a lot. When you say yes to everything, you get distracted. When you say no, you have to get the one thing you're doing really right.
There are two different types of prototyping. First, the gut sense. You know how far you can take it. Second, you need experts to figure out whether or not it is attainable.
Studies have shown that children are less likely to wake up to a horn than the sound of a mother's voice.
In Tahoe, you want to be able check on the temperature of the house or turn it on before you get there. Because it's really cold in the winter.
Having kids makes you think about the world differently.
Thermostats are made by very large companies with no incentive to innovate. Their customers are contractors or HVAC wholesalers, not consumers. So why spend to make them better? It's a good business.
Your television has changed, your phone has changed. Why don't these other things you need, that the government tells you you must have in your home, change?