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Jawbone

jawbone.com | Shut down July 6, 2017

A fitness wearable pioneer that raised close to a billion dollars and liquidated.

What it did

Jawbone made Bluetooth speakers, headsets and the UP line of fitness tracking wristbands, paired with a health and activity app.

The facts, as reported

After years of quality complaints, layoffs, litigation with Fitbit and repeated pivots, Jawbone entered liquidation in 2017 and the consumer business ended, with a small health services venture attempted afterwards.

Jawbone (Wikipedia)
reporting | 7/6/2017
"Jawbone began liquidation in 2017 after years of losses, layoffs and litigation."

Marketur analysis, not fact

Hardware punishes assumptions. Returns, warranty costs and manufacturing defects hit the balance sheet directly, and no amount of venture funding fixes a product people send back. Competitors with tighter operations took the market while Jawbone raised more money.

What to take from it

In hardware, quality problems are financial problems.
Raising more is not a strategy when unit economics are broken.
Being early to a category does not mean you will own it.