Owl Cameras is reborn as Owlcam, rescuing bereft users and promising new products soon

Update 08/06/2020: After the startup Owl Cameras Inc. dissolved relatively untidily earlier this 12 months (see unique information story beneath for extra on that), customers had been caught with costly sprint cams and no assist. But there’s hope! Xirgo Technologies, the corporate that acquired Owl Cameras Inc.’s mental property, has partnered with CallPass to take over the patron service. Existing Owl prospects ought to have acquired a notification by way of their app or e-mail. Read extra in regards to the rehatching of Owlcam, and keep tuned for opinions of the brand new product promised for later this 12 months.

Owl Cameras is lifeless. The startup made a splash in 2018 with the Owl Car Cam, a splash cam that plugged right into a automotive’s OBD-II port and recorded each inside and out of doors the automobile, importing these movies to a cloud service by way of LTE. But now, two years later, the corporate’s staff are scattered, and its belongings have been offered. The story may need ended abruptly proper there, however this story holds a glimmer of hope for present customers.

PCWorld reviews dash cams, together with each the debut 2018 Owl Car Cam and the improved 2019 Owl Car Cam. Even although the digital camera’s $350 value was very excessive for its aggressive set, it acquired largely constructive opinions, and a few folks purchased the Owl Car Cam—although, apparently, not sufficient folks to maintain the corporate afloat.

Things began trying alarming earlier this 12 months when PCWorld sprint cam reviewer Jon L. Jacobi started receiving emails from readers who had been unable to succeed in Owl Cameras for assist. As we started to research the Owl Cameras communication blackout, we discovered an organization that appeared alive on the floor, however appeared very a lot lifeless upon nearer inspection. 

The lights are on, however…

If you had checked out Owl Cameras’ website in early February, all would have appeared regular, at the least at first look. Its slickly designed pages had been up and operating. The About web page listed the chief crew and a Board of Directors. A Careers web page confirmed an extended record of job openings. Today, the location greets you with a pop-up stating new purchases are being “temporarily suspended while the next steps are being determined,” however just some weeks in the past, nothing appeared amiss.

Other indicators of life might be discovered on LinkedIn, the place the founding government crew was nonetheless listed as employed by Owl Cameras, Inc. The LinkedIn profile pages of co-founding CEO Andrew Hodge and co-founding CTO Nathan Ackerman went as far as to proclaim, “we’re hiring!”

Other indicators of well being: Job postings on Glassdoor appeared just lately refreshed, and worker opinions had been usually glowing. Some opinions talked about typical startup perks, like plentiful free snacks. But one trace of a distinct story got here within the closing Glassdoor assessment, dated October 31, 2019. It was a good assessment, nevertheless it ended with a foreboding sentence: “Company makes a great product but failed to raise more money.”

Glassdoor

No one is residence

The extra we pulled at Owl Cameras’ strings, the extra it grew to become clear that the corporate was both on life assist or utterly lifeless. We reached out to Owl’s public relations agency and discovered it was now not working with Owl. We additionally observed Owl Cam merchandise had been unavailable to buy on the corporate’s web site and Amazon. And, after failing to succeed in anybody on Owl’s buyer assist line, we visited the corporate’s Palo Alto, CA headquarters to search out places of work gone utterly darkish. Inside we might see workplace furnishings and a few scattered paraphernalia. But there have been no folks, no PCs, and no indicators of free snacks.