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The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, Denis Pombriant, Brent Leary, and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Brent Leary joins the Gang as we blend streaming, Zoomcasting and sheltering from the storm.
Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor
@fradice, @mickeleh, @denispombriant, @kteare, @brentleary, @stevegillmor, @gillmorgang
n
Five years before it finally entered the smartwatch market in earnest, Apple introduced a square touchscreen nano. Three years before the arrival of the first Pebble, people were already considering the smartwatch possibilities. Accessory makers quickly took advantage, introducing wrist bands that would let it function as a touchscreen music watch. That sixth-gen product ultimately served as a foundation for the popular device to come.u00a0n
Per Chaudhri: n
n
i had just wrapped up ios5 and took it down to show the ID team what notification centre and siri was u2013 and what it could be in the future. i never got to share it with steve. we lost him right after ios5.nn
Other interesting bits here include:n
n
- The Solar watch face was designed as u201cas a way for muslims observing ramadan to quickly see the position of the sun and for all to understand the sun’s relationship to time.”n
- The butterfly animation was created using real (albeit deceased) butterflies (one of which is now framed in his home).n
- The touch feature originally went by the name E.T. (electronic touch).n
- The Digital Touch drawing feature was inspired by his time as a graffiti artist.nn”,”protected”:false},”excerpt”:”rendered”:”
Update: We mistakenly noted in an earlier version that Chaudhri had been a part of Microsoft’s Hololens team. The story has been updated to remove the reference.u00a0 In his two decades at Apple, Imran Chaudhri worked on many of the companyu2019s most iconic product lines, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The designer left the […]n”,”protected”:false,”author”:699688,”featured_media”:1610079,”comment_status”:”open”,”ping_status”:”closed”,”sticky”:false,”template”:””,”format”:”standard”,”meta”:”outcome”:””,”status”:””,”crunchbase_tag”:0,”amp_status”:””,”relegenceEntities”:[],”relegenceSubjects”:[],”jetpack_publicize_message”:”Apple Watch designer reveals the device’s origins on its fifth birthday https://tcrn.ch/350vgpR by @bheater”,”categories”:[449223024,133183],”tags”:[1807,291,36265994,262,30643,580102,106595,2672,1687650,1844,637,86282,29924711,6,1180879],”crunchbase_tag”:[],”tc_stories_tax”:[],”tc_event”:[],”jetpack_featured_media_url”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/gettyimages-469156996.jpg”,”jetpack_publicize_connections”:[],”shortlink”:”https://tcrn.ch/350vgpR”,”rapidData”:”pt”:””,”pct”:””,”featured”:false,”subtitle”:””,”fundingRound”:false,”seoTitle”:””,”seoDescription”:””,”premiumContent”:false,”premiumCutoffPercent”:1,”tc_cb_mapping”:[“slug”:”apple”,”cb_name”:”Apple”,”cb_slug”:”apple-organization”,”cb_link”:”https://crunchbase.com/organization/apple”,”slug”:”apple”,”cb_name”:”Apple”,”cb_slug”:”apple-organization”,”cb_link”:”https://crunchbase.com/organization/apple”,”slug”:”microsoft”,”cb_name”:”Microsoft”,”cb_slug”:”microsoft-organization”,”cb_link”:”https://crunchbase.com/organization/microsoft”],”associatedEvent”:null,”event”:null,”authors”:[699688],”hideFeaturedImage”:false,”_links”:”self”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1979766″],”collection”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts”],”about”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post”],”replies”:[“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1979766″],”version-history”:[“count”:9,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1979766/revisions”],”predecessor-version”:[“id”:1980005,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1979766/revisions/1980005″],”authors”:[“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/tc/v1/users/699688″],”https://techcrunch.com/edit”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1979766&action=edit”],”author”:[“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/tc/v1/users/699688″],”wp:featuredmedia”:[“embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1610079″],”wp:attachment”:[“href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=1979766″],”wp:term”:[“taxonomy”:”category”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=1979766″,”taxonomy”:”post_tag”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=1979766″,”taxonomy”:”_tc_cb_tag_taxonomy”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/crunchbase_tag?post=1979766″,”taxonomy”:”tc_stories_tax”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tc_stories_tax?post=1979766″,”taxonomy”:”tc_event”,”embeddable”:true,”href”:”https://techcrunch.com/wp-json/wp/v2/tc_event?post=1979766″],”curies”:[“name”:”wp”,”href”:”https://api.w.org/rel”,”templated”:true],”_embedded”:{“authors”:[“id”:699688,”name”:”Brian Heater”,”url”:””,”description”:””,”link”:”https://techcrunch.com/author/brian-heater/”,”slug”:”brian-heater”,”avatar_urls”:”24″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/eb77d830ad404e16ee7a4c7000b5f49d?s=24&d=identicon&r=g”,”48″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/eb77d830ad404e16ee7a4c7000b5f49d?s=48&d=identicon&r=g”,”96″:”https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/eb77d830ad404e16ee7a4c7000b5f49d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g”,”links”:”twitter”:”https://twitter.com/bheater”,”linkedin”:”http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-heater/1/a92/94″,”crunchbase”:”https://www.crunchbase.com/person/brian-heater”,”position”:”Hardware Editor”,”cbDescription”:”
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The homescreen of an Apple Watch smartwatch is seen as it stands on display during a preview event at Apple Inc.’s Covent Garden store in London, U.K., on Friday, April 10, 2015. The watch, which is officially available from April 24, offers capabilities such as tracking the wearer’s health and fitness data, giving directions, sending messages and controlling music, but must be paired with an iPhone to work. 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Ventures’ Charles Hudson on ‘the conversation no one has during an upmarket’”,”content”:{“rendered”:”
For pre-seed startups, precarious times are baseline until they secure their first customer, first hire and first check. But no matter how built-in turbulence might be for a pre-seed founder, weu2019re entering a period where stresses are amplified and outlooks are unpredictable.n
In light of the new market conditions, a harder fundraising market and slower expected growth, Charles Hudson (founder and general partner of Precursor Ventures) is urging his portfolio companies to reassess their futures with a refreshingly human question: u201cAre you excited and prepared to run this company for the next two years?n
If not, you might want to do something else. Why? Because if a super early-stage company manages to survive the COVID-19 era, making it out the other end, itu2019s not clear that theyu2019ll be venture-ready when markets recover. As Hudson put it, u201cthereu2019s never been a better time to maybe fold.u201d Thatu2019s because, he explained, startups that merely survive wonu2019t be judged merely against their peers that also survived; they will also compete with brand-new startups for capital and companies that didnu2019t need to hunker down during lean times.n
Itu2019s possible to make it through, but it wonu2019t be an easy path.n
TechCrunch spoke with Hudson earlier this week as part of our ongoing Extra Crunch Live series that brings leading founders and investors to our (virtual) stage. Between our editors and journalists and the best questions from the audience, weu2019re working with guests to understand the new world that we find ourselves in. That weu2019re hosting these events virtually instead of in-person is testament to our changed reality.n
But the chat was far from all gloom; Hudson is bullish on a number of things. Niche publications with subscription economics? Yes. Social services targeting particular audiences? Yep! Precursor is still cutting checks into net-new deals, and while itu2019s wrapping up its second main fund and first opportunity fund, the firm is also raising a new, larger capital pool.n
The conversation ran the full hour we had set aside for it, meaning we had to condense some later discussions about fintech and the new trade-off between growth and profit, but we did get to diversity in venture and startups in the future, and what impact a recession might have on both (itu2019s a bigger possible impact than youu2019re considering).n
Hit the jump for the best Hudson takeaways and the full audio recording from the session. Head here if you need Extra Crunch access; there are some trials for just a few bucks, so everyone can access the chat. Letu2019s go!n
Raising a fund in the COVID-19 eran
