TrackR is a small tracking device that can easily attach to valuable items such as wallets, keys, and bicycles. This innovative device was developed by millennial entrepreneurs Chris Herbert and Christian Smith who met while attending UC Santa Barbara. The idea for TrackR was born when Chris almost lost his car keys while spending time at the beach. The entrepreneurs pitched their idea in the UC Santa Barbara business plan competition and won. Immediately after graduating, they began work on the idea.
Over the past several years, the team has grown and they now have several different varieties of the product including TrackR Wallet, TrackR Sticker, and TrackR Bravo. Each variety is a different shape, but they all have Bluetooth functionality. This allows the device to connect to one’s smartphone and get an accurate GPS location. One can easily locate his valuable items using the smartphone app, which has features such as a distance proximity indicator, item ringer, and crowd GPS. The distance proximity indicator measures how far away one is from the lost valuable and the item ringer allows one to make the TrackR ring. The crowd GPS is a feature that can be activated when the lost item is out of Bluetooth range. If the user’s TrackR comes in range with another smartphone with the TrackR app installed, the original user will be instantly provided with an updated GPS location.
Although this idea appears to be very similar to the another innovative product called Tile, it manages to differentiate itself by offering new features. For example, TrackR has a replaceable battery and allows one to find his phone by pressing a button on the product to make the phone ring. It also has a separation alert feature, which informs one when he is forgetting to take his phone with him.
The work of these entrepreneurs encourages me to continue looking for new niches even in large markets. Although many new and innovative products may already exist in a field such as technology, there are always new ways to learn from and improve upon the work of other entrepreneurs.
To learn more about TrackR, click here.
This is such a good idea! I lose things all the time, so this would definitely be beneficial to me and a lot of other people who frequently lose things. I really like the sticker TrackR that you can place on anything. This shows that Chris was really thinking outside of the box and was truly trying to find a unique way to solve this problem.