Hello Brightblu followers and happy 2013! I’d like to offer another perspective on the Brightblu concept. My name is Morgan Pattison and I am the ‘mentor’ who sponsored the original project at UCSB. I work as a technology expert in solid-state lighting and while LEDs offer a revolutionary breakthrough in light source technology, most of us are using the same old light switch or energy dumping dimmer switch. For some buildings, there are commercial control systems but these are complicated, expensive, and don’t always work well. It doesn’t have to be this way. The vast majority of us carry around smartphones that have enough brainpower to easily control and monitor the most complicated lighting system. In coming up with the initial concept, I was inspired by another revolutionary, wireless lighting control technology – the Clapper. This is a simple low cost lighting control solution, but where is the next generation? So the Brightblu team (before they were the Brightblu team) took up the challenge of developing the hardware, software, and communications to make the concept a reality. In the process, they also demonstrated that the concept could be used for much more than just monitoring and controlling lighting. Any appliance or electronic could be controlled and monitored with a smartphone and this opens the door to full home automation that can be coupled with open source smartphone app development. The goal of Brightblu is to develop the software-hardware-communications platform that will make home automation as easy as buying, installing, and running an app on your smartphone. I’d like to see what the Angry Birds guys could come up with for home automation!

In light of the new year, we’re revamping the main website and the blog. The brightblu team would like to thank everyone for the continuous support and encouragement as it has been quite an exciting journey since graduating six months ago. Check back early next year and happy holidays!

-brightblu team

People are constantly finding ways to save money and when it comes to energy use, things are no different.  The goal of efficient energy use is simply to reduce the amount of energy needed to power your electrical products.  For example, insulating your home will reduce the need for heating and cooling and help provide a comfortable temperature in your home.  Also, installing fluorescent lights reduces the amount of energy needed to achieve the same level of brightness produced by incandescent light bulbs.  These are both great ways to reduce energy usage, but what about all of your other devices, appliances, and lighting that plug into the wall?

It is a common misconception that devices consume no energy when turned off.  Even when a device is off, it may continue to consume small amounts of electricity to be ready to instantly switch back into ‘on’ mode.  Energy experts call these devices “Energy Vampires”.  A great number of electrical products - from air conditioners to TVs - cannot be completely shut off without unplugging the device. They draw power 24 hours a day, often without the consumers even knowing.

To avoid this, try unplugging the devices you don’t use frequently.  For the ones that you use more regularly, consider plugging them into a power strip where the ‘off’ mode is actually not consuming electricity!  The simple act of unplugging frequently can save you money while reducing electricity waste and sustaining our environment.  

Check out this infographic brought to you by the good people at, well, GOOD (and the Department of Energy).

Did you know that by the end of the 20th century, over 300 motion pictures were made about vampires, and over 100 of them featured Dracula?  This post was made possible by Michael, who is an avid Twilight fan.  Team Michael anyone?

The two weeks following Plug and Play EXPO were hectic, to say the least. After winning at the sold out event, the team scheduled numerous follow-up meetings with VCs, investors, and advisors – all in an effort to raise institutional seed funding.

On Wednesday, the team trekked up to beautiful San Francisco for a couple of these meetings and snapped some photos along the way. Big shout out to Matt for following brightblu’s journey and for the continuous support. Next time you hail a taxi in the city, check out Lyft (pink mustache) first. It’s an easy and affordable alternative to Uber!

The first stop was at LUNAR, a product design and development consultancy that has been in the game since ‘84. From their website,

LUNAR designs memorable products and experiences that are meaningful to people and create value for businesses

As you walk through the hallway, the walls on either side slowly light up and follow you as you pass through. Pretty neat stuff if you ask me. It kind of makes you feel like you’re on the moon!

We grabbed a quick lunch at Chavo’s on 4th and Bryant street. I ordered a carne asada super burrito in a spinach tortilla and, man, did they pack a lot of meat. Check out this taqueria next time you’re in SOMA – reviews on Yelp rave that it’s a great late night joint to hit up after a night out.

Smart Design was another award-winning design firm we met, located conveniently next to Chavo’s. From their website,

Over 90% of our designs have been successfully brought to market. By revealing actionable insights, our process clarifies which products and experiences to create, and how to purposefully develop brands

Some notable designs that came out of Smart include the Flip camera, the Microsoft Windows packaging, and a wide variety of OXO products. The first thing that you see when you walk into Smart is large chalkboard filled with collaborative artwork. Can you spot our contribution?

The last stop of the night was at AT&T Park to watch the SF Giants take on the Arizona Dimondbacks. It may not be apparent from this blog, but trust me, the brightblu team likes to have fun too! We sat club level and watched as the men in orange and black casually win 6-0. Forget the Dodger Dog …can you say Gilroy Garlic Fries?! Big shout out to the Giants for clinching the NL West!

Oh, and of course, a baseball game isn’t complete until you’ve played Gangnam Style at least once. New seventh inning stretch? Just kidding.

Thursday morning, the team attended the BlackBerry Jam Americas (formerly known as the BlackBerry Developer Conference) held at the San Jose Convention Center. This multi-day event attracts developers and industry leaders who want to take advantage of building for the platform. We were (each) qualified for a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device!

Thanks for stopping by this week. Be sure to check out our recent press coverage in the San Jose Business Journal, the Founders Network, and Forbes! Visit us again on Monday for a very special time lapse video!

The Plug and Play Fall EXPO went exactly as promised. It was a jam packed afternoon full of “rapid-fire” pitches from 30 promising tech startups looking to gain exposure in Silicon Valley and sprinkled with a series of keynotes, VC panelists and VIP Media Judges. The preparation for the event was a 10-week process made up of a combination of structured workshops, speaker series, and active mentorship sessions that got us ready for our debut in front of over 700 Silicon Valley players.  Top startups, VCs, Angels, Corporate Representatives, CEO’s, Entrepreneurs, University Representatives, Government Officials, and local/international press were all in attendance for the bi-annual demo day.

For our team, EXPO marked the culmination of all the hard work and dedication put into our company over the last year and served as the ultimate platform to show off our technology to the valley.  In preparation, our team participated in a sequence of weekly meetings with mentors and advisors meant to give us the best opportunity to attract investors.  One incredible opportunity given to us in preparation for EXPO was meeting with “The Demo Coach,” Nathan Gold, who is known for designing, scripting and helping deliver presentations and product demos for high stakes situations. Nathan gave us valuable tips and helped us really perfect our pitch for our September 13th debut.

On the day of EXPO, our team arrived at Plug and Play at 8am bright eyed and ready for what the day had in store for us. Our CEO, Taylor Umphreys, recited his lines over and over in his head as the his pitch slot approached.  The team worked all morning to set up our demo table where we held live demos throughout the day for investors and other attendees.  While the pitch is the most important aspect of EXPO, it mainly serves as a way to drive people to the demo table.

Because of this, we knew we had to make the table very unique to catch people’s attention. Days before EXPO, we spent hours preparing our table and built an outlet box to showcase our product, the “otto”, in order to demo the on/off, dimming and proximity functions of our technology.

The event tipped off at 1:00pm with introductions from the CEO of Plug and Play, Saeed Amidi, and was followed by an insightful talk by Alex Mehr, CEO of Zoosk.  The 15 Startup Camp companies were set to pitch first and brightblu was the 13th company to go.  After the pitch, our team hurried to the demo table, not knowing what to expect.  As Cromwell Schubarth of the San Jose Business Journal tweeted:

@brightbluteam got swarmed at the first break at PNP #FallExpo

After the last word from keynote Renaud Laplanche, CEO of Lending Club, it was time to announce the winner. Out of the 30 companies who pitched, ranging from the seed stage to series A, brightblu was named one of the three winners voted by an extensive judging panel made up by VC’s, angels, corporate players, and media affiliates.

While it was a great day for the team, it was only the beginning.  Friday morning, the team was back to work developing the product and preparing for the next milestone.

@brightbluteam just rocked their pitch at #FallExpo, can’t wait to see their demo!

Curious to see what our fans were raving about? The video of our pitch from EXPO can be found HERE. Fast forward to 1:11:55 for 3 minutes of awesomeness!

The boss man schmoozing the crowd.
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Often imitated, never replicated, our Marketing guy.
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Scott Suiter (@ssuiter) helping us with our slide deck.
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The multi-talented Plug and Play interns!
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Our lovable CTO!
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Our VP of Engineering hard at work!
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The brightblu mascot!

After four years in the sunny city of Santa Barbara, it was time for the members of brightblu to graduate and begin their journey as an up and coming tech startup.  The excitement of graduation was soon overshadowed by the good news they received days before grad week.  The team was accepted into the Plug and Play Tech Center Startup Camp and received initial funding to help the costs of a new company.  The Startup Camp is a ten week accelerated program designed to immerse university startups and entrepreneurs into the Silicon Valley environment through a combination of structured workshops, speaker series, mentorship sessions and active coaching. Some of the mentors and speakers that have presented in the current session include Felix Desroshes of EchoUser (who brightblu is currently working with), Shahin Farshchi of Lux Capital and Lou Montulli, founding engineer of Netscape (the guys a legend).  The camp has now launched two classes since its start and has graduated teams from Stanford, MIT, and UC Berkeley to name a few.   Following the news of their acceptance, they wasted no time between graduation and the Startup Camp.  The team graduated on a Saturday, packed up all their belongings and drove from Santa Barbara to Sunnyvale on Sunday.  They started at Plug and Play Tech Center that very next Monday morning.

Currently, brightblu is in their eighth week of the Startup Camp and they have made tremendous strides in the time they have been there.  The camp has introduced them to what is known as the “startup grind” and brightblu has hit the ground running.  At the moment, the team has four working prototypes and spending each day getting the product ready for launch.  They are just a month away from their big demo day at Plug and Play called EXPO.  EXPO features 30 promising companies as hot new startups to present a three minute pitch in front of 100+ top-tier VCs, investors, and corporate players as well as almost 700 others in attendance. You can check out the last EXPO here.  

Along with preparation needed for the upcoming fund raising events, brightblu has made their first hire!  Michael Olmstead is a double major in Business and Economics at Whittier College and will hold the title VP Marketing.  He will be in charge of promotion and advertising, business development and investor outreach.  This addition will not only help the team with the business aspect of the company, but allows the engineers (Ben, Sid, and Taylor) to focus on the product development.

Remember to LIKE, SHARE, and TWEET anything brightblu related for a chance to win a t-shirt! Thanks for all the support guys, we really appreciate it! Until next time ..stay true, stay blu!

After an exciting winter break, the brightblu team was ready get back to school and start the grind leading towards graduation. By this time, they had already come up with a solid business plan and had a pretty good idea about how they would incorporate an open source app store on top of their hardware. With the UCSB New Venture Competition (NVC) less than a month away, there was some serious work and preparation still needed to be done. In order to participate in the competition, each team was required to meet two to three times a week at 7am with local advisors, angels, and VC’s who would be evaluating their company and product. January 24^th was the day of their first meeting and right off the bat there were concerns about how brightblu would monetize their app store and market the hardware at a low price in order to prevent scaring away potential customers. Along with this type of criticism, these morning meetings served as a platform to practice pitching skills. Each morning there would be a number of round tables filled with CEO’s, entrepreneurs and other players in the startup world, in which Taylor, Ben, Sid, and Arshad all had the chance to pitch and receive feedback on the company. While most mentors seemed impressed with the product, some were worried about the team being made up of three engineers and one scientist. Some thought the lack of a team member with a business background would be a problem. One mentor even jokingly said, “You guys really expect to win this thing with a bunch of dweebs?” This served as a huge motivator to not only win, but to also prove all the doubters wrong. Despite this small “void” in their team and after submitting a revised business plan, they were one of the 20 teams (out of the original 46) that moved on to the next round.

The twenty teams that remained were separated into two categories, tech push and market pull. Brightblu was put into the tech push category and were one of the youngest teams in the group. The semi-finals, also known as the New Venture Fair, consisted of a three-hour faux-tradeshow where over 100 judges went table-to-table and listened to each company’s pitch. Some judges were designated for the market pull companies and some for the tech push companies, but it was kept secret which ones were which. Promptly after the door opened for the fair to begin, the crowd bee-lined towards brightblu’s table. As the day went on, a huge crowd of people remained hovering around the brightblu team as each member pitched to three or four people at a time. At a certain point some people were even getting frustrated that they were unable to make their way to the front of the mob and listen to the pitch. After a long and tiring day of pitching and demoing, brightblu was named one of the six finalists that would be moving on to the last stage of the competition.

During the time between the New Venture Fair and the final presentation, the team made a point to not only practice their pitch, but to perfect it. Taylor, who would be presenting in the finals, practiced his pitch over forty times and was able to master it word for word. He met with several VC’s and angel investors to polish his pitch and make it as engaging and alluring as possible. He even took the time to watch every single Steve Jobs Keynote in order to get better idea about how successful CEO’s capture their audiences. The goal was and still is to emulate Apple’s culture as much as possible in every aspect of the company. On the day of the final pitch, the brightblu team was ready to rock and Taylor had rehearsed his pitch so many times that it had become second nature. Out of the six teams presenting, brightblu was announced to go last, thinking to themselves, “save the best for last, right?”

After the first five teams presented, brightblu was called up for the final ten-minute pitch. Taylor took the stage with confidence as the rest of the team shouted words of encouragement. Ten minutes later all you could here was the sound of applause as Taylor walked off stage and let out a huge exhale. It was later said by a few people in the audience that it was the most memorable presentation they had ever seen at any NVC.

In conclusion, brightblu was named winner of the People’s Choice award and took second place in the tech push category. They were awarded $2,500 for each honor and cemented their place in NVC and UCSB startup history!

You can find video footage of our entire presentation HERE – fast forward to 1:52:00 for the start of the brightblu presentation. Also, we’re just about ready to give away brightblu Tshirts to our devoted fans! Like, share, and tweet brightblu and the design for a chance to win a shirt!    

Fall quarter of Sr. year proved to be a crucial time for the progression of brightblu – Ben, Sid, and Taylor see this as the period that sparked their entrepreneurial passion. Along with taking Sr. Design together, the course that introduced the idea for brightblu, they were concurrently taking three other classes: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Marketing and Art of the CEO. These courses all proved to be serious influences on turning the dream of starting their own company into a reality.

The biggest motivator for starting brightblu was John Greathouse’s Entrepreneurship class. He delivered a message to his students from the very first day that in order to reach your aspirations, you must be able to work hard and take risks. He conveyed his message in various ways, but the most memorable was a piece of literature he had them read called The Mouse Driver Chronicles, a true story about two Wharton MBA roommates who passed on their big salary job offers and followed the dream to launch their own business. After reading this book, Ben, Sid and Taylor realized they could do the same thing and become their own bosses. On the first day of class, Professor Greathouse told his students, “Take a look around the class, these are the people you will most likely start a company with,” and boy was he right. Every aspect of his course was aimed at preparing his students to build, execute and run their own business. Each week he brought in passionate and successful entrepreneurs to speak to his students and give advice about the different facets of creating a startup. Some of these influential speakers included Kevin O’Connor, founder of FindTheBest.com & DoubleClick and Simon Dixon, CEO of Idea Engineering. Along with bringing in a hall of fame cast of serial entrepreneur speakers, Professor Greathouse assigned his students weekly projects where his students would create their own venture and produce an executive summary. At the same time the brightblu team was building their actual company, they were learning and refining necessary business skills by creating made-up ventures. These weekly assignments not only equipped Ben, Sid, and Taylor with a strong foundation and critical knowledge of the most important aspects of creating a business, but also proved to be essential to building their entrepreneurial spirit.

Once brightblu began to take off and started developing their product and technology, it was brought to their attention that there was an upcoming business contest called the UCSB New Venture Competition. From that point forward, the team felt a responsibility to not only win the competition but to do so by carrying out the entrepreneurial desire instilled in them by John Greathouse

For a video interview between John Greathouse and Kevin O’Connor, check out: Kevin O’Connor Shares The Secrets Of Business Success.

Thanks for tuning in this week. Visit us next Friday to hear about brightblu’s debut at the New Venture Competition! Please leave us comments below and don’t forget to checkout our website, facebook, and @brightbluteam!

Hey guys, Taylor here! My story begins in 2008 as a freshmen engineer student at UC Santa Barbara. I walked into my first class as the other students filed in to claim their seats. Once everyone was seated the teacher announced that he would be assigning everyone lab partners. Ready to hear who I would be working with for the rest of the year, the teacher called out, “Taylor Umphreys and Siddhant Bhargava.” Despite being unable to pronounce my new partners name, I was just relieved he wasn’t a complete freak.  What I didn’t know then, was that Sid would be my only lab partner in college and a roommate for two of those years.

(Left to right) Taylor and Sid, freshman year

Freshman year had started and UCSB was already living up to its reputation. Not only was it a platform for a great education, but a place to meet new people. The first person I met lived right across the hall. His name was Arshad Haider, Bio Psych Major and classical Indian music aficionada. Once again I was unaware of how strong a friendship would form from that introduction.

Flash forward to Jr. year. At this point, we were taking Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, an upper division engineering class that was unfortunately held at the same time the San Francisco Giants were playing the Texas Rangers in game five of the World Series. Sitting in class, I was unable to focus on the lecture knowing my team was on their way to their first World Series Championship. The class listened to the professor in silence. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Edgar Renteria walked up to the plate and launched the first pitch over the left field fence. I threw my hands in the air and screamed at the top of my lungs. With the whole class looking at me like I was insane, I quickly packed up my things and made my way to the aisle. Behind me, I could hear another student chasing me whispering, “wait up.” That was the first time I met Ben Chang, engineer classmate and avid Giants fan.

After this, Ben, Sid, and I started spending more and more time with each other in all of our engineering classes. Soon enough, I introduced Arshad to both of them. As luck would have it, Arshad and Ben had already known each other from playing intermural soccer. By the end of the year, we had all grown to be close friends.

By Sr. year, Ben, Sid and I were taking three of the same classes and were excited to see how our last year in college would unfold. One of the classes we were taking was called Sr. Design and the objective of the course was to develop the technology for one of the projects our professor would be presenting to us in class. Immediately, we decided to work together and after seeing the list of projects, we were all drawn towards the venture described as, “a clapper like device controlled by a smartphone.”

Once we had heard about the different projects, we noticed our professor never mentioned the one we wanted. We were told that each project was sponsored by an investor to help cover the costs for building the technology, and to our dismay, the investor that was initially set to sponsor our project had already chosen a different idea to back. We all agreed not to settle on a project we were less passionate about. Instead, we decided to try and convince our professor on three different occasions to make an exception and to grant us permission to pursue the idea, despite not having an investor. All of our attempts to persuade him were denied and we decided to offer to fund the entire project ourselves. As a result of our persistence and resilience, our professor finally agreed to let us pursue the idea of building a plug that could be controlled by a smartphone and convinced the investor to back a second project.

After 10 weeks of collaborating and working on the project, we were let off for winter break. While most used this time to vacation and look for jobs for after graduation, I visited Plug and Play Tech Center, a global startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. It was at Plug and Play where I first pitched the idea to anyone as a potential business. Subsequently, they asked us how we felt about dropping out of school to work on our idea. Though we were unwilling to leave school early, we knew that we were on to something big and this marked the birth of brightblu. Immediately after the meeting, I went online to buydomains.com and purchased brightblu.com.

That’s it for the story on how the founders met and how brightblu was born. Tune in next Friday to hear about how the Mouse Driver Chronicles and John Greathouse’s entrepreneurship course sparked our entrepreneurial passions. Please leave us comments below and don’t forget to checkout our website, facebook, and @brightbluteam page! 

What’s up everyone! My name is Taylor Umphreys, CEO of brightblu, a UC Santa Barbara startup that is determined to provide the first affordable solution to home automation. This blog will detail both the struggles and successes of our company as we pursue our entrepenurial dreams. Each week we will post a new story that elaborates on our team, vision, and product. We plan to take you on the wild journey of a rising tech company and engage you in our story by demonstrating what it takes to build a business in the heart of Silicon Valley. Sit tight and stay tuned for our next post this Friday about how brightblu was born! 

In the meantime, check out our website where you can sign up to receive updates and a chance to be one of our very first beta testers. Also, don’t forget to follow us on facebook and twitter @brightbluteam!

Comments are always welcome – leave one below!

Founders (left to right) Ben Chang, Arshad Haider, Taylor Umphreys, Siddhant Bhargava