Many regarded Jawbone as one of the pioneers in wearables. After making its mark as a Bluetooth headset maker, it pivoted to capitalize on the new and highly desirable fitness tracking market. This pivot and expansion into a hot new area allowed Jawbone to attract funding from top-tier Silicon Valley venture capital firms and helped them amass a world-class board that included Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer and Warner Music Group’s COO Robert Wiesenthal. With all the funding in the place and the right team behind it, it seemed like Jawbone would be unstoppable. So how did a groundbreaking industry pioneer find itself entangled in corporate espionage, public embarrassment, and a string of unhappy customers? Get the full story on Episode 45 of The Great Fail.

Episode Sources

Jawbone’s demise a case of ‘death by overfunding’ in Silicon Valley 

The Rise and Fall of Jawbone

Rise and fall of the Jawbone UP24: The tracker that changed wearable tech

Failed Startups: Jawbone

Jawbone: From Innovative to Insolvent

Jawbone, Once Valued at $3 Billion, Is Going Out of Business. Here’s What Went Wrong

What happened to Jawbone?

What We Can Learn from Jawbone’s Failures

Jawbone is going out of business

After burning through $1 billion, Jawbone’s Hosain Rahman has raised $65 million more

Timeline: 23 news events that led to Jawbone’s (reported) stripped-down pivot

Catastrophic Failures: Jawbone

Wearable Technology – A Brief History and a Bright Future

IDC: Wearable Devices Market Share

Investopedia: Wearable Technology

Wearables pioneer Jawbone is back with a new mission: Warning you about health problems you didn’t know you had

The History of Wearable Technology

Gaming the system: Edward Thorp and the wearable computer that beat Vegas

Feds charged six current and former Fitbit employees for stealing trade secrets from Jawbone

Special Guest

Jitesh Ubrani
Research Manager, Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers

Jitesh is a Research Manager for the Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, including Wearables, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Tablets, and Phones. The team focuses on the market sizing, forecasting, and analyzing trends to provide insight into the competitive landscape of the worldwide mobile industry.

Prior to joining IDC in 2012, Jitesh was part of the Market Analysis and Intelligence team at Bell Mobility, one of Canada’s largest telecom service providers, where his role focused on understanding smartphone adoption and usage as well as consumer purchasing behavior.

Mr. Ubrani holds a bachelor of commerce degree with a major in Economics from Ryerson University and is currently based in Toronto, Canada.