Category: News

PAVLOK recently hosted one of the world’s first behavior change hackathons (no joke, the only other one we could find was in Finland just a few months ago).

Eight teams competed by creating integrations that allowed 3rd party applications and sensors to trigger electric shock or other haptic feedback on the PAVLOK device.

We saw some really promising projects presented at the hackathon. We shot video of all of the presentations, however there were a few technical problems and not all could be used. We’ve included the video of presentations when possible, as well as links to the GitHub repository for those groups that shared their work publicly.

The full list of project descriptions:

1. Script that shocks developers when they write bad code that uses a custom built NPM module, also making it easier for developers to connect to the API

2. An integration that uses your phone’s position sensor to vibrate/shock if you sit for too long without standing up and moving around

3. Android integration that shocks you when you open certain apps, eg., Reddit

4. Wunderlist integration for knocking off your to-do list

5. Slack messenger integration that allows you to buzz your coworkers on command, “shock Maneesh 255v”

6. Google calendar integration that buzzes you to notify of calendar events

7. Facebook integration that shocks you for posting certain words, e.g., lol

8. Voice recognition where you can blacklist words, “like, ummm, uhhh”

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First Place:

Chris Swenor of East Coast Product. Chris and his team won by writing a Javascript module that makes it easier for other developers to connect to the PAVLOK API, and then using that module to create a tool which punishes developers for writing bad code through an integration with CodeShip.

https://github.com/EastCoastProduct/pavlokjs

https://github.com/EastCoastProduct/pavlok-hack-api

Second Place:

Aaron Washburn, Teddy Wing, Carol Novitsky and Sunny Chin created an integration that uses your phone’s position sensor to vibrate/shock if you sit for too long without standing up and moving around.

https://github.com/washburnad/pavlok

Third Place:

Kevin Luo, Preston Carpenter, Atamai Tuiolosega and Zachary Marcus created an android app that shocks you when you open certain pages, eg., Reddit.

https://github.com/klevingluo/PavlokApp

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Here are videos and GutHub repositories for other great integrations:

Facebook integration that shocks you for posting certain words, e.g., lol https://github.com/lizmorr/Shockathon (Joshua Maffuccio, Fred Chapman, Elizabeth Morrison, Matthew Riggott and ?)

Slack messenger integration that allows you to buzz your coworkers on command, for example: “shock maneesh 255v”

Google calendar integration that buzzes you to notify of calendar events

All awesome integrations! We’ll add more links to GitHub repositories as we’re able to get permission from the creators. In the mean time, get out there and create your own integration! https://pavlok.herokuapp.com

Hey all — this is Maneesh Sethi, CEO of Pavlok writing today. This is an important update about our failures, so it is extremely important to me that I write it myself. I want to clear up some of the questions about Pavlok — including your biggest one, when will it arrive?

When we launched this project we had two major deadlines:

1. start shipping Prototype units in January, 2015 (we’ve already shipped ~400, with another 200 going out this week)
2. start shipping the final Production unit in April/May, 2015 (international in June)

We are going to miss the May deadline. We know that sucks, but we want to make sure we deliver the best product to you. Hardware is really hard, and rushed hardware isn’t worth its weight in BOM. Rest assured, we are going to ship you your product. And now we are closer to an accurate, final ship date.

When will Pavlok ship?

• US orders will ship in July/August 2015
• International orders will ship after those — ideally August (this depends on CE approval, possibly Sept).

The next section will explain in more detail what went right and what went wrong over the last few months.

What went wrong

• Building a company is hard. Like really hard. Pavlok isn’t just a shocking wristband. It’s also finding the right employees, negotiating with investors, designing packaging, managing suppliers (reliable and unreliable), writing documentation, safety testing, liability insurance, and lawyers lawyers lawyers. Every step of building a device is 10x more work in supporting services and structure.
• Our hardware progressed faster than our software. We already have hardware prototypes — over 400 on people’s wrists. Unfortunately, our software hasn’t been keeping pace. Our firmware (embedded code on the hardware device), smartphone app, and webapp are still in process. So many moving parts means that when one thing changes, everything else has to change as well.
• Prototypes / 3d-printing != Manufacturing. When we launched our IndieGogo campaign, we we working exclusively with 3d-printed prototypes. If you print something that doesn’t work, no big deal — you just fix the file and print it again. Unfortunately, manufacturing doesn’t work the same way. With real supply chains, you have to produce a full mold — which takes thousands of dollars and weeks of work. If there is a problem, you have to throw that mold away and start all over again. This is probably the biggest reason as to why we missed our deadline: New revisions of the Pavlok unit are measured in weeks/months, not hours.
• Building hardware is expensive — far more expensive than an IndieGogo campaign generates. Even Pebble had to raise money from VCs to fulfill the orders from their first $8M++ campaign. The most expensive part is people: our team is 11 full time employees working on electrical engineering, software, app development, design, mechanical engineering, sales, customer support, and more. If we had unlimited money (or raised a big round from VCs) we could have thrown money at the problem to speed up. Unfortunately, bootstrapping means we move slower.
• International safety testing. If all we had to do was deliver a shock we could wire up batteries to a couple of transistors and contact points and BOOM it would shock you. But delivering a safe, adjustable and consistent shock is more difficult. We need to make sure we meet safety standards here in the US as well as comply with a different set of standards in the E.U and other countries (about 40% of our IGG backers are international). The good news is that Pavlok is totally safe, and we are well under the threshold for maximum amperage. However working through the regulations has been one of the biggest delays and is why international orders will ship a month later than US orders.

What went Right

• The Product: When I started Pavlok, the idea was more novelty than anything. We were building a device that would shock me when I went on Facebook. Halfway through the IndieGogo campaign, however, we stumbled upon 21 Scientific Studies about the effectiveness of electric shock in helping break addictions and bad habits. By reproducing these peer-reviewed studies, we’ve helped dozens of people quit smoking, nail-biting, eating sugar, and more.

  

• We shipped 400+ Prototype units. Pavlok is already shipping worldwide and early users are seeing massive results in changing their behaviour. Some users recorded videos on their experience so far. We are working with our users to get feedback that will improve the final production units. E.g., more comfortable wristbands, and Habit Buster Mode to trigger multiple shocks at a time.
  
• We discovered multiple use cases for electric shock. While we are still doing research, we have found that Pavlok might be effective for training athletes as well as memory — not just habits. More on this in the future.
• We were recognized as a finalist in the Google Wearables in Healthcare competition. With 400+ comments and 600+ points, we doubled the score of the second place team on the Wearables in Healthcare rankings. See our winning page here.
• The Team is Growing. We have about >20 people working on Pavlok in various capacities, including 11 full time employees in our Boston office and 10-20 contractors that work here and worldwide. Want to work with Pavlok? Check out our hiring page

  

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What’s Next

• Our software, while not complete, is going to be awesome. Prototype users have a beta app that can remotely make the device shock, vibrate and beep. The new app includes courses on the science of behavioral change, guided modules for changing specific habits, settings to customize the shock, and integrations for connecting your Pavlok to other hardware and software. We are also building a separate alarm clock app so you can set your Pavlok to go off at a specific time. The iOS apps will be ready for the launch of the Production Units and Android and web apps will follow soon after.
• API is almost ready. It works and we use it. We have a senior developer working out the last few bugs and adding a layer of security and then we will make this public. Here you can see some examples. Using Pavlok for productivity, and Using Pavlok for Inbox Zero.
• We are running live Q&A webinars. You have questions about Pavlok and we have answers! Check out a recording of the most recent webinar. We’ll be holding the next one next week, on Friday. We send invites to the Pavlok mailing list—sign up here if you haven’t already.
• We are holding a Hackathon. The event will take place here in Boston on May 16, 2015. Participants will have early access to the API to build their own integrations with the Pavlok device. Interested in participating? Join here.

That’s it. The truth is, most crowdfunding campaigns deliver late (84% says CNN) — usually by 6 months, a year, or more. And many crowdfunding campaigns never deliver at all. Ours is not like that.

You will get your Pavlok. In all honesty, if we had shipped on time, we would have been rushing to get you a sub-par product. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather ship you a product that functions flawlessly, rather than one that will break in a matter of weeks.

Below you can see the Pavlok modules. On the left is the prototype module, and the right is our first production-style module (not finalized or polished, but you see the style change).

That’s all for now.

Maneesh Sethi
CEO & Inventor of Pavlok

P.S: Have a question about Pavlok? Ask in the comments below and we will respond fast.

On Monday, March 30, 2015 Pavlok was announced as the #1 finalist in Medstro’s Wearable’s in Healthcare Pilot Challenge.

Thanks to everyone that voted for us — and helped us earn 662 points — more than double the second place score. You’ve given us the chance to compete in the “Final Smackdown” at Google Cambridge at the end of April — which is a step toward doing more clinical trials with the Pavlok device.

In total we had 417 enthusiastic comments about the #1 way people would use Pavlok (and some identified multiple uses). We’ve analyzed the data:

15.9% of people would use Pavlok to do more Exercise/Fitness/Sports

15.2% said increase Productivity & Focus or Decrease Procrastinating & Wasting Time Online.

13.5% said to Wake Up On Time

10.7% said Improve Eating Habits or Eliminate Emotional Eating

3.7% said Quit Smoking

3.7% said Study Better

3.0% said improve their Mindfulness & Gratitude

2.8% said quit Social Media

2.8% said decrease Nervous Ticks

2.2% said Quit Sugar

1.9% said quit Nail Biting

All of the above habits had 10 or more people identify as their #1 use case for Pavlok. The remaining ~24.6% of people represented smaller categories — but we see every use case as critical to our mission of helping you change your behaviour. More than anything, we are excited about the diversity of Pavlok Users and how you want to improve.

Here is the entire list of categories and results:

Exercise/Fitness/Sports	86
Productivity/Focus/Procrastinating/Wasting time online	82
Sleep/Snooze	73
Eating Habits (emotional eating)	58
Quit Smoking	20
Start Studying	20
Mindfulness/gratitudes	16
Quit Social Media	15
Nervous Ticks	15
Quit Sugar	12
Nail Biting	10
Quit Video Games	9
Spending Habits Financial	9
Break pessimism /negative thoughts/judgment	8
Writing	7
Quit Caffeine	6
Quit Soda	6
Code	5
Languages	5
Posture	5
Morning Routine	5
Regular Schedule/Routine	4
Morality/Compassion	4
Quit TV	4
Reading	4
Memory/Remember to do’s	3
Stress	3
Quit Alcohol	3
Couples/Friends	3
Help others with their habits	3
Stop impulsively using cellphone	3
Water	3
Music	3
BE MORE AWESOME	2
Cursing/Slang	2
Take medication	2
Chores/Dishes/Bed	2
Approach anxiety	2
Weed/doing drugs	2
Email	2
Stress while driving	1
Send Money when habits broken	1
Build good habits	1
API	1
Holding commitments	1
Anger	1
Cracking my knuckles	1
Consistent motivation , finishing	1
Change the world	1
Full oral hygiene routine	1
Disengaging from work	1
Train my pet	1
Masturbation	1
Time training	1

 

 

When I was 8 years old I was on a terrible t-ball team.

We lost our first game, and our second game and our third game.

We got creamed when we played an unscheduled game against the girls rep team.

Seriously, they destroyed us — it was soul crushing for a bunch of 8 year old Roberto Alomar wannabees.

And we lost the finals too.

But we still got trophies, even if they were half the size of the winners’ trophies.

Today though, I am a winner, because I’m on team Pavlok.

 

Pavlok Wins “People’s Choice Award” & Boston’s Best Tech Startup

At the first WeWork Boston Demo Day, we pitched Pavlok against some amazing companies:

• Suitable Technologies (think your very own Skype robot)
• Spot (Airbnb of parking)
• JAZE (smart car maintenance)
• Shelfie (take pictures of unstocked shelves and get points)
• mettle (video challenge friends and get points)

Congratulations to Shelfie on winning the Grand Prize, and we are pretty happy to be voted as the People’s Choice Award :- )

You can read the full article in BostInno, and this is the excerpt about Pavlok:

“Ever since this startup took to Indiegogo last summer—which was 508 percent funded at $269,702—it’s gained substantial buzz for its shocking device, which aims to bust bad habits and change users’ behavior. Pavlok submits an electronic shock when you don’t accomplish the healthy goals you’ve set for yourself. Software engineer Justus Eapen, who led the pitch, told the audience that he tested out the device himself in an attempt to stop drinking beer in the later hours of working. Eapen says Pavlok worked like a charm, and he also claims he’s spoken with many other users who have been able to stop smoking cigarettes and biting their nails—among other things.”

And Pavlok won not one but two great awards last week.

Tech in Motion hosts the Timmy Awards with 3 categories: Boston’s Best Technology Manager, Boston’s Best Technology Work Culture and Boston’s Best Tech Startup.

We were nominated (and won) Boston’s Best Tech Startup, again with tough competition:

• 9yahds (cloud based process management)
• ArtLifting (sells art and helps disadvantaged people)
• Cintell (customer intelligence software)
• KeynectUp (contact management)
• Mapdwell (data interpretation)
• OtoSense (reacts to sounds in your environment)
• PillPack (simplified pill taking)
• SHADO Sports (fantasy sports platform)

About the award for Boston’s Best Tech Startup:

This award recognizes Boston’s best startup that employs forward-thinking technology leaders, possesses a great working environment, and produces an innovative product. Finalists include technology companies based in the Greater Boston Area founded since January 1st, 2013.