Updated August, 23th, 2019: eero was acquired by Amazon.
When I was reading the recent news about eero new funding ($50M led by Menlo Ventures and with participation from Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Shasta Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Playground Global); I felt excited, not precisely for the amount of money, but for the opportunity behind this.
First, some data to support your decision
To give you an extract of the opportunity, I will put here 3 key statistics:
WiFi market to grow from $12.89 Billion to $26.19 Billion by 2019
Source: CommsNetworks
This one is very interesting:
The global Wi-Fi market is estimated to be USD 14.8 Billion in 2015 and is projected to reach USD 33.6 Billion by 2020. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the period from 2015 to 2020 is 17.8%. Increase in the usage of internet and growth in mobile data are the major market drivers in the market. The major challenge faced by the market is the lack of skilled and experienced labor to handle the problems and issues that arise in wireless devices and connectivity on a daily basis. The integration of Wi-Fi products and services with other verticals has offered opportunities for the market. The major restraint encountered in this market is the lack of security while using Wi-Fi. Wireless hacking can endanger the data and privacy of the users.
Source: MarketsandMarkets
Here’s the last interesting number:
As per a new research study from MarketsandMarkets, the global market for Outdoor Wi-Fi is expected to grow from $15.41 Billion in 2013 to $37.2 Billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 15.82% during this forecast period.
Source: MarketsandMarkets
Second: Forget about the money for one moment, and analyze the bigger picture about eero’s team
Don’t make wrong. Money is critical for the expansion of a networking company, and eero’s pockets are full of cash right now. The total funding of the company is $90 Million to the date in 3 rounds, so they don’t have immediate money problem.
So, again: Money is important but you are missing something critical here: eero’s team experience. If you analyze deeply the current team at eero, you will see people who worked at Nest Labs, Apple, Silver Spring Networks, Jawbone, Altera, Tagget, Sensity Systems; with a deep focus in Hardware and Electrical Engineering, Product Design, WiFi Research, Data Analysis and Software Engineering.
But, with the recent funding, there were two new members of the eero’s team: Mark Siegel and Mike Volpi. That’s why I tweeted this:
From my perspective, this is more important; because the experience of Mark and Mike will shape in a very good way how eero is planing its U.S Wi-Fi home market dominance. You can read the words from Nick (eero’s CEO and co-founder) about why Mark and Mike will be key members of eero’s crew:
Mark Siegel of Menlo will join our Board of Directors. In addition to deep experience in IT security and cloud infrastructure, Mark led Menlo’s investment in Dropcam, one of the great consumer hardware products of the past decade. I was on the investment team at Menlo before starting eero with my co-founders Nate and Amos, and am looking forward to working closely with Mark and the rest of the Menlo team.Index Ventures also participated significantly in the round. Mike Volpi — who is on the board of Sonos — will be an invaluable partner. Prior to Index, Mike was Chief Strategy Officer at Cisco; he has years of experience both in the networking space and in building companies. Our existing investors — First Round Capital, Shasta Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Playground Global, and others — all participated in the round as well.
Product Management at eero could be an exciting journey
If you join as a PM at eero (1, 2), you will have the opportunity to have a big impact in the core products of the company, and in the strategy for its future global expansion.
Why?
- You will have the opportunity to work with Paul Nangeroni (Head of Products), the man who was in the Program Management team at Apple for the iPod, the iPhone 5C and the first generation of the iWatch
- You could create the foundation of eero’s Cloud Infrastructure as a Technical PM
- You will have the chance to make an unique research about the current state of Wi-Fi connectivity in U.S restaurants, and create a future strategy to tackle this problem with eero’s products
So, if you reading this, dear PM friend; don’t miss this incredible opportunity, and make an unique application as Product Manager for eero. Nick and all eero team are waiting for brilliant PM like you.
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