a year agoAt CES, I debuted the idea for Hammer at 444, a startup that was trying to make a “smart” pepper spray device. I ran into the same company again at CES this year. To my surprise, I secured a great partnership, co-development, and co-branding with Mace, one of the biggest names in the sprayable self-defense sector.
444Mace’s agreement with Mace is “a preliminary exclusive agreement for the purposes of jointly developing and bringing to market a GPS- and Bluetooth-enabled smart pepper spray device that transmits current location to emergency contacts upon deployment.”
“We were here at CES last year, starting out with a rough-looking 3D print and example PCBA board. We made a lot of connections, got some news articles from TechCrunch and a lot more,” says Logan Nash, co-founder of 444. The wind has moved the idea of the martial industry to some extent. A few months after CES, Mace reached out to us, and we built a great relationship with them and finalized our partnership.
The samples the 444 had at its booth were pre-production samples that looked great: great design, well made, and almost ready to go into production. The team told me they hope to start ramping up production in the next few months.
“We did a lot of customer discovery to find out exactly what the consumer wants and needs. One of the things we always heard is that users want a device that is stylish and aesthetically appealing. That’s what we have here. A device that has great looks, great colors, high quality and is very powerful,” he explains. Nash: “It has a metal frame to keep everything together.” “But we also wanted longevity of the device. If the user deploys pepper spray, they can unscrew the back and replace the canister so it is ready for another use.
The replaceable case model is new. Most pepper sprays are cheap disposable devices, but the 444 offering is a premium product that will cost much more than the original. $14 for two people Devices you can order on Amazon. Its price will likely range between $75 and $100, the team tells TechCrunch, so the ability to reuse the device and electronics is crucial.
You can open the back of the 444 and replace the puck case if the device has been deployed. Image credit: TechCrunch/Haj Camps
The company is quick to share that even if you forget to charge the device, the Mace part still works — and that’s entirely mechanical — although obviously your support circle’s GPS alert system won’t be activated.
“When you open the device, pepper spray comes out. It also sends a signal to your phone, which will send your current — and live — location to a designated emergency contact, whether it’s mom, dad, brother, sister, you name it.” This part is free. . For an additional subscription, the app will connect you to a 24-hour emergency hotline that will then direct you to local authorities, whether that be police dispatchers or campus security.
As a company, Mace had A tough few years. From a peak market cap of $46 million in April 2021, the company is worth less than $2.5 million today. It makes sense for the company to turn to young innovators to enhance its relevance in the market.
“Mace Brand is very excited about this first-of-its-kind smart product for Mace. The spray is the most advanced of its kind and we believe it is the most significant release in the industry in decades,” Sanjay Singh, Chairman and CEO of Mace Brand, wrote in a press release. “This product is ideal for those who value personal safety while looking for the most technologically advanced product. The product’s sophisticated design should appeal to consumers on the go and at home.
I’ll have the humble pie for one, please, sir.
Let me be the first to say that I really didn’t see this coming; I was really surprised when I was reminded of the company at all, and doubly puzzled that they still existed. I missed something — and it’s a little refreshing to be reminded of that in a personal way like meeting the founders at the same trade show a year later.
I often end up seeing startups at CES that seem completely useless (this year, I rolled my eyes at Direction 9. If they’re acquired by Samsung by next year, I think I’ll really have to re-evaluate my role as an analyst), and then many years of… Seeing startups do stupid things, I find myself a bit jaded.
This is a great reminder that for real entrepreneurs, it takes more than a snarky post from a stubborn blogger to encourage them to give up. Consider this my confession of “Hey, I’m wrong at least 20% of the time,” and I’m curious to see where 444 goes from here.