Tony Fadell
Tony Fadell
Anthony Michael "Tony" Fadellis a Lebanese-American inventor, designer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He served as the Senior Vice President of the iPod Division at Apple Inc., from March 2006 to November 2008 and is known as "one of the fathers of the iPod" for his work on the first generations of Apple's music player. In May 2010, he founded Nest Labs, which announced its first product, the Nest Learning Thermostat, in October 2011. Nest was acquired by Google in January...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionInventor
Date of Birth22 March 1969
CountryUnited States of America
I've learnt something from every failure. The products I helped design at the first two companies I worked for were utter failures. But now I know why.
Nest really came out of a process where I was trying to design the most connected and the most green home that I knew of. I was curious of just about everything that goes into a home and building a home.
While I was designing my home, I was living in different houses all around the world, and I saw thermostats that were just as bad as the ones in the U.S., or houses that needed them but didn't have them. I realised that this was a worldwide problem. I thought, 'Let's fix it.'
If you don't have an emotionally engaging design for a device, no one will care about it.
I knew a lot about product design before coming to Apple, but I didn't understand a lot about consumer experience design, which is really Apple's forte.
I say homes are for families, and you have to make sure you design for the family, not just one person: kids, your wife, your grandparents need to be able to use it.
I've been working with contractors designing and building a house on a nonstop basis since I learned about all these systems of audio, construction, electricity, energy, water systems.
Over the next ten years, everything that has a cord is going to have data in it.
When I encounter a problem - something that's not quite right with a product - I enjoy breaking it down in my mind and exploring possible alternative solutions: Why this? Why not that? I apply the latest in technology and design to reinvent that product and solve my frustrations.
I used to work about 100 hours a week; now it's about 70. But 40 hours? Forget about it. Either you're all in, or your not.
With most tech guys, it's the same outfit every day - they wear their company logo.
You have to look at why people come and work at Nest. Part of it is that a lot of people here already know each other, but we're also on a mission with a purpose. People are personally motivated by energy or safety.
When I was four or five years old, my grandfather showed me how to build things, paint, saw. Through years of fixing bikes, repairing lawn mowers, I learned how things work.
It's not just about turning up or down the heat, it's about the other experiences that come with turning up or down the heat - what are we doing about energy, what are we doing about your health and safety.