“Father of the iPod” Leaving Nest
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Tony Fadell, also known as the “Father of the iPod” is leaving the company that he founded, Nest. Fadell stayed on when Google acquired it in 2014.
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Fadell issued a statement on the Nest web site which reads:
“Since the launch of Nest in October 2011, this blog has been a place for me to share my thoughts on all things Nest – like explaining why we created the Nest Learning Thermostat, sharing the customer stories that inspire us, announcing new products and services, or highlighting our exceptional partners across retail, energy and insurance providers, professional installers, and the developer community. Today though, my news is bittersweet: I have decided that the time is right to “leave the Nest.”
While there is never a perfect time to transition, we’ve grown Nest to much more than a thermostat company. We’ve created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in the early growth stage and will continue to evolve to move further into the mainstream over the coming years. The future of Nest is equally as bright given the strong and experienced leadership team in place, as well as the two-year product roadmap we’ve developed together to ensure the right future direction.
Although this news may feel sudden to some, this transition has been in progress since late last year and while I won’t be present day to day at Nest, I’ll remain involved in my new capacity as an advisor to Alphabet and Larry Page. This will give me the time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries – and to support others who want to do the same – just as we’ve done at Nest. We should all be disrupters!
I will miss this company and my Nest family (although I’ll be around to provide advice and guidance and help the team with the transition), but I am excited about what’s coming next, both for Nest and for me.
When Matt Rogers and I founded Nest six years ago, neither one of us imagined the company and products would take off as quickly as they did. We hit the ground running and – along with the rest of the Nest team – haven’t paused since. Nest revenue has grown in excess of 50% year-over-year and today, millions of people in more than 190 countries use Nest products, which include hardware, software, services, and the Nest-backed Thread wireless protocol.
In 2015 alone, we shipped four new hardware products and five significant App releases, and the Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Gen reached the one million unit milestone in half the time as the previous generation! More than 18,000 developers are now building their own products and services on our platform, and more than 12,000 retail stores carry our thermostats, smoke & CO alarms and cameras. Considering that when Nest launched less than five years ago, connected home sections didn’t exist at retail, it isn’t an understatement to say that the connected home went mainstream because of Nest. We’ve delivered ground-breaking technology and design, received consistently high marks from customers, and achieved double-digit growth for over four years.
I’m really pleased to announce that Marwan Fawaz is joining Nest as the company’s new CEO. Marwan’s extensive technology and engineering knowledge, his experience with global service providers, as well as his background in connected home platforms will be valuable in continuing our trajectory, especially in scaling the business, working with our partners, and supporting our enterprise channels. I have no doubt that the company will continue to flourish under his guidance and can’t wait to see the innovations currently in development brought to market.
I want to thank Matt for pushing me to truly commit to this journey together. Without his persistence at our initial lunch many years ago (and every day since), Nest would not have happened. I also want to thank our earliest investors, including KPCB, Google Ventures, Venrock, Shasta Ventures, Generation Capital, Lightspeed, and the advisors who guided us along the way, especially Bill Campbell. And of course, a big thank you to Larry and Google for believing in our vision from early on and supporting me along the way.
To all Nesters – past and present – thank you for your dedication, hard work and passion for our mission. Our creation of a thoughtful home could not have been achieved without each of you. It’s been a humbling and incredibly rewarding experience serving and learning from you.
Finally, thank you to each one of our customers for making this all possible and for welcoming and trusting Nest in your homes.
Onward,
Tony”
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