Patryk Szymczak

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/v4idas/

All of us are used to plastic SIM cards in every mobile phone, smartphone, iPhone, iPad, etc... It is obvious there must be a plastic SIM card, right?

The SIM cards have become smaller recently, but the GSM service is still somehow separate from the hardware itself. Is it really the only right way that things can work? Why oh why I have to take care of it on my own...

You can meet this case in everyday life, anywhere you go. You buy a car, but you have to replenish fluids and additionally get some gasoline to keep it running.

You buy a TV, but you have to sign contract with some television provider.  Without that, your TV is useless.

It reminds me a funny story of myself. I ordered a television service from the biggest television-platform in Poland. I was reassured by professional customer helpdesk that the only thing I need that is not included in the box is a HDMI cable. It was okay, because I could simply buy an HDMI cable in any shop so I agreed.

Two days later a courier brought the box. Happiness! I unpacked a kind of modem for TV, connected it with TV via new HDMI cable. And connected to Home Theater set as well. I switched the whole set on, but surprisingly there were no television channels on the screen available. I went through the installation manual again and found out that I have to buy on my own a satellite antenna, a signal converter, a solid metal handle and somehow attach it to the exterior wall of my house.

Believe me or not, but I am not a TV expert. I am just an internet guy, without access to traditional TV for ages. I wanted to have television and didn't get what I ordered. I was shocked, frustrated and felt cheated. I spent a week and became a master of satellite video broadcasting so feel free to call me if you need to fix a satellite antenna.

The point is that as a consumer, I expected the television provider to deliver what a wanted. I wanted to watch TV. So please, dear provider, give it to me and take my money!

One day, the same should happen to GSM, including mobile phones and the telematics. There won't be separation of hardware from the service. And there will be no more plastics SIM cards. But wait. Isn't it possible yet?

It is possible. The technology of SIM-less GSM is here since ever. What is more, nowadays there is a bunch of data brokers on the market. These are companies that buy data-plans from local network operators and resell them to companies like Cloud Your Car. Take a look at Kindle. It just works. Let's name them - m2mAir, recently backed by Telit Wireless or M2M Allnet.

At Cloud Your Car, we assumed that the SIM-less access is a must, because it is a pure zen for your product. You need it like air to breath. It is simplicity, improved durability, wider operating temperature range, better shock resistance.

And the most important - it just works.

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Let me tell you a short story related to my start up. Cloud Your Car is still at an early stage, still bootstrapping, but was recently backed with some initial seed funding. Hopefully in the future there will be a number of investments in this company. We are active in all sorts media and attend different startup events across the world. As a result, new investors are constantly coming to have a closer look at what we are building here.

One of my jobs is to maintain relationship with different kinds of investors. I think we can even call it a kind of flirting (in positive way, of course). An important thing is that there is a specific kind of investor. Huge industry leaders like global telecoms, automotive companies and insurers that have  established departments for making investments in promising startups.

Imagine that every time I talk with their managing partners, they say this magic sentence: “Patrick, the business looks interesting.  We will forward your pitch deck and sheets to our Connected Cars experts for further investigation.” The funny thing is that so far, there has been no feedback from those experts. It's not as if the pitch deck wasn’t perfect, as they still invite us for dinner but nothing ever comes from the experts.

My hypothesis is that those experts don’t actually exist at all. Null. Nothing. There might be some self-appointed ex-engineers but I have this feeling that they are clueless as to how this market is going to evolve. Their thinking is very car maker-centric. They are used to planning and designing via a committee decision making process. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will survive in the world that is being gradually eaten by start ups’ software.

That leads me to another conclusion. If Connected Cars experts don’t exist, it means that there is no one who knows with any reasonable level of confidence what the future of Connected Cars is. So who is going to explain to us which directions to go?  This is a marvelous opportunity for young entrepreneurs, starters, start up founders, hackers, makers or any kind of developers, to invent that future in their own way. Go for it!

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In the past, I have launched a number of M2M / Telematics products. For instance, my team developed a tool for tracking people that is used by professional detectives. Another tool was dedicated for dog owners - it is a GPS tracking solution used by hunters. The next tool is particularly interesting because it fits the mainstream of the Internet of Things. It was a simple device and iPhone app for smart-home. I was hoping that we would enable the masses to install a cheap and smart solution in their homes and one day, an intelligent house will become a commodity. There were also a few products related to the fleet management market and connected cars.

Some of those products failed because of a misplaced value proposition or simply a lack of cash. Some of them still operate, generating revenue streams.  What they have in common is that none of those products ever went viral. They are still local businesses with no prospect to conquer the world (in as  positive meaning as that can have.)

I realized that the whole Telematics industry works that way. There are no global players (like Apple). There is no on-going market consolidation.  The whole global market is extremely fragmented and Western Europe is a perfect example here. There are a few local Telematics companies in every city over 300k citizens and it is not a joke. Some of them aspire to be a significant player in the domestic market but most of them never go into scale.  When I investigated other markets in Europe, South Africa, South America or India, I found out that the situations are pretty much similar. Of course there are smaller and bigger companies like anywhere else. But the bigger ones are not actually that huge. They are just one of dozens similar solution providers. And the saddest thing is that big companies are very old, like 20 years or more.

I started wondering - why is it so difficult do grow fast? Why does it take some much time to reach 5k customers? Why this business never goes viral? What is wrong with this market?

The answer I’ve been waiting a long time to find is very complex. First, the internal relations with suppliers are often difficult compromises, combining low quality value with harsh terms of agreements. It affects everything, including the GPS-tracking hardware and 2G/3G data transmission via domestic network providers. Fleet management services providers have to make painful deals with telecoms in every single country. Another thing is the fact that seemingly no one in Telematics and the M2M industry cares about the product design and user experience. Take a look here: http://bit.ly/155HpS8. In the best scenario, the enclosure is “designed” by one of engineers. In the worst it is a universal 1$ housing. What is wrong with those people?

Their reality is quite sad. Telematics companies have their hands tied and spend most of their time on conflicts with suppliers. Growth is slow as the founders can’t properly work while handcuffed.