d2c-hardware
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The Company Selling a Phone That Refuses to Be Interesting
Chris Kaspar took a foster caseworker's warning and turned it into a $399 smartphone with no browser, no feed and no app store. Techless is betting that the most valuable feature a phone can have is the stuff it leaves out.
How a Closet Full of Deer Feeders Became an AI That Tells a Buck From a Bobcat
Moultrie spent 45 years wiring the Alabama woods. Now its cameras text you the second a big buck steps out - and quietly ignore the raccoons.
Aqua-Vu Spent 28 Years Answering One Question: What's Actually Down There?
Born in a Brainerd ice house in 1997, Aqua-Vu turned a simple question into a whole product category. Now a former fishing guide runs it out of Crosslake, Minnesota - betting the next generation of anglers would rather watch the fish than guess at them.
Quilt
Quilt is a Redwood City climate-tech company building a software-defined ductless heat pump for room-by-room home heating and cooling. Founded in 2022 by former Google and Nest people, its system pairs an outdoor compressor with slim indoor heads that carry millimeter-wave occupancy sensors, a Quilt Dial thermostat, and an app that ships over-the-air updates so the hardware gets smarter after install. Quilt sells direct-to-consumer through certified installers and has raised $62M across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds to move households off fossil-fuel heating.
Autobrain
Autobrain is a Boca Raton-based connected-car company that turns almost any post-1995 vehicle into a 'smart car' with a plug-and-play OBD-II device paired to a mobile app. Built with input from EMTs and first responders, it delivers automatic crash response that dials 911 to your exact location, real-time GPS tracking, teen/senior/baby safety modes, vehicle-health diagnostics, roadside assistance, and fleet monitoring - all on a low-cost device and monthly subscription aimed at families and small businesses.
VITURE
VITURE builds XR glasses that look like sunglasses and act like a giant private screen. Plug them into a phone, console, Steam Deck, or laptop and a 150-plus-inch virtual display floats in front of you, with electrochromic tint, sharp micro-OLED panels, HARMAN audio, and AI-powered 2D-to-3D conversion. Founded in 2021 by ex-Google Glass engineer David Jiang, the company has become the leading name in the U.S. display-glasses market and has raised over $120M to expand from gamers into enterprise and productivity.