Smart Pepper Spray Startup 444 Returns to CES with Key Partnership
A Surprising Partnership at CES
A year ago, I broke out the snark-hammer at CES for 444, a startup that aimed to create a ‘smart’ pepper spray device. To my surprise, the company was back at CES this year with a significant partnership and co-branding deal with Mace, one of the biggest names in self-defense products.
A Preliminary Exclusivity Agreement
According to 444’s agreement with Mace, it is ‘a preliminary exclusivity agreement for purposes of jointly developing and bringing to market a smart pepper spray device that is GPS and Bluetooth enabled and which sends out current location to emergency contacts when deployed.’
"We were here at CES last year, starting with a rough-looking 3D print and an example PCBA board," says Logan Nash, co-founder at 444. "We made a lot of connections, and we got some news articles from TechCrunch and many others." The wind just kind of took the idea out there in the self-defense industry. A few months after CES, Mace reached out to us, and we’ve built a great relationship with them and finalized our partnership."
A Sleek, Aesthetically Appealing Device
The samples 444 had at its booth were pre-production samples that looked stellar: Great design, well-made, and almost ready to go into production. The team tells me they hope to start spinning up production in the next few months.
"We did a lot of customer discovery to figure out exactly what the consumer wants, and what they need," Nash explains. "One of the things we kept hearing was that the users want a sleek, aesthetically appealing device." So that’s what we have here. A great-looking device with great colors and high quality, it’s very strong. It has a metal frame to really keep everything together.
A Novel Replaceable-Cannister Model
The replaceable-cannister model is novel; most pepper sprays are cheap, single-use devices, but 444’s offering is a premium product that will cost significantly more than the $14-for-two-devices you can order on Amazon. Its price tag is likely to be in the $75-100 range, the team tells TechCrunch.
"To ensure longevity for the device, we’ve designed it with a replaceable cannister," Nash explains. "This way, users can easily swap out the cannister when it runs out, rather than having to replace the entire device."
A Great Reminder of Entrepreneurial Spirit
This serves as a great reminder that, for true entrepreneurs, it takes more than a snarky post from an opinionated blogger to encourage them to throw in the towel. Consider this my ‘Hey, I’m wrong at least 20% of the time’ confession, and I’m curious to see where 444 goes from here.
