Redg Snodgrass, writing the ‘wearable tech’ story with Stained Glass Labs

Wednesday August 14, 2013 , 7 min Read

“I want to build things that might last 10,000 years”

Who says so? Redg Snodgrass, a kid who grew up in Oklahoma, a mid-western state in the US, with no roots in computer industry, but now championing the technology of tomorrow. Redg Snodgrass comes from a very humble background, but when he first arrived in the land of opportunities, Silicon Valley, he found what aligned with his calling in life.

Redg, a quick rewind

Redg started working early to support himself during his college days and it helped him gain valuable lessons early in life. Over the last seven years, Redg worked on the founding teams of Skout and Taploid, building and launching successful products with millions of customers. He worked as Head of Innovation for Alcatel-Lucent / Bell Labs creating the first ever Open API Service across multiple global carriers. He has been involved in myriad startups as a mentor and organizing conferences such as Mobile Beat.

While growing up, Redg experienced many tornadoes and he can feel a tornado coming in the technology world now. He believes that Google Glass and Wearable Technology is like a tornado that everyone will feel in the coming years. Recently, therefore, Redg and Kyle Ellicott started Stained Glass Labs, the first incubator program built around Google Glass and wearable technologies.

YourStory catches up with Redg, to listen to his vision, the challenges, and the trends.

Vision for Stained Glass Labs

Any entrepreneur needs 2 things: Help and Hope. Help regarding product marketing, solving technical, and operational issues. Hope of becoming successful and finding answers to questions such as, “If I do the things right and become successful, is there funding, money, exit or IPO eventually?”

Our vision at Stained Glass Labs is to provide help and hope to entrepreneurs to build new technologies around Google Glass and Wearable Technologies.

The journey so far and what lies ahead

We launched in June 2013 and are looking forward to close the incubator space in the next 30 days. Entrepreneurs can come and continue building their products in this incubator, leading up to the first-ever Google Glass and Wearable Technology conference – GLAZED. This conference will be our first launch event where we will invite media companies and prominent VCs from worldwide to come and discuss about the future of Wearable Tech. We will facilitate the conversation between the creators, developers and investors of this new market.

Currently, we are raising a fund to invest in the companies that we incubate. There has been a lot of interest from various people to invest in our fund. In the near future, we are focused on incubating 5 more companies that will join 5 other companies that we have already chosen. We are aiming to provide support to about 50 companies in various forms and factors, and then replicate this model worldwide.

Three golden rules

Redg feels that he is blessed to bring people together and do good things for them. He has three golden rules driving him:

If you have the power to do good and choose not to, that's wrong and evil.
If it doesn't cost you any money and time, help others for free.
Never mistake someone's kindness for his or her weakness.

Challenges and opportunities for launching in other countries

We believe that Google Glass is the future and it would be a shame if we have to leave the countries out based on socioeconomic reasons. Great apps are coming out of Europe, India, China and other countries in the world. “Geniuses are not confined to any particular region.” Within our global centers, people will have access to technology that they can use to test and build the apps. Cost structure and valuations in other countries will make it attractive for different stakeholders to make this phenomenon global.

I personally like MENA (Middle Eastern and Northern Africa) region a lot. I saw this unfortunate thing where the founders were not able to take the company global because investors took a large chunk of equity early on in the process. They were not able to raise more money because entrepreneurs were diluted early on.

We will bring the message of help and hope to these regions and contribute to developing these regions.

Why Stained Glass Labs is different

Stained Glass Labs does not take any equity from the companies that it incubates. This model is very different from the current industry standards.

We will make money from our investments. Our model allows us to mentor many companies together, and we won’t have to focus a lot of considerable time on one startup alone. To be fair, we don’t want to act as some advisors that just put name on the placard and get equity for doing that.

We believe that unless the idea is executed well and has investments behind it with a great team, the equity is just paper which is worthless. “We are more interested in making entrepreneurs successful. I believe in the principle of give-give.” In the long run, we will participate in many deals, and we will have significant amount of uptake in what we are doing.

Current trends in Wearable Tech

Seasoned entrepreneurs with multiple exits are building Wearable Tech products. It proves that these successful entrepreneurs want to get into this new market early and ride the wave.

In terms of technology, every major company is creating Wearable Tech products like watches. “It is the layering in of the various devices that will matter.” Watches will not replace your smartphone. It is the interaction between these various devices such as smartphones, watches and any kind of ocular devices that will enhance the device. For instance, Google Glass is meant to augment your experience and not replace your smartphone. Developers need to think how the various layers of these devices will make life easier for the end-user.

Biggest challenge that I have faced

“I have this innate sense of drive to do things that last long time and create some type of legacy.” When you look around, think about who has the 10,000 years of impact on human kind? In the entire human race history, very few people have done things that have lasted for more than 100 years. Who will remember 100+ years from now who you are? So, it should make sense to take money from a big corporation and be happy there. However, it won’t make me happy and I will never do that.

Every time I get an offer to join a big corporate, I pull myself back and say that’s not who I am. I want to build things that last 10,000 years and I don't believe I could do that at a large corporation.

Observation regarding new generation of entrepreneurs

It is very easy to get caught up in the flashiness of being an entrepreneur and not understand the pain that one has to go through, along with making the personal sacrifice to turn the odds in his or her favour to launch successful startup. Young entrepreneurs need to learn how to move beyond the hype and figure out what the business motivations are, to move the market.

They should figure out what kind of entrepreneurs they are: Business Entrepreneur, Hype Entrepreneur, or Legacy Entrepreneur.

“If you are going to swing, swing hard and aim for the home run. Try to build legacy products like Apple, Facebook, and Twitter.”

Message to those who want to apply to Stained Glass Labs

We are open to people from all over the world, people who have created a company before, or have a technical skill set. It is really easy to find a marketing person and match them with the technical person, but it is very difficult to find an amazing technical person and match them with the marketing person.