Living Up⤴️ : Why Upliances Happened
Chaitanya Hegde, Head of Product at Up⤴️ tells us about how the pandemic inspired a career change.
The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic had us all homebound and figuring out cooking and chores.
We all reacted differently to that — some people were baking sourdough bread while others were struggling to make rice and dal just to have something to eat. Since work from home was the for foreseeable future, many of us were modifying our homes to match. Chores became a daily hassle.
I began with the ambition of making sourdough, but only managed to get around to some basic breads.
Though I didn’t mind some occasional cleaning and tidying up (it’s quite a satisfying feeling), I thought I could use some help. I bought my parents one of those Roomba-ish vacuuming robots, while I, thought I could build my own device. I started building one with a Raspberry Pi — also doubling up as a “learning” hardware + AI side project for me. It never went beyond a phone-controlled car though, but hey, it was fun.
So earlier this year, when I visited Up⤴️, I was reminded of all this and more. It reminded me of how home appliances can make your life better and terrible ones can really really hurt. Home appliances have changed how we live — I honestly believe that society has changed fundamentally because of the ubiquity of refrigerators and washing machines.
But they have stagnated. In the age of information, our appliances are still functional — they don’t know what we want.
For me building hardware products which make peoples’ lives better is exciting. Building connected hardware is exciting. Building software that takes all of this to the next level is exciting. Up⤴️ is doing all this and more, and this is what made me jump aboard.
At Up⤴️, we are building upliances — smart home appliances for the next decade. They will be smart, and connected and make your life truly better. Our first product, the delishUp⤴️, levels up your cooking — especially if you are a novice who does not know how to peel an onion, you can make any of the 100+ recipes on the upliance, like a pro.
If you think building this excites you too, Hit us Up⤴️
