Nothing is coming on top these days, it seems.
Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus, announced on Tuesday that his start-up Nothing Technologies was looking for users to invest in the firm, asking them to get involved in the development and expansion of nothing. This announcement comes soon after Nothing had acquired now-defunct smartphone company Essential, founded by Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Android Inc.
Pei announced that shares for the company would be made available on a first-come-first-served basis. If you are interested in investing in Nothing, now is your chance, so buckle up. Pre-registration starts today and the campaign goes live on March 2. “We want our community to be part of our journey from the very start and play an active role in it,” said Pei.
The motivation behind this announcement is to involve Nothing’s users from the funding stage to product development. This move by Nothing is similar to one implemented by Pei during his time with OnePlus – it successfully got the user community involved.
The London-based consumer technology announced that it will allow investments up to $1.5 million through a community equity round in early March. Pei added that Nothing’s board of directors will soon feature a community member to “always keep the firm in “check” and remind it of ‘what users want.”
In the earlier half of February, Nothing had announced that it was looking into the launch of True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds this year. It also revealed plans to develop its own smartphones, as was speculated after it acquired Essential. Recent times also saw the start-up raise $15 million from a Series A fundraiser from Alphabet’s GV. Earlier, it had raised $7 million in a round which included Kunal Shah of Cred, Tony Fadell, principal at Future Shape and inventor of the iPod, well-known YouTuber Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, and Steve Huffman, chief executive of Reddit.)
When asked why he could not do this at OnePlus, Pei replied, “When you want to build something new and different, the best way is to start off on a clean sheet and with a change of environment.”
