Misfit Wearables, the body computing startup founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley has announced a $7.6M funding round led by the Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures, according to TechCrunch. The company remains quite stealthy when it comes to discussing their products, and seems to be conducting R&D in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, as far off the beaten path as it gets. TechCrunch quotes co-founder and CEO Sonny Vu on the logic behind the Vietnam launch site,
We’re doing algorithms (machine learning) and app development in Vietnam because of speed, not just cost. There’s lots of this kind of talent in Silicon Valley but they’re just not readily available, at least [not] to new comers like us.”
The story behind Misfit’s name is worthy of sharing for both its mono no aware sentimental value and speaks to the lofty expectations these well-seasoned mHealth entrepreneurs have for their new startup. The story goes that the trio of Vu, Sculley and Agamatrix co-founder Sridhar Iyengar, had been hashing and rehashing what they should call their revolutionary new wearable computing thing when news of Steve Job’s passing hit the wire. Quickly, they unanimously choose to name the company “misfit” in honor of his immortal legacy, taken from the iconic commercial that relaunched Apple and its transformation under Jobs.
