PATXI ECHEVESTE: "This community will be our little treasure"

Patxi Echeveste – Founder of Wattio

Patxi Echeveste, founder of Wattio, is a serial entrepreneur in the fields of green energy and energy efficiency. He believes that generating green energy is less interesting than conserving it, because the greenest energy is the one that is not used. He launched his first company, a solar company, at the age of 25, right after completing a masters in Economics Engineering. Now aged 33, his second company is aimed at turning normal houses into SmartHomes with Wattio, a powerful, flexible and cost-effective solution.

Janina Benz:What makes Wattio different than other smart home systems?

Patxi Echeveste: Wattio brings you a complete solution for saving energy and managing your home in a smarter way: we master software, firmware, and hardware to make your life greener and easier. It is extremely easy, secure, flexible, scalable, open, cost effective, and cool.

JB: What’s been your biggest challenge so far?

PE: This project has taken four years of hard R&D work in order to bring a complete solution for SmartHomes to you all. But, honestly, the big challenge now is to place it in the market, and to catch the attention of the media!

JB: You’ve just launched a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo. Why did you decide to raise money through a crowdfunding platform?

PE: We wanted to recruit a unique user base. This community will be our little treasure and we want to grow with it. We will take care of their problems and love their feedback. You know, taking care of the environment and the people we love is a big task—that’s why we need this community. Of course, supporters will get great benefits.

JB: What do you plan to do with the money that you raise?

PE: The more you support us, the more products and solutions we can offer you. Apart from the electricity and comfort system, we will offer solutions in the security and health fields as well. And of course, the platform will be continuously improving and growing.

JB: Aside from contributing, how else can people get involved?

PE: Ask folks to spread the word and make some noise about our campaign! Use the Indiegogo sharing tools, get one of our running t-shirts. We will be always grateful.

JB: Thanks, and good luck!

Editor’s Note: We’ll be featuring some of our finalists on the blog in the weeks leading up to and after CeBIT, but their participation has no bearing on the contest results