Alec Stewart
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, UBC Alec dropped out of the Stanford Aero/Astro PhD program to start Velocitek. Before founding Velocitek Alec also worked on UAV design at Insitu and DPI where he became familiar with the power of GPS technology. When he is not busy trying to hone Velocitek into a lean, mean satisfaction producing machine he surfs and windsurfs.
twitter.com/alecms |
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Kenichiro Kurihara
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, UT Austin Fresh out of school, Ken got a job in Aeronautics. After a year he decided that working on war planes was not good for his conscience. On a romantic and whimsical notion of living at the beach and surfing everyday, Ken bought a one way ticket to Hawaii along with Alec. Once there he fell in love with the ocean. Ken is thankful for the sailors who appreciate Velocitek products and make his life on the Islands possible. When Ken is not mulling over product development and software issues, he is out on the water enjoying the ocean. |
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Now You Might be Wondering...
Are Velocitek products built in Hawaii?
No. The SC-1 is assembled in Tecate, Mexico (right next to the beer plant) and the SpeedPuck is assembled in Shenzen, China (where every other electronic device you own was most likely assembled).
Do Velocitek products ship from Hawaii?
No. All Velocitek products ship from our fulfillment warehouse in San Leandro, CA (near San Francisco).
Are you guys sailors?
No. We spend a lot of time gliding across the surface of the ocean with surfing and windsurfing. This might help us relate to sailors but neither of us races sailboats on a regular basis.
What makes your stuff better then all the other widgets out there?
1. Experience
- Velocitek created the Performance Sailing GPS Instrument product category in 2005.
- We have been designing, manufacturing and selling sailing-specific GPS instruments longer than any other company.
- We have kept in constant contact with our customers to study how Velocitek products are used and how we can make them better.
The SC-1's distance to line feature, which has made the product standard equipment for the world's most competitive sportboat fleets, is a good example of how our prolonged and close relationship with the people using our products has produced results on the racecourse.
2. Service
- We're very clear on the fact that we are the caddies and you are the golfer. You can see this in action if you call or email us with a problem. Our goal is not to get you off the phone as quickly as possible but to find the best possible solution to your problem.
- We understand that our expertise lies in designing instruments for competitive sailing, not in the sailing itself.
- Our products are not designed based pre-conceived notions about how instruments should be used or pet ideas about product features that we think would be "really slick". Instead, the design of Velocitek products is driven by observations of how the best sailors in the world use instruments to help them win races.
Velocitek's latest product, the SpeedPuck, is a good example of this. The feature list is stripped down to the bare essentials and the wind shift indicator bar graph is completely automatic and operates without the user ever needing to press buttons. The result is a product that provides essential information at a glance without ever being a distraction from what's going on outside your boat.
3. Commitment
- Velocitek is not a part-time extension of a sailing hobby or a side business.
- Our grad school classmates are now working on rockets, mars rovers and mujahid-chasing robots. We decided to do something different and put all our resources into creating Velocitek.
- We're in this to build a robust, sustainable business and we've stuck with it since 2005.
Velocitek's SpeedPlay Race Replay software is an excellent example of our long-term commitment to providing the best possible solutions for our customers. For a business as small as Velocitek, SpeedPlay was ruinously expensive to develop but we did it anyway because we felt it was very important to be able to provide our customers with a complete, easy to use hardware / software solution rather than asking them to patch together a collection of third-party offerings.
4. Results
Our customers and pro team members are winning world championships in some of the sport's most competitive classes:
"I was amazed how well the starting line function worked. The unit gave fantastic starting line information and we were effectively able to use this in the final seconds before the gun. It was as good as having a full big-boat instrumentation package running Deckman for Windows or Expedition."
-Chris Larson, 2009 Melges 24 World Champion
"Whether on my Moth or on the Melges 24 the Velocitek SC-1 is a great tool. I wouldn't race without Velocitek."
-Bora Gulari, 2009 Moth World Champion
"I use the SpeedPuck on the Moth and the 49er. It takes the guess work out of speed testing."
-Nathan Outteridge, 2009 49er World Champion
"I have been using your product since Miami Race Week 2009 onboard the Melges 32 Bliksem. Since using your product I have been undefeated in the past 4 Melges 32 regattas including the worlds."
-Jeremy Wilmot, Bliksem Tactican, 2009 Melges 32 World Champion