APRIL 2020 PCWorld 35employee reviews were generally glowing.
Some reviews mentioned typical startup
perks, like plentiful free snacks. But one hint of
a different story came in the final Glassdoor
review, dated October 31, 2019. It was a
favorable review, but it ended with a
foreboding sentence: “Company makes a
great product but failed to raise more money.”
NO ONE IS HOME
The more we pulled at Owl Cameras’ strings,
the more it became clear that the company
was either on life support or completely
dead. We reached out to Owl’s public
relations firm and learned it was no longer
working with Owl. We also noticed Owl Cam
products were unavailable to purchase on the
company’s website
and Amazon. And,
after failing to reach
anyone on Owl’s
customer support
line, we visited the
company’s Palo Alto,
CA, headquarters to
find offices gone
completely dark.
Inside, we could see
office furniture and
some scattered
paraphernalia. But
there were no
people, no PCs, and
no signs of free
snacks.
Most tech startups fail. From that
perspective, the death of Owl Cameras is
hardly a surprise, and neither is the reason—as
that Glassdoor review stated, it simply ran out
of money. A person closely associated with
Owl Cameras who wished to remain
anonymous described a downward spiral that
began last September with a major layoff and
executive reshuffle, and concluded in January
with a full shutdown of the company.
Other than that single anonymous source,
PCWorld has been unable to find anyone else
willing to describe what happened. We
reached out to founders Hodge and
Ackerman for comment, but received no
responses as of this writing.PCWorld visited Owl Cameras, Inc., mid-afternoon on February 19, 2020, and
found dark, empty offices, devoid of people and PCs.