Our portfolio company Helium started shipping a new product called Tabs last week. Tabs competes with Tile and a bunch of other Bluetooth trackers and smart dog collars. But Tabs uses the Helium network (aka The People’s Network) and that makes all of the difference as you can see in this chart:
The Helium Network is powered by people like you and me who run Helium hotspots and earn Helium tokens. I wrote about my Helium Hotspot here on AVC last year. Since installing that hotspot, I have earned 8,266 Helium tokens. That is the People’s Network in action.
You do not need to own and operate a hotspot to use Tab. Anyone can use a Tab on the network.
I set up Tab today for my Citibike key fob which I lose all the time. It was as simple as downloading the Tab app on iOS or Android and capturing the QR code on my Tab. Now I will know where my Citibike fob is at all times.
Update: this is what my find screen looks like right now
