Introduction
ZIKTO, Beyond Quantified Self
I launched the tech startup ZIKTO as a founding partner with a mission to disrupt the fitness tracker market. Our value proposition focused on moving beyond quantified self to emphasize the importance of walking quality, particularly walking posture.
We started by raising over $160K in funding through a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Over the years, we managed to secure $4 million in total funding from VCs and angels, grew to a team of 25-30 staff, and launched an award-winning product—selling over 50K units globally—alongside related digital services. In 2017, ZIKTO was recognized for its excellence by being listed in Forbes’ Top 10 Korean Startups.
ZIKTO specializes in developing healthcare wearables and an IoT device integration platform.
- Categories: Internet of Things (IoT), Healthcare
- Regions (HQ): Signal Hill, CA, United States & Seoul, S.Korea
- Funding Status: Early Stage: Series A ($4M), ICO ($17M)
- Number of Employees: 20-30
My Role
Founding Partner, Design & Innovation @ZIKTO
I have driven the evolution of my responsibilities over the years as a founding partner, executing early-stage operations, defining value propositions, and leading their hands-on implementation. Below is a summary of my key contributions and achievements:
📌 Early-Stage Operations
- Led early-stage operations and PR—featured in WSJ, Forbes, VentureBeat, Tech in Asia, Cnet, etc.
- Raised over $160K through a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
- Built investor relations, raising $4M in venture capital funding across seed & Series A rounds.
📌 Design & Innovation Strategy
- Crafted value propositions, shifting from quantified self-tracking to the quality of walking.
- Led the design and launch of an award-winning product, achieving global sales of over 50K units.
- Unlocked a high-ROI revenue stream, contributing 60% of total gross profit from product sales.
ZIKTO’s Niche
Beyond Fitness Tracker
Starting as a healthcare wearable device company focused on promoting the quality of activities beyond quantified self, ZIKTO initially concentrated on research and development in wearable hardware. Through successive product iterations—ZIKTO Walk, ZIKTO Heart, and others—we have broadened our vision to finally include ‘The Balance’, a multiple IoT device integration platform. This expansion extends our scope to encompass multiple devices, aiming for a much greater impact.
Fairy Tale for Hardware Startups
With a founding team of like-minded individuals, we initially raised $160K through Kickstarter during the early phase. This milestone served as a test bed, helping us validate the value proposition of our product. At that stage, our focus was on creating a compelling promotional video with polished prototypes, executing marketing campaigns, and pitching to investors for investor relations (IR).
Where we went wrong early on was in the picture we had in mind at the start—a belief that growth would follow a linear path, seamlessly leading to success without a challenge. However, we soon realized that reality was full of unexpected twists and turns.
Not-So-Romantic Reality
The growth we experienced resembled a hype cycle curve rather than a straight line. It initially reached a temporary peak fueled by mass media hype generated through our early marketing campaigns and PR, but momentum soon began to decline. Constant issues with production lines, entry barriers in global distribution channels, and delays in obtaining FCC, CE, and UL certifications.
ZIKTO Walk
Media · Awards: Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, TechinAsia, Cnet, SXSW 2015, iF Design Award, DFA Awards, and more.
📌 Problem & Opportunity
Most of us walk between 3,000-6,000 steps per day. But here’s a question few are asking: What if you’re walking wrong? Poor walking posture can disrupt your body’s balance, leading to health issues such as back pain, joint problems, and even arthritis.
Q. How might we help individuals improve their walking quality to develop healthy and effective habits?
📌 Value Proposition
ZIKTO Walk is a healthcare wearable device that goes beyond counting steps. It emphasizes the quality of your walking—particularly your posture—promoting a healthier lifestyle. This product-level value proposition was perfectly aligned with our vision as a startup.
📌 Agile Hardware Project
In a multidisciplinary and cross-functional team of product managers, designers, developers, engineers, and data scientists, we have constantly evolved our collaborative approach with each stage of the product lifecycle, ensuring adaptability and innovation:
Founding – Prototypes & Promotional Video – Crowdfunding Campaign (PR, Marketability Test Bed) – Series A Funding (VCs) – Official Global Launch – Mass Production (MP) – Distribution & Shipping – Customer Support (CS)
ZIKTO Heart
📌 Background
As we stepped into the growth phase, we scaled up significantly with a growing number of active users, employees, and fundraising rounds. At this point, we restructured our team into four cross-functional units: research, development, marketing, and operations. Leading the research unit, I oversaw the research and design side of the business, managing product succession with ZIKTO Heart—from early-phase design research to mass production.
📌 2nd Generation Device: Hardware Updates
ZIKTO Heart is our latest update—a second-generation device featuring a refined design and enhanced capabilities, including heart rate monitoring (HRM), an OLED display, additional sensors, improved waterproofing, enhanced interaction, and more.
📌 Research & Design for the Late Majority
Although demand for heart rate monitors (HRMs) in wrist-worn wearables has risen sharply, we chose not to blindly follow the trend. Instead, our aim was to identify appropriate use cases for each hardware update while addressing the needs of a broader audience—specifically late majority users—as the fitness tracker market matured. We conducted research, tested prototypes, and worked with academic and medical institutions to fundamentally redesign and reengineer our previous model.
ZIKTO Pay + The Balance
📌 Background
As we moved forward, we began planning to diversify our revenue streams, using hardware sales as a strategic pivot point. ZIKTO Pay emerged as one of the flagship projects designed to explore new opportunities in wearable payment. It extends our brand experience to an O2O (Online-to-Offline) ecosystem, delivering seamless platform benefits.
📌 Business Model: Device-to-Benefits (D2B) Platform
Partnering with medical institutions, insurance firms, and fitness/healthcare retail businesses, we developed a new IoT platform called ‘The Balance’. It provides members with rewards and benefits within our value chain in exchange for their in-app participation and engagement. To prioritize early user acquisition, we made affordable hardware (white-labelled) the cornerstone of our strategy.
