Etch

Watch Etch launch on stage here.

This interview with Etch founders Ahryun Moon, Jasper Sone, and Peter Lee was conducted by the Job Portraits team for LAUNCH Festival.

What is the product you developed for the LAUNCH Hackathon? What does it do and how does it work?

We developed a nine grid pad on which a user draws a symbol to send messages or trigger an action. The best use case is for wearables such as Android watches or the Apple Watch where the user intractable area is small and a simple UI is absolutely necessary. 

How old is the idea and how did your team come together?

The idea is about one month old. How it came about is rather interesting. I resolved to learn Chinese as my New Year’s resolution and started memorizing a few Chinese characters a day. I found each Chinese character packs a ton of information in a single symbol. It inspired me to build a viable solution for allowing text messaging or completing complicated tasks on wearable devices that are rather simple.

Jasper, Peter and I have been friends for a while. We started attending hackathons together and won all but one hackathon together. We're a strong team with complimentary skill sets that has a strong desire to build a company together.

What's next? What happens after LAUNCH Festival in an ideal world?

In an ideal world, we would like to meet mentors and investors who can help us make Etch come to life. Wearable devices will be part of our life in the future, especially with Apple Watch coming out in a few days. We want to be on the forefront of the wave and become the go-to communication method on all wearable devices.

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