Lupe is a consumer tech start up founded in 2015 with the vision to solve the frustrations consumers were having with cordless vacuum cleaners, which were becoming ever more popular but failing to deliver on expectations, both in performance and longevity. Lupe’s philosophy is to innovate what we should do rather than what we could and develop products that address real customer problems, not create new ones.
The cordless vacuum cleaner is a great example of this. A trend for so called stick vacuums was started in the mid 2000’s that effectively created problems for the consumer that did not exist before. Who thought a vacuum cleaner that can’t stand by itself and has compromised performance is a good idea? Our starting point was how can we right its wrongs, make an exceptional cordless vacuum cleaner and then grow from there.
How did Lupe Technology start?
The idea for Lupe was conceived after we (Lucas and Pablo) had left Dyson with new career paths yet soon realised the great opportunity to use our experience in floor care to begin developing our own products. It was always an ambition of ours to run our own business and after working together for several years at Dyson we felt confident in each other’s abilities to create something unique.
It was natural to start with a cordless vacuum as the market for these was growing rapidly and it was what we knew best. As we had successfully delivered large innovations for our former company, we were confident that we could do it for ourselves, and address many of our frustrations with consumer appliance offerings, such as short product life cycles and innovation for the sake of it.
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How has the need for Lupe Technology evolved during the pandemic?
We launched the Pure Cordless during the pandemic so it is effectively all our business has ever known! Although our strategy has always been to sell direct to the consumer, we did have ongoing conversations with high street retailers. However, when the pandemic took hold it was clear that our emphasis needed to be online for the foreseeable future.
We were somewhat fortunate that our business is creating every day home appliances, but we feel that our messaging and values resonate well with today’s consumer who are perhaps questioning now more than ever how their products are made and how they will be serviced and looked after in the future – and so they are looking for alternatives to the goliaths who they previously entrusted.
What can we hope to see from Lupe Technology in the future?
We will continue to develop new products with our same core values that deliver real and tangible benefits to the consumer. We want to expand our brand and enter new categories, so we envisage a future where the home is full of Lupe appliances that serve their purpose brilliantly for many years, and where Lupe is renowned for high quality, honest and sustainable products.
There are lots of great opportunities for new product development, but we would be foolish to divulge our thinking – so watch this space. We are also mindful that we create stuff, so we will be looking for initiatives as to how we can run Lupe in a carbon neutral way. We already manufacture responsibly and offset the carbon for each Lupe sold so we are eager to go further.
Interview with Pablo Montero and Lucas Horne, co- founders of Lupe Technology
